Evangelical-run indoor skate park policies are discriminatory: Winnipeg LGBTQ skateboarders
CBC
A coalition of Manitoba skateboarders is banding together against the organization that oversees Winnipeg's largest indoor skate park, saying its policies are discriminatory.
Maddy Nowosad started attending The Edge Skate Park in the winter of 2019, finding community and friendship there on the ramps.
As she began to explore her sexuality and eventually came out as queer, Nowosad began sharing more about skateboarders who don't fit the typical mould in a self-published zine called The Other Skaters, and started pitching the idea of a weekly skate night for members of the LGBTQ community.
The Edge, which is a project of Youth for Christ Winnipeg, rejected that idea, she says.
"As soon as I was told that the zine and the 2SLGBTQ-centred sessions and events weren't welcome in this space, that was the first time that I realized that it wasn't actually a safe space," Nowosad said.
As she spent more time at The Edge, Nowosad says, she came to believe that the non-profit, which has received more than $1 million of funding from all levels of government over the last five years, was discriminating against the LGBTQ community.
Emilie Rafnson, a former employee at The Edge whose contract ended in 2019, filed a human rights complaint against Youth For Christ Winnipeg in 2020, and reached a settlement through a mediator last month.
Rafnson identifies as queer and met Nowosad, their partner of three years, at The Edge.
As a condition of the settlement, Rafnson is unable to discuss the particulars of the complaint, but confirms it was related to a contract they had to sign as a condition of employment.
CBC News was given a Youth for Christ Winnipeg document from a person who was employed there that reads, in part, that they must uphold "the purity and sanctity of sexual relations within marriage which we believe is a committed union between one man and one woman."
Older versions of employee manuals from other regions of Canada show the same wording.
In recent Youth For Christ Winnipeg job postings, it says all staff must be in agreement with that statement of faith.
The full statement of faith isn't a publicly-accessible document.
The agency's volunteer policy, which CBC News was given, has an identical clause, but allows volunteers who are not able to sign in agreement to at least agree to not oppose YFC's mission and values, and to not speak disparagingly about the agency or its values.
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