25 years and is internationally known for her creation of the groundbreaking series “The L Word”.

Frustrated that her own community was starved for visual representation, Chaiken came up with the idea for “The L Word,” about a tight-knit group of lesbian friends living in Los Angeles. Despite initial rejection of the proposal, Chaiken persisted until, during the Golden Globe Awards in 2001, a Showtime executive leaned over to her and whispered, “I think we’re going to do that little lesbian show of yours.”

“The L Word” debuted January 18, 2004 and follows a group of friends, both gay and straight, through stories of career, family, inner struggle, friendship and romantic relationships and stars an impressive cast, including Jennifer Beals and Pam Grier. Chaiken made her directorial debut in Season 2 of “The L Word” with the season finale episode, “Lacuna,” and has continued to direct episodes of the series since.Now in production on its sixth season, “The L Word” has grown into a cultural phenomenon, giving a worldwide audience of both gay and straight fans the opportunity to get a glimpse into the complex lives and relationships of a group of LGBT friends and lovers. Since the creation and subsequent success of “The L Word,” Chaiken has been recognized as one of Power Up’s Top 10 Lesbians in Hollywood and as one of OUT magazine’s 100 most powerful gay people in Hollywood.

In January 2007, Chaiken and a small group of prominent women from the entertainment and technology worlds launched OurChart.com, a fully-featured social networking and media site on the Web for lesbians and their friends, which continues to grow with traffic being over a half-million strong and new initiatives underway.

In March 2006, “The L Word: Welcome to Our Planet” was published by Simon & Schuster with excerpts throughout the book by Chaiken. 

Chaiken’s other writing credits include the SHOWTIME Original Pictures “Damaged Care” and “Dirty Pictures,” which won a Golden Globe Award for Best Television Movie in 2000. Chaiken’s feature film work includes “Barb Wire” which was produced by Propaganda Films and starred Pamela Anderson. Prior to her writing career, Chaiken was an executive for Aaron Spelling Productions and Quincy Jones Productions.

Chaiken resides in Los Angeles and has twelve-year-old twin daughters.

Faisal Alam

Faisal Alam is a queer-identified Muslim activist of Pakistani descent and the founder of Al-Fatiha, an organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex & questioning (LGBTIQ) Muslims, and their allies.

Struggling to reconcile his own sexuality with his faith, at the age of 19, Faisal created an email discussion group for gay and lesbian Muslims, 

believed to be the first "safe" space for Muslims struggling to reconcile their sexuality with their faith.  One year later (in 1998) 40 members of this email list gathered in Boston, MA at an international retreat that Faisal organized. This historic gathering led to the creation of Al-Fatiha, which comes from the first chapter of the holy Quran and means "The Opening" or "The Beginning."  Under Faisal's leadership from 1998-2006, Al-Fatiha created an international presence for queer Muslims, and grew to include eight chapters in the United States and seven sister-organizations in Canada, the United Kingdom and South Africa. The mission of Al-Fatiha is to support and empower LGBTIQ Muslims as in their individual and collective journey to integrate their faith and their sexual orientation or gender identity. Since Al-Fatiha's inception, Faisal has traveled across the country and around the world to meet with LGBTIQ Muslims to build a global queer Muslim movement.

Faisal's work with Al-Fatiha has been featured in gay/lesbian and mainstream media including the New York Times, BBC World News, Al-Hayat, the Washington Post, and the San Francisco Chronicle. Faisal has received numerous recognitions and awards for his community activism. He was selected as an "Innovator" by the Advocate Magazine in 2001 and a "Founding Father" by Genre Magazine in 2002. In 2005, the Equality Forum honored Faisal as one of "40 Heroes" who have made a defining difference in LGBT civil rights over the last forty years.

Faisal's professional work has included community outreach and program planning at a number of non-profit organizations in the US - working on a range of issues - including LGBT youth leadership and empowerment, HIV/AIDS education and prevention in the Asian/Pacific Islander communities, and advocating for women's reproductive health and reproductive justice. Faisal resides in Atlanta, GA with his partner and their two cats where he continues to advocate for peace, equality and justice.

Michelle Dumaresq

From her first day of competition, former Canadian downhill mountain bike champion Michelle Dumaresq has been shaking up the world of sports.  But it's not her riding talent that's sparked controversy and international media attention - it's the fact that for the first 20 years of her life Michelle was Michael. 

Michelle's controversial foray into international women's competition has made her the face of transgendered athletics. She makes history as the first transgendered athlete to ever be named to a national team, in the glare of the media spotlight.

37-year old Michelle is witty, charming and confident.  Like any athlete, she dreams of being the best.  But from her very first race she faces active protest from the other racers - some of whom she once considered friends.  While some of her opponents merely question her right to compete, others challenge her very identity as a woman.  As Michelle struggles for acceptance - as an athlete and as a woman she asks everyone to think about fairness in sport as well as the nature and definition of gender.

Arsham Parsi was born in Shiraz, Iran. After coming to terms with his sexual identity, Arsham began to do advocacy work for the queer community. The advocacy caught the attention of the Iranian authorities and Arsham was forced to flee Iran in 2005. He fled to Turkey, where he registered as a refugee at the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Ankara and obtained entry into Canada.

 

Arsham is a founding member of Iranian Queer Organization-IRQO, and organization that works for the advancement of civil rights for lesbians and

 

As he passed the border out of Iran, he promised himself and his country that he would one day return to a free, open country and until that time would work to achieve that goal. Arsham considers the work he is doing today, as part of IRQO, to be an investment in a brighter tomorrow for all Iranians.

Rainbow Health Network (RHN)

Founded in 2001, the Rainbow Health Network (RHN) is a catalyst and a resource for activities promoting the health and wellness of people of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities, in Toronto and beyond. RHN is committed to equity-based, community-based, anti-racism and anti-oppression values. 

Through networking, education, advocacy and equity activities RHN works towards

the optimal health and wellness of people and communities of all gender identities, sexual orientations and Intersex people. RHN is a unique network made up of gender and sexually diverse-identified healthcare and social service providers as well as service recipients who work together to increase access, equity and inclusion in the healthcare and social service fields for our communities.

 

In 2005 RHN received funding from Health Canada for the Ontario Rainbow Health Partnership Project, partnered with Sherbourne Health Centre to gain Ministry of Health approval for the new resource centre, Rainbow Health Ontario, launched the Trans Human Rights Campaign, for inclusion of gender identity in the Ontario Human Rights Code, and published the research paper Whose Public Health? RHN created the Rainbow Health Educational Toolkit and presents diversity workshops that focus on the intersections of heterosexism, racism and other oppressions in healthcare.

The Lesbian and Gay Community Appeal (LGCA)

The Lesbian and Gay Community Appeal (LGCA) Foundation is the only foundation of its kind in Canada – its mission is to help build and support individuals and groups to enhance the development of LGBTQ communities.

Since 1980, the LGCA Foundation has raised over $2.5 million through the generosity of individuals and businesses to provide much-needed funding for projects and programs in the areas of education, health, human rights, arts and culture.  Over 1,000 community-based projects and individuals have received grants from the LGCA!  Many organizations and projects received support early on in their development and leveraged LGCA grants to gain further support from other sources.  Many of these organizations have grown to become vital pillars in our diverse communities.

Toronto's diverse lesbian, gay, bisexual transgendered/transsexual, queer and two-spirited communities are vibrant and strong due in no small part to the commitment of individuals who provide support and contribute to the LGCA Foundation. Our communities’ strength is in the generosity of the individuals and organizations who support it. The LGCA understands that dedication, talent, creativity and dollars can go a long way to creating positive change.