This July, more than 10,000 gays, lesbians and their supporters marched in the brashest pride parade in Ottawa’s history.
The parade wound down Elgin and Bank streets, evolving from march to manic street party as Centretown pubs opened their patios to queer revelers soaking up performances by drag queens, dancers, and men sporting nothing but tube socks.
While the party raged on the street, Ottawa’s Pink Triangle Services and queer-friendly companies and organizations quietly launched a service that will support the city’s gays and lesbians on the other 364 days of the year, when rainbow-wrapped pride isn’t so fashionable.
The service is www.ottawaglbtqcentre.com , a virtual community centre for the city’s gay community. The site features links to queer businesses, restaurants, activist groups, counselors and health services. It lists community events, chronicles the community’s history and corrals more than 50 Ottawa queer groups in a single pen.
Most important, the community’s new home in cyberspace is the first phase of a plan for a real downtown GLBTQ community centre, slated to open in 2006.
It’s an initiative Centretown should support. And not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because the community centre could be a boon to everyone – gay or straight – who lives in the neighbourhood.
The city – which has promised $79,000 annually to Pink Triangle Services – commissioned a feasibility study for the centre in November 2002 and found widespread support.
“Over 54 organizations responded to a survey asking about interest in partnering, and the response indicates that if a centre were to open tomorrow, it would be busy day and night,” says the study by Anne Wright and Associates.
The study paints a picture of a bustling queer hub featuring a library, a coffee shop, an artistic gallery, a business centre, a counseling centre and loads of meeting space.
Its doors and services will be open to gays and straights alike looking for a place to hold meetings, theatre rehearsals and workshops in the space-strapped downtown core.
According to 2001 census data, Ottawa is already tied with Vancouver with the largest declared gay and lesbian population in the country. The centre could help solidify the capital’s image as a diversity-friendly place. It could even help attract more of the burgeoning GLBTQ tourism business.
But making the virtual centre a reality won’t be cheap. The feasibility study says the community centre task force will need to raise $5 million in capital just to build or retrofit a 14,000-square-foot space. Then it will have to find $700,000 a year to run the place.
A site has yet to be selected and fundraising has barely begun. A 2006 opening date already appears overly ambitious. But if the queer and straight communities come out and support the centre with their hearts and wallets, it can happen.
— Kelly Patrick