Ralph Bryant: State of the Queer — Manitoba's first-of-its-kind 2SLGBTQ+ Survey

As we move into Pride month, Ralph Bryant returns to Humans, On Rights. This time, the Rainbow Resource Center's Manager of Stewardship sits down with Stuart to dig into The State of 2SLGBTQ+ Communities in Manitoba 2026 — the first report of its kind in Manitoba.

This report surveyed 623 queer Manitobans alongside 1,000 members of the general public. It provides, for the first time, a true snapshot of the experiences, needs and priorities of queer Manitobans, as well as the state of allyship among straight Manitobans.

The findings paint a picture of a community that is resilient and connected — but still navigating serious gaps in mental health, safety, and acceptance.

We're talking:

Why mental health ranked as the number one issue facing 2SLGBTQ+ communities in Manitoba by a wide margin, and what's driving it

What it means that 54% of Manitobans believe gender ideology has "gone too far"

The striking gap between soft and strong support for 2SLGBTQ+ legal protections

The candid "In Their Own Words" section of the report, where queer Manitobans name systemic exclusion within queer spaces themselves

The single data point Ralph most wants to see change when the survey is done again

The full report — including key findings and complete data — is available at rainbowresourcecentre.org/reports

Get Involved:

• Download and share the State of the Queer report

• Connect with Rainbow Resource Centre's Learning and Change department if your organization wants to work toward a more authentic and inclusive culture

• Volunteer with Camp Aurora (sleepaway camp) or Spirit Day Camp

• Attend or support Rainbow Resource Centre's community programs and social groups

Episode Transcript

Stuart Murray  00:00

This podcast was recorded on the ancestral lands on Treaty One territory, the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, and the Dene peoples, and on the homeland of the Metis Nation.

Amanda Logan (Voiceover)  00:20

This is Humans on Rights, a podcast advocating for the education of human rights. Here's your host, Stuart Murray.

Stuart Murray  00:31

Welcome to Humans on Rights. Today we're digging into a landmark new report, the state of two SLGBTQ plus communities in Manitoba, affectionately known as State of the Queer. It was released recently by the Rainbow Resource Center. It's the first report of its kind in the province, and it paints a picture of a community that is connected and resilient, but still navigating serious gaps in mental health, safety, and acceptance, the Rainbow Resource Center partnered with Pro Research to survey 623 queer Manitobans alongside 1000 members of the general public, giving us for the first time a true side by side comparison, so to talk about this state of the queer communities in Manitoba, our sort of state of the two SLGBTQ plus communities in Manitoba. I'm joined by Ralph Bryant. Now, Ralph, you and I have had a conversation on this podcast before, so I want to welcome you to this podcast. But for those that haven't had a chance or don't know you, Ralph, tell us a little bit about you, and then let's jump into this report.

Ralph Bryant  01:43

Yeah, Stuart, thank you for having me back on the podcast. My name is Ralph Bryant, and I am the manager of Stewardship, which is North America's oldest US LGBTQ plus continuing resource center, and I'm excited to be here and talk to you more about state of the queer.

Stuart Murray  02:09

Ralph, why was it important for the Rainbows Resource Center to partner with Pro Research to find out what is the state state of the queer? Why was that important?

Ralph Bryant  02:21

Well, I think that we thought that there was an opportunity for us to build some an arsenal of analog and of qualitative data that supported the anecdotal data that we already know that are things about the the the queer community in this province that we we we know because they come through our doors by the 1000s each year, so those there, there, there are ways in which we are hearing what the state of the queer is anecdotally, and we thought this was a really important opportunity to put some data behind that, and I think what we learned from that process, from, you know, the state of the queer survey, is that it, you know, some of the assumptions that we, we made about queer people living here is affirmed in that survey. It also gives us an opportunity to be clear on on the work that needs to be done moving forward, and who might be, might be being left behind in our community, so that we can build additional resources and supports to ensure that all queer people thrive.

