TCDSB's Removal of LGBT YouthLine from Online Resources

Rainbow Faith and Freedoms Response: Toronto Catholic District School Board's Removal of LGBT YouthLine from Online Resources

Rainbow Faith and Freedom (RFF) has been monitoring the events surrounding the removal of LGBT YouthLine from the Toronto Catholic District School Board’s online resources.

LGBT YouthLine provides an important service to LGBTQ2S+ people under the age of 29 across Ontario. The need for this service has become even more imperative during the ongoing pandemic when in-person supports for our marginalized youth have become unavailable.

We are heartened to see the TCDSB, including staff and trustees, working diligently over the past two days to reinstate this valuable resource for their students.

RFF will continue to observe the progress of this work and we are ready, at any time, to collaborate with the TCDSB and YouthLine, should our advice and input be requested.

For more information:
Dave Fraser, Media Officer: Public Relations and Social Media Coordinator
dfraser@rainbowfaithandfreedom.org

Rainbow Faith And Freedom Is A Global Movement To Confront Religious-Based LGBTI discrimination and improve the human and equality rights of LGBTI people everywhere. Decreasing and lessening the effects of religious-based LGBTI discrimination can, and will, make changing punitive laws easier and improve the lives of LBGTI people so they can be who they are, love who they want, and find safe and accepting places to practice their faith.

Pope’s Announcement on Same-Sex Civil Unions

““Homosexual people have a right to be in a family. They are children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out or be made miserable over it.””

— Pope John Francis declares support for same-sex Civil Unions in new documentary film.

Today, Rainbow Faith and Freedom (RFF) welcomes the news that Pope Francis has stated that homosexuals have the right to have their relationships recognized in civil unions. In a new documentary titled “Francesco”, by director Evgeny Afineevsky, the Pope says, “What we have to create is a civil union law. That way [homosexuals] are legally covered. I stood up for that.” In addition to support for civil unions, in this documentary, Pope Francis also expresses his support for the inclusion of gays and lesbians in their communities and the Catholic Church. The Pope’s comments are his clearest and most direct statements that demonstrate the acceptance and inclusion of LGBTQ+ people in the Catholic Church. These comments follow earlier gestures of support, such as when the Pope responded with “Who am I to judge?” when asked about gays and lesbians leading Christian lives in 2013. His most recent comments align with the position he held when he advocated for same-sex civil unions as the Archbishop of Buenos Aires. Though he has not previously suggested he opposes civil unions, this is the first time the Pope has explicitly declared support for them.

RFF is pleased that the Pope, and consequently the Catholic Church, recognizes the inherent value of gays and lesbians to their communities in general, and the Catholic Church specifically. “Most LGBTQ+ activists around the world say that religious-based discrimination, i.e. religious-based homophobia and religious-based transphobia, are the main opposition to full inclusion of LGBTQ+ people. It is wonderful to hear that Pope Francis, a leader of a significant portion of the Christian religious community, is speaking out in favour of legal recognition of LGBTQ+ relationships. This is wonderful, good news from the Christian community,” explains Rev. Dr. Brent Hawkes, Founder and Executive Director. The Pope’s comments are timely considering that the United States Senate is set to install a conservative minority on the Supreme Court with the appointment of Amy Coney Barrett, a devout Catholic, whose vote of the court puts the right to marriage for same-sex couples at risk in all fifty states.

The Pope’s recent comments are to be celebrated but are also an indication that many LGBTQ2S+ people across the world have not been treated equally by the state nor the law and continue to face discrimination and exclusion. “Today’s affirmation of my own dignity and my capacity to enter into a full and loving relationship as a gay man from Pope Francis has moved me deeply. He is building bridges and is a healer of many of the wounds that we carry as former Catholics,” says Joe Jamieson, RFF Board President. Though civil-unions do not always allow for equal treatment by the state nor by the law, RFF welcomes this news. RFF believes that this is an important step toward eliminating religious-based discrimination against LGBTQ2S+ people across the world.

Rev. Dr. Brent Hawkes C.M
Founder and Executive Director
Rainbow Faith and Freedom

Phone: 647-573-3506
Email: ​bhawkes@rainbowfaithandfreedom.org
Rainbowfaithandfreedom.org

Reverend June Joplin fired from Lorne Park Baptist Church: A response from Rainbow Faith and Freedom

"God didn't create homophobia and transphobia, people did."

