COMMUNITY ONE BLOG

Mental Health Zine: 2022 Rainbow Grants Recipient

Over the coming weeks we’re sharing the 39 stories of our 2022 Rainbow Grants recipients! All of these deserving projects are receiving critical grant funding as a result of your generous donations to Community One Foundation. Read more and support these projects where you can! If you’d like to see more work like this supported in our community, please consider donating to Community One!

FOUNDATION GRANT (available for up to $7,500 and are open to registered charities or groups trusteed by a registered charity)

The Queer Toronto Literary Magazine (QT) was started in response to the criminal shortage of Canadian queer literary magazines. QT’s mission is to (i) uplift the voices of queer writers and artists, especially from underrepresented communities (e.g. trans and BIPOC creators) and (ii) create a shared space that is welcoming for and led by women and gender minorities.

This grant will support the creation of a Zine focused on the mental health needs and experiences of queer youth in Toronto and the GTA. The issue will provide a creative outlet for queer and trans youth as well as a toolkit to help those who are struggling. 

QT is a space that values; intersectionality, inclusivity, safety, anti-racism and collective ownership of queer spaces. These values are manifested in our actions through; providing content warnings, decolonizing epistemology, passing the microphone to creators with marginalized identities, maintaining a non-hierarchical organizational structure, creating a culture of accessibility and openness, creating a space for growth and learning, as well as emphasizing that writers may publish anonymously or under a pen name.

QT is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion. In recognition of disappearing social spaces for queer woman and gender minorities, QT aims to prioritize placing queer women and gender minorities in leadership positions. Prioritize safety and prevent re-traumatization by ensuring none of our material features superfluous overtly traumatic content particularly violence against women. Recognizing the pervasive underrepresentation of queer writers in mainstream media, QT aims to value art making as a tool for marginalized communities to process trauma specific to their identity.