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Every two years the CAW holds our own Pride Conference at our Family Education Centre in Port Elgin, Ontario. Over 100 LGBT members and allies get together to share strategies for making our workplaces safer and our world more fair. CAW activists also participate in Canadian Labour Congress Pride Conferences and International Workers Out! Conferences held every three years.
CAW Pride Conference, Spring 2009
2009 is the fortieth anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, the decriminalization of homosexuality in Canada, and the first Canadian approved sex-reassignment surgeries. And so, for our fifth CAW Pride Conference (May 1st - 3rd) we took on the theme "History Moving Forward".
Over the course of the weekend delegates examined the strategies and actions that have shaped the LGBT movement in Canada, and we traced the development of our activism. We asked tough questions about where we are now, what direction we're headed, and how we hold onto and expand on the gains we've made. Part of our focus was on the relationship between the LGBT and labour movements - where we've made alliances, what the overlaps are, and why 'cross-fertilization' is so important to both movements. Delegates came away with a greater sense of our history, and of our need to re-consider the importance of a politics not just about equality, but about liberation.
World OutGames 2nd International Conference on LGBT Human Rights, Copenhagen July 27 - 29, 2009.
The Conference will bring together LGBT trade union activists from around the world to focus on strengthening specific rights of LGBT people in the workplace, including rights for groups facing multiple layers of discrimination (women, trans people, people of colour, with different abilities, migrant workers).
Past conferences:
Creating Safer Workplaces was our CAW Pride Conference theme in 2007. LGBT activists and members from across the country took part in a weekend of politics, culture, strategic planning and fun. For a report on the Conference, see Pride in Print, Spring 2007. Reports on our 2004 and 2002 Conferences are also available in Pride in Print, Summer 2004 and Pride in Print, Summer 2002.
Events
International Day Against Homophobia - May 17
May 17th is International Day Against Homophobia. For posters and information, see the campaign website, http://www.homophobiaday.org/ Each year CAW local pride committees and caucuses commemorate the day by distributing copies of the CAW Allies booklet, postering their workplaces, participating in radio interviews, writing letters to countries where homosexuality is still considered illegal, calling on the Canadian government to grant status to LGBT refugee claimants, and calling on their municipalities to officially recognize the day.