September 16, 2010 - long awaited update

Well, it has probably been one of the busiest couple of weeks in my life. It's no secret now that i have been part of a team of local LGBTQ community members who have taken steps to create a formal legal non-profit corporate entity known as St. John's Pride Incorporated. I am excited to announce that as of September 14, 2010, this company came into existence.

I am sure many people will be wondering what this means in terms of the future of the 'pride week' in our city, as well as the future of existing websites devoted to pride week in our city. Well, as co-founder of this company, i can personally guarantee that our intentions will be announced in the near future.

But for now, i will say that this is a non-profit company, which means there is no 'owner' per say. The company will initially be legally managed by the three of us who signed our names on the articles of incorporation documents, but this entity really belongs to the St. John's LGBTQ community. The goal here is to engage everyone who has a stake in the pride concept. Initial corporate by-laws will be drafted up in the near future, and i can guarantee that they will be written in a way that ensures that this company is accessible, transparent and accountable to the public. Without these three things, we have no company and we have no 'pride'.

...in other news, speaking of Pride, i traveled to Corner Brook last weekend to both attend and speak at their pride week festivities, as well as formally meet with the directors of Newfoundland's first ever formally-established Pride corporate entity, Corner Brook Pride Inc.

these folks were awesome, essentially rolling out the red carpet for me. i think they were genuinely excited to have the founder of St. John's Pride wake up at 2.30 am and drive all the way across the island in miserable rainy weather, to attend their big day. they had a well-organized flag raising, parade, public speeches, and party in the park events.

considering the size of their town, the pride events were very well attended, probably 10 times more of the city attended theirs than did in St. John's this last July for our informal pride week.
also present in Corner Brook were the big unions, who were heavy sponsors, parade marchers, and speakers. my speech was short and sweet, but i touched upon the key trans issues of stereotype, health care, human rights, and access to public services.

after the events finished, i spend an hour meeting with their board of directors, and we had a really productive series of chats. it appears clear that we have some common ground and common goals, and i certainly hope that our two organizations will put our heads together to do some amazing work in the near future that will not only benefit our to companies, but benefit the LGBTQ communities in many other small towns in the province.



...i am also excited to announce that FrontRunners.org Newfoundland and Labrador chapter is also now live! we have already had 3 running events thus far and they have been great runs for me. Tony is actually the leader and he pushes me hard for what usually turns out to be 15k runs then a coffee social.

hoping to do the Terry Fox Run, and the Aids Walk this weekend. Maybe even the Harbour Grace 10k road race, but that is iffy.

The root canal is finally starting to get better, here on day 10, but it still remains sore and tender.



Jennifer