Organizational Tree (Roots, Trunk and Branches)

The seventh instalment in a year-long series of posts by RFF Founder & Executive Director, Rev. Dr. Brent Hawkes, on the origins, mandate and work of the organization.

A healthy, successful tree is made up of its roots, trunk and branches. When the tree starts life as a seed, it first grows roots to anchor itself in the earth and provide the foundation for the trunk. As the trunk grows, it, in turn, provides support for the branches and leaves that nourish the tree. The leaves, in turn, feed and sustain the rest of the tree. Together, all three of these parts work together to sustain the tree through a long and beautiful life.

An organization goes through similar stages as it grows and develops. Since launching Rainbow Faith and Freedom two years ago, we have been focused on developing the roots of our tree to ensure that we lay a solid, sustainable foundation for our future growth. During this time, we have developed our governance structures, established our policies and procedures, developed a website, hired an Administrative Coordinator, appointed an Executive Director, and designed an organizational structure that will support a robust infrastructure to carry out our mission. 

Now we are ready to grow the trunk of our tree, which is the core operations of the organization. We have set up the following teams:

• Board of Directors - The Board of Directors used to be called the Steering Committee, then the Advisory Team, before a formal Board was established to govern the organization. Our Board positions include a President, a Vice-President, who oversees risk management, the Treasurer, a Director of Fundraising, and a Director who is our values champion. We’ve held monthly Board meetings for over a year.

• Communications - This team ensures that content is continually made available through a variety of channels, including web, email, and print. This content helps the public learn about the work of the organization, engage with our work, and inspire others to join the movement.

• IT - This team is responsible for setting up and running a secure backend of services to support and facilitate the aims and work of the organization, its staff and volunteers.

• Finance - These professionals provide guidance to ensure good fiscal planning, decision-making and oversight at the governance level.

• Partnerships - Our experts in this area establish and manage the strategic partnerships with complementary organizations that help us extend our reach and capacity. We currently have partnerships with Egale Canada Human Rights Trust, Global Justice Institute and Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto.

• Volunteer - These leaders create a culture of volunteer engagement, a system that functions equitably for every member, and a community that fully implements the vision and mission of RFF. We are also implementing social accounting practices for added insight into the value of our time and resources.

• Faith-Based Resources - This team focuses on the creation and use of faith-based educational and other resources. These resources will help RFF spread the message of acceptance and inclusiveness.

We are also celebrating various milestones in the development of our core operations, including the following:

• We received Not-for-Profit status on June 18, 2019 and have applied for Charitable status *

• We launched a website in June 2019, thanks to the support of Chelsea Digital and our IT Team

• I was appointed by the Board as RFF’s Executive Director for the next few years

• In 2020 we hired an Administrative Coordinator, Sarah McClark, and a Fundraising Coordinator, Sonja Moroz. In 2021 we hired a Manager of Operations, Stephen Low.

• In 2019 we hired a youth for a summer term, funded first through a grant, and then extended beyond the original term because of exceptional performance

• Thanks to a generous donor who resonated with the vision of what RFF will do, we were able to hire a Personal Assistant, Annabelle Menezes, to help me with all the tasks needed to get RFF to where it is today, and who has been a wonderful asset to all of the RFF teams

• Development of organizational values through a series of consultations to gather a wide spectrum of input and feedback

• In 2020, we celebrated our first full-year budget.

Now that we’ve pushed our roots deep into the earth and built up a strong solid trunk, our next phase will see us focusing on growing the branches of our tree. These branches are the three pillars of our work: our Canadian strategy, faith-based resources, and our global strategy. Watch for more on these pillars in upcoming articles.

* Note: RFF was granted full status as a registered Canadian charity in July 2021.

Call For Submissions!

Calling 2SLGBTQ+ artists to be featured in our RFF Zine project, Pandemic Processes, graciously funded by the Tegan and Sara Foundation!

Submit your work here: bit.ly/3r5BlMN by August 1st and you may be awarded a $45 honorarium for your work!

For many, this past year and a half has entailed all manner of creative processing, what we're calling pandemic processing, that brought to fruition newfound joys of plant cultivation, crocheting, sourdough fermentation and so much more. But what about the bits we left behind? The sketches, the half-formed visions of life after COVID, and the projects that no longer fit the person we've become?

