Pride Toronto 2025
We’re excited to be part of the 2025 Pride Festival in Toronto!
Make plans to visit the RFF team at our booth during the three-day festival. Drop by our booth in Toronto’s Church & Wellesley neighbourhood to learn about our initiatives, meet our staff and volunteers, and find out how you can contribute to our work.
Community Conversation: GSAs in Faith-Based Schools
Join Rainbow Faith and Freedom for a powerful community conversation on the role of GSAs (Gay-Straight/Gender-Sexuality Alliances) in faith-based schools.
Learn about ongoing research into religious-based homophobia & transphobia and how GSAs can create safer, more inclusive school environments for 2SLGBTQ+ youth.
This event challenges the weaponization of faith and centers the voices of those fighting for change.
Featuring RFF’s Stephen Low, Gabriele Praise Forster, Kayla Musyj, and guest educators & students, this is FREE event is made possible through the generous funding of the Pride and Remembrance Foundation (PRF).
Pride Toronto 2023
Looking to be more active in Pride this year? Passionate about eliminating homophobia and transphobia?
We are looking for people to march with us in the Pride Parade on June 26th and help us out at our Pride festival booth over the weekend. At our booth we will be informing people about RFF’s mission, recruiting volunteers and sign-ups for our email list, as well as accepting donations.
Whether you’ve been involved with us before or are looking to try something new, you are always welcome at Rainbow Faith and Freedom!
To get involved please fill out this form. We are so excited to have you join us!
Worshipping with Love - Community Gathering
The Worshipping with Love Project has surveyed over 3,000 Ontarians about faith and institutions and 2SLGBTQ+ experiences.
Come learn more about the findings and how we can work towards inclusion and equality for 2SLGBTQ+ people in Ontario.
Join us Thursday, February 2nd between 6:30pm and 8:30pm at The 519 to learn more!
Pride Toronto 2022
This year Rainbow Faith and Freedom will be joining its first Pride. We are coming out with Faith! We'll be at the street fair Saturday, June 25th, and Sunday, June 26th Come visit us at our booth between Wellesley and Dundonald on Church St. We will also be marching in the parade on Sunday!
Faith in Crisis: Multifaith-Based LGBTQ2S+ Resources and Digital Programming for the Pandemic
Join us for a multifaith event series to support ourselves and our community during COVID-19 filled with live panels, webinars, film screenings, story-time, short videos, multifaith celebrations, faith sharing, and so much more!
Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom in Washington, D.C.
Rev. Dr. Brent Hawkes will be attending the second Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom in Washington, DC. The Ministerial will reaffirm international commitments to promote religious freedom for all and focus on concrete outcomes that produce durable, positive change.
United Nations: Religious Communities Affirming LGBTI People Around the World - Geneva, Switzerland
Rev. Dr. Brent Hawkes to appear at special United Nations event on affirming LGBTI people around the world.
Attended a conversation about human rights: The Global Fight for Human Rights
A Conversation between the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Honourable Chrystia Freeland.
Dignity Network Roundtable Conference
Rev Dr. Brent Hawkes participated in an annual roundtable in Ottawa with #DignityNetwork. It was an amazing and productive 2 days with Dignity Network members, international partners, international donors and members of the Canadian government. Dignity Network is a group of organizations across Canada involved in supporting the human rights of LGBTI people globally. The purpose of the network is to provide a platform for Canadian based-organizations and individuals and their global partners to support the human rights of LGBTI people globally.
#Dignity19 #FreeToBeMe
WATCH - Panel: Can sexual orientation and religious beliefs be reconciled?
Rev Dr. Brent Hawkes participated in a panel discussing the relationship between sexual orientation and religion.
Symposium on Confronting and Diminishing Religious Based Homophobia
This one-day symposium, which took place right after the Parliament of the World's Religions, brought together leading organizations and individuals involved in LGBTI human rights issues around the world.
Parliament of World Religions
The Parliament of the World’s Religions meets every 3 years and met this year in Toronto from Nov 1-8th. There were 7500 delegates in attendance from 120 of the world’s religions. When we heard that it was coming to Toronto, Brent and Doug Kerr thought this would be the prefect time for us to gather folks from around the world to look at the issue of religious-based homophobia and also to have an impact on the Parliament (PWR).
Panel: The Changing Face of Christianity
Rev Dr. Brent Hawkes participated on a panel for Global Affairs Canada (GAC) from the office of Inclusion and Religious Freedom, moderated by Director-General Shelley Whiting.
Dignity Network Roundtable on LGBTI Human Rights
Representatives from the Government of Canada and Dignity Network, an organization dedicated to securing Canadian government funding for capacity building and other necessities for LGBTI organizations around the world, met to discuss how Canada can improve the lives of LGBTI people in countries where the need is great. The role of religion as a contributor to homophobia, exclusion and violence versus inclusion and acceptance was discussed, with Rev. Dr. Brent Hawkes presenting his ideas on how Canada can help LGBTI communities that suffer because of religious-based homophobia, and how to reverse this trend.