| Brief | In the U.S., an alarming number of homophobic and transphobic incidents have been tracked over the past few years. But in Canada, anti-LGBTQ+ hate hasn’t been tracked nationally since 2021, creating a dangerous perception that hate isn’t on the rise. Egale Canada wanted to raise the alarm and call for urgent action.First, we needed to collect the data ourselves. Using the Infegy Atlas analytics platform, we scrubbed every social post from Canada for hundreds of terms like ‘groomer’, ‘pedophile’, and ‘eradicate’ in relation to the LGBTQ+ community. We then tracked every anti-LGBTQ+ protest using the ACLED data project.The result? 6,423 hate-fuelled incidents from the first three months of 2023. A number we turned into a powerful data visualization by removing exactly 6,423 threads from a Pride flag.Our unravelled flag was promoted with a 60-second commercial, print, OOH, social, and live events. Everything drove to an online safety toolkit and downloadable social assets that people could use to spread our message. Then, the stories behind the 6,423 incidents were printed, bound with threads from the unravelled flag, and sent to government officials.The campaign inspired action. The government pledged $1.5M in funding for Pride security. The unravelled flag became a symbol to call out bigotry, being used by labour unions, schools, and research centres – as well as TikTokers, whose content received 120K+ organic views. Finally, we generated 73M media impressions from publications nationwide, many referencing our data as quantifiable proof that the rising tide of hate exists and cannot be ignored. |
| Story | Egale is an advocacy organization working to improve the lives of 2SLGBTQI people in Canada and to enhance global responses to 2SLGBTQI issues. Their work includes informing public policy, inspiring cultural change, and promoting human rights and inclusion through research, education, awareness, and legal advocacy. |