A new report spotlights the experiences of Black queer Edmontonians, in hopes that its findings will guide policymakers to create better community supports.
The report documented experiences across important facets of daily life, such as housing and employment. Within these spaces, participants reported facing forms of discrimination, including homophobic and racist attacks and exclusion.
The report, titled “Queer Black Prairie Futures,” was created by Zetna Collective founder Dawn Susan Carter and consultant Syriah Bailey in partnership with the non-profit Community-Based Research Centre.
Carter told CBC News in a recent interview that the report came about during her time as a former executive director for a queer and trans not-for-profit.
“At that time, I realized that there were some gaps in terms of servicing Black people within the community,” Carter said.
“So, seeing that there was a proliferation of resources geared to our newcomer folks, I thought, ‘OK, there’s another aspect that is kind of flying under people’s radar,’” she said, referring to the intersection of Black, queer and transgender people.
Carter said community conversations and a needs assessment conducted by her organization highlighted both the necessity of documenting these struggles and a desire for change.
“That was the best place to start. Don’t just run off and try to do something that people aren’t asking for, right? Because it’s so easy to get that wrong, even if you are a member of that community,” she said.
The report features insights from 19 anonymous participants who shared their thoughts and experiences on a wide range of issues such as housing, health care, education, employment and a sense of belonging.
Close to 80 per cent of participants had lived in Canada for 11 years or longer, with the remaining portion having lived in Canada from two to 10 years.
A central focus of the report was whether participants felt like both their Blackness and queerness were honoured in the spaces they occupied.
For Carter, it was important that the methodology of the report include an Ubuntu-aligned evaluation framework.
Ubuntu translates to “I am because we are” in multiple Bantu languages spanning multiple communities across Africa and is a philosophy that upholds community collectiveness.
The Zetna Collective said this framework prioritizes storytelling, communal dialogue and relational accountability, ensuring that impact is measured not just by data, but by the restoration of dignity, the strengthening of bonds and the sustainability of solutions within the community.
To avoid being extractive, each helper received a $100 honorarium, recognizing the issue of uncompensated labour among Black 2SLGBTQ+ people.
Key findings
Participants reported feeling that they couldn’t have all parts of themselves fully acknowledged or celebrated in the spaces they occupied.
The majority of participants reported low-to-moderate feelings of belonging and cited feeling “too Black” for queer spaces or “too queer” for Black spaces.
Participants also noted difficulties in having other aspects of identity acknowledged like disability, religion, or immigration status.
Participants described “still facing systemic racism, queerphobia, and exclusion in the broader society,” the report found.
“There are times when I feel like I don’t belong anywhere — not in the Black community, not in the queer community,” one report participant said.
The report found that anti-Blackness in queer spaces remains a key issue, as many environments remain white-centric.
Past fractures, such as the 2019 Pride protests, remain unresolved, and concerns raised by Black queer Edmontonians being left largely unaddressed, the report found. In Edmonton, the Pride Parade was cancelled in 2019 and only reinstated in 2025.
“I have found spaces or built spaces to meet the community, but it is long work here,” one participant said.
“I feel like many non-profit spaces say a lot but do little. I’ve seen more joy and consistent community built in other grassroots ways, around food, dance, art.”
About a dozen people protested police and military participation in the Edmonton Pride Parade Saturday.
Education, workplace, housing and health care
Participants said they experienced discrimination in environments such as schools and workplaces.
This included homophobic and racist attacks, microaggressions, exclusion, isolation and a lack of representation. Participants also reported experiencing discrimination when trying to find safe, affordable housing.
Participants said navigating these environments often required them to code-switch — changing the way they speak depending on the setting or audience — to conform to white-centric expectations of acceptability and achievement.
Kambili Moye is a Black transgender nursing student at the University of Alberta. They did not participate in the report, but said the findings are significant.
“If there’s no statistics on a group of people, it’s very easy for them to be erased, and we’re erased in queer spaces and discussions about queer issues, so I’m glad that this exists,” Moye told CBC News.
They expressed frustration over narrow definitions of transness that look at gender as a binary.
“There’s that assumption that Black queer people can’t be as expansive as white queer people, like we can’t play around with our labels and our genders the same way white queers do,” Moye said.
For community, by community
In addition to the struggles faced by Black queer Edmontonians, the report also looked at paths forward.
“The importance of such a report cannot be overstated,” said Edmonton drag and burlesque artist Mx. Jackson, who did not participate in the report.
“Black queer artists should be given the same platform that their white and/or straight counterparts are given,” Jackson said.
“And to take that another step further, efforts towards reparations should be made through highlighting and paying these artists well.”
Carter said she hopes the findings can be used to inform support programs for Black queer Edmontonians.
“We do not have those particular spaces in Edmonton, they tend to be fleeting and this is a strong argument for a third space that is run by us and for us, and it could be in partnership with existing organizations, but we do need a space of our own.”
For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.
