News

Monument Opening Delayed until 2026

We’re heartbroken to share that the Monument will not be opening in summer 2025, as planned. This is frustrating and disappointing for all of us.

Construction, which began in May 2024, has been slower than anticipated. Our building partner, the National Capital Commission, has had to contend with a number of challenges due to the complex nature of the construction, which have thrown the project off schedule.

Despite the delay, everyone is committed to the realization of this project, and the LGBT Purge Fund is working hard to keep the project moving forward.

We are now working towards an opening in summer 2026. We will [...]

Our Major Exhibition at the CMHR Opens this Month

The major exhibition about the LGBT Purge will open at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg at the end of January.  We are thrilled to see this come to life and hope you all have a chance to view it during its duration through 2025.

The LGBT Purge Fund is heartened that the exhibition will help tell our story to new audiences.  We are proud to have paid for the exhibition through the class action lawsuit, as this history needs to be told and more widely known.

Check the CMHR’s website for details.

Our Travelling Exhibition Launches in Calgary!

Since 2019, we’ve been working with the Canadian Museum for Human Rights on a number of exhibitions related to the LGBT Purge. This includes a travelling exhibition, which will move around Canada in the years to come to share our stories. We are delighted to announce that this exhibition launched in Calgary at the end of August 2024!

On August 26th, the exhibition – entitled “Love in a Dangerous Time: Canada’s LGBT Purge” – opened to the public in the soaring atrium of the Calgary Public Library. The opening included a free evening event with a panel of Purge Survivors in conversation with [...]

Building the Thunderhead Monument in a Good Way

In July 2024, we placed tobacco deep in the foundations of the 2SLGBTQI+ National Monument with the support of Elder Claudette Commanda from the Kitigan Zibi First Nation.

It was a moving afternoon. We walked onto the site after a fierce thunderstorm and found that, by surprise, we were 13 people in the circle. This number is important as it represents the 13 moon cycles in the Anishinabe calendar and the 13 sections on the turtle’s back. It also, of course, represents the 13 provinces and territories. The ceremony was emotional, beautiful and powerful. It was a very special moment on the journey [...]

Canada’s 2SLGBTQI+ National Monument Breaks Ground!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

OTTAWA, ON, May 1, 2024 – Today, shovels broke ground at the site of Canada’s 2SLGBTQI+ National Monument in Ottawa. Called Thunderhead, this monument is being built to recognize historic discrimination faced by generations of 2SLGBTQI+ people in Canada, including the colonial roots of homophobia, biphobia and transphobia and the cruelty of the Canadian government during the LGBT Purge. It will celebrate the resilience of all queer and trans communities and serve to inspire the change still needed in Canada.

The Monument’s proponent — the LGBT Purge Fund — marked the historic milestone with members of 2SLGBTQI+ communities, LGBT Purge survivors, [...]