LGBTQ+ Task Force Peterborough City & County

HEY EVERYONE - CHECK THIS OUT AND TRY TO ATTEND!

After many trials in their lives and without many friends or family in Canada, it would mean a lot for Ovie and Serena to have our community rally around them.

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Serena and Ovie joyously invite you to their rainbow wedding celebration.
"We first met in Nigeria and shared a special connection, but life took us on different paths. Years later, we found each other again in Canada, and our connection grew stronger than ever. Today, we are grateful to begin this new chapter together. Will you join us to celebrate our love? Your support will mean the world to us."

Date: Friday July 24, 2026
Time: 4:00pm
Location: St James United Church, 221 Romaine Street

RSVP here: https://tinyurl.com/ovieserena
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UPDATE!! We have increased the prize to $250 and extended the deadline to July 5th!

Happy start to Pride Season everyone!
That also means it is time for us to reach out to the community in search of a great design for the limited edition Ptbo-Nogo Pride 2026 T-shirts!

For all the details on the contest please go to this link:
https://www.peterboroughpride.ca/shirt

Pride Week 2026 will take place from Friday, September 18, to Sunday, September 27.

Each year, we ask the community to submit a theme for PTBO-NOGO Pride – what’s pride without your voice?

We greatly appreciate the over two dozen very thoughtful suggestions we received and are now happy to announce the chosen theme!

The theme for Peterborough-Nogojiwanong Pride 2026 is:
WOVEN TOGETHER

The colourful threads of our identities are Woven Together to build a tapestry of diversity, inclusion, and strength. Each individual, each identity, and each experience is a thread within the colourful tapestry that is the 2SLGBTQIA Community.

No thread is more important than the next. It is the unity and connection of each thread that gives us strength and visibility.

This theme calls upon us to remember that as a community, locally and globally, we are all connected.

When one part of our community is under attack, we all are. Transphobia, ableism, racism, sexism, homophobia, and hate are slowly cutting away at the threads of our tapestry. It is up to us and our allies to stand united, support each other, and not leave anyone behind.

We invite you to reflect on what “WOVEN TOGETHER” means to you — and to express it in your signs, your celebrations, your protests, and your presence.

Let’s make this year’s Pride a living example of the solidarity we need — and deserve.

Read the full theme description and why we chose it at this link:
https://www.peterboroughpride.ca/our-pride-theme/

Maggie Cassella: From There to Here Italian-American Le***an Lawyer Moves to Canada...What could go wrong?

Looking for a meaningful way to gather with friends or family? 🍽️ Why not turn your next dinner plans into a chance to make a real impact? Join us on April 15th for our A Taste of Life event!
Participating restaurants are donating a portion of their revenue from the day directly to us. Every bite you take helps fund our essential support programs for clients living with HIV.
It’s the perfect excuse to enjoy a great meal while supporting a vital cause in our community.
How to join:
1️⃣ See participating restaurants in the post.
2️⃣ Call your restaurant of choice directly to book your table for April 15th.
3️⃣ Come hungry, have a great time, and dine for a cause!
We can’t wait to see you all on the 15th! 🥂

April 8th is the International Day of Pink.

The International Day of Pink is observed annually during the second week of April. It began in Nova Scotia in 2007, when two Grade 12 students, David Shepherd and Travis Price, witnessed homophobic bullying and harassment against a Grade 9 student, all because he was wearing the colour pink. In a show of solidarity, they encouraged their fellow students to wear pink to school the following day. The day has since grown into an international event that encourages millions to wear pink and stand up against bullying, discrimination, and hate.

This year, the International Day of Pink falls on April 8. The theme of this year’s event is “Echo” which calls us to tune in to the voices of q***r and trans communities, past and present. This call to action is particularly relevant in today’s political climate.

In Alberta, in addition to the laws attacking the rights of transgender and gender-diverse youth and athletes, the government has ordered schools to remove at least 160 titles from school and classroom libraries. Many of the titles removed explore 2SLGBTQIA+ experiences and were written to give youth information on 2SLGBTQIA+ people and culture in age-appropriate ways. It’s not a coincidence that anti-2SLGBTQIA+ organizations were the ones that lobbied for the book ban.

Education and critical thinking are crucial elements for democracy to thrive. Conversely, book bans aim to suppress knowledge and erode empathy and understanding of diverse perspectives and identities. Banning books and preventing the spread of information has been a core tenant of fascist governments throughout history.

For more information go to https://www.dayofpink.org/

https://artspaceptbo.ca/events/inner-monsters-on-the-page?mc_cid=84f9e7a8ae&mc_eid=c688cc624c

Inner Monsters on the Page — ARTSPACE PTBO. Join educators Lisa Trefzger and Derek Newman-Stille is seeing your inner monsters materialize through mixed media art and writing. . We will be using Lynda Barry’s “One Hundred Demons” to create, connect, and perhaps even tame our monsters.

International Transgender Day of Visibility is an annual awareness day celebrated around the world on March 31st. The day is dedicated to acknowledging the discrimination and violence experienced by people who are transgender. It also celebrates the accomplishments of transgender and gender nonconforming people while raising awareness of the work that still needs to be done to achieve transgender justice.

The day was founded by US transgender activist Rachel Crandall of Michigan in 2009 as a reaction to the lack of recognition of transgender people, and citing the frustration that the only well-known transgender-centred day was the Transgender Day of Remembrance, which mourns the murders of transgender people, but does not acknowledge and celebrate living members of the transgender community.