If you haven’t heard about Camp fYrefly yet, you probably live under a rock. It is Canada’s largest leadership retreat for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-identified, two-spirited, queer and allied youth - the major community outreach initiative of the Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services at the University of Alberta. The camp, which is now expanding nationally, was founded in 2004 by Dr. André P. Grace and Mr. Kristopher Wells, and is now supported by many community, individual, government, and corporate donors.
Camp fYrefly has gained much recognition since its inception 5 years ago, including local & national news, tons of YouTube.com videos and even a nod from the queen of gossip himself, Perez Hilton! Last month on the 19th, 21 members and facilitators representing both the institute and Camp fYrefly were introduced to the Alberta Legislature as honoured guests by the New Democrat Party’s Opposition House Leader, Rachel Notley. This marks the second major introduction of a queer organization at the legislature by the noble MLA of Edmonton Strathcona (the International Sovereign Court of the Wild Rose was introduced to the house on November 19th, 2008). And during this latest session of the Legislative Assembly, she was on the ball again fighting for our rights.
Ms. Notley has been an important ally in the fight to achieve full recognition of rights for GLBTQ persons in our province, which hasn’t added sexual minority status alongside ethnicity, race or religion to the Alberta Human Rights Code. Every other province in our great nation has added it their codes, but the Minister of Culture & Community Spirit, Progressive Conservative MLA Mr. Lindsay Blackett of Calgary North West, says that the government has been ”looking at reforming the administrative process” of the code since April of last year. Even 10 years after the case of Vriend vs. Alberta, in which the Supreme Court of Canada finally ruled that provincial governments could not exclude LGBT individuals from human rights legislation, sexual orientation is not protected under the province’s human rights code. Ms. Notley is correct in her demand that it is ridiculous that the victims must apply to the Supreme Court itself in Ottawa instead of being able to follow judicial recourse in provincial court rooms here in Alberta. Gay bashings & homophobia still run rampant in our province, as many kids that attend Camp fYrefly can attest to, and the population as a whole won’t take these crimes seriously until the well deserved recognition of our rights is included in our provincial legislation.
Luckily, the youth participating in Camp fYrefly are part of the change itself in Alberta. I’m sure those who attended this session of government will leave with an impression that they are part of something great. Who knows, maybe even one day, a member of the camp will become Premier of Alberta? But that won’t happen unless this camp continues to thrive, and they cannot do so without monetary support. Although the organization receives funding from the government (surprise, surprise!), as well as businesses and private donors, they still need to create buzz about the camp and raise money on their own. For the past few years, fYrefly’s main fundraising event has been a wine gala, including a silent and ”Live” auction. The semi casual event starts off with the wine tasting at deVine Wines, continuing on next door to TZiN for more wine & tapas, and then finishing off the night down the street at Play with VIP access. Tickets are $100 per person, with all proceeds going to support the camp. The gala goes from 8pm-11pm March 7th, 2009.
From someone who’s benefitted directly from Camp fYrefly, if you have the chance to donate or just to talk to someone involved about this amazing retreat, do so with gusto.
