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, Rev Dr. Brent Hawkes 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). We’ve been trying for the last few years to organize a conference on religious-based homophobia and this seemed to be the perfect time. Never in the past has the Parliament had any LGBTI content in their official program. We approached the Parliament’s head office in Chicago and expressed that it was time to include some LGBTI content since their theme for this Parliament was Love and Inclusion and received an enthusiastic response. They asked us to submit names for speakers and suggestions for workshop/panels. We got the word out to other LGBTI organizations, and as a result the PWR accepted 19 workshops with LGBTI supportive content to be included in the official program.

Also , they contacted us to offer a free hospitality space for the whole conference. It became the Rainbow Lounge. It was decorated with large panels depicting LGBT couples and some photos of members of the local LGBT Mosque. We opened the Lounge with a special reception on Nov 1st to a full room. It was an electric atmosphere as we made history with the first ever PWR LGBT event.

As the week progressed many of the LGBTI workshops/panels were held in the Lounge. There was a constant flow of conference delegates dropping into the Lounge to talk about coming out, having LGBTI children, how to influence their faiths to be more LGBTI positive. The panels we organized included “Creating a Different Future:Building Faith Communities Inclusive of LGBTI People- from Muslim and Christian Perspectives”, “Sacred Knowledge: Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity in Sacred Texts and Other Teachings”. “The Global Inter-Faith Movement for Human Rights of LGBTI People”.

We closed our Lounge on the final evening of the PWR and the room was packed. We recognized and celebrated the great beginning that this PWR represented and we pledged to build on this foundation for an even better PWR in three years time. Many folks signed up to help plan the LGBTI content for the next one.