Deb Parent presented with the City of Toronto’s Pride Award
Deb Parent has been an out and proud lesbian 'creating community' in Toronto for over 35 years.
During the late 1970's, Deb Parent was the first lesbian on staff with the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre (TRCC), building consciousness about violence against women through a lens of diversity. In addition to serving four terms on the Board of Directors, Deb developed ground-breaking Wen Do self-defence programs, which not only empowered women, but made a point of embracing lesbians as part of the program.
Through the 1980's, Deb was an active, public member of Lesbians Against The Right, which helped spearhead protests against the appearance of homophobes in Toronto. She also established the Lesbian Speakers Bureau, a collective devoted to public education and to putting a human face on lesbianism.
Deb Parent most surely knows that 'creating community' includes music. She helped organized dyke dances in Toronto from 1983 to 1993 and led Take Back the Night Marches with her sound truck for 20 years. Since 1996, when the Dyke March was established as part of Pride celebrations, Deb has been cranking out the tunes in the lead sound truck, urging her sisters to rise up - and to celebrate our lives. She is a founding member of two lesbian drumming collectives, Joyful Resistance and WombBOOM, which released 2 cds
