Educational Resources

Desh Pardesh was a South Asian arts festival that was held between the years 1988 and 2001. It began under the name Salaam Toronto in collaboration with the Khush collective — an organization for gay men of South Asian background. We have collaborated with The ArQuives, the South Asian Visual Arts Centre (SAVAC), and the LGBTQ Oral History Digital Collaboratory to compile this festival's oral history. Our findings are presented below. The South Asian Visual Arts Centre created these oral history interviews with artists and organizers involved in the festival in 2016. 

Please note that the snippets of interviewee respondents included are very small portions of much larger conversations. We encourage you to listen to and leaf through the actual full interviews for context and clarity purposes. We have linked the snippets of interviews to the full interviews for this purpose.

This exhibit aims to layout the festival year by year and highlights significant events or ideologies that emerged during these times. You can click through each set of years and find clips of interviews discussing the festival and related archival documents that provide more context to what the interviewees are saying. 

Seniors Services and Long-Term Care (SSLTC) at the City of Toronto recognizes and celebrates the diversity and lived experiences of 2SLGBTQI+ seniors. With close collaboration from community members, service providers, advocates, and allies, SSLTC has released a revitalized 2SLGBTQI+ Tool Kit – Leading & Learning with Pride. This resources includes useful examples, insights, guidance, and resources to support providers throughout the care continuum to provide respectful, inclusive, and affirming care to 2SLGBTQI+ seniors.        

As part of its “Shockproofing Communities” project, the Canadian Women’s Foundation hired Wisdom2Action to conduct research on GBV affecting 2SLGBTQ+ communities in Canada. The resulting report presents the findings from a literature review, focus group, and interviews. It presents what we know about the scale and scope of GBV impacting 2SLGBTQ+ communities, looking at the experiences of queer and trans Black, Indigenous and people of colour (QTBIPOC), refugees and newcomers, trans+ people, queer women, youth, sex workers, and people living rurally or remotely. It then turns to existing violence prevention and survivor support programs and points to the gaps and needs 2SLGBTQ+ communities are naming. It also looks at promising practices and offer opportunities and recommendations for funders and service providers. The report concludes with suggestions for mobilizing knowledge about GBV prevention and response for 2SLGBTQ+ communities.

The report is accompanied by a 5-page toolkit that summarizes the main findings and recommendations of the report for social service providers. 

Asexual Visibility and Education Network hosts the world's largest online asexual community as well as a large archive of resources on asexuality. AVEN strives to create open, honest discussion about asexuality among sexual and asexual people alike. This platform provides a community hub for connecting over events, discussions, and solidarity actions. 

Community-Based Research Centre, Egale Canada, The Enchanté Network, and 2 Spirits in Motion Society are collaborating on a ground-breaking national project that will look into the current state of health among people in our communities. Add your voice and complete our online survey now to help us support the health of 2SLGBTQQIA+ people across Canada by improving programs, services, and policies! All participants will receive a small honorarium for completing the survey. You are eligible to participate if you are a member of 2SLGBTQQIA+ communities, live in Canada, and are 15 years of age or older. In order to participate in the Dried Blood Spot (DBS) component, testing for COVID-19 antibodies, you must be 18 years of age or older.”

In honour of your time and support, participants who complete the COVID-19 antibody test will receive a small honorarium.

Canada is home to approximately one million people who are LGBTQ2+, accounting for 4% of the total population aged 15 and older in 2018.

Although much has been accomplished since the beginning of the new millennium, including the legalization of same-sex marriage in 2005, and protecting gender expression and identity in the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code in 2017, concerns remain, given the spike in hate crimes targeting LGBTQ2+ Canadians in 2019. From 2021, this resource provides a statistical briefing of Canada's 2SLGBTQIA+ gender diversity. 

This brief resource includes a brief introduction to LGBTQ terminology;  addresses common myths that Muslim families may have about LGBTQ people, followed by affirming responses; helpful tips on how to show support; and recommendations for further reading list. 

Questioning your sexuality can be difficult to navigate as a young Muslim. This resource is for young Muslims who want support around their various complicated identities, from religion to sexual orientation and gender identity.

The Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) Families Speak Out About School contains a video interview study (2014-2020) that was designed and conducted by a research team from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto. Over the last six years the team has included 15 team members, all of whom work and study at the University of Toronto. 

The goal of the study was to video interview LGBTQ families across Ontario about their children’s experiences in school and share findings from these interviews with teachers, community educators and other LGBTQ families. Between 2015 and 2018 they interviewed 37 families from urban, suburban and rural communities across the province of Ontario.  You can find excerpts from their interviews on this website.  
 

The Every Teacher Project is a national research study that was carried out by the University of Winnipeg in partnership with the Manitoba Teachers Society (MTS). Every teacher organization in Canada assisted the researchers and project partners in getting the word out about the initial online survey, where over 3,400 teachers from across Canada participated in the largest study to date worldwide on teachers' perspectives on LGBTQ-inclusive education.