Stuart Murray  03:48

So, Ralph, one of the things I was saying just before we hit the record button on this podcast is, is I think at the end of this, we agree that we really want people to get a sense of what the report was about. You're going to talk about some of the findings, some of the things that impressed you, surprised you, meaningful, but I really do think that anybody who's listening to this, I think we want to make sure that they should go and get the whole report, so you know, let's mention that a couple of times in here, so if somebody wanted to get the whole report, which is the state of the two SLGBTQ plus communities in Manitoba. How would they do that?

Ralph Bryant  04:25

They can find the full report on Rainbow Resource Center's website, and there is both the key findings report. There's a full data where you can get, you can get the full kind of extract of the data, and we really want this to be, we want people to use this, use this data in all of the ways, and if in it, and we want to work with other queer organizations and non-queer organizations, we want to get this data. Out there, so please download it, share it. Let's keep talking about it, because this is a pretty monumental task that that we've undertaken, and we want everyone, queer folks and non-queer folks, to know about it and to use

Stuart Murray  05:18

it. Yeah, that's it's fantastic. Rainbow Resource Center website, you know, there's a, there's a lot of information. I would just say this, Ralph, the one thing that I just was impressive to me. I mean, I let.. I'll just sort of back up and say that the data is extremely important, but what I thought was well done was the presentation. I mean, the graphics are very inviting, they're. they allow you to really get engaged and look at different ways. I mean, sometimes you know, number reports can be a little bit overwhelming if it's just comparing this number versus that number, but I thought that the presentation of it was was extremely well done for those that really want to, you know, sort of maybe you want to nerd out on the numbers, but you look at it and you say, wow, there's some really good, interesting graphics that really give me a real sense of visual sense of really what what this report is about. So, so let me just sort of go off on on a couple of things that came out to me, Ralph, and I would love your thoughts on it. I just thought about when you looked at some of the key findings, one of them is that mental health came out as a number one issue facing the 2s LGBTQ plus communities by quite a wide margin. Can you tell me from your perspective what's driving that, and what does it tell us about the queer Manitobans are living with right now?

Ralph Bryant  06:37

This is a scary time in our community, but it is not an unfamiliar time where it can feel like the there is a sense of erasure that is that is, you know, in public policy that and in the culture that can make this be a really scary time for, for, for queer folks, and that has, and that's especially true for trans folks in this moment, and that can have a significant impact on on anyone's mental health, and what we, what we know from the survey, in some of the, some of the things around some of the feedback that that we see from the survey revolts around like gender, except gender ideology, and whether or not it's gone too far, and to have 54% of Manitobans say that that's the case, that's a reason why we, that queer, why queer people should be concerned. The work for us to do at Rainbow, and that at organizations who are working in the mental health space, that are, that are, that are not by mandate queer-serving organizations. I think there's an opportunity to look at that data and think about how they can position and orient their work to help to support some of the challenges that the queer community are facing.

Stuart Murray  08:15

So, Ralph, let me just back up for one second and unpack something that you said that you're talking about in this survey, there were issues around gender, and can you just explain that a little bit about what what you said about what came out of that with respect to was a gender identity?

Ralph Bryant  08:33

Yeah, so there were there were two specific questions, there were, I mean, there's a bunch of questions, but the what I was referring to specifically was we asked whether or not gender ideology has gone too far,

Stuart Murray  08:47

right? Gender ideology, and just, just pause for one second, for those that would say, okay, what is that? What is gender ideology? What can you explain? What does that mean?

Ralph Bryant  08:56

I think gender ideology refers to the conversation that we are having around allowing people to be who they are, the truest expression of who they are, and that is a process by which, from which people get to stand in their truth authentically, and that just that act, which is which, at the end of the day, we are all trying to live the truest version of ourselves, and to feel like that there is a cultural concern that you know that simple act is gone too far or should not be available is something that queer people should be concerned about.