We ask that you contribute any parts of your pandemic processes to our zine project, whether that be a performance, photos of your experience, journal entries, or DIY gone right or awry. We ask that these pieces engage with spirituality, faith or other queer theologies that have sustained the pandemic processes. We hope this zine will be a source of healing and community collaboration after a year-and-a-half of so much isolation.

To submit, please visit bit.ly/3r5BlMN. Successful applicants will have their artwork featured in our first zine and they will be invited to speak or perform at our live event in late August. We also plan to sell copies at GLAD Day Bookstore. If you have any questions, feedback comments or accessibility concerns, please contact bpawliw-fry@rainbowfaithandfreedom.org.

Bill C-6

Rainbow Faith and Freedom (RFF) is gravely concerned the Bill C-6, legislation designed to ban so-called “Conversion Therapy” in Canada, was not passed into law before the Senate left for its summer break. We believe it to be incumbent upon the Speaker of the Senate to recall the government’s upper chamber to pass this important and life-saving legislation as soon as possible. 

Bill C-6 has faced and overcome too many obstacles in the past year to be allowed to languish over the summer and possibly disappear altogether should a federal election be called in the coming months. With all but seven MPs supporting the bill in the House of Commons and assurances from senators that it would pass third reading in the upper chamber, it is unconscionable to leave survivors and other vulnerable members of the LGBTQ2S+ community without the assurance of safety from an inhumane practice for any longer.

According to a recent study by the Community-Based Research Centre, an estimated 10% of gay, bi, trans and queer youth in Canada have experienced this harmful and abusive practice, with more than two-thirds experiencing conversion therapy in religious or faith-based settings. It is our position that these heinous practices must be completely and legislatively ended without any further delay. 

We call upon the Speaker of the Senate and the Honourable members of the upper chamber to return as quickly as possible to allow for proper review of the legislation and to pass it into law. 

Values Update

The sixth instalment in a year-long series of posts by RFF Founder & Executive Director, Rev. Dr. Brent Hawkes, on the origins, mandate and work of the organization.

Many years ago,  a friend who really believed in the concept of Rainbow Faith and Freedom taught me a very important lesson. HIs research showed how crucially important values can be in shaping the culture of an organization and helping it to stay true to the ideals that values can represent. However, he also found that if values work is not done carefully, it can end up doing more damage than good. When corporations or organizations have a values-defining exercise and come up with too many values, then in essence, there are no values. They need to be small in number so that the work can be done to fully shape the organizational culture, ensure ongoing evaluation, etc. It takes consistent work to ensure that values live up to their potential, and when that work isn’t done it can lead to deep skepticism about the organization itself from both the inside and the outside. A similar danger exists when values are determined and placed on fancy plaques without the commitment to implementation. It becomes very difficult to get “buy-in” to do it again if you didn’t do it right the first time. It’s also crucially important that there is regular evaluation throughout the organization to ascertain how well the organization is doing regarding its values. This needs to be a very open and honest conversation. 

We are very fortunate at RFF to have made a commitment to do the values work early on. It is much easier to shape the culture of a new organization around values than it is to reshape the culture of an existing organization. With or without values named explicitly, every organization develops a culture, and without intentionality, that culture may prevent the organization from reaching its full potential. RFF began the process of values clarification by consulting several community members with an extensive brainstorming day with a highly qualified facilitator. That info was then discussed by a smaller group, including myself and the volunteer management team, with the same seasoned facilitator. Once the values were named, brief descriptions were written to give clarity for what we meant by each value. This was then given to the Board as a discussion item and the Board’s input was taken back to the small group for revisions and finally presented back to the Board for final approval. We are excited to present the following as the Values for RFF:

 
Results 

·       We are results-oriented, effective and we impact the world to achieve our Vision. 

·       We have an impact on communities while fostering love and kindness among others.

Learning

·       We want to be a learning organization, expanding our own hearts and minds, and expanding learning through listening and engaging with others.

Respect

·       We will have respect for others, cultures, and different faiths and beliefs respecting diverse experiences and perspectives.

·       Through this respect we will create safe spaces for people and organizations that we work with.

Compassion 

·       We will be grounded in humility, acceptance and our deep connection to create empathy. This will create a culture of love, kindness, and belonging.

Teamwork

·       We are a human-centered community, which collaborates and creates partnership, friendship and deep relationships. 

·       We will support each other, respect dissenting views and work together to build community. 

