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Supporting Our Selves (SOS)
2023
Canada
If we don't support ourselves who will? A conversation between past and present, Supporting Our Selves (SOS) explores how and why the queer community in Toronto, Canada has grown and evolved over the past 40 years, through the lens of one grassroots organization and its impact. From the Bathhouse Raids to BLM's Pride Parade Protest, activists of all generations lead an honest and unflinching narrative journey that charts a community's complex and sometimes conflicting memories.
In 1980s Toronto, when most queer people lived under the radar and sexual orientation wasn't yet included in the human rights code, a little-known organization called the Community One Foundation quietly began its work (known then as The Gay Community Appeal). What started as discreet 'SOS' fundraisers held in private homes, blossomed into a foundation that supports a multitude of organizations including many pillars of the queer Canadian experience including The 519, Inside Out, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, The Pink Triangle Press, Sherbourne Health Centre, the Bill 7 Award, and the Canadian Lesbian & Gay Archives.
Through the vital activism of its subjects, Supporting Our Selves paints a vivid portrait of a queer Toronto and its complexities. Along the way we meet Christopher, a trans woman from Uganda who, although having only been in Canada a few years, has already started her own organization to support queer African refugees like herself, leZlie lee kam, a tireless lifelong activist for queer people of color who is constantly looking for ways to support queer and trans people of all ages, Jay, who is creating space and support for 2SLGBTQI+ people with disabilities, and the passionate group of individuals who were inspired to work together to launch Community One 40 years ago.
Supporting Our Selves celebrates the energy and commitment that activism and advocacy takes, while exploring the strength and struggles of Toronto's resilient and diverse 2SLGBTQI+ community members. It also challenges us to look outside ourselves and ask "How can we better support our communities?"