Stuart Murray  09:48

Yeah, and so Ralph, again, the reason. Thank you so much for that explanation, because I do think that sometimes, as this conversation, which is so important for community, sometimes. People, and I was one of them, as I was learning the difference between the term gender and sex, and understanding that in sex, really, there's really two, there's a male and a female, that's kind of a definition, but the gender piece is whether you identify as male, female, both, or neither, so I think some from time to time, and I appreciate you just taking a moment, because I, I do think when, when people are trying to understand some of this, for me, there's a lot of education that has to happen to support the queer community, so they can understand how they can be an ally, and part of that, I think, is really getting a clear picture of some of these terms that, that, that people in the queer community, I mean, they live with, they know them well. People in the community that is trying to be an ally, perhaps, if I can say it that way, is trying to really understand what does that identity look like, and how can we not say the wrong thing, how can we say something that's supportive rather than something that might appear less intelligent around the conversation

Ralph Bryant  11:01

and I think that you know when you know when queer people are talking about what we're talking about is gender ideology right and that's our gender identity like who am I and how do I want to identify when when the phrase gender ideology is is a belief that kind of exists, you separate of that, and is often using using the conversation around gender identity as, as a threat, as a construct, and not as a way that an opportunity for people to live authentically as they choose, and as aligns with how they feel,

Stuart Murray  11:46

and Ralph, we're going to move on, but I just think that, you know, I think from an educational standpoint, you know, there's so much more work that has to be done in in the broader community to understand some of these definitions, so that when people have a conversation, they can do it respectfully and intelligently, and, and a lot of that is for people that are trying to be supportive, but they're not sure what the I, but what is the right term, you know, and, and I do think that, you know, it's important, and I would just say this to you, Ralph, in this conversation. If, for whatever reason, I somehow make a bit of an error in terms of a definition, I mean, I know you'll, you'll correct me, and you should, and that's important as we, as we move through this. But having said that, I just think I wanted to spend just a couple of minutes on getting your sense and your clear definition of what some of these, these terms are, and why there's some concern that came out of the out of the research,

Ralph Bryant  12:46

and what I hope that where we need to get to is to a place where we're not, we're not thinking about people as terms and as labels, we are thinking about people as humans first and and creating a creating a space where all of us, regardless of where we fit on, can exist to the truest and fullest sense of who it is that we are.

Stuart Murray  13:18

Yeah, and I think, you know, Ralph, it's why I have so much respect for you in this conversation, is you know, you really look at it and say, let's, we all, we all want to be human beings, mean that's who we want to be, we, you know, that it's not about humans with terms, it's about human beings, it's about trying to sort of, you know, have the best life of who they want to be as possible, and there's lots of challenges from time to time for everybody, but, but I appreciate your kind of making it very clarifying and making it sort of a simple approach. This is a conversation about human beings. I mean, it's a specific report that was looking for information to come out specifically around the state of the queer in Manitoba, but it's really about human beings, right? Yeah,

Ralph Bryant  14:00

yeah,

Stuart Murray  14:00

yeah, yeah, so, so, Ralph, let me, let me ask you again. I just took a couple of stabs at trying to bring some things out of the key findings of this report, and I just found, again, I'm trying not to get too much into the numbers, but you know, the survey found that, while 71% of the general public agree that the two SLGBTQ plus rights should be protected by strong laws. Only 44% strongly agree, and only half of Manitobans think government should fund queer communities. From your perspective, or what you look at this report, Ralph, what does that gap between soft and strong support mean for the community?

