LGBTQ+ community wants committee

By SARAH LEUNG

As Coquitlam’s seven advisory committees reconvene this month, questions remain about progress on LGBTQ+ participation in these civic bodies.

The issue was raised in a March 2022 meeting of Coquitlam’s universal access-ability advisory committee (UAAC), where there was discussion of “the belief that LGBTQ+ issues were not addressed within the city’s advisory committee mandates, other than universal accessibility issues,”the meeting minutes show.

At that time, a council member “noted that staff would follow-up regarding LGBTQ representation on advisory committees, if available.”

But one year later, the status of that follow-up is unclear, to the disappointment of some advocates who want to see members of the LGBTQ+ community taking a more active role at city hall.

City officials say Coquitlam remains committed to promoting and celebrating diversity.

Coquitlam Coun. Teri Towner, who now chairs the UAAC, says council is not considering establishing a new advisory committee made up of and focused on the LGBTQ+ community, but the city does offer other initiatives that strengthen equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI). She noted the inclusion of Coquitlam’s rainbow crosswalk in 2018, special lighting and banners during Pride, and the hiring of an EDI manager last year.

Manisha Dutta, the city’s manager of EDI, said she works with city staff, including the legislative services department which oversees advisory committees, to ensure “a diversity of lived experiences is valued and acknowledged.”

Coquitlam’s advisory committees includes seven volunteer bodies who meet regularly and advise council on issues including sustainability, multiculturalism, cultural services, community safety and the universal access-ability advisory committee.

The debate comes as LGBTQ+ issues remain a topic of conversation in Coquitlam and the Tri-Cities after controversy surrounding January’s

Drag Queen Story Time at Coquitlam Public Library. Protesters gathered outside the library, followed by counter-protesters showcasing support for the children’s event.

Nicola Spurling, a social justice advocate and former president of TriCities Pride, attended the counterprotest in January, and described it as the “biggest queer gathering the TriCities have ever seen.”

Asked for her opinion about the potential for a LGBTQ+ advisory committee in Coquitlam, Spurling said it could create positive change.

“I think having an advisory committee would help that [EDI] work actually be accomplished and take it from performative to something action-based,” Spurling said.

Of the LGBTQ+ Canadians living in urban centres, 10.8 per cent reside within Vancouver, a municipality with an established LGBTQ+ advisory committee for over a decade.

Eddy Elmer, former co-chair of Vancouver’s 2SLGBTQ+ committee, says that LGBTQ+ British Columbians deserve more localized communities outside of Vancouver, noting that some members on Vancouver’s committee reside in the Tri-Cities because of factors like affordability.

“I think there’s just going to be more LGBTQ+ people living there [in the Tri-Cities], because Vancouver’s not necessarily the epicenter of our community,” Elmer said.