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Photo: JoAnne Pearce
Doug Stollery and Scott Graham on the red carpet at the 16th Poland
LGBT+ Film Festival. Scott has been an integral part in the work behind
2SLGBTQ+ equality in Canada through his roles as a director of Stollery
Charitable Foundation, Chair of ARC Foundation and past Director of
Grants at ECF.
The moderator’s first question is about the quote at
the beginning of the documentary. “Our rights are not
handed to us. We have to fight for them.” She wants
to know what its significance is and why I lead into the
story with such a statement of finality.
I struggled to recall my reasoning at the time:
the three years since we began the long process of
capturing this story is a blur, with giant steps backward
in society as we move forward in time. I recall being
frustrated by the complacency I was seeing in the
next generation of the community, and our collective
lack of insight into the struggles and battles that
created decades of relative ease for urban white
North American Queers, and how essential it was that
they become aware of the invisible heroes among us,
because our story is still mostly untold.
I think of the dozens of articles and plays about
Queer history that I’ve written in the last decade, and
how almost every one of them ended with a call to
vigilantly protect and defend the simple freedoms we
had gained … as if I was already sensing how easily they
could be eroded.
That quote speaks clearly to my deepest fear, my
darkest concern — that it could all vanish in a heartbeat,
in a flash of rising anger, in a contradiction of language,
where freedom suddenly means racism and homophobia;
where rights suddenly become the prize for the enemies
we needed protection from; where social media becomes
a rusted sword, pulled from history’s scrap heap with
blood of the past staining its dull edges and wielded with
imprecision and a careless sneer.
Our rights are not handed to us. We have to fight
for them.
Being in Poland reminds me of that fight. And
it shows me how much work there is to do. Parades
and rainbows can’t obscure the fact that the battle for
equality is composed of many different battles. And
we need every weapon — social, political and artistic.
Our stories are what unite us and give us hope.
Milosz approaches me, tears staining his face. He
tells me that the documentary made him relive his
own struggle; he and his husband have been locked
in conflict with the Polish government, trying to
have their partnership legally recognized.
And I know that even after we leave Warsaw,
eight other cities around Poland will be showing
our story on their screens. Our Queer Canadian
Edmonton story.
We — the Queer people of the world — need to
act as each others’ inspirations. We exist in every
culture and every nation. We need to be aware of
the struggles we all share.
With this documentary, we witness firsthand the
power of the human story, and the power of art that
can deliver a narrative of hope and possibility to the
individuals who need to experience it the most.
This June, Pride vs. Prejudice will screen
across Canada through a national
initiative led by Edmonton Community
Foundation, in partnership with the
Edmonton Queer History Project and
local community foundations.
The goal is to spark local conversations
about 2SLGBTQI+ rights, celebrate
resilience and honour the legacy of
a case that helped shape Canada’s
human rights landscape.
Find a screening near you at
pridevsprejudice.ca
ecf.ca
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