Ralph Bryant  14:40

Imagine this. What if I said to you, Stuart, that there is a percentage of people that believe that black people should not have rights or Filipino people should not, that it's not, it's not the government's responsibility to. To uphold the rights of those groups, we would say that that is abhorrent, and so to me, what that data says is that we, there's a perception that can exist that as if queer people do not deserve the same rights and protections as everyone else, and that is a thing that we just can't kind of allow, and I'm curious about the gap between those two numbers to those two numbers too. What we know from the survey is that 50% of queer people, of people who are, have a strong connection to the queer community, so whether that's because they are queer themselves or someone they love, a close, a family member, a close friend, is in the community, that is a statistically significant number, because the data says the people who are, have, are connected to the community, what they believe in terms of the support of the community, though, and the support of the upholding the rights of the it is significantly higher than people who do not have or are not connected to someone that is in the career community, so part of the challenge for us is to think about how we create safer spaces for people to be able to come out and be themselves, somewhat. One of our colleagues said, one of my colleagues said that, you know, what that 50% represents is that there are there are 50% of spaces where people don't feel safe enough to come out and be themselves, but I think there's probably some, some truth to that, and what this data says is that there's probably some education for us to build to help close that gap, so that and this is a survey that we will, we will do again in a few years, so that we can benchmark that those results to future results, and so there's probably an opportunity. There will be an opportunity for us to see how the work that we're doing at Rainbow and Queer Community is doing overall. It's helping to address those numbers on both sides.

Stuart Murray  17:35

Yeah, I think that's a great idea, Ralph. You kind of need that benchmark, which is you've established now, and you know, I think we can talk a little bit about some of the education. I mean, Rainbow Resource Center is already a huge center of education. The amount of programming that goes on there, and I mean, there's some great work being done on on the new physical building that is being positioned there. From your perspective, Ralph, is there a time when this education should start to take place? If you look at it, is there a time in the schools, is there a time in community, is there a time in different ways that we can start to to share some of the findings of the of the of the report state of the queer with those that maybe never heard of it or aren't aware of it or don't know what is there a sense of when that education starts, and I guess I'd, so maybe it's a bit of a sensitive one, because I'm not, you're not not asking, I don't want to put you personally on the spot on it, I just.. I would love to anytime we talk about education, you know, and that's such a powerful, powerful tool, is to educate, whether it's about anti-Semitism or anti-racism, or just all of these issues. The education part of it is so important, but the question is, where do we begin that conversation?

Ralph Bryant  19:00

That is an interesting question, and I think that one of the things that we, that was, that came up in the survey was that, you know, specifically there are we have a challenge with with young young men and their opinions of of the queer community being kind of starkly different than the rest of the, you know, the rest of Manitoba, so I think that there is something to be said about, you know, how do we incorporate education into, and there are people who are better trained than me to answer that question.

Stuart Murray  19:49

That's fair,

Ralph Bryant  19:50

but, but I think even, and so I, when I think about education, I don't mean simply educating young you. Of educating children, while that work is important, I think that there are, you know, when, when I think about this, what this survey does is, is that it frames for people in corporate spaces, folks that are not even working in works that are not working in queer space, but if 50% of Manitobans are connected to the queer community, that means that some percentage of your employees, of your students, of your, of you, are connected to the queer community and and and so what is the responsibility of institutions of corporations of folks that kind of care about the well-being of of Manitobans generally? How do they center use this, this conversation to to center a conversation around around authenticity that will allow for everyone that is that that is in the community to feel safe, and we see this through, we see this work through ERGs and DEI groups, where,

Stuart Murray  21:29

yeah, hang on for a sec, Ralph. I just always sort of.. I apologize for interrupting. I never like to do that to guests, but when they throw it in acronym, ERGs, EIGs, what are you talking about there?

Ralph Bryant  21:37

Oh yeah, so employee resource groups that are you off either like specifically for for queer groups, sometimes there's like pride organizations, but folks that are that are working inside corporations for the well beings of like you know smaller constituencies, there is that awareness already that we need to recognize and support and uphold, you know, and create space for everyone to exist authentically, and, and, and then there, I'm sure that there are there are organizations and corporations that aren't doing that work, and we hope that this survey is a way to get folks who are excited, who download the survey, get excited about it, and want to more work closer with us to begin to change their culture inside their spaces,

Stuart Murray  22:41

and just on that for a sec, Ralph, you know, somebody was listening to what you just said, and said, you know what, I'd like to learn more about it. I've heard, I know, can go to the Rainbow Resource Center website to download the findings, the media report, all of the issues that are centered there around the website, but if I wanted to get more active. Is there is there a place that the Rainbow Resource Center can people sign up? Can people get involved? Can they volunteer? Can they be, you know, a participant? Is that, is that something that you want to just sort of share with those people that are listening right now?

