|
Our Events History Of Pride Local Resources |
York Pride Fest
... is a non-profit community initiative hosting social events in York Region, which include
Canada's largest regional Pride Week Festival,
staged each June to celebrate Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered (LGBT) residents throughout our community.
Our organization is run exclusively by a team of dedicated volunteers as well as representatives from the following local community organizations:
York Pride Fest has contributed to our community as a local association since 2007 and plans to incorporate as a federal non-profit organization later this year.
In 2010, pride week in York Region will be
June 6th-13th
- three weeks prior to Toronto Pride.
Select from the menu on the left, to check out the events organized for this, our fourth consecutive year of York Pride Fest.
Our History Annual pride celebrations have been staged in York Region since 2001. For the first five years, they were hosted by individual, volunteer-based organizations, but those groups had ceased their operations by the end of 2005 resulting in the lack of any pride week events during the following year.
Subsequently,
York Pride Fest
was launched in February 2007 by the
York Region LGBT Community Outreach Project, a four-year Trillium funded initiative to develop and support the delivery of services to meet the needs of LGBT persons and their families in York Region. Since that time, York Pride Fest has operated as a coalition of local LGBT-relevant service providers and community volunteers, working together to organize and progressively expand the region's annual pride festival.
Each year, pride week celebrations organized by York Pride Fest have included proclamation/recognition requests to local government bodies, LGBT awareness displays presented at libraries across the region, as well as a number of hosted events. Over the first three years, 2007-2009, the number of annual pride events was increased from 3 to 7, overall event attendance tripled and the number of awareness display venues was increased from 6 to 10. Starting in 2008, York Pride Fest commenced participation in Toronto's annual pride parade in order to represent and enhance the visibility of York Region's LGBT community. The following year, for the first time, rainbow flags were flown throughout pride week by three of the region's municipalities ,whilst eight municipalities and regional government continued to grant proclamations or official recognition of our pride week.
|
Proclamations About York Region |