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Aujourd’hui, en célébration de la Fierté 2013 de Montréal, j’affirme mon appui pour l’ouverture et le soutien des centres jeunesses LGBTQ à travers le Québec.
An LGBTQ youth center is an essential part of every community. It's a place where LGBTQ teens can come after school to meet other young people and enrich their adolescent experience - a particularly difficult time for many of them.
There is currently ahere's a lack of resources for LGBTQ youth. Across Quebec, we have only a handful of LGBTQ youth centers. The majority of these centers are not funded by the Quebec or federal governments, and rely on private funding from corporations and private donors.
La semaine dernière, j’ai rendu visite au centre de jeunesse LGBTQ de mon comté situé à Beaconsfield pour la première fois. Ce centre est le seul de son type dans tout l’Ouest de l’Ile de Montréal; une communauté avec une population supérieure à trois-cent-vingt-cinq-mille habitants. Ce centre est en opération depuis deux ans et ils ont déjà un rôle extrêmement important pour notre communauté.
Right now, at school, an LGBTQ teenager has few resources to turn to when he or she needs to confide, talk and get away from it all. We don't have to subject our children to this kind of treatment. In Quebec, we have all the necessary tools and resources to offer our LGBTQ teens a great life experience.
Despite all the positive changes this type of center can bring to our community, it is struggling financially. Despite the fact that young people would like the center to be open every day, financial constraints force the center to open only two days a week. What's more, this year the center has been forced to cut back on activities due to a lack of budget.
Although this center is an important pillar of our community, to date it has received no significant contribution from the Quebec government. We have a duty to financially support this type of program, which can be of enormous help to our LGBTQ youth and their families. This type of center can even prevent LGBTQ teen suicides, which are all too common.
Pour réellement améliorer la qualité de vie de nos adolescents LGBTQ nous avons le devoir d’appuyer et de financer les centres LGBTQ à travers le Québec.
Alex Tyrrell
Candidate for the leadership of the Green Party of Quebec
www.UnirLePVQ.ca
