Town of Caledon celebrating Pride in July with flag raising

Written By JULIA LLOYD

Caledon Mayor Allan Thompson and members of local council welcomed the month of Pride with the raising of the Pride flag at Caledon Town Hall on July 3. 

Moyo, previously known as Peel HIV/AIDS Network, accompanied the Mayor and council on the raising of the flag last week as they continuously support Caledon, Brampton and Mississauga's LGBTQ+ community. 

Yoshith Perera is the community engagement manager at Moyo and in recent years, Perera said he has seen a decline in the visibility of the LGBTQ+ community outside the month of June. 

“Now, I can't lie, Toronto does a great job celebrating Pride in June. However, Peel Region wanted to provide more visibility and more opportunities for the LGBTQ+ community outside of just the month of June and that is why Peel celebrates pride in July” explained Perera. 

Moyo just launched a new initiative called, www.rainbowsalad.ca. It's a message-board style website where the queer and trans community in Peel Region can connect and post about events in the area. 

Currently, there are no other additional Pride events planned in Caledon for the month of July.

Moyo does its best to try and serve the LGBTQ+ community in Peel Region, however, they want towns to take more initiative when it comes to discussing with local service providers about how they can make the LGBTQ+ communities more visible. 

“The towns are really trying to celebrate inclusion and are doing their best” said Perera. 

In the last two months, Moyo has met with communities as well as service providers in Peel Region and to discuss what direction they want to take with pride events and how to make the LGBTQ+ feel visible during the other 11 months of the year. 

“Moyo is in collaboration with the Region of Peel and have about 10 or 11 service providers in different sectors and the idea is to help towns build their civic capacity for queer and trans communities,” explained Perera. 

It is especially harder for the residents of Caledon, said Perera, when it comes to getting to resources like Moyo, located in Brampton. 

The fact that Caledon is so sparse does make it harder for the queer and trans community to receive support from town service providers or any service providers that Moyo already has in place. 

“Mayor Thompson is an amazing ally in the sense that he notices there is more that needs to be done in the Town of Caledon to help support the LGBTQ+ communities,” said Perera. 

Adam Chalcraft is the Harm Reduction Supervisor at Moyo. For the past seven years he has been running the program for people who use drugs across Peel. He helped launch the Peel integrated Drug Strategy and is co-founder and chair of the Peel Harm Reduction Committee. 

Research from the Canadian Harm Reduction Network show that LGBTQ people use some substances, such as tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs, at a rate 2-4 times that of the wider population.

Moyo hopes in the near future Caledon will begin to have more service providers for the queer and trans community.