Health committee  Myself, I'm thankful to work in a really amazing work environment where we encourage blood donations. We just celebrated the one-year anniversary of our partnership with Canadian Blood Services, but every time an event comes up, I'm left out. I know that I can't donate, and altho

Health committee  I can make a quick comment on conversion therapy. There have been some comments made today about it being out of the scope of the federal government. One thing I want to mention is that, if you leave it up to the provinces, you're creating your own inequity with it. Everyone ne

Health committee  We first met once a month at a local church. We found that through those meetings a lot of people, to Alex's point, still had apprehensions or past experiences with faith-based organizations and with religion. We've partnered with a couple of other community partners. We now mee

Health committee  I highly encourage it.

Health committee  They're for anyone, yes. You don't have to be a member who identifies with the community. Sometimes parents without their kids come, without their kids knowing that they're there, because the parents are seeking support, and they are seeking more education on how to approach conv

Health committee  Last year there was a couple who came and their son had come out while they were on a cottage trip. They were scheduled to be up there for three weeks. He was only there for a couple of days. He came out on the last day and said, “Bye” and just left. They came to our meeting. Th

Health committee  With Pflag, we have quite a few schools who reach out to us every week, every month. With our being a volunteer organization it's sometimes hard to keep up with them. We coordinate with them in terms of what they want us to do, what they want us to speak to. We also share what we

Health committee  Thank you.

Health committee  I think it really depends on the moral lens the faith leaders have. You have your moral lens and then you have your religious lens, and somehow ideas of how people should live their lives come through the other end. For example, in our community, in York region, we have a very

Health committee  That's why we're here, to help educate you all. Someone who identifies as non-binary is someone who does not identify as a male or a female, and also would perhaps even present themselves in that way, maybe dress in a little more androgynous manner and ebb and flow with their l

Health committee  Asexual is more of an identity with your attraction to another person. For a non-binary person who identifies that way, it's more how you feel about how you fit into the world. Someone who is asexual is just someone who does not carry any sexual attraction to anyone.

Health committee  Oh yes. For me, I come out every day at work. I'm an IT professional. I take appointments to fix people's devices. Once a day there's someone who asks me if I have a girlfriend or kids. I come out unabashedly to them to prove the point that there's really no reason to assume that

Health committee  Yes. It makes me think of a story that was shared with the committee in February of someone who went to a clinic and asked for their chosen pronouns to be used. They weren't used and they were not respected. There is a variety of reasons this could be happening, whether it's a

Health committee  You may have noticed that I shortened it a little bit.

Health committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon to all of you. My name is Tristan Coolman. I use the pronouns he, him, his, and I identify as a gay man. My journey with volunteerism led me to my current position at Pflag York Region as its president. Pflag York Region is a suppo