LGBTQ Resources
Whether you are a service provider and/or an LGBTQ newcomer, it’s important to know that there are many resources out in the community to support you. Among Friends volunteers have compiled a list of resources below. We hope you'll find them useful.
Support for Service Providers
LGBTQ Settlement Network. A network made of up community organizations and community members in Toronto and surrounding areas that provide services to and/or advocate for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer (LGBTQ+) newcomers.
Join today! http://sites.google.com/site/lgbtqnewcomersettlementnetwork/
Settlement.org: Information and resources to help you provide effective service, information and referral and interventions to newcomer LGBTQ communities
http://atwork.settlement.org/atwork/SSG/lgbt.asp
Pathways to Gender Justice: A toolkit for people working in the immigrant and refugee serving sector in Canada
http://www.ccrweb.ca/Gender.pdf
The Rainbow Health Educational Toolkit has been designed primarily for healthcare & social service providers in recognition that there is an enormous lack of resources and knowledge on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexuals, transgendered, Two-Spirited, intersexed, and queer (LGBTTTIQ) people’s health and wellness.
http://www.rainbowhealthnetwork.ca/node/24
Promising Practice Toolkit (Stepping Up to the Plate project). Best-practices in arts-based programming for lesbian, bisexual and trans newcomer immigrant and refugee women
http://accessalliance.ca/services/women/arts/lbtqwomen
Positive Spaces programs
OCASI’s Positive Space Initiative supports the immigrant and refugee serving sector to more effectively serve LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and/or questioning) newcomers
http://www.ocasi.org/index.php?catid=188
Ontario Public Health Association - 'A Positive Space is a Health Space' manual. http://www.opha.on.ca/resources/docs/SexualHealthPaper-Jun06.pdf
The University of Toronto’s Positive Space Campaign is intended to help create a campus that is free of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identities. It also aims to generate a broad and visible commitment to welcoming sexual diversity, and at making talk of that diversity less unusual, more open and welcomed
http://www.positivespace.utoronto.ca/Page300.aspx
Positive Space Ryerson is a coalition of students, faculty and staff who work together to create and maintain safe, welcoming, affirming and inclusive work, study and living environments for all members of the Ryerson community regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity
http://www.ryerson.ca/equity/positivespace/
Among Friends' ‘You Are Among Friends’ positive space poster. Download it here.
Trans/Intersex resources
The 519 Church Street Community Centre’s Trans Access Program is multi-service program that serves the transgender, transsexual and Two-spirit community, with a focus on lower-income, street-involved, homeless, sex-working and marginalized members of the trans communities. They also provide trainings and support to organizations
http://www.the519.org/programsservices/transprograms
The Intersex Society of North America (ISNA) is devoted to systemic change to end shame, secrecy, and unwanted genital surgeries for people born with an anatomy that someone decided is not standard for male or female
http://www.isna.org/
ILGA Trans Secretariat is platform to discuss subjects related to sexual and generic diversity. It is a place of dialogue, in order to develop world-wide thematic forums that involve the six geographic regions in which ILGA is constituted, (Latin America and the Caribbean; North America; Europe; Africa; Asia; Australia, New Zealand and Islands of the Pacific) from the voice of transexual, transvestite, intersexual and transgender people towards the construction of their own worldwide movement
http://trans.ilga.org/
The Trans PULSE video was made by members of the Trans PULSE Project, a research project exploring the impact of transphobia on the health of trans people in Ontario. Created September 2009. For more information or to get involved contact us: www.transpulse.ca
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqbVw4Vzpi4
Photos of successful Trans women http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TSsuccesses/TSgallery1.html
Religious and cultural resources
Salaam: Queer Muslim Community is an organization dedicated to Muslims who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual and/or transgender, as well as those questioning their sexual orientation or gender identity, and their friends
www.salaamcanada.org
Kulanu Toronto is a Jewish LGBTQ social group, designed for (but not exclusive to) the student community. We are inclusive of bisexual, gay, lesbian, transgendered, transexual, intersexed, and queer people regardless of age, profession and ethnic, cultural or religious background
http://www.glbtjews.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=171
LGBTQ friendly churches in Ontario
http://www.gaychurch.org/Find_a_Church/foriegn_nations/Canada/canada_Ontario_ON.htm
Advocacy
The worldwide federation campaigning for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex rights
http://ilga.org/
Health/Settlement
Make Yourself at Home! Acess Alliance's provides health and settlement services to newcomers in over 60 langauges. http://accessalliance.ca/lgbtq
The Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention (ASAAP) is a community-based, non-profit, charitable organization committed to providing health promotion, support, education and advocacy in a non-discriminatory manner for those who identify as South Asian living with and affected by HIV/AIDS
www.asaap.ca
Black Coalition for AIDS Prevention (Black CAP) works to reduce HIV/AIDS in Toronto’s Black, African and Caribbean communities and enhance the quality of life of Black people living with or aff¬ected by HIV/AIDS. They also provide settlement counseling
http://www.black-cap.com/
Asian Community AIDS Services (ACAS) provides HIV/AIDS education, prevention, and support services to the East and South East Asian communities
http://www.acas.org/
Centre for Spanish Speaking Peoples provides resources, services and support to Spanish speaking newcomer communities
http://www.spanishservices.org/
Express at Supporting Our Youth provides is a safe and supportive space where newcomers to Canada and/or immigrant queer youth find a place gather, share ideas, questions, and have fun!
http://soytoronto.org/current/express.html
Griffin Centre's ReachOUT Newcomer Network provides settlement and social support serices for LGBTQ youth and their familes.http://www.griffin-centre.org/programs_cfss.asp?P=ReachOut
CultureLink provides setltlement services and youth programs for newcomers. www.culturelink.net
Refugee Support Group at the 519 Church Street Community Centre. http://www.the519.org/programsservices/queerimmigrantsandrefugees
Language/Arts
Positive expressions in Arabic
http://www.bintelnas.org/10muqadeema/transl-eng.html
List on Wikipedia on LGBTQ related films
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:LGBT-related_films_by_country
A Jihad for Love – a film by Muslim gay filmmaker Parvez Sharma who “travels the many worlds of this dynamic faith, discovering the stories of its most unlikely storytellers: lesbian and gay Muslims”
http://www.ajihadforlove.com/
Famlies
PFLAG Canada is Canada's only national organization that helps all Canadians who are struggling with issues of sexual orientation and gender identity. PFLAG Canada supports, educates and provides resources to parents, families, friends and colleagues with questions or concerns
http://www.pflagcanada.ca/en/index-e.asp
The LGBTQ Parenting Connection is a network of organizations supporting Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Queer parents, their children and their communities
http://www.lgbtqparentingconnection.ca/home.cfm
More resources are available on the following websites:
Access Alliance's Stepping Up Project http://accessalliance.ca/services/women/arts/lbtqwomen
Rainbow Health Ontario http://www.rainbowhealthontario.ca/home.cfm
LGBTQ links in Ontario (site for Queer West Toronto) http://queerwest.org/queer_links.php