Phase 2 of our values work involves developing an implementation plan. This will be led in partnership between the Board liaison of values and myself. We are committed to having an implementation plan and getting feedback from inside and outside RFF on how we are living up to our values. Part of our strategy will be seeking feedback from people we work with on the ground. Our goal is that one day it would be clear that the culture and the people within RFF are really living our values and that people outside of the organization are truly impressed that the values of RFF are lived out and evident in all that we do.

Queer Devotions: A Conversation with Faith Nolan

One of our Pride Month Queer Devotions podcast episodes, hosted by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry, brought us a beautiful conversation with Canadian activist and folk singer-songwriter, Faith Nolan! The podcast highlighted many themes including queer history in the 70s and breaking through the barriers and resistance of being identified a lesbian or gay. Faith also generously shared her own experiences and how the harshest situations made her tune in more to her spiritual self.

Here are our three takeaways from our conversation with Faith Nolan:

On her experience of Queer History growing up in the 70s: Upon reading the book Radical Lesbian Nation which is in favor of feminist separatism (the idea that feminist opposition to patriarchy can be achieved through women’s separation from men), she became more enlightened and empowered on her own life as a woman. Faith relates this to the idea of Androgyny and dykes which was prevalent and growing in the 70’s, was to be “all things and a form of oneness,” she says. She compares this to the term Non-Binary which is equal to that thought of the 70s, providing more fluidity in choice on the matter of gender. Faith recalls Lesbians being considered as mentally ill and even pedophilic. Faith also highlights that the history of Lesbians had gone unnoticed, the remarkable books or marches performed were shunned, which highlighted the rights and roles for women in general. Many women, event today, fight the gender role standards e.g. Botox and fillers required for women but not men. The feminist movement, as Faith highlights has been integral to queer history in gaining their power back.

On breaking through resistance of Gender Roles: In this podcast Faith also highlights the right and freedom of being two spirited, that you can reinvent what the word gender means for you and break societal classifications/structures to be whoever you want to be. As human, you have the right to pick and change what feels comfortable to you; things don’t have to be gender and binary notions of humanity. 

On Injustices and how it got her closer to healing and Spirituality: Faith recalls being locked up in Jail upon being identified as queer; she observed physical abuse, both on herself and others. “50 percent of the women were raped and injustice was prevalent, yet on news and press nothing was reported” Faith says she felt reconciled and healed upon returning to sing in jail as a musician after many years. “As a species on earth, we are inter connected to everything else on the planet and represent oneness, it’s time we realize that.”

Faith ends the podcast by reciting a line from a poem by Khalil Gibran, highlighting the freedom to choose: “Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself… You may give them your love but not your thoughts, for they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow…”

You can listen to the full episode HERE and don’t forget to subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts to ensure you never miss out!

Indian judge bans conversion therapy and demands ‘respect’ in sweeping LGBT+ ruling

A state in India is the first in the country to outlaw conversion therapy after a hearing in High Court on LGBTQ+ rights. The court made its decision after looking at the case of a lesbian couple who faced harassment from the police upon a report issued by their parents. The couple, aged 22 and 20, fled homes after facing rejection and abuse from their families. The couple shortly appealed to the High court to drop the investigation and charges involved.

The case and reporting according to Justice Venkatesh has brought to light the lack of acceptance and stigmatization around lesbian and gay couples. Justice Venkatesh, from Tamil Nadu, India, ruled out the investigation reported by the family and added further reforms to reorganize and structure the rights of LGBTQ+ in the state. The justice discussed his own prejudice and shared with the court that he infact consulted a transgender psychologist to overcome his own bias for the LGBTQ+ community as well as a medical doctor in order to justify evidence against discrimination of the community. Upon researching and coming to his own conclusions on the issue of discrimination, he ruled out the investigations on the basis of the couple’s consent to the relationship. He also ordered the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment to list LGBT+ organizations on its website and to make “suitable changes” to homeless shelters for Trans people so that they can live “a life of dignity and respect”. This momentous decision, with sent orders to the National Medical Commission, the Indian Psychiatric Society and the Rehabilitation Council of India will have the licenses of conversion therapy practitioners in the state of Tamil Nadu revoked permanently.

