Who We Are
Founders Statement
We want to express our extreme gratitude to all those who have supported the mission and vision of Coastal Queers through its short yet impactful existence so far. We have big ideas of what support, education, safety and joy can look like for queer folks in our region. We are also aware of the immense amount of work that it will take to have those ideas come to fruition through sustainable, intentional systems that will last long past our own individual roles within the organization. Coastal Queers began with two queers living in Tofino, wondering why there was no representation, consideration, financial support for, or even discussion about the needs and existence of queer folks in our town. Why were there no queer specific events? Why were our needs within healthcare being unmet? When we approached businesses and municipalities about support for queers, why was it treated as though supporting the queer community was an option & not a long overdue responsibility?
These thoughts & more led to the development of the question which has guided our organization since the beginning –
“What barriers exist for queer people in our community, and what can we do to reduce/eliminate those barriers?”
Prior to the creation of Coastal Queers, particularly for newcomers, visible signs of queerness within Tofino were extremely lacking. There were no queer community groups, no structural or symbolic recognition of the queer community through things like rainbow sidewalks, flags, or other visual cues, and no queer specific events, including Pride. The barriers in accessing queer specific healthcare, such as gender affirming surgery or access to PReP and PEP, were momentous & overwhelming, with very limited resources, education, or physician knowledge. There was no formal acknowledgement of the queer community from a municipal standpoint, resulting in the needs of the queer community being disregarded in municipal visioning and budgeting. This is the climate in which Coastal Queers was created; while we always envisioned a safer, more connected, better supported queer community, the path to getting there has never been linear or perfect. For the first year of its existence, Coastal Queers operated solely through our volunteered time and labour, as we both worked full time careers outside of the organization. Coastal Queers is a labour of love that has been created in the in-betweens of our days, in late evenings, in countless conversations & always in care. While Coastal Queers has risen in popularity throughout the last year, our capacity remains quite similar to where we began in May of 2021 – a few queer folks, countless volunteer hours, and an unending commitment to doing the work that’s necessary to lessen the gap that exists between our vision and our reality. We invite you to join us in that work, in co-creating a future where queer folks are supported and where our community at large is more inclusive, more accepting, and more caring. Thank you for reading.
It's with extreme gratitude that we thank Andrea McQuade, our third director of Coastal Queers, for her role behind the scenes since the near beginning, and without whom Coastal Queers would not exist today. Her unending support through volunteered time and labour, her critical insight, and her ceaseless commitment to practicing care have been instrumental in the creation of Coastal Queers.
With care,
Sully (they/them) & John (he/him)
Coastal Queer Alliance is a local non-profit organization committed to creating resources, augmenting representation, and facilitating collaborative opportunities for the queer community.
Mission
Vision
Coastal Queers envisions a well-supported & abundantly-resourced community rooted in collective care, where everyone has equitable access to the material needs, physical, mental and emotional supports and connection needed to live with joy and dignity.
Values
Our values are rooted in the belief that better systems, communication models, and opportunities for care exist beyond what currently dominates our societal and economic systems in the western world. This belief acknowledges the importance of grassroots initiatives, understands that self-determination in communities is integral in the process of addressing unmet needs, and challenges the notion that there is no alternative to the systemically harmful systems that we currently operate under.
Critical thinking is integral to the interruption of harm as it provides a foundation for challenging what currently exists. It is also imperative to employ in the process of constructing something new that does not simply replace one harm with another, but is intentional, sustainable, and holistically beneficial. Coastal Queers values the employment of non-binary thought within critical thinking. We believe that opportunities for understanding the nuance and complexity of humans, relationships, systems, and societies are missed when we rush to label them into categories such as “right/wrong”, “good/bad”, or “us/them”. This type of binary thinking does not allow for multiple truths to exist at once and works to enforce a polarizing divide between aspects of identity, belief and thought. The employment of critical and non-binary thinking requires a process to develop a response as opposed to a reaction. This process values interacting with situations through a lens that considers current and historical context, engaging with a diverse range of identities and experiences to inform our understanding, and constructing a course of action that works to create the most benefit while doing the least amount of harm.
Critical Thinking
We value accountability as a practice of mutual care and transparency. This includes holding ourselves accountable, holding others accountable, and having others hold us accountable. This practice recognizes that community movements are made up of human beings and holds space for the inevitability of human error and unintended harm, while engaging with a process that values humility and gratitude for the opportunity to right wrongs and learn from experiences. Our process of accountability is informed by the understanding that the impact of words and actions is more important than intent, and that unconscious harm is harm nonetheless. This process is rooted in respect for our capacity and does not engage with parties who have caused harm and are not yet ready to take accountability. When harm is committed, the process we engage with values open and honest communication to achieve a mutual goal of tending to tears in our relations and the desire to move forward in a better way.
Accountability
The ability to grow and to allow others room for growth is fundamental to achieving safer, more caring, better-connected communities. We believe growth occurs at the intersection of education and empathy, and it is integral that we normalize and encourage the ability to change our minds after being presented with new information. Our understanding of growth recognizes two truths; that it is not the fault of individuals for having internalized the ideas that were taught through harmful belief systems rooted in oppressive histories, while acknowledging that it is everyone’s personal responsibility to unlearn these beliefs so we can collectively move forward in ways that are guided by empathy and care. Growth is the mechanism that allows us to connect these truths. It is fundamental in envisioning a society beyond what currently exists that we allow for growth, allow for those who once opposed our beliefs to unlearn what they were taught, take accountability for the ways that they have caused harm, and join us in a collective effort to co-create a better world.
