Disability Pride Month: A Place Where I Belong Film Spotlight
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Happy Disability Pride Month! To celebrate, QMUNITY is reviewing the film A Place Where I Belong by Rheanna Toy, which follows six 2SLGBTQIA+ people with intellectual or developmental disabilities as they navigate love, self-acceptance, and systemic obstacles through a non-profit program called Connecting Queer Communities (CQC). By capturing one-on-one interviews and moments of newfound collective solidarity with participants, this film is a powerful reminder of everyone’s right to lead meaningful, vibrant social lives and the pressing need for more inclusive spaces across BC.
QMUNITY is proud to have been able to sponsor a recent screening at St. Andrew’s-Wesley United Church in June. Some of our staff attended the event, alongside church members, social activists, CQC facilitators, and folks featured in the film. It was incredibly inspiring to witness a large crowd eager to learn more about the lived realities of queer folks with disabilities and how best to support them.
The film not only amplifies the voices of queer folks with disabilities but sparks ongoing discussion about the future of policy-making and marginalized community spaces. A substantial population of the queer community is neurodivergent and/or disabled, and has been historically excluded from public sites or violently denied an understanding of their intersecting identities. Institutional oppression and ableist attitudes still inform how we engage with disability rights, which is reinforced in the film by Brian’s fight for independence in a homeshare placement as well as Amyn’s traumatic coming out as an autistic gay man to his family. It is clear that developing queer spaces where people of diverse abilities are welcome first requires acknowledging our prejudices about who deserves autonomy.
The CQC program directly addresses physical barriers to self-agency and expression for 2SLGBTQIA+ adults with cognitive or developmental disabilities, providing accessibility supports like safe transportation and peer companionship to ensure positive and often new experiences at gatherings like queer clubs, festivals, Pride events, drag shows, and more, depending on preference.
CQC’s innovative services in the Lower Mainland of Vancouver are a huge step towards empowering people with disabilities to feel present in the queer community while exploring their identities on their own terms. However, due to limited funding and growing demand, CQC is at risk of significantly reducing capacity or even closing down, which would remove a foundational source of joy, confidence, and relationship-building for queer people with disabilities.