Justice Venkatesh also labeled a section titled “Physical and Mental Health Professionals” and has ordered healthcare professional to offer their support and solidarity to LGBTQ+ individuals who are facing stigma and discrimination from society”. The consultations with health care professionals however prohibits “any attempt to medically ‘cure’ or change the sexual orientation of LGBTIQA+ people to heterosexual or the gender identity of transgender people to cis-gender.” The justice has also set implementations in schools and universities to “educate students on understanding the LGBTQIA+ community”. This remarkable step allows the trans youth of India to change their name and gender on academic records. Furthermore, he called for the Tamil Nadu government and the Indian government to put into practice programs that bring awareness to the issues concerning LGBTQ+ youth and communities.

Closing the document, Justice Venkatesh said he will observe and recurrently follow up with several government departments and bodies to ensure his rulings are being implemented. This is huge progress when it comes to the LGBTQ+ rights pan India, but more progress needs to be made in providing dignity and respect to the community, not just writing off individual reports and investigations but establishing nationwide LGBTQ+ rights.

Source: Kelleher, Patrick. “Indian Judge Bans Conversion Therapy and Demands ‘Respect’ in Sweeping LGBT+ Ruling.” Pink News, 9 June 2021, www.pinknews.co.uk/2021/06/09/india-tamil-nadu-conversion-therapy-ban-lgbt/.

Rainbow Faith and Freedom calls on Canadians to help Combat Homophobia with new crowdfunding campaign

June 14, 2021
For Immediate Release
____________________

On June 9 an innocent man was beaten nearly to death in a homophobic hate crime. Today, Rainbow Faith and Freedom (RFF) is calling on all Canadians to help combat homophobic discrimination through a new campaign focused on protecting and supporting the LGBTQ2S+ community.

The organization is raising money through a crowdfunding campaign to contribute to its global movement to end religious-based LGBTQ2S+ discrimination, homophobia and transphobia and improve the human and equality rights of LGBTQ2S+ people everywhere. RFF focuses on the moments at which religious-based discrimination and homophobic discrimination intersect and have established a Canadian program devoted to addressing this intersection.

“I am sickened by the blatant homophobic event that transpired earlier this month in Toronto,” said Rev. Brent Hawkes, “as Canadians, we must stand up against these disgusting acts of homophobia that are fundamentally against our values.” 

With June marking Pride Month around the world, RFF is calling on Canadians to support the organization’s crowd funding campaign, either through a financial contribution or by sharing the link on social media. 

The End Religious-Based LGBTQ2S+ Hate crowdfunding campaign is seeking to raise $40,000 that will be used to confront the most vocal and influential source of discrimination against LGBTQ2S+ people – religious leaders and communities who weaponize their beliefs to justify exclusion. The campaign can be accessed at https://www.gofundme.com/f/end-religiousbased-lgbtq2s-hate

About Rainbow Faith and Freedom

Rainbow Faith and Freedom is a not-for-profit organization providing social programming focused on education Canadian institutions including schools, workplaces and community association to be more inclusive and affirming of LGBTQ2S+ people of faith will have a direct benefit for all vulnerable populations. 

Interview/Quote Availability: 

Rev. Dr. Brent Hawkes, Founder, RFF  
Sonja Moroz, Fundraising Coordinator, RFF-smoroz@rainbowfaithandfreedom.org

For RFF information:

Dave Fraser, Communications Team Lead, RFF- dfraser@rainbowfaithandfreedom.org  

2SLGBTQ+ Group Boycotts Library

A Public Library in Halifax has made homophobic statements upon the backlash from the LGBTQ2S+ community in Halifax. The book “Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing our Daughters” displays transphobic thoughts with outdated and inaccurate medical data on transgenders.It also claims that trans identities are a choice and carries hate speech.The library has further upon stated that it is a democratic of citizens to access any book but fails to address the psychologically damaging views that can impact the youth reading it.Rainbow Faith and Freedom concurs with the Halifax Pride in ending transphic assertion.

Amongst the many joining the Halifax Pride, Caramel Farahbakhsh in the article states “I do not want to tell the person who wrote this book that they cannot publish. But I do want to have a community-centered space, taking a stance to protect marginalized voices and say that they’re not going to carry it.” Considering it is a public library and government owned it needs to value the thoughts of the community and create more inclusivity for LGBTQ2S+ community. It is important to carefully consider which books should be kept because while silence on this matter is deemed “freedom for people to write what they want” it empowers a dangerous message and emboldens people with transphobic thoughts to continue suppressing those in marginalized communities.