Ralph Bryant  23:15

For sure, I think if there are, if there are organizations or, you know, you know, businesses that, that want to invest deeper into the survey, or use this as an opportunity to, to, to have a conversation amongst their staff. We have a learning and change department, which they are tasked with helping to support organizations who are committed to change management and, and, and adopting a culture that is more open and authentic for everyone. Our mission is to help queer people thrive, and that is to help them thrive no matter where they are kind of on the scale, so we, you know, we have our, our young people that our youth program that meets after school a few times a week, and we have our older adult program that works with queer elders and provides spaces for them, and then in between those in between those groups we have probably about around 10 social groups that are folks who come in representing a specific kind of subsection of the queer community, either or are coming to gather culturally, so you know we have folks that are coming in that play Dungeons and Dragons here every week, and, and so they're, you know, and social, there are social groups in many ways are the lifeblood of our community, and then in terms of volunteering there are. Especially in the summer, we have our camps, and so there are Camp Aurora, which is our sleep away camp, and Spirit Day camp, which is our day camp that we launched last year. And then there's volunteering at all of our other events.

Stuart Murray  25:16

Yeah, lots going on, for sure. Ralph is a tremendously active Rainbow Reserve Center is tremendously active and really well run. Noreen does a great job there. I just want to, a couple of things, Ralph. I just wanted to sort of get your thoughts on, you know, the report notes that knowing even one, two as LGBTQ plus person dramatically increases acceptance, and I just thought that the support for the legal protection jumps from 56% to 86% among those with a queer relationship in their life, and you mentioned that earlier, but I just wondered, when you hear that, what does that mean for how Rainbow Resource Center and its partners will approach advocacy and community building going forward.

Ralph Bryant  26:00

What that tells me is that we have both an opera, we have, we both have something that we should be proud of, that our that queer people feel so strongly, and also that, and that allies feel so strongly, and also that we have an opportunity to bring some of that community that along and think about from a from a capacity building standpoint, what, what do we have to do in collaboration with folks with our allies to be able to begin to change manage some of that, some of that energy, but we hope what we will do after this navig navig the survey results are out. This feels this will be a long conversation that we will continue to have that like takes apart pieces of the survey, like you mentioned, there'll be these like sub reports that will be launched soon. Each one of those is an opportunity for us to take kind of finer slices at the data. First and foremost, we may have to make sure that queer folks have the things that they, they need.

Stuart Murray  27:18

Ralph, one of the things that I just wanted to sort of touch on, and I guess I, it was in a section in called In Their Own Words, and you know, I think it takes a lot of courage when you're putting out a survey when you go to a community and you ask them to respond, and you want them to respond open and honestly, and you know there's a lot of things that could go into a report, a lot of things that you could, you know, potentially massage in a report, or you can just put it black and white and let people read it and get a sense of what it's about, and you probably know what I'm referring to, and that's that when that section, in their own words, it includes, you know, voices describing systemic exclusion within the 2s LGBTQ plus spaces themselves, and I just wondered, you know, one of the quotes that just sort of hit me was the community is fractured enough that to call it a community is a bit of a stretch, and again, I want to come back to the fact that that takes a tremendous amount of courage to put that in, because you know there's a lot of people that may just go down that particular area and look at that, and I mean, of course, it has to be addressed and will be addressed, but I just wanted to get your thoughts as to when you, when you were reading the report, and you came across those comments, what kind of an impact did it have on you as, as Ralph Bryant?

