Rainbow Resource Centre marks 50 years of LGBTQ2S+ advocacy

Rainbow Resource Centre – an organization that serves Manitoba’s LGBTQ2S+ community – is marking five decades of advocacy and community.

The non-profit began 50 years ago when a group of University of Manitoba students realized that the LGBTQ2S+ community needed their own space.

“There was a ton of advocacy work that had to be done at the time,” said Noreen Mian Rainbow Resource Centre’s executive director.

“There was no marriage equality. There was no acceptance of 2SLGBTQ+ folks.”

Mian noted that Rainbow Resource Centre has done a lot of advocacy work in the last 50 years, including in 1987 when it was one of the groups that pressured the government to add sexuality to the Human Rights Code.

She said this work was pivotal in establishing basic human rights for 2SLGBTQ+ folks.

“We enjoy the benefits of that today,” she said.

“We are protected, 2SLGBTQ+ folks are protected under that code, and more recently gender identity has also been added.”

Today, the Rainbow Resource Centre is working to ensure 2SLGBTQ+ seniors are safely housed and are part of a community.

This is why the organization, in partnership with Westminster Housing Society, is building Canada’s first affordable housing complex for LGBTQ2S+ seniors.

“These are the folks who fought for equality in the 70s and 80s and are still facing discrimination at this phase of life, because they are the first out and proud generation of seniors to enter long-term care,” Mian said.

Watch above to find out more about the Rainbow Resource Centre and its work.

- With files from CTV’s Maralee Caruso.