Growth
History
In October of 2020, co-founders John (he/him) and Sully (they/them) had just arrived in Tofino after having driven out from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, the city where they grew up together as childhood friends. John had lived in Tofino for a year at that point, and Sully arrived with the immediate desire to also make Tofino their home. Like everyone who navigated the long winter of 2020 through social distancing, one-person bubbles, and lockdowns, they waited for the day when they would be able to interact with their community again. The winter months provided ample amounts of time to imagine what that day would look like – and to notice what might be missing from it.
In reflecting on their first winter here, Sully states, “Moving to Tofino, it was quite surreal to see the lack of any visible signs of queerness. It was like queer people didn’t exist here in any formalized setting. No one was talking about it, there was no resource centre, no rainbow sidewalks, no flags, no events being hosted online or otherwise for the queer community, no way to know who was queer outside of the very small demographic of queers who might be on a dating app. Scouring the District of Tofino’s and Tourism Tofino’s website for anything related to queerness was a dead end; we posted on the online bulletin boards asking if there had ever been a pride, or a queer community group, and we came back with very few answers and nothing that was current. All throughout this time, we would meet other queer people and collectively express the same disappointment; that there was no sense of queer community where we lived, and certainly no formalized or structured support systems in place for creating one. So, we realized that the only way it would come to fruition is if someone started it.”
John and Sully applied for a grant through Clayoquot Biosphere Trust’s Neighbourhood Small Grant stream to host an online meeting in April of 2021. They put up posters around Tofino inviting anyone who was interested in learning more about the queer community to attend, and a group of about 20 folks gathered online to discuss the barriers that existed for queer people within their community and brainstorm ways to reduce or eliminate them. Reflecting on this meeting and the ideas that were discussed, they created Coastal Queer Alliance with the mission to create resources, augment representation, and facilitate collaborative opportunities for the queer community on the coast. Quickly joined by Andrea McQuade (she/her) as a third director, Coastal Queers was registered as a non-profit by May. In the summer of 2021, Coastal Queers hosted its first season of Queer Surf, a program dedicated to reducing the social, financial, and logistical barriers involved in surfing in collaboration with the local surf school, Surf Sister. Other collaborations in 2021 included Queer Skate nights with Ukee Pals on Planks and Tuff City Skate, as well as a community art night with the Tofino Jazz Fest. The existence of Coastal Queers within its first year was dependent on the unpaid time and labour of the three person directors board, while lobbying for funding and support from the Tofino municipality, local businesses, and applying for grants. A statement from John regarding the inception of Coastal Queers reads, “We started Coastal Queers to benefit the queer community with no real funding or any staff beyond ourselves to run it, and we all worked full time jobs outside of the organization. It was a lot of late-night event planning and working on our weekends, all the while trying to get businesses and municipalities to recognize that the queer community deserves safety and support, and that addressing the needs of the queer community is a long-overdue responsibility – it’s not something you can just opt out of. Queerphobia and cisheteronormativity are still alive and well in our community. It’s going to take a collective effort to eradicate them, and we need everyone’s support.”
Coastal Queers has since garnered more community support within its second year and has continued to develop its programming, resourcing, and capacity. Reflecting on the first year of the organization, Sully says, “We want to wholeheartedly thank everyone who supported us from the beginning, who met us where we were at and helped us get to where we are now. It can be easier to support something once it’s been established, but those who saw the value in what Coastal Queers could grow into and chose to support it when it was more of an idea than anything of substance were fundamental in shaping where it is today.”
Land Acknowledgement
Coastal Queers gratefully operates within the traditional and unceded territories of the ƛaʔuukʷiʔatḥ (Tla-o-qui-aht), ʕaaḥuusʔatḥ (Ahousaht), hiškʷiiʔatḥ (Hesquiaht), tukʷaaʔatḥ (Toquaht), and Yuułuʔiłʔath (Ucluelet) First Nations.
The work of Coastal Queers in furthering the safety, support, and joy of the queer community is done with an understanding of the various intersections of identities that queer individuals hold. This understanding recognizes that queer liberation is inextricably bound to all those whose experiences have been shaped by oppressive systems. We recognize that these systems are a result of a calculated effort to eradicate communities who did not conform to a colonial, christian agenda, and that this agenda came to fruition as an attempt to erase pre-colonial Indigenous identities.
We are committed to a continuous process of learning, unlearning, amplifying the voices of First Nations individuals and governance, and acting with accountability to the laws of the land and waters that have been set out by these nations.
Recognizing the harm that has been and continues to be committed against Indigenous communities because of this agenda is crucial in understanding the ways in which queerness has also been shaped by this history.
Although queerness has existed for time immemorial, our vernacular used to describe queerness, as well as the media we consume, the education we do or don’t receive about queerness, and the continuous attacks on queer identities through law and policy in our current society, have been informed by this same agenda which has purported a binary nature of the inherently fluid characteristics of sex, gender, & sexuality. Although the systems and complexes we operate under within so-called canada are entrenched in harm for those who they once tried to erase, this agenda was ultimately unsuccessful. There is no ability to change this history of harm, but there is an opportunity to envision beyond the systems that exist as a result of this history and create better ones, where equitability and justice guide our collective understanding of how to rebuild in a better way.