Ralph Bryant  28:52

Certainly, it's hard to hear, but it is certainly something that has been true about my experience as, as, as a queer person, the queer community we are, but in what this data, you know, off, you know, suggests that we are very much collectively feel aligned in a lot of ways, that doesn't mean though that the queer community has been able to consistently invite everyone in, and I think that that is specific, especially true for black and brown queer folks, but I also think that that is true to any community where there is no community is a monolith, and I think it tells me that we still have some work to do, should work to under the under the lens that we are not free until we are all free. Yeah, and so, if there are, if there are people that are not feeling included, then we need to wrap our arms around them and figure out how we hold space for the people who are not feeling included, and maybe so that, and invite them in. It is, it's an action that has to be done, we have to go if there are folks that are not being included, we need to go get them and figure out how we bring them in, and you know, there's another quote on that, that same page that speaks about, you know, about bipoc folk in what that means to racism and transophobia and misogyny, so those are things that you things again that we have to work on, so that we address what someone called my note from that that page that sticks with me most is, is that there's systemic exclusion. If we are not creating spaces, we're not creating spaces, if we are creating spaces where, where systemic exclusion exists, then then we have some work to do to make sure that everyone feels included,

Stuart Murray  31:18

and you know, again, I want to come back and just say it took a tremendous amount of courage to sort of be that open and that honest and upfront with with putting that into the report, but I, you know, you're eloquent in your response, Ralph, and it shows again, I mean, I think like a lot of these things when you do these these surveys, regardless of what the subject matter is, typically you're going to find something there, you say, okay, maybe a bit of a surprise, something that we know we have to do work on, and you just sort of say, okay, so let's be honest about it, and start the dialog, and as you say, put arms around people and figure out ways to to look at that inclusion without just without being, you know, simplistic about it. There's work to be done, right? I mean, on all levels,

Ralph Bryant  32:00

yeah. And I think using it as an opportunity for curiosity, instead of, you know, reading that and feeling like we failed, or we're not, we haven't, you know, we're not doing the things that we need to do. I think there's a recognition that this work evolves, we are thinking about we are thinking about inclusion in a way that we just didn't think about inclusion a few years ago or ever. We recognize how important that is, and so this is just an opportunity to, to, to course correct and recognize that we are all this idea that we need to hold space for our entire community, and then build the support systems and the programming that helps address that,

Stuart Murray  33:04

for sure. Yeah, no, I eloquently said, Ralph, I appreciate that. I was going to ask, you know, in terms of, you know, the sense of feeling safe and safe spaces and safe queer spaces. What did you find the difference, if there was one, between, say, the urban markets and the rural markets, those people that live in, in maybe a rural area versus an urban area.

Ralph Bryant  33:27

So, I think what this, what this study says to us is that people in Manit, people in Winnipeg are mostly doing okay, right, in turn, when we look at the those quality of life metrics, but that there is a significant, there's significant more work to do in, in our, in rural communities, and I believe it was in the survey was about a percentage gap between Winnipeg to rural communities in terms of like that quality of life metric, and so that just means that we have to, we were already kind of starting to do this work that we need to expand outside of Winnipeg to make sure that we are working in collaboration with folks that are doing this work in other parts of the province that we are building education and building kind of programmatic resources that allow us to expand beyond Winnipeg, and some of this is, is Stuart, quite frankly, is this is like there's some work in progress stuff here. We have been, we have been traveling outside of this, outside of Winnipeg, more and more. It's part of the task of our learning and change team, and, and we can, we, so we have seen the impact already of what happens when we bring resources to communities outside of the city, and that is really an exciting part of the work, and what the state of the queer survey tells us, this is an example of telling us what we already know, affirming what we already know, which is that we, we need to do more for rural queer folks. We need to support them in a different way, and we're excited to take that task on.

Stuart Murray  35:51

Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, probably, you know, Ralph, I'd ask you, did you find that surprising?

Ralph Bryant  35:58

No, it didn't find it, that doesn't, that doesn't surprise me, like I think that there is all there is, you know, all the typically a people who live in cities are more liberal, more accepting, more in alignment with each other and in the cities than they do in in in rural spaces, so that didn't surprise me. I think that what it allows us to do is to think about what we do about it, right? This is, this is a, so this isn't, this isn't a.. I'm surprised by this. It's like, okay, this is what we thought. Now, what do we do?

