Founded | 2013 |
---|---|
Founders |
|
Type | NGO |
Focus | Supporting election of LGBT politicians |
Location | |
Method | Political endorsement Networking Leadership training |
Executive Director | Chris Matthews |
Louroz Mercader | |
Website | www |
ProudPolitics is a Canadian cross-partisan organization dedicated to increasing the number of openly LGBT public officials in Canadian politics. [1] The group was inspired by the LGBTQ Victory Fund in the United States, which offers grassroots leadership training, networking and mentoring programs for aspiring politicians who are part of the lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender communities. [2] Unlike the Victory Fund, however, ProudPolitics does not offer direct fundraising for candidates due to Canada's differing laws around election finance. [3]
The organization was co-founded in 2013 by Arthur Kong, a management consultant, and Louroz Mercader, a non-profit director who was a candidate for Mississauga City Council in the 2010 municipal election. [1] The organization's official launch, held on April 18, 2013 in Toronto, featured a keynote speech by Glen Murray, and a panel discussion featuring New Democratic Party Member of Parliament Craig Scott, former Progressive Conservative MPP Phil Gillies and Ontario Liberal Party candidate Tatum Wilson. [1] The group also received a letter of support from Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne, Canada's first openly gay provincial premier. [1]
In 2014 and 2018, prior to municipal and provincial elections across the country, the group held Canada's first and only candidate and campaign training program, titled Out to Win.
The group's advisory council includes Gillies, chief commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission and former Mayor of Toronto Barbara Hall, former federal member of parliament Bill Siksay, former Toronto District School Board trustee Nadia Bello, 2010 Toronto City Council candidate Ken Chan, Ontario Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce president Ryan Tollofson, Halton Catholic District School Board trustee Paul Marai, and urban strategist and writer Tanzeel Merchant.
Church and Wellesley is an LGBT-oriented enclave in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is roughly bounded by Gerrard Street to the south, Yonge Street to the west, Charles Street to the north, and Jarvis Street to the east, with the core commercial strip located along Church Street from Wellesley south to Alexander. Though some LGBT-oriented establishments can be found outside this area, the general boundaries of this village have been defined by the Gay Toronto Tourism Guild.
Glen Ronald Murray is a Canadian politician and urban issues advocate who served as the 41st Mayor of Winnipeg, Manitoba from 1998 to 2004, and was the first openly gay mayor of a large North American city. He subsequently moved to Toronto, Ontario, and was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a Liberal Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for Toronto Centre in 2010, serving until 2017.
Egale Canada is a Canadian charity founded in 1986 by Les McAfee to advance equality for Canadian lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBTQ) people and their families, across Canada.
Kathleen O'Day Wynne is a former Canadian politician who served as the 25th premier of Ontario and leader of the Ontario Liberal Party from 2013 to 2018. She was member of provincial parliament (MPP) for Don Valley West from 2003 to 2022. Wynne is the first female premier of Ontario and the first openly gay premier in Canada.
Operation Soap was a raid by the Metropolitan Toronto Police against four gay bathhouses in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, which took place on February 5, 1981. Nearly three hundred men were arrested, the largest mass arrest in Canada since the 1970 October crisis, before the record was broken during the 2006 Stanley Cup Playoffs in Edmonton, Alberta.
Kyle Rae is a Canadian consultant and former politician. Rae was a member of Toronto City Council from 1991 to 2010, representing Ward 6 in the old city from 1991 to 1997 and Ward 27 Toronto Centre-Rosedale following the municipal amalgamation of Toronto in 1997.
Philip Andrew Gillies is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1981 to 1987 as a Progressive Conservative, and was a cabinet minister in the government of Frank Miller.
George Hislop was one of Canada's most influential gay activists. He was one of the earliest openly gay candidates for political office in Canada, and was a key figure in the early development of Toronto's gay community.
LGBTQ+ Victory Fund, commonly shortened to Victory Fund, is an American political action committee dedicated to increasing the number of out LGBTQ+ public officials in the United States. Victory Fund is the largest LGBTQ+ political action committee in the United States and one of the nation's largest non-connected PACs.
The Gay Alliance Toward Equality, or GATE, was one of the first Canadian gay liberation groups.
Paul Ferreira is a Canadian politician and one of the first openly gay politicians elected to provincial office in Canada. He also has the distinction of being the very first Azorean-Canadian MPP. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a member of the Ontario New Democratic Party (NDP) in the February 8, 2007 York South–Weston by-election, but was narrowly defeated in the 2007 general election. He subsequently served as chief of staff to party leader Howard Hampton until Hampton's retirement from that position in 2009. He later worked as a special assistant to leader Andrea Horwath. On Feb. 8, 2011, Ferreira was acclaimed as the Ontario NDP's candidate in York South-Weston in the 2011 provincial election.
This is a timeline of notable events in the history of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in Canada. For a broad overview of LGBT history in Canada see LGBT history in Canada.
LGBTQ conservatism refers to LGBTQ individuals with conservative political views.
The Equality Rights Statute Amendment Act,, commonly known as Bill 167, was a proposed law in the Canadian province of Ontario, introduced by the government of Bob Rae in 1994, which would have provided cohabiting same-sex couples with rights and obligations mostly equal to those of opposite-sex couples in a common-law marriage by amending the definition of "spouse" in 79 provincial statutes. Despite the changes, the bill did not formally confer same-sex marriage rights in the province, as the definition of marriage in Canada is under federal jurisdiction; instead, the bill proposed a status similar to civil unions for same-sex couples, although it was not explicitly labelled as such since the term was not yet in widespread international use.
John Alan Lee was a Canadian writer, academic and political activist, best known as an early advocate for LGBT rights in Canada, for his academic research into sociological and psychological aspects of love and sexuality, and for his later-life advocacy of assisted suicide and the right to die.
Peter Maloney is a Canadian lawyer, businessman, activist and former politician, most noted as one of the first Canadian political figures ever to come out as gay and as a prominent builder of Toronto's LGBT community in the 1970s and 1980s.
Chris Moise is a Canadian politician who was elected to represent Ward 13 Toronto Centre on Toronto City Council following the 2022 Toronto municipal election.