June is Pride season. To give some historical context, Pride season is celebrated in June as a commemoration of the Stonewall Riots that started with a nighttime police raid on the Greenwich Village LGBTQ+ community in June 1969. While it has grown in scope and purpose over the intervening decades, Pride season is an opportunity to provide visibility for LGBTQ+ community, celebrate how far we have come with respect to securing and preserving basic human rights while recognizing that there is still much work to be done when it comes to inclusion and equality.
The Kingston Defence Team Pride Advisory Organization (KDTPAO) has a mandate to advise and assist CAF and DND leadership in creating a respectful and safe workplace where all members of our Defence Team can thrive in an environment underpinned by equality, diversity and inclusion.
On 17 May, the KDTPAO commemorated the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia with a Lunch and Learn event at HMCS Cataraqui and by raising the Pride flag over CFB Kingston for that day.
For June, we intend to align our commemorations with the local Pride week from 10 -19 June:
- 10 June – raise the Pride flag over CFB Kingston Headquarters;
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8 June – participate in Kingston Pride Parade (Update: No official participation); and
- 21 June (evening) – KMFRC intends to hold an information session about resources available to LGBTQ+ members, their families and other supporters through the CAF and through local agencies (details to be promulgated by KMFRC).
On another front, we are working to reinvigorate the Positive Space Ambassador (PSA) programme at CFB Kingston by training some local members to facilitate future PSA training.
We want to encourage you to volunteer with our organization – there is no call for burdensome commitments. We need diverse voices to help us create a safe space for meaningful conversation. With your help, we can continue to build KDTPAO into a change enabler at CFB Kingston.
Please take some time to join in any CFB Kingston or local commemorations over the month of June. It is through these community events that we can develop a better appreciation of where we have come from and the determination within the LGBTQ+ community to continue to advocate for inclusion and equality.
