Big Gay BBQ 5: Rainbow Nation

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Welcome back to our FIFTH instalment of the annual Big Gay BBQ! We are delighted by the ever growing support and excitement for this event year after year. The Big Gay BBQ is intended to raise awareness for International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia, which falls on May 17 every year. We hold our BBQ a week early because May 17 is a long weekend, and people tend to go camping and be out of town. Join us on Saturday, May 10, 2025 from 12pm to 3pm at the Lower Hume Park Picnic Area in New Westminster (by car, enter where North Road becomes East Columbia Street, north of Holmes Street; 660 EAST Columbia Street). The park is easily accessible from Braid Skytrain Station and is also serviced by the 109 bus! Just make sure you are navigating to LOWER Hume Park Picnic Area! While the event is technically free, we have a tradition of collecting donations on-site which are given to Saige Community Food Bank and Rainbow Refugee! Donations are cash only at the event, and any amount is welcomed! Please RSVP by clicking the "GOING" button near the bottom of the page so we can get a sense of how much food we need! See you there!

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Let’s Talk About SOGI and TDOR

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The inclusion of SOGI education in Canadian schools has been a hot topic lately, and November 20 is Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR). Let's talk about these things, and how they relate. What Is SOGI? First of all, what does SOGI even mean? It stands for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. Maybe you've seen or heard it referred to as "SOGI 123." The "123" has no meaning other than to imply that it's "as easy as 123." So why are we talking about Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity? And why are we trying to make it seem easy?  Because everyone has a sexual orientation and a gender identity. Every. Person. On this planet. And it is easy. There are groups out there who are trying to make a mountain of this mole hill. They're trying to make it sound complicated and scary and difficult to understand. But if you understand that you are, for example, a straight man, then there's your sexual orientation (straight) and your gender identity (man) and that's all there is to it. It's that simple. Examples of Sexual Orientations: Straight (attracted to the opposite sex) Gay (attracted to the same sex; male) Lesbian (attracted to the same sex; female) Bisexual (attracted to more than one sex) Pansexual (attracted to all sexes) Asexual (not sexually attracted to anyone) Examples of Gender Identities: Cisgender Man (assigned male at birth; still identifies as male) Cisgender Woman (assigned female at birth; still identifies as female) Transgender Man (assigned female at…

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Unifor Pride Bus Ads!

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Check it out! The Unifor Local 111 Pride Committee has worked hard over the last several months with Lamar BC to make this special project come to life. Thank you to all our members who approved the funding for this project. As you all know, June is internationally recognized as Pride Month. The Unifor Local 111 Pride Committee wanted to recognize this in a big way this year, after two years of cancelled Pride parades and reduced action and activities due to Covid. We know there is a substantial LGBTQ+ community among our membership, and we want all drivers to be able to feel PROUD of who they are, and what they do! These ads let the world know that Unifor fights for us and our rights. There's a total of 12 buses with Pride ads on them: 6 trolleys at VTC and 6 CNGs at HTC. There are 4 different ad designs: 2 at VTC and 2 at HTC. We encourage you to search for and take photos with the ads and share them with the Pride Committee! We are disappointed that, due to time and budget constraints, not every depot was able to be included in this campaign. In the near future, we hope to do a second campaign which will include buses in all depots! We hope you enjoy this ad campaign, which runs for the month of June 2022. UPDATE: When our bus ad campaign went live on June 1, the public quickly noticed the disclaimers…

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And the winner is…

The Unifor Local 111 Pride Committee would like to thank all members who came out to our second Big Gay BBQ event: 2GAY2BBQ on May 14, 2022, and everyone who purchased a raffle ticket! We drew the winner of our iPad Raffle fundraiser: Michael Pawsey at VTC! Thanks to our members, we raised $1,104.28 for Trans Lifeline and $1,104.28 for Rainbow Refugee. We had more than 100 attendees at the BBQ. Thank you for helping fight back against homophobia and transphobia at our IDAHOT BBQ! If you missed the event, stay tuned for Big Gay BBQ 3: Veggie Burger Drift…

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iPad Raffle Fundraiser

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Today is the last day to purchase raffle tickets for the Unifor Local 111 Pride Committee's fundraiser! The prize is a 256GB iPad Air (2022 model) valued at almost $1,000. Tickets are $10 each and the winner will be drawn at the Pride Committee's BBQ at Queen's Park tomorrow, Saturday, May 14! The funds raised from ticket sales will be donated to Trans Lifeline and Rainbow Refugee!

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Pride Committee Website

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Welcome to the Unifor Local 111 Pride Committee's brand new website! Here, you can stay up-to-date on the Committee's meetings, events, and projects we are working on. Stay tuned for a special TOP SECRET project launching on June 1, 2022!

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