The Q Hall of Fame Canada, also known as Queer Hall of Fame, was a Canadian hall of fame dedicated to commemorate the history of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in Canada. They honoured those that have been human rights pioneers and documented the accomplishments and lives of these people. Headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, the Q Hall of Fame was an independently registered federal not for profit organization with the Minister of Industry for Canada. [1]
The Q Hall of Fame Canada was created in 2009 by founder and chair Paul Therien. It was in response to what he perceived to be a lack of recognition for people who have greatly impacted the lives of LGBTQ Canadians through their dedication to human rights. [2] It is an independent entity and is not associated directly with Qmunity in governance or management. At the inaugural induction ceremony for the Q Hall of Fame, known as Q Ball, [3] Qmunity was the "selected beneficiary" of the 2009 proceeds and "a possible future home of the hall's memorabilia", however a recent shift in the mandate of the Hall of Fame has amended that. [4]
Inductees for the Q Hall of Fame are selected through a public nomination process. Nominees are usually members of the LGBT community themselves, although heterosexual allies who have played prominent roles in the protection or advancement of LGBT equality rights in Canada — such as former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau — may also be honoured.
At the 2009 induction ceremony, entertainer Robert Kaiser (also known as Joan-E) was the first inductee into the Hall of Fame, [4] and he was followed by Olympic gold medalist Mark Tewksbury, head of the Canadian Drag Court Ted Northe, author and bookseller Janine Fuller [2] and former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, for his role in decriminalising homosexuality in Canada. [5]
Held every two years, Q Ball was held in Vancouver in 2009, and again in 2011. In 2013 Q Ball will be held in Toronto, in keeping with the mandate that the event be accessible to all Canadians. All nominations are reviewed by an independent selection committee which comprises community members from across Canada. The identities of the members of the selection committee are kept strictly confidential to ensure that they remain as unbiased as possible when reviewing the nominations.
Queer is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or are not cisgender. Originally meaning 'strange' or 'peculiar', queer came to be used pejoratively against LGBT people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to reclaim the word as a neutral or positive self-description.
Mark Roger Tewksbury, is a Canadian former competitive swimmer. He is best known for winning the gold medal in the 100-metre backstroke at the 1992 Summer Olympics. He also hosted the first season of How It's Made, a Canadian documentary series, in 2001.
Delwin Vriend is a Canadian teacher who was at the center of a landmark provincial and federal legal case, Vriend v. Alberta, concerning the inclusion of sexual orientation as a protected human right in Canada.
LGBTQ culture is a culture shared by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals. It is sometimes referred to as queer culture, LGBT culture, and LGBTQIA culture, while the term gay culture may be used to mean either "LGBT culture" or homosexual culture specifically.
The Vancouver Pride Parade and Festival is an annual LGBT Pride event, held each year in Vancouver, British Columbia, to celebrate lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their allies. It is run by the Vancouver Pride Society (VPS), a not-for-profit, volunteer-run organization that seeks to "produce inclusive, celebratory events, and advocacy for LGBTQAI2S+". Vancouver's Pride Parade is the largest parade of any kind in Western Canada.
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.
Qmunity, formerly known as the Centre, is an LGBT community centre located on Bute Street in the Davie Village neighbourhood of the West End of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Although same-sex sexual activity was illegal in Canada up to 1969, gay and lesbian themes appear in Canadian literature throughout the 20th century. Canada is now regarded as one of the most advanced countries in legal recognition of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) rights.
Pride House is a dedicated temporary location which plays host to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) athletes, volunteers and visitors attending the Olympics, Paralympics or other international sporting event in the host city. The first was organized for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.
Janine Elizabeth Fuller is a Canadian businessperson and writer. She was the manager of Little Sister's Book and Art Emporium in Vancouver, British Columbia, and is best known for her role as an anti-censorship activist in the bookstore's battles with Canada Customs, which culminated in the Supreme Court of Canada case Little Sisters Book and Art Emporium v. Canada in 2004.
