Diana and Dennis Stimson

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Diana and Dennis Stimson are two of the founding members of PFLAG Ottawa, which started up in November 1994. They have two sons, both of whom are gay, and both came out to their parents on the same night in July 1990.

In December 1994, they were asked if they would take the keys to open up the church where the PFLAG meetings were held. Having said yes, little did they suspect that this would turn into a 20+ year commitment, becoming the de facto group leaders.

Over the years, they were the PFLAG representatives for 10 years on the Ottawa Police Liaison LGBT Committee, participated in the annual Pride Parade activities along with other PFLAG members, and made presentations to numerous groups and parents of LGBT individuals to help educate them and provide resource information to them.

During this time, Diana was the glue that held the organization together, making telephone calls to remind people of the next meeting, arranging guest speakers, and coordinating PFLAG Ottawa attendance at local events (universities, schools, colleges, government agencies, etc. The list is endless. 

Dennis is proud to have made a presentation to a parliamentary committee prior to the legalization of equal marriage. He was a founding member of the PFLAG Canada team, the PFLAG Canada Regional Representative for Zone 3 for over 5 years, Vice President of PFLAG Canada for 2 years and President for 1½ years.

They also enjoyed working with EGALE, the Lambda Foundation and a few of the local LGBT choir organizations in Ottawa.

They were both extremely honoured and proud to be the 2002 Ottawa Pride Parade Honorary Marshals.

Why do these things? Because they needed to be done and no one was else doing it!