WorldPride Human Rights Conference 2014 to take place at U of T

TORONTO, ON — The Mark S. Bon­ham Cen­tre for Sex­u­al Diver­si­ty Stud­ies at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to and Pride Toron­to are thrilled to announce their part­ner­ship to present The World­Pride Human Rights Con­fer­ence 2014. Tak­ing place June 25 — 27, 2014 in the heart of down­town Toron­to, Cana­da, The World­Pride Human Rights Con­fer­ence 2014 pro­vides a unique oppor­tu­ni­ty for a glob­al dia­logue about LGBTTIQQ2SA* human rights. For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it www.wphrc14.com.

Activists, artists, edu­ca­tors, jour­nal­ists, pol­i­cy­mak­ers, stu­dents, and oth­ers engaged in LGBTTIQQ2SA* human rights around the world are invit­ed to sub­mit their pre­sen­ta­tions for con­sid­er­a­tion in The World­Pride Human Rights Con­fer­ence 2014. Start­ing today, appli­ca­tions are avail­able online and are due June 15, 2013. Pos­si­ble themes for pre­sen­ta­tions include Schools and Edu­ca­tion, Trans Rights and Activism, Indige­nous Peo­ples, The Role of Law, HIV/AIDS, and Sex Work.

Bren­da Coss­man and Doug Kerr, co-chairs of The World­Pride Human Rights Con­fer­ence 2014, are delight­ed to wel­come par­tic­i­pants from around the world to the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to for this dynam­ic three-day con­fer­ence. They state: “This is a ground­break­ing event for the Bon­ham Cen­tre and Pride Toron­to. We are thrilled that this is the first time such a major human rights con­fer­ence on sex­u­al diver­si­ty has been held in Toron­to.”

Pride Toron­to Board co-chairs Fran­cis­co Alvarez and Sean Hilli­er are look­ing for­ward to this impor­tant glob­al dia­logue about LGBTTIQQ2SA* human rights, explain­ing: “Work­ing towards reach­ing true equal­i­ty for our com­mu­ni­ties every­where in the world is one of the key rea­sons we are host­ing World­Pride 2014 in Toron­to. Every­body who attends or hears about our event — the largest inter­na­tion­al LGBTTIQQ2SA* cel­e­bra­tion in the world — will get the mes­sage that our strug­gle still con­tin­ues. We look for­ward to host­ing the world’s lead­ing activists and the­o­rists at the con­fer­ence, where they will inspire us by shar­ing their strate­gies and suc­cess sto­ries.”

The Mark S. Bon­ham Cen­tre for Sex­u­al Diver­si­ty Stud­ies at Uni­ver­si­ty Col­lege, Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to offers an under­grad­u­ate pro­gram, a col­lab­o­ra­tive grad­u­ate pro­gram, hosts aca­d­e­m­ic and com­mu­ni­ty events, and pro­motes research into sex­u­al­i­ty. It is a hub forg­ing con­nec­tions among fac­ul­ty, stu­dents, and com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers inter­est­ed in ques­tions about how we under­stand sex­u­al diver­si­ty and sex­u­al prac­tices. For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it www.uc.utoronto.ca/sexualdiversity.