by ALLAN BENNER
Back in the late 1980s, Mouradian said, “it was tough to stand up and say: ‘This is who I am. Please accept me.’”
Nevertheless, Mouradian was among the first people in Niagara to advocate for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
“To be very honest with you, I have the hate mail to prove it. I do, I’ve got a box of hate mail. I’ve kept it as a reminder.”
Despite the resentment, he persevered and helped transform Niagara into “a great place to live” for members of the LGBT community.
“We have a lot of friends from Toronto who are retiring and coming down here. We’re talking about older gay couples. And they’re loving it here,” he said. “The cost of living is amazing. The acceptance is amazing. Niagara is really great spot to live, and I’ve told people that.”
His lifetime of effort earned Mouradian recognition from the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community Wednesday evening.
He was selected winner of the The Ed Eldred Unity Award, one of the top awards handed out during Pride Niagara’s Unity Awards celebration.
“This award is not just for today’s advocates,” Mouradian said Thursday. “It’s for people who over the years have been constantly a voice of reason, constantly a voice of unity and awareness.”
He said winning the Ed Eldred award “is a huge, huge honour, especially today.”
“I’m not as vocal as I was in the 1990s, so for people to be remembering some of us old guys …” the 69-year-old said. “Because some of the youth today, I don’t know whether they know seriously about some of the struggles.
“I hope the youth remember there were a lot of people who died, who lost their family, lost their jobs. I’ve lost friends and family who won’t talk to me today,” he said.
Mouradian is one 10 individuals and organizations honoured by Pride Niagara during the event, held at Amici’s Banquet Centre in Thorold.
Port Colborne resident Dennis Everleigh earned the Community Culture Unity Award for an initiative he launched nearly a year ago, to bring the LGBT community together in a social setting.
“Last summer, I was reflecting on the fact that I didn’t really have any gay friends,” Everleigh said. “As an older gay guy, I was looking around trying to find friends. They’re just hard to find because there aren’t places to meet.”
He said three men showed up for his first weekly drop-in event for older gay men.
“Within four weeks, we had 30 guys coming. I was just overwhelmed.”
Now, more than 50 men gather each week at Mahtay Cafe in downtown St Catharines.
“It’s now a place where gay men meet, make friends and come to meet their friends.”
Although finding a new partner was never on Everleigh’s mind when he started the group, he met a man and they now live together.
“My whole life changed. Now I know 200 gay guys in the Niagara area,” he said, adding people from outlying areas including Burlington, Hamilton, Mississauga and Buffalo and Niagara Falls, N.Y., join the group, too.
“New guys come all the time. It’s just amazing.” ...
Mouradian is continuing to work towards changing perceptions about the LGBT community.
“That’s what I’m doing right now, trying to reach out to various faith based groups to try and have them understand that we’re not a threat and we’re not sinners, and it’s not a choice,” he said.
His concern is preventing suicides among gay teenagers, who feel they have no where else to turn.
He said the next big challenge is changing attitudes towards the transgender community.
“They need to be accepted and people need to understand. That’s the next sort of battle,” he said.
Despite overall progress, Mouradian said there are still pockets of intolerance.
“You’ll never change that,” he said. “The key is to be strong and to say, ‘There’s nothing wrong with me.’”