Lifelong Sudbury gay advocate honoured with King Charles III Coronation Medal

A gay Sudbury man who endured a homophobic upbringing, survived the AIDS crisis, and went on to become a champion of the Sudbury 2SLGBTQ+ community has been honoured for his service with the King Charles III Coronation Medal.

Paul Pasanen is the founder and chair of SQUAD (Sudbury Queers United Around Diversity), which creates safe spaces for the local community. He is also a program coordinator with Réseau ACCESS Network and the previous coordinator of the New Horizons for 2S-LGBTQ+ Older Adults program. Pasanen has been working to bring a queer community centre to Sudbury, modelled on the 519 in Toronto.

The King Charles III Coronation Medal honours Canadians who have demonstrated exceptional dedication to their community and service to their country, said Sudbury Member of Parliament Viviane Lapointe, who presented it to Pasanen.

"Paul Pasanen embodies these exact qualities," she said in a statement emailed to CBC.

"Paul's advocacy for and commitment to inclusion and diversity is unprecedented. As one of the organizers of Sudbury's first pride marches, Paul has a longstanding history of being a true champion for inclusion and ensuring everyone feels safe and valued in our community."

Pasanen's advocacy work grew out of his experiences growing up in rural northern Ontario, he told CBC.

Surviving the AIDS crisis

Born in the era when homosexuality was still classified as a mental illness, he grew up surrounded by homophobia.

He moved to Ottawa as a young adult and immersed himself in the city's gay community, only to begin losing friends en masse to the mysterious illness that would later be identified as AIDS.

"I expected to die," he said. "I really did. …. So I came back to Sudbury in my 20s to prepare for the end."

He was flabbergasted to learn that it may not arrive as quickly as anticipated.

"I went and got the test just to confirm my belief, and it was negative," he said. "That was a shock. I did not have a Plan B. I did not know what I was going to do with my life."

His response was to get sober and throw himself into community work.

Despite the ignorance and homophobia Pasanen witnessed growing up, he had never seen an anti-gay or anti-trans protest in Sudbury until recently, he said.

He called the rising transphobic hatred across the country "horrifying."

"When we were advocating for same-sex marriage, people would say, 'Oh yeah, what's next? [Are] you going to marry your pets?'" he said.

Nowadays,he added, opponents of rights for gender diverse people make up stories about young people and schools providing bathroom litter boxes for people who identify as cats.

When people move the conversation away from actual human experience, it makes it easier to shut it down and prevent people from learning about people's actual lives, he said.

Towards a 2SLGBTQ+ centre in Sudbury?

He added, the rise in hate has brought a renewed sense of urgency to his work to establish a community centre.

"Urgency, desperation, fear," he said.

"It's re-traumatizing to see that kind of backlash that's been building for decades…. And now it's getting permission to come forward and be more visible. …And what's been really great is that the queer community, all the individuals and small groups, have come out to counter protest, which is heartening."

But Sudbury's 2SLGBTQ+ community is also divided internally, particularly along generational lines, Pasanen said, and education is needed to help bring people together.

Older people were raised with rigid ideas about gender roles and sexual orientation categories, he said. Younger people have a more fluid understanding of those concepts. 

There is also conflict over the community's relationship with law enforcement.

In an email to CBC, the chair of Fierté Sudbury Pride, Aspen Groom, expressed the organization's support for a community centre.

It's a concept that has support from city hall in  Greater Sudbury. 

In an e-mail to CBC, Ken Bonder from the office of Greater Sudbury Mayor, Paul Lefebvre, said: "the Mayor has had preliminary discussions with Paul Pasanen, chair of SQUAD, along with other members of the 2SLGBTQ+ community regarding their desire to have a joint office space in Greater Sudbury. The Mayor continues to be an ally and supports initiatives that promote inclusivity and belonging."

But Groom said Fierté Sudbury Pride is no longer formally involved in a coalition with SQUAD.

"In the spring of last year, the previous  board of directors organized multiple Pride events in collaboration with police, which led to significant community backlash," they explained.

"As a result, eight of the nine board members resigned. Many of those former board members remain actively involved with Hauz Noir and SQUAD. … Given this history, we have been cautious in our engagement with the coalition following their departure."

The group continues to attend coalition meetings anticipating that members will establish clear terms of reference and behavioral guidelines, Groom said. 

It recognizes that the work of creating accountable spaces is complex and remains committed to approaching it with care. 

For Pasanen's part, he said, he tries to navigate the differences between community members with kindness and understanding.

"I'm a senior now, and I think there's things that we can learn from, for example, Anishinaabe Indigenous teachings and and traditions," he said.

"You know, that revered two-spirited people and revered elders. … Having a balanced community where there are elders and young people and parents and children – I think that's a natural way to be. And that's … what I envision … being able to invite people and bring people together."