DSS: Latest news
DSS: Recent news
DSS Spring 2025 Newsletter
Hot off the press! View our Spring 2025 Newsletter here ( pdf copy )! 📰
A note from the Chair of DSS:
Living under the dark clouds of ignorance & hate
Our newsletters are designed to inform you of all the good work we're doing and bring hope and positive news to our communities. But I start this newsletter with a different tone, reflecting the current political events of our neighbors to the South.
I, and many of my colleagues and friends, have spent most of our careers trying to push the needle to a point where society values all of its complexity and gives voice and space to everyone including our 2SLGBTQIA+ plus communities. To experience a Western democracy enact binary legislation is nothing more than shocking for us, which - in the words of my dear friend and DSS board member Dr. Victoria A. Stuart , Ph.D. - is tantamount to "trans genocide" (transgenocide).
I urge community members to rally in support of our trans and nonbinary communities, for it is only through mutual liberation that we can all achieve social equity and be valued as part of a complex social system.
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Funding Announcement: WAGE
On 2025-Jan-31 Dignity Seniors Society (DSS, participating online) joined many other organizations in Montreal to hear Lisa Hepfner (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth) announce up to $41.5 million for 106 projects across four different 2SLGBTQIA+ funds.
This funding will advance equality for 2SLGBTQIA+ communities across Canada and address the rise in hate.
DSS is honored to be chosen as one of the recipients of Women and Gender Equality Canada (WAGE) funding and thank them for their continued support of our important work.
Click here to read the full announcement.
Q-Elders Project: Call for nominations, 2025
In 2024 Dignity Seniors Society (DSS) launched the Q-Elders Project with the celebration of five courageous and inspirational 2SLGBTQIA+ elders.
DSS is inviting nominations from our communities to identify the next cohort of Q-Elders. Who do you wish to honour for their leadership, altruism, and courage?
Nominees must:
identify as part of the 2SLGBTQIA+ communities
be a resident of British Columbia
be living at the time of nomination (no posthumous nominations)
meet the definition of a Q-Elder per the project’s Terms of Reference
DSS strives to include 2SLGBTQIA+ elders in B.C. with diverse identities, backgrounds and experiences.
To nominate someone, please see our Guidelines for more information.
Deadline for nominations is April 15, 2025.
If you have questions, please contact info@dignityseniors.org
This year’s Q-Elders will be announced in June 2025 to coincide with the anniversary of the Stonewall Revolution.
2019 update: Dignity House Advisory Committee (DHAC) becomes Dignity Seniors Society (DSS)
2019: Dignity House Advisory Committee (DHAC) becomes Dignity Seniors Society (DSS)
The Board of the Dignity Seniors Society (DSS) thank you for your past support of our project, and welcome you to contact us if you have ideas, suggestions or just a shared passion for GSD (2019: Gender and Sexually Diverse; 2024: 2SLGBTQIA+) seniors work.
Please explore our website where you can find more information and details on how to become involved.