The BC Entertainment Hall of Fame in Vancouver was founded on 24 July 1992 to honour British Columbians that have made outstanding contributions to the entertainment industry. Star Walk inductees are honoured with a brass plaque on Granville Street's Walk of Fame and in a Starwalk gallery in the Orpheum. Individuals and organizations can be nominated and inducted. Vancouver Civic Theatres collaborates with the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame, providing guided tours of the historic Orpheum Theatre.
The Juno Awards of 2018, honouring Canadian music achievements, were presented in Vancouver, British Columbia during the weekend of 24–25 March 2018. The primary telecast ceremonies were held at Rogers Arena. Vancouver previously hosted the Juno Awards in 1991, 1998 and 2009. Michael Bublé hosted these awards after having stepped down from his scheduled hosting the previous year due to his son's cancer diagnosis. Nominations were announced on 6 February 2018.
Vancouver's LGBT community is centered on Davie Village. Commercial Drive has historically acted as a gayborhood for the Vancouver lesbian community. Historically, LGBT people have also gathered in the Chinatown and Gastown neighborhoods. Former establishments include Dino's Turkish Baths, a gay bathhouse on Hastings, and the city's first drag bar, BJ's, on Pender Street.
Marie Robertson is a Canadian LGBT rights activist. Robertson was a co-founder of multiple LGBT agencies and worked as a counsellor for the AIDS Committee of Toronto. Robertson's portrait was inducted into The ArQuives: Canada's LGBTQ2+ Archives in 2002 and she was inducted into the Q Hall of Fame Canada in 2013.
Sher Vancouver is a registered charity in Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer South Asians and their friends. The full name of the organization is the Sher Vancouver LGBTQ Friends Society. The society was originally founded as an online Yahoo group for LGBTQ Sikhs in April 2008 by social worker Alex Sangha of Delta, B.C.
Alex Sangha is a Canadian social worker and documentary film producer. He is the founder of Sher Vancouver which is a registered charity for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI+) South Asians and their friends. Sangha was the first Sikh to become a Grand Marshal of the Vancouver Pride Parade. Sangha received the Meritorious Service Medal from Governor General Julie Payette in 2018 for his work founding Sher Vancouver. Sangha's first short documentary film, My Name Was January, won 14 awards and garnered 66 official selections at film festivals around the world. Sangha's debut feature documentary, Emergence: Out of the Shadows, was an official selection at Out on Film in Atlanta, Image+Nation in Montreal, and Reelworld in Toronto. The film was the closing night film at both the South Asian Film Festival of Montreal and the Vancouver International South Asian Film Festival where it picked up Best Documentary. Emergence: Out of the Shadows also had a double festival premiere at the KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival and the Mumbai International Film Festival during the same week, where it was in competition at both film festivals for Best Documentary. The film also had an in-person and online screening at the 46th annual Frameline: San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival which is "the longest-running, largest and most widely recognized LGBTQ+ film exhibition event in the world."
Canadian lawyer barbara findlay is a longtime LGBT rights activist. She is the subject of the documentary In particular, barbara findlay.
The We Demand Rally was the first large scale gay rights demonstration in Canada. The rally occurred on August 28, 1971 in Ottawa, and was organized by the gay rights activist groups Toronto Gay Action (TGA) and Community Homophile Association of Toronto (CHAT). There was a parallel rally in Vancouver that was organized in solidarity with the rally by the Vancouver group Gay Alliance Toward Equality (GATE). The rally plays an important part in the history of queer equity-seeking and gay rights in Canada, as well as the history of feminism in Canada, and has had a lasting legacy in Canadian gay rights activism.
ted northe was a Canadian drag queen and gay civil rights activist. He advocated for the decriminalization of homosexuality in Canada in the 1950s and 1960s. In 2017, ted northe Lane in Vancouver, British Columbia became named after him.