Psychologically speaking, this book highlights transgendered health issues as mental and behavioural disorders, an incredibly traumatic history of the LGBTQ2S+ community. This is a safety issue for tran and non gender conforming youth as it highlights discrimination at a grassroot level between social services and the medical system. Farahbakhsh states in the article “Something that is incredibly sad for me is that I know a lot of our youth really love the library. It is the space that folks can access for free, there are comfy chairs where you feel like you can be yourself.”Many of such books found in public libraries are not just discouraging for the LGBTQ2S+ youth but any person visiting can be influenced by the weakly researched scripts and embibe inaccurate information.

Evaluation, policy change and reviews need to be made by the Halifax Library, honoring and listening to the pulse of LGBTQ voices. Furthermore a nationwide review of collections in any public libraries should be made annually to make sure to provide inclusivity to all.

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Citation:
Hakim, Aya-al.  “LGBTQ2 Group Calls Book Transphobic,Boycotts Halifax Public Library for Not Removing It.” Globalnews.ca,2, July,2021, globalnews.ca/news/7905129/halifax-public-library-transphobic-book

RFF Impact Report 2021

Rainbow Faith and Freedom, though young, is already making a difference in the lives of people coping with religious-based discrimination.

Thanks to the help of our supporters, staff and volunteers, we’ve already been able to achieve so much.

Read all about it in our Impact Report. Download it here, and please share it with your family, friends and colleagues.

Mapping the Landscape of Faith-Based Heterosexism and Transphobia in Canada

Religion continues to be one of the strongest determinants of a person’s view of homosexuality. While a largely secular society, Canada’s institutions are built on a foundation of Christianized norms of heteronormativity and transphobia.

In this landmark 39-page report, RFF introduces the wide landscape of faith-based 2SLGBTQ+ discrimination. This report addresses the most critical areas of where faith-based discrimination operates, surveying research from the last fifteen years, and documents the long-lasting impacts of this exclusion.

Download the report at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-rvNDfYEPqPU4XDrJ4SlJ49VSQpsK85g/view?usp=sharing, and please share it with your friends, family and colleagues.

Subsequent Consultations Symposium

The fifth instalment in a year-long series of posts by RFF Founder & Executive Director, Rev. Dr. Brent Hawkes, on the origins, mandate and work of the organization.

Following the Parliament of the World’s Religions in November, 2018 RFF hosted a one-day symposium to hear from activists around the world regarding the impact of religious-based discrimination against the LGBTI community, and what’s working and not working to counteract that impact. A presentation was made outlining the Vision and strategies of RFF and significant time was devoted to hearing from the 25 attendees what they liked about the vision and strategies and what changes they thought would make it better. This was extremely helpful input and we left with many suggestions for improving how we would go about fulfilling our Vision and strategies. The feedback was compiled and presented to the Steering Committee of RFF for discussion and many of the recommendations were affirmed and included in our future planning.

The symposium far exceeded what we had hoped for. Attendees came from Canada, United States, Jamaica, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Eastern Europe, India, South Africa, Nigeria, Columbia and the Philippines. Among the group were the first openly gay Imam in North America, the first openly gay Orthodox Rabbi, representatives from the United Church of Canada and Metropolitan Community Churches, Theology Professors, activists and more. Leading up to the Parliament and the symposium, RFF raised $20,000 to cover the cost of the symposium and in particular, to sponsor five of the attendees, ensuring more diversity and international input. We are grateful to our sponsors, the United Church of Canada, Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto, and various individual donors. A huge part of the success of the Symposium was due to our Partnership with Egale Canada. Egale and their staff, led by Executive Director Helen Kennedy, were all amazing. Egale also led a separate track at the symposium for educators across Ontario on Religion and LGBTI. 

Additional consultation meetings were held in 2019, focusing on two areas. The first was on what would be the Values that would guide the work and culture of RFF, both locally and internationally. This was an exciting process which led to Values which were unanimously embraced throughout the organization. Our next blog article will cover these values in detail. 

The second focus of the consultations was on how we would do our work both nationally and internationally in appropriate and effective ways. We brought together a dozen people who had experience in international work. Too often, people in North America have good intentions but get involved in international work in ways that are counterproductive, and sometimes viewed as being imperialistic and supporting a colonial mentality. We wanted to take time before we launched any programs to really learn from those who are doing this international work in ways that we wanted to emulate. Once again, this consultation proved extremely valuable. Having clarified our Vision at the original symposium, and now learning how to do our work appropriately, RFF is positioning itself to make a valuable and effective contribution to LGBTI safety and inclusion worldwide.