The Acronym is your source for
the latest news, events, and resources from Egale Canada. This October, we're excited to share with you: open submissions for our new Trans Awareness Week campaign, a virtual town hall, upcoming webinars, and more. | | | Egale Canada Granted Special Consultative Status by the United Nations In August 2025, the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) - one of the six main bodies of the United Nations that tackles economic, social, and environmental global issues - officially granted Egale Canada special consultative status.
The special consultative status lends Egale greater legitimacy to our advocacy work by affording our organization a stronger voice on the global stage.
With this status granted, Egale can attend and contribute to UN sessions, participate in events at major UN conferences, submit official written statements for consideration by UN bodies, and engage with UN agencies on issues related to economic, social, and humanitarian rights.
This is a huge win for 2SLGBTQI human rights, better enabling us to uplift 2SLGBTQI voices, address issues, and unlock opportunities to influence UN policies and decisions that directly impact 2SLGBTQI individuals globally.
Learn more about this topic at egale.ca/ecosoc
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Notwithstanding, We Rise: A virtual Town Hall Join us as we come together in the face of the notwithstanding clause (NWC) and its impact on trans rights.
This webinar-style town hall, hosted by Skipping Stone, is open to all, featuring a panel presentation and Q&A space navigating the current legislation and how its implementation, impact, and next steps might look like in light of recent news that the NWC may be used, by the Government of Alberta, to force through harmful policies that undermine health care, education, and sport protections in the weeks ahead.
Bennet Jennen, Egale Canada’s Director of Legal, will be joined alongside expert speakers from Queer Citizens United, Skipping
Stone and Pîsimoyâpiy Storytelling. | | | | | Be part of Egale Canada’s 2025 Trans Awareness Week Campaign Are you a trans or gender diverse individual passionate about social change and eager to lend your voice to challenge stereotypes and deepen public understanding of trans lives? We want to hear from you!
With the continued threat of unchecked anti-2SLGBTQI hate, rising mis- and disinformation significantly affecting trans and
gender diverse folks, and gender affirming care being threatened in Canada – and around the world - now more than ever, we need emboldened voices from our community to share their rich and diverse lived experiences.
Submission deadline: October 26, 2025
Learn more at: egale.ca/ taw-2025-submissions | | |
| | Honouring Intersex Awareness Day October 26 is International Intersex Awareness Day, a day to encourage
dialogue and raise awareness about the lived experiences of intersex people.
Intersex people in Canada continue to be made invisible societally and face undue harm within medical institutions and Canada’s justice system. This includes Canada’s ongoing practice of non-consensual, medically unnecessary, “sex normalizing surgeries,” which we refer to as genital mutilation.
To help combat these undue harms, Egale Canada encourages you to learn from our intersex resources and research and to join the movement demanding the halt of medical interference that is impairing the health and well-being of intersex people in Canada and around the world.
Learn more at egale.ca/intersex-day | | | | | Egale Receives DCAS Community Partner Recognition Earlier this year, Egale collaborated with the Durham Children’s Aid
Society (DCAS) on the creation and delivery of a customized 2SLGBTQI inclusion training program to meet their unique needs within the child welfare sector. This partnership led to a broader collaboration, offering free webinars focused on addressing the rising hate and mis/disinformation affecting 2SLGBTQI communities through tools and resources available on Egale’s Rainbow Action Hub.
On September 11th, Egale was honoured to accept the DCAS Community Partner Recognition at their Annual General
Meeting. We are thrilled to be bringing this unique training for the sector to staff at Children’s Aid Societies across Ontario over the coming year, with generous support from the LCBO Spirit of Sustainability initiative, Canada Post Community Foundation, and The Chawkers Foundation. | | |
| | “Where the Heart Is” Reducing Houselessness and Housing Insecurity for 2SLGBTQI Canadian Veterans Join Egale's research team for part four and the last offering of their Research Highlights 2025 Webinar Series.
In partnership with Rainbow Veterans Canada, "Where the Heart Is" is a study that looks at reducing houselessness and housing insecurity among 2SLGBTQI Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Veterans.
• Thursday, Nov 6, 2025, 01:00 PM ET
• Register here
• View previous research topics at egale.ca/research-highlights-2025 | |
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Upcoming Free Webinar: Draw the Line Against Transphobia Cultivating trans joy and building affirming spaces are integral parts of fighting transphobia. Our free webinar, Draw the Line Against Transphobia, is designed for students, educators, administrators, and staff in both
secondary and post-secondary schools in Canada, to learn how.
Join us in creating awareness that leads to action and register at egale.ca/free-workshops
Available dates:
| | | | | Egale is able to do this critical work thanks to your generous support
We need your help to build a world without homophobia, biphobia, transphobia and all other forms of oppression.
Join our Monthly Donor Circle and help advance our mission with stable, ongoing, predictable support, so that every person can achieve their full potential, free from hatred and bias.
| | | Egale Canada
120 Carlton Street, Suite 217 | Toronto, Ontario M5A 4K2
416-964-7887 | [email protected]Egale works to improve the lives of 2SLGBTQI people in Canada and to enhance the global response to 2SLGBTQI issues. Egale achieves this by informing public policy, inspiring cultural change, and promoting human rights and inclusion through research, education and community
engagement.
Our vision is a Canada, and ultimately a world, without homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, and all other forms of oppression so that every person can achieve their full potential, free from hatred and bias. | | | | |