Toronto, Canada: July 23, 2020

Today, through various news outlets, Rainbow Faith and Freedom (RFF) has become aware that Reverend Junia ‘June’ Joplin, Pastor at Lorne Park Baptist Church in Mississauga, Ontario, has been fired from her position as pastor through a vote at the congregation following her coming out as a trans person.

We are deeply saddened. We are angered. We share the grief that June must be experiencing, and we are saddened by that.

We are saddened that once again, for those who are non-believers or those who hold religious doubt, that this is another moment to be dismayed and angry at the Christian church.

“We are saddened, as such events drive more and more people away from faith and faith communities. There is both personal and collective pain when such things as this happen”, explains Joe Jamieson, President of RFF.

Rainbow Faith and Freedom is a Canadian-based organization established to address religious-based homophobia and transphobia. Through changing hearts and minds, RFF hopes to improve the lives of LGBTQ2S people.

“What has happened to June is an example of the very religious-based homophobia and transphobia that have caused pain and vulnerability to the LGBTQ2S community”, notes Reverend Dr Brent Hawkes, Founder and Executive Director of RFF.  

This is not what the message of Christianity is about. The Christian message, like all major faith expressions, is about love, inclusion, and seeing the Divine in each and every person.

Our message is that we walk in solidarity with June, and we see God’s image reflected in her.

Psalm 139 (14) in scripture affirms that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made”. We remind her, and everyone reading these words, that you are “fearfully and wonderfully made”.

We stand in solidarity with you and we are saddened by religious-based transphobia showing up once again.

Rev. Dr. Brent Hawkes C.M

Founder and Executive Director

Rainbow Faith and Freedom

Joe Jamieson

President of the Board

Rainbow Faith and Freedom

Rainbowfaithandfreedom.org

(Download a PDF of this press release.)

2019 Was a Phenomenal Year at RFF

Rainbow Faith and Freedom started in 2018, but it was in 2019 when the real work began. This past year our team has accomplished so much, and in so little time.

We built our leadership team and saw folks of diverse talents and backgrounds join with Rainbow Faith and Freedom working to make our vision a reality. I went to Ottawa, Washington, and even the United Nations in Geneva to share our vision of how to make the world a better place. The team has built the legal administrative structures that will enable us to grow and manifest our vision into reality.

A sturdy house is built on a sturdy foundation; 2019 was the year of laying the sturdy foundation on which all else will be built. It’s important to invest in this import stage of development and ensure that all the right structures, processes and practices are in place so that we can grow, scale and expand our vision into a self-sustaining organization that can serve as many people as possible.

Here is a list of all that we have accomplished this year:

• Attained Not-For-Profit status in June. We are currently working on getting Charitable Status.

• We have signed Memoranda of Understanding with Egale in Canada and the Global Justice Institute in the USA, and are working on one with Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto. 

• We now have several teams in place:

  • Board of Directors (which meets monthly)

  • Volunteer Team

  • Communications and Technology Team

  • Finance Team

  • Strategic Partnerships Team

  • We are recruiting for Fundraising and Research Teams

• We launched our website in late June: www.rainbowfaithandfreedom.org 

• We received government funding (through Egale) for eight weeks to hire a summer youth person and extended her contract until the end of 2019.

• Rev. Dr. Brent Hawkes was appointed by the Board as the Executive Director.

• Rev. Dr. Brent Hawkes made some international trips which went really well, including:

  • Participated in a panel discussion at the UNHRC, and attended meetings with the Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations, in Geneva, Switzerland

  • Attended the Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom in Washington, DC

  • Attended the Human Rights Campaign Equality Forum “‘Religious Liberty’ or Discrimination? ‘Unalienable’ Rights and the Fragmentation of Human Rights”, co-hosted by Human Rights Watch and the Human Rights Campaign, in Washington, DC

• We applied for Charitable Status.

• We hosted a team appreciation event on September 12, 2019, and a Holiday Social for team members and donors on December 3, 2019.

I am so grateful for all of the love, support, help, hard work and donations that everyone has made to make this first year so successful. If 2019 was this amazing, I can only imagine how amazing 2020 will be!

Thanks to everyone who has helped move us closer to making the dream of a world in which LGBTI people can be welcomed as full participants in their faith communities and families a reality. We look forward to working with you in 2020 and beyond!

Rev. Dr. Brent Hawkes, C.M.

Founder & Executive Director, Rainbow Faith and Freedom