Stuart Murray  36:47

Yeah, yeah, maybe more even reaffirming, as you said. I mean, stuff is being works being done on it, Ralph. I have two questions, sort of, before we, before we hit the off ramp, and one of them is, when you read this, I mean, you were involved in it. You've been involved in the community, your, you know, your role at the at the Rainbow Resource Center. You know, I'm sure there was a lot of anticipation of this State of the Queer report coming out. Is there one thing in there that surprised you in the report?

Ralph Bryant  37:20

You know, there isn't, there isn't one thing, it's like a lot of little

Stuart Murray  37:24

things. No, that's fair. Yeah,

Ralph Bryant  37:25

I think that seeing how people identify both their orientation and their identity, I thought those, I thought those were data points that were really interesting. I think that the 20 point gap between the strong laws stack that you mentioned earlier, and I think that was surprising, because I just think that we should be at a time where we should be advocating for everyone's rights, you, I think that the, the probably the one that is this, you know, that hurts, hurt the most is that being being a member of the 2s L G B T Q plus community is a normal and natural thing. There is a lack of seeing that is missing if you do not believe that I am normal and natural, and that gap was, you know, was one of the largest gaps in the survey, and I think that there is a curiosity for me as to how do we, how do we, how do we even get to that baseline like that, that feels like a, like a, like a non-negotiable, and and I don't, then that's where I am more curious about it than I have an answer, but I think that that is part of the work that our, you know, our learning and change team are doing is to, is, is to try and create, you, this kind of baseline acceptance of queer people, but that that data point just is like a low, a level kind of below that, and to get to where we want to be, we know that that's what we need to, that's the number I want to change, I want to see change the most when we do this again.

Stuart Murray  39:32

Yeah, no, that's a, that's a great answer, and it might even dovetail into what I usually try and do, Ralph, when I talk to guests on on this podcast, is it sort of kind of throw it back to you to say, you know, there's a lot of information in this report, you know, I've done some scrubbing through it to kind of get some sense of what questions I wanted to answer, but is there anything that you know when you took this on and said, oh, you know, we have this conversation. Is there any question that I haven't asked you, though? You were saying, you know, I was.. I'd really like to talk about this, and you just didn't ask about it. So, I'd like to kind of put it out there in terms of allowing listeners to hear about something that maybe I didn't ask.

Ralph Bryant  40:15

I want to leave with something positive, because what I think, that I, one of the things that I love about the survey is this idea that I, that I feel included for who I am, and that the, it's one of the, it's one of the survey points where the alignment between between queer people and non-queer people are very, very close, and I think that that is a powerful starting point for individual affirmation, and so now it helps it inspires me to want to think about how do we help people feel that same way for each other. I love that people feel included and have community, whether they are queer folks or non-queer folks, but and then how do we take that and create a collective responsibility that we want everyone to feel included?

Stuart Murray  41:27

Yeah, yeah, that's that's a great, that's a great way to end our conversation. Ralph Bryant from the Rainbow Resource Center. Thank you so much for this conversation, and thank you so much for what you do.

Ralph Bryant  41:41

Thank you. I hope that folks will go and download the survey and reach out to us if there is something that that they want to know more, so they can go to Rainbow Resource center.org/reports and it'll take them to the place where they can find the download, the key findings, and the data for the state of the queer survey. So, thanks for having me,

Stuart Murray  42:11

and I'd encourage them to do exactly that, Ralph. Thanks so much. You take care.

Ralph Bryant  42:14

Thank you.

Matt Cundill  42:15

Thanks for listening to Humans on Rights. A transcript of this episode is available by clicking the link in the show notes of this episode. Humans on Rights is recorded and hosted by Stuart Murray. Social media marketing by Buffy Davey. Music by Doug Edmond. For more, go to Human Rights hub.ca

Tara Sands (Voiceover)  42:36

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