PRIDE
MAY 26 – JUNE 4
9
Canada’s longest serving 2SLGBTQ+ resource centre is “moving on up.” Winnipeg’s Rainbow Resource Centre, currently celebrating 50 years of 2SLGBTQ+ identity, advocacy and community, has just moved to 545 Broadway. The new building has a direct view of the Manitoba legislative building, which is appropriate given the many battles Manitoba’s queer communities have fought there. Rainbow has had several locations and names in its half-century evolution. “Until recently, it felt like we were hiding on a backstreet of Osborne Village,” says executive director Noreen Mian of its Scott Street location. The new location at 545 Broadway is an iconic street address, she adds. “This move puts us on a main street as we
build a complete queer campus,” she says. Being developed in phases, and incorporating historic Wilson House, the queer campus — called Place of Pride — will feature built-to-purpose programming space, retail space and, in partnership with Westminster Housing Society, Canada’s first affordable housing for 2SLGBTQ+ older adults. Rainbow shares its history with the equal rights movement in Manitoba through the activism of the 1970s, when it began as a student-led group called Gays For Equality at the University of Manitoba campus, then as a safe space and trusted source of information during the AIDS crisis. In the 1990s, after sexual orientation was protected in the Manitoba Human Rights Code in 1987, Rainbow began promoting education as a tool to combat discrimination. In the early 2000s, Rainbow began supporting a new generation of confident queer youth with programming like Camp Aurora, Manitoba’s only
2SLGBTQ+ youth summer camp, which continues today. “Our top priority is now shifting to the aging population, the fastest growing demographic in Canada. To start, we’re combatting the isolation 2SLGBTQ+ older adults are at an increased risk of experiencing. After winning equal rights, many 2SLGBTQ+ older adults felt aged- out of the 2SLGBTQ+ community,” says advocacy director Ashley Smith, who has spent years working closely with Winnipeg’s 2SLGBTQ+ older adult community. “During COVID, through Rainbow’s virtual programming, a generation reconnected and shared with us their concerns. Now facing the difficult decisions and frustrations of health systems, housing and long-term care, we hear their fears of having to return to the closet to get the care they deserve. And as isolating as it can be in Winnipeg, imagine the challenges faced by 2SLGBTQ+ older adults finding community or accessing care in rural Manitoba.”
Likewise, Mian shares similar concerns. “The folks who fought for equality still face discrimination,” says Mian, adding that health-care and educational systems can still feel unsafe for queer people. “The way it was in Winnipeg 25 years ago is the way it is for queer people in rural Manitoba now.” What’s ahead for the Rainbow Resource Centre? “We will be giving folks more reasons to visit than accessing programming for themselves,” Mian says, “including a virtual learning experience and advocating on behalf of 2SLGBTQ+ communities on issues impacting us today.” Rainbow Resource Centre also has an exciting Pride season planned — with numerous parties, an exhibit at The Manitoba Museum, learning opportunities and a prominent place in the Pride parade. For a complete list of Rainbow Resource Centre’s Pride celebrations, head to www. rainbowresourcecentre.org/rainbow50
The new building has a direct view of the Manitoba legislative building, which is appropriate given the many battles Manitoba’s queer communities have fought there.
Submitted Rendering
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