We were proud to reinstate a tradition from our pride weeks more than five years ago, by launching our 2009 festival on June 7th with a pride church service at St Matthew's United Church in Richmond Hill. The service was delivered by Rev. Warren McDougall of Richmond Hill United Church, assisted by musical director Barry Peters. This multi-faith community celebration was followed by a social hour with light refreshments, hosted by PFLAG York Region.

On Monday 8th June, we screened the movie "For The Bible Tells Me So" at Richmond Hill Public Library. The film screening was part of an LGBT workshop event that explored the different ways that individuals and families create their future.

The following evening, we hosted an informal social evening at the Golden Flame restaurant/diner in Richmond Hill. The event was attended by many community members of various age groups as well as their families and friends.

A full-day service provider conference was held in Newmarket on Wednesday 10th June, providing a forum and learning opportunity for attendees to explore issues of competency in offering services to LGBT persons. The conference was attended by representatives from dozens of regional service organizations and featured workshops covering a variety of topics, including LGBT youth 'coming out' issues, same sex partner abuse, providing supportive services to the trans community and lesbian relationships.

On the evening of 11th June, we hosted a second social evening at Casey's Bar & Grill in Newmarket. Once again, this event was well attended.

More than 80 youth attended our Rainbow Fusion youth event at Thornhill Secondary School on the Friday evening. Adopting the theme 'Lost In The 80's'. this event featured stage performances by local youth, music by MUSICcentral Entertainment's DJ Rob, as well as a performance by Canadian Lesbian Dance Music Diva NANCY RANCOURT as featured in CURVE Magazine as one of 'Hollywood's Must See Performers' and on PROUD FM's TOP 20 Chart.

Award-winning Canadian author Brian Francis read from his book "Fruit", during a book reading and signing event at Millikin Mills Public Library on the afternoon of Saturday 13th June.

Pride week concluded the following afternoon with our picnic and BBQ event at the Community Safety Village, within Bruce's Mill Conservation Area near Stouffville.

The Community Safety Village, located in the heart of the conservation area. is a York Regional Police facility used to teach fire, traffic and personal safety to primary school children.

During the event, welcoming greetings were delivered by Chief Armand La Barge of York Regional Police, York Region Chairman and CEO Bill Fisch, as well as Dave Barrow, Mayor of Richmond Hill. Our guest speaker, author Brian Francis, spoke about his book 'Fruit' and the links between the book's main character, the author's own experiences as a teenager and the issues still faced by LGBT youth today.

In addition, live music entertainment was provided by local band 'Runs With Scissors', Kim Brown, and also James Miller and Craig Riley.

A community fair featured a selection of community organizations and offered information on a range of LGBT related topics.

At the end of June, we participated in the Toronto pride parade on June 28th. This was the second consecutive year that LGBT organizations of York Region had been represented in the pride parade. Our parade volunteers included representatives from many of those organizations, some on foot and others riding our float. They displayed banners advertizing York Pride Fest and GayYorkRegion.com, as they participated in the parade televised live by CP24 and attended by more than one million spectators.

Throughout the Toronto Pride weekend we also operated a community booth on Alexander St, also highlighting York Region and its LGBT related organizations.