The federal government has announced $15 million in funding for 76 LGBTQ2 across the country, including organizations working with LGBTQ2 refugees, Indigenous youth and transgender Canadians. (CBC)

Ottawa details its funding plan for LGBTQ2 organizations and projects

The federal government has unveiled details of a program aimed at aiding members of the country’s diverse LGBTQ2 community.

Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Rural Economic Development Maryam Monsef and Minister of Diversity and Inclusion and Youth Bardish Chagger made the funding announcement at a virtual news conference on Thursday, saying that 76 LGBTQ2 projects across the country will share $15 million.

People rally for unity in response to an anti-LGBTQ group’s planned march through Toronto’s Gay Vllage, on Saturday, Sept., 28, 2019. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov)

According to a government press release, the list includes organizations working with LGBTQ2 refugees, Indigenous youth and transgender Canadians

Among them:

  • Nurturing Wabanaki 2SLGBTQ+ Capacity through Indigenous-led, Cross-sectoral, Inter-Provincial Network Partnerships, led by the Wabanaki Two-Spirit Alliance, to extend their supports for Two-Spirits in the Atlantic region;
  • Enhancing Arrival Communities for LGBTQI Refugees in BC, led by the Rainbow Refugee Society, to strengthen partnerships for LGBTQI refugee housing collaboration;
  • LGBT YouthLine’s Capacity Building Project, led by the Lesbian Gay Bi Trans Youth Line in Toronto, to build capacity, strengthen partnerships, and develop regional collaborative networks;
  • Towards a general assembly for the trans community in Quebec, led by Gender Euphoria – Trans Pride, to strengthen their capacity and establish a network of trans organizations in Quebec.

The funding is part of the $20-million LGBTQ2 Community Capacity Fund–first announced in the 2019 budget.

Ottawa announced the first $2 million in support under the program last year, saying the remaining $3 million would go toward administering it.

The art installation know as “18 Shades of Gay,” is seen above Ste-Catherine street in Montreal’s Gay Village in Montreal on September 3, 2019. The installation made up of 180,000 multicoloured plastic balls evoking the rainbow LGBTQ flag, was later dismantled and sold off in pieces to the public. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson)

According to Statistics Canada, 1.7 per cent of Canadians aged 18 to 59 reported in 2014 that they considered themselves to be homosexual (gay or lesbian) and 1.3 per cent of Canadians aged 18 to 59 reported in 2014 that they considered themselves to be bisexual.

A Pew Research Center study published last June found that 85 per cent of Canada’s general population (92% among Canadians aged between 18 and 29) favoured social acceptance of homosexuality, up from 80 per cent in the 2013.

But a study by Statistics Canada published last September showed that members of LGBTQ communities are nearly three times more likely than heterosexuals to experience sexual or physical assault.

With files from The Canadian Press (Stephanie Levitz), 

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