Dear Rainbow Foundation of Hope,
My family and I are happy to support the Rainbow Foundation of Hope in their endeavours to help the LGBTQ+ community in their quest to advance their human rights goals.
In 1983 while living in Vancouver I was working in the clothing manufacturing industry and met my friend Karen who opened my eyes to the discrimination and treatment of the lesbian and gay community. Good, smart, talented, caring people were being persecuted and suffering just because of their sexual orientation and with the onset of the HIV crisis things just got worse.
We have had the privilege of working in the Mining Community over the last 45 years living both in Canada then in Brazil, Honduras, Chile, and Greece over an 18 year span of time.
My husband Britt took on a job in Brazil and as we travelled abroad, we were exposed to poverty and suffering of children which prompted us to adopt our son at 2 years of age from Thailand and our daughter at 13 months of age from Romania. Britt’s job then took us to Honduras, Chile and then Greece where I had the opportunity to volunteer and received grants from the Canadian Embassy to work with women in poverty.
Our eyes were opened to the international reality that not all of us were afforded the same treatment and rights and that poverty, race, or sexual orientation should not determine our individual human dignity.
Unfortunately no country is exempt from this and now that we are retired and happily settled back in Canada, it is time for us to do what we can to reach out and provide a helping hand to the LGBQ+ community. The community has been phenomenal in creating the Pride Parade and several different organizations as well as going through the courts to fight for equal rights and treatment under the law.
Although our son as well as my husband and I are straight, having been married over 44 years, it hit home to us when our daughter Lenutsa at 27 years old told us that she was in love with another woman. To all mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, grandparents or any other family or work- related connections, we are proud of our LGBTQ+ family members.
We ask that all of you step up to acknowledge and support the LGBTQ+ community by donating to the Rainbow Foundation of Hope.
Britt & Trudy Reid