LGBTQ

Greater Victoria has the highest proportion of trans and non-binary folks in Canada, home to about one million people who self-identify as LGBTQ2+. Shown is the crowd from the 2018 Victoria Pride parade. (Photo courtesy of Victoria Pride Society)

LGBTQ2+ community of 1 million in Canada continue to face serious obstacles

LGBTQ2+ community in Canada three times more likely to report being assaulted in 2018

Greater Victoria has the highest proportion of trans and non-binary folks in Canada, home to about one million people who self-identify as LGBTQ2+. Shown is the crowd from the 2018 Victoria Pride parade. (Photo courtesy of Victoria Pride Society)
A sneak peak at some of the items that will be in a draw basket at the very first Vanderhoof Pride event. (Kjerstina Larsen/Facebook)

B.C. community to hold first official Pride event in its history

Vanderhoof Mayor Gerry Thiessen plans to attend the event to promote inclusivity

A sneak peak at some of the items that will be in a draw basket at the very first Vanderhoof Pride event. (Kjerstina Larsen/Facebook)
Minister of Health Jean-Yves Duclos speaks during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Friday, May 6, 2022. A year since the federal government announced a fund for organizations making sexual and reproductive information and services more available, advocates say those funds have not yet been released. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

$45M sexual, reproductive health fund not yet released a year later: advocates

Health Canada says it has signed nine contribution agreements

Minister of Health Jean-Yves Duclos speaks during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Friday, May 6, 2022. A year since the federal government announced a fund for organizations making sexual and reproductive information and services more available, advocates say those funds have not yet been released. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
Kara Nystrom, a contender for Miss Health and Fitness 2022, is possibly the first transgender woman to enter in the U.S. magazine contest. (Kiernan Green/News Staff)

‘A queer, feminine body against the world’ for B.C. woman chasing fitness crown

Kara Nystrom has entered a U.S. magazine ’s Miss Health and Fitness contest, soon open to voting

Kara Nystrom, a contender for Miss Health and Fitness 2022, is possibly the first transgender woman to enter in the U.S. magazine contest. (Kiernan Green/News Staff)
A giant rainbow flag is carried on Robson Street during the Vancouver Pride Parade in 2017. A new report out of UBC suggests the lives and health of LGBTQ youth in B.C. are improving. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck)

Health, lives of LGBTQ youth in B.C. improving but not yet equal: report

UBC report shows positive signs between 2008 and 2018

A giant rainbow flag is carried on Robson Street during the Vancouver Pride Parade in 2017. A new report out of UBC suggests the lives and health of LGBTQ youth in B.C. are improving. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck)
An artist’s rendering of a national LGBTQ monument is shown in a handout illustration. A national LGBTQ2+ monument — inspired by a dramatic thundercloud — is to be built in Ottawa by 2025. The winning design, featuring a silver mirrored mosaic interior inspired by a thunderhead cloud and disco balls, was unveiled today at an event attended by Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Canadian Heritage

Design for national LGBTQ2+ monument inspired by thundercloud and disco balls

$8-million monument to recognize Canada’s history of institutionalized homophobia and transphobia

An artist’s rendering of a national LGBTQ monument is shown in a handout illustration. A national LGBTQ2+ monument — inspired by a dramatic thundercloud — is to be built in Ottawa by 2025. The winning design, featuring a silver mirrored mosaic interior inspired by a thunderhead cloud and disco balls, was unveiled today at an event attended by Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Canadian Heritage
W.L. McLeod Elementary students in Vanderhoof spent a Thursday morning last June remediating the community’s new rainbow crosswalk that was recently damaged by a large burnout. (Photo by Aman Parhar/Omineca Express)

Vanderhoof moves to install surveillance cameras at rainbow crosswalk

The crosswalk has been repeatedly vandalized by drivers performing burnouts on it

W.L. McLeod Elementary students in Vanderhoof spent a Thursday morning last June remediating the community’s new rainbow crosswalk that was recently damaged by a large burnout. (Photo by Aman Parhar/Omineca Express)
Britanny Vis, executive director of the Maritime Museum of BC, is seeking input from queer, trans and two-spirit individuals willing to share their marine stories for use in the upcoming Queer at Sea exhibit. (Black Press Media file photo)

Victoria museum puts call out for maritime stories from B.C.’s LGBTQ2S+ community

Queer at Sea exhibit launches at the Maritime Museum in May

Britanny Vis, executive director of the Maritime Museum of BC, is seeking input from queer, trans and two-spirit individuals willing to share their marine stories for use in the upcoming Queer at Sea exhibit. (Black Press Media file photo)
A blood donor clinic pictured at a shopping mall in Calgary, Alta., Friday, March 27, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

Canadian Blood Services eyes removing sexual orientation-based donation restrictions

In most of Canada, men who have sex with men can donate only if they have abstained from sex

A blood donor clinic pictured at a shopping mall in Calgary, Alta., Friday, March 27, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
Stacey Chomiak’s queer, illustrated, young-adult memoir ‘Still Stace: My Gay Christian Coming-of-Age Story’ is being released on Oct. 19, 2021. (Jenna Hauck/ Chilliwack Progress)

B.C. author says being gay and Christian is OK

Stacey Chomiak’s memoir aimed at LGBTQ youth makes peace with faith community and queer community

Stacey Chomiak’s queer, illustrated, young-adult memoir ‘Still Stace: My Gay Christian Coming-of-Age Story’ is being released on Oct. 19, 2021. (Jenna Hauck/ Chilliwack Progress)
Kelowna drag queen Jenna Telz performs during a show at the Friends of Dorothy Lounge on Oct. 1. (Aaron Hemens/Capital News)

Creating Queens: Kelowna’s Indigenous drag queens use their platforms to inspire

Two local drag queens have helped pave the way for nearly 30 drag performers

  • Oct 14, 2021
Kelowna drag queen Jenna Telz performs during a show at the Friends of Dorothy Lounge on Oct. 1. (Aaron Hemens/Capital News)