Meet Paul Pasanen. He was honoured earlier this year with the King Charles III Coronation Medal for his work with people with diverse sexual orientations and gender identities.
"I found out (about the medal) in March. It took me totally by surprise,” said Pasanen, who for much of his life says he felt like an outsider.
About three years ago, the long-time activist started SQUAD (Sudbury Queers United Around Diversity). The non-profit organization, among other things, supports, offers education, advice, and health promotion to the 2SLGBTq+ community (read more on that here).
2SLGBTQ+ is an acronym for Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and plus (to include other identities). Two-Spirit refers to Indigenous people who identify as having both masculine and feminine spirits.
In May, SQUAD opened a meeting space and drop-in centre in the basement of the Independent Living Sudbury Manitoulin building at 125 Durham St.
SQUAD, overseen by a board of directors, is supported by volunteers and pays its operating costs by fundraising and with government grants and donations.
"It took us a couple of months to clean it and set up. It looks really gay, which was what we were looking for," said Pasanen.
He has a sense of humour, but there is hurt in his bright blue Finnish eyes. They reveal sadness about his experiences as a young gay man and the knowledge there is still prejudice toward queer individuals.
"Artist Tarun Godara did a colourful wall mural, and we had a bunch of students come in and paint it with him," said Pasanen.
Godara is seeking to stay in Canada to avoid returning to his native India where he could face violent discrimination as a gay man.
At the Parkside Centre across the street from SQUAD, Pasanen organizes Pride Alliance programs for gay seniors, many of whom are scared from past experiences and still encounter intolerance.
"For a lot of us, who are my age (67), being gay was (once) illegal and considered a mental illness," he said.
In school, students snickered about homosexuals and sex was not discussed in the classroom.
The Criminal Law Amendment Act, passed in 1969, decriminalized homosexual acts between consenting adults over the age of 21. The prime minister at the time, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, famously said the state has “no business in the bedrooms of the nation”.
Previously, consensual sex between people of the same sex could be punished with life imprisonment.
"I was a little sissy boy and paid the price," said Pasanen. "I was precocious enough to look up some words. I found out the realities of what it meant to be a homosexual in Canada at the time. That was a horrible way for a young person to learn their gay identity … that is it is illegal, it is considered a sin, and it is a mental illness.
"There are still a lot of closeted queer people out there because of their communities and because they don't want to lose their jobs. For many people, it is still not OK to be gay … so you (can) lose your family, your religion, community. You lose jobs, your opportunity for education, you lose your neighbourhood. It is all about loss.”
Pasanan, whose widowed mother was supportive, came out when he was 19 in 1977.
(Read more of Pasanan's story about his Finnish immigrant family here.)
"And I paid the price then too … I got asked to leave my university residence,” Pasanen said. “I left Sudbury because of the violence against gays. I lived in Ottawa, did a lot of drinking and partying and then AIDS hit. I consider myself an AIDS refugee."
He returned to Sudbury in the late 1980s and worked as a horticultural technician at Inco Ltd.
He went back to university and completed a bachelor of education at Nipissing University in North Bay, he taught school part-time on a permanent contract for 20 years.
In 2022, Pasanen completed his master degree in social work (MSW).
His activism started in the 1990s. In 1997, he was one of the organizers of the first PRIDE March in Sudbury. Three hundred people took part in that event, which has become an annual weeklong celebration known as Fierté Sudbury Pride.
Teased and called names as a gay kid growing up in Sudbury, Pasanen never imagined he would one day be honoured by royalty.
“(The medal) looks like one of those things generals wear. It has a ribbon. I was invited to attend an event with other medal recipients and asked to wear it,” he said. "But there are rules. It can only be worn on special occasions. It came with a little booklet about when I can and can't wear it."
I asked Pasanen if things are better in the 21st century for the 2SLGBTQ+ community.
There was a long pause.
"I don't think so," he said.
He is concerned about what is happening with the religious right movement in the United States and the anti-gay rhetoric coming from some Conservative politicians in Canada.
There is still work to be done to educate people, said Pasanen.
"I think the general population still really struggles (with acceptance.)”
Vicki Gilhula is a freelance writer. People You Should Know About is made possible by our Community Leaders Program.