Cole Dorfschmidt joins the Halifax Pride Team

Communications & Partner Relations Manager Hiring Announcement

Halifax Pride is incredibly excited to welcome Cole Dorfschmidt (he/they) to the Halifax Pride leadership team. As a much loved drag performer, event producer, advocate and activist, Cole has been an active member of Halifax’s 2SLGBTQ+ community and will bring their innumerable skill sets to this new role. The Communications & Partner Relations Manager position has been created to help ensure that as we grow, we maintain our ability to deliver a positive and successful Pride experience to our partners.

Cole is a very proud queer, trans African Nova Scotian, born in Dartmouth, raised in Musquodoboit and brought back to the city life in 2010. He has been a Drag performer in Halifax for over 5 years, whom you may know as Mike Hunt. Cole has been involved with Halifax Pride since 2016 as a performer and volunteer and hosted events in 2019. Cole has a passion for performance art, whether it be drag, singing as a solo artist, or in their local Halifax band, Peter Panthers. Cole has used and strives to continue to use his platform to provide knowledge and visibility to those in the 2SLGBTQ+ community and BIPOC community, especially youth, through his workshops, shows, and performance art. 

Despite the enormous team of people who help make Halifax Pride happen, including our board, committees, event volunteers, summer staff, and contract staff, Cole is only our second full-time staff person. We work hard to deliver the mindful and collaborative community events this city has come to expect, and are exciting to see our leadership team grow. At a time of significant challenge for us all, we are proud to have Cole as a member of this team and welcome his support as we face a future that is both uncertain but full of opportunity.

Halifax Pride COVID-19 Update

These are early days in Nova Scotia’s response to the COVID-19 crisis, but we want to let our community know that Halifax Pride is actively assessing the possible impacts on the 2020 Halifax Pride Festival. We remain hopeful that we will be able to create space for folks to gather from July 16-26, 2020, but ensuring the health and wellbeing of our community is our main priority. Halifax Pride will continue to monitor the rapidly changing situation and will follow the advice of public health experts and government officials. 

For the time being, Halifax Pride will work electronically with our 2SLGBTQ+ community of volunteers, organizers, partners, and sponsors to prepare for the 2020 Halifax Pride Festival. We are also preparing contingency plans to address a range of possible scenarios for what the 2020 Halifax Pride Festival could look like. 

We encourage everyone to stay safe and keep an eye on our social media channels in the coming weeks and months as we share updates on our plans for the 2020 Halifax Pride Festival. For information on COVID-19 and a variety of Nova Scotia gender and sexual health resources, please visit https://www.halifaxpride.com/resources.

To Queer Arabs of Halifax

We would like to wholeheartedly apologize to the Queer Arabs of Halifax. We are truly sorry.

In 2016 we created conditions that lead to significant harm to you and to the silencing of your voices. That has only been compounded by our failure to publicly apologize to them until now. Pride is supposed to be a safer space that prioritizes the members of its community above corporations and organizations that seek to use 2SLGBTQ+ folks for their gain. We understand the disillusionment with Halifax Pride due to our actions and inactions, but we are committed to forging a new path, together.

We commit to becoming more aware and conscious of the use of queer and trans liberation to not silence our own community members in the future. We acknowledge that queer and trans liberation is not fully attained until all queer and trans folks across the globe can live freely as their authentic selves.

Halifax Pride and the Queer Arabs of Halifax agree to continue a dialogue.

2019 Annual General Meeting

Halifax Pride Society
Annual General Meeting
Halifax North Memorial Public Library
2285 Gottingen Street, Halifax
Thursday, September 26, 2019
6:00 pm registration
6:30 pm – 8:30 pm

The Halifax Pride Annual General Meeting (AGM) will take place on September 26, 2019 at the Halifax North Memorial Public Library. The AGM is an annual meeting of the members of the Halifax Pride Society to review board reports, elect board members, and discuss society business.

The Halifax Pride Society is governed by by-laws which were updated in 2017. To read the by-laws and review how they govern the society and the AGM, please follow this link: http://bit.ly/hpbylaws.

Ahead of the AGM on, please review the proposed bylaw amendments:

Proposed By-Law Changes Amendments

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Members in attendance at the AGM will elect new board directors at the meeting. Those members interested in standing for election submitted their names and a brief bio for consideration.

View the list of 2019 Board Nominees here.

The Halifax Pride Society strives to produce a festival that reflects our diverse 2SLGBTQ+ community, and wish to be governed by a board that represents this diversity. We encourage those from historically marginalized communities to consider joining the board and exploring opportunities with the society and will work to eliminate any barriers to participation that our community members face.

If you are interested in becoming more involved in the Halifax Pride Society or board of directors, but have questions or concerns, please reach out to ellen@halifaxpride.com or learn more here.

For more information about the AGM, event details, and to stay up to date with all event information, visit the event page.