PTS (community centre)
Encyclopedia
PTS, formerly known as Pink Triangle Services, is an Queer Community Centre located in Ottawa
, Ontario
, Canada
. They are the oldest registered Queer
or LGBT
-specific charity in Canada, becoming registered in 1984. The organization serves Gay
, Lesbian
, Bisexual, Trans
, Two-Spirit
and Queer people within the National Capital Region (Canada)
. They provide a number of services including support groups, education, research, advocacy and community space for other community groups.
Until the 2000s PTS was run by a working Board of Directors and was funded primarily by individual donations from those communities. Starting in the 2000s the organizational structure changed to become a policy and governance Board of Directors while the first agency Executive Director was hired.
Another major change that occurred in the 2000s was more focus was attributed to less served members of the community including bisexuals, trans people and those who solely identify as queer. This was also influenced by the decrease of stigma towards gays and lesbians in the broader community that lead to a court ruling making same-sex marriage in Ontario
legal in 2003. A bisexual women's group started at PTS which evolved into BiAmore for bisexuals of all genders years later. And in 2004 Trans Youth Ottawa started a group for transgender and transsexual youth and young adults which ran until 2009 and Gender Quest a group for all trans adults started in 2005 and still operates today. In 2005 the Board of Directors added trans, two-spirit and queer to the letters patent to state their official commitment to those communities.
groups. Over the years PTS has seen many groups come and go based upon need. Over time the programs being more education and social focused including guest speakers and workshop topics. The first group to undergo this change was Pink Triangle Youth (PTY) in 2003. Current support groups include:
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. They are the oldest registered Queer
Queer
Queer is an umbrella term for sexual minorities that are not heterosexual, heteronormative, or gender-binary. In the context of Western identity politics the term also acts as a label setting queer-identifying people apart from discourse, ideologies, and lifestyles that typify mainstream LGBT ...
or LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
-specific charity in Canada, becoming registered in 1984. The organization serves Gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
, Lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
, Bisexual, Trans
Transgender
Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....
, Two-Spirit
Two-Spirit
Two-Spirit People , is an English term that emerged in 1990 out of the third annual inter-tribal Native American/First Nations gay/lesbian American conference in Winnipeg. It describes Indigenous North Americans who fulfill one of many mixed gender roles found traditionally among many Native...
and Queer people within the National Capital Region (Canada)
National Capital Region (Canada)
The National Capital Region, also referred to as Canada's Capital Region, is an official federal designation for the Canadian capital of Ottawa, Ontario, the neighbouring city of Gatineau, Quebec, and surrounding urban and rural communities....
. They provide a number of services including support groups, education, research, advocacy and community space for other community groups.
Organization History
One of the founding members of PTS, Barry Deeprose in 2002 wrote a history of the organization. The forwards starts off as:- "In 1984 a group of directors from the Board of Gays of Ottawa set out to create a non-profit organization with charitable status called Pink Triangle Services in the hopes that such recognition would enable an organization to more-easily raise funds. In the spring of that year the corporation was founded and was granted charitable status under the Income Tax Act, a first for Canada. In the ensuing fifteen years Pink Triangle Services (or PTS as it quickly became known) has flourished and grown, in many ways fulfilling the vision of the founding members.
- Those fifteen years also brought tremendous changes to the gay and lesbian community. AIDS decimated a generation of gay men, while at the same time in Canada gays and lesbians won legal rights of which an earlier generation scarcely dreamed.I have had the privilege of being associated with PTS from the beginning and it remains close to my heart. There is no doubt in my mind that it continues to provide much-needed services to the gay, lesbian, and bisexual community."
Until the 2000s PTS was run by a working Board of Directors and was funded primarily by individual donations from those communities. Starting in the 2000s the organizational structure changed to become a policy and governance Board of Directors while the first agency Executive Director was hired.
Another major change that occurred in the 2000s was more focus was attributed to less served members of the community including bisexuals, trans people and those who solely identify as queer. This was also influenced by the decrease of stigma towards gays and lesbians in the broader community that lead to a court ruling making same-sex marriage in Ontario
Same-sex marriage in Ontario
The first legal same-sex marriages performed in Ontario were of Kevin Bourassa to Joe Varnell, and Elaine Vautour to Anne Vautour, by Rev. Brent Hawkes on January 14, 2001....
legal in 2003. A bisexual women's group started at PTS which evolved into BiAmore for bisexuals of all genders years later. And in 2004 Trans Youth Ottawa started a group for transgender and transsexual youth and young adults which ran until 2009 and Gender Quest a group for all trans adults started in 2005 and still operates today. In 2005 the Board of Directors added trans, two-spirit and queer to the letters patent to state their official commitment to those communities.
Programs and Services of PTS
The programs of PTS can be broken up into three prime categories support programs, education programs and resource programs.Support Programs
Historically one of the flagship programs of PTS was based on peer supportPeer support
Peer support occurs when people provide knowledge, experience, emotional, social or practical help to each other. It commonly refers to an initiative consisting of trained supporters, and can take a number of forms such as peer mentoring, listening, or counseling...
groups. Over the years PTS has seen many groups come and go based upon need. Over time the programs being more education and social focused including guest speakers and workshop topics. The first group to undergo this change was Pink Triangle Youth (PTY) in 2003. Current support groups include:
- Pink Triangle Youth (PTY): is a group for all queer youth ages 13-24.
- BiAmore: is a group for Bi, Bi-curious and Questioning People who are 18+.
- Gender Quest: is a peer support group for trans-people who wish to explore their gender identity and gender expression.
- Women's Night: is a group for all queer-identified women 18+.
- The Men's Group: is a group for all gay, bi, trans and queer-identified men 18+.
Educational Programs
PTS has done education and advocacy work since it's outset as an organization however, since 2009 a new focus upon educational outreach programs which provide workshops has become a new priority. The three programs include:- Creating Safer Spaces: An initiative to educate on the use of inclusive language related to queer communities and how to create safer spaces in regards to homophobiaHomophobiaHomophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...
, biphobiaBiphobiaBiphobia is a term used to describe aversion felt toward bisexuality and bisexuals as a social group or as individuals. People of any sexual orientation can experience such feelings of aversion...
and transphobiaTransphobiaTransphobia is a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards transsexualism and transsexual or transgender people, based on the expression of their internal gender...
. The program was funded under special projects by the City of OttawaOttawaOttawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
in 2010. Though the program works in all spaces it is focused on youth spaces including schools and not-for-profits which serve youth. - TransAction: A program to do education and advocacy and around the needs of trans people (including transgender, transsexual and genderqueer people). The initial program received funding from the Ontario Trillium FoundationOntario Trillium FoundationThe Ontario Trillium Foundation , is an agency of the government of Ontario and one of Canada’s leading grantmaking foundations. It was created in 1982...
for the initial process started in 2011. - Queer Women's Health and Sexuality: This is a program dedicated to advocating and providing education on the needs of queer women. It encourages a dialogue about the unique needs of queer women's health that may not be addressed in general discourse.
Resource Programs
There are plans to expand the resource programs at PTS to include a community calendar and to make an updated user-friendly version of their resource directory which can be found on their website. Currently however, the one prime resource is the Dr. Kelly McGinnis Library, which is the largest queer-specific library in Canada.External links
- PinkTriangle.org - Current PTS website.
- PTSOttawa.org - New PTS website in development.