After eight years, JQT (Jewish Queer Trans) Vancouver is winding down.
“If I were to narrow down the essence of JQT Vancouver’s essence for me, it would be: the sharing of information and the production of events that I wanted to attend,” Carmel Tanaka, founder and executive director of JQT Vancouver, told the Independent.
A volunteer-run organization “dedicated to ‘queering’ Jewish spaces and ‘Jew-ifying’ queer spaces through education, dialogue, art, cultural celebration and partnerships,” JQT started at the grassroots level in 2018, incorporated as a nonprofit in 2020, welcomed its first board in 2021 (of which I was a member for several years) and gained charity status in 2024.
One of the legacies it leaves is the BC Jewish Queer & Trans Oral History Project, which comprises some 100 years of the province’s Jewish 2SLGBTQIA+ history.
“We had to piecemeal from oral histories and decentralized sources to fill in gaps of knowledge, and a good chunk is still missing!” said Tanaka, who pointed to another area previously lacking much attention: the barriers impacting Jewish queer and trans seniors accessing health care.
“Through the BC Jewish Queer & Trans Seniors Resource Guide,” she said, “we were able to help people within and beyond our community gain access to information to help them make informed decisions on what they can and cannot prepare for towards end of life.”
While social support services for Jewish queer and trans seniors became the focus of JQT, Tanaka said, “We also were known for putting on quality productions, even during the early pandemic days, with our Hanukkah Hotties series.
“The most talked about JQT Vancouver event has been – without a doubt – the Shabbos Queen back in 2022. It took place at Or Shalom on a Friday night and was one of the most magical events, bringing to Vancouver the genius artistry of Stuart B. Meyers and the innovative production designer Mimi Abrahams. J-Cuties to this day still reminisce about this evening.
“Another special guest was Antonia Lassar, who came to Vancouver not once, but twice, for us. Her comedy show was so much more, it brought people together and even helped us score two new board members! We ferried over Victoria’s rambunctious Klezbians to be her opening act, which gave Antonia excellent fodder for her show.”
Tanaka highlighted JQT’s hosting of Berlin drag queen Nana Schewitz, who, as one attendee wrote, used “drag to grapple with issues that extend beyond gender and into age and aging.”
Another favourite event for Tanaka was Mahj, Dim Sum and Babka, which brought the Jewish and Chinese queer communities together to learn their respective versions of mahjong.
Many of these events took place under the auspices of the JQT Mental Health Support Series.
JQT is closing in part because of a lack of core funding, Tanaka said. “Our charity has operated on a shoestring budget since day one.”
From the beginning, Tanaka has volunteered as executive director.
“I have done so with love,” she said. “However, with the rising costs of life in Vancouver, I also need to put food on the table and pay for the roof over my head. And, if I’m being honest, I also have other interests that I want to pursue, like the Jewpanese Project,” an oral history of “lived experiences and stories at the intersection of being Jewish and Japanese.”
In August 2025, Tanaka said she had “a sobering conversation” with JQT chair Sophie Morin. “And what started out as a planned conversation to review our strategic plan for the next three years,” she said, “turned into a conversation about my exhaustion and that it’s time to slowly bring JQT Vancouver to a close.”
Tanaka and the JQT board decided to take a year or so to close the organization. Some of its projects may continue.
“It became of utmost importance to members of the JQT Seniors Initiative that this beautiful network of Jewish, 2SLGBTQIA+ and healthcare organizations – through BC Community Response Networks – should continue despite JQT Vancouver’s closure,” said Tanaka.
Jewish Seniors Alliance of British Columbia was one of JQT’s many community partners.
“There are lasting positive outcomes from JSABC’s engagement with JQT,” Jeff Moss, the organization’s executive director, told the Independent, “including that JSABC is working now to support Jewish queer seniors as a sub-group within its community support services and outreach programs. We have applied for funding, are working on building out a committee, and to develop meaningful resources to build trust and community. We recognize the feelings of isolation uniquely experienced by seniors lacking adequate supports.”
As well, JSABC will be working on its own LGBTQ+ seniors resource guide, inspired by JQT’s.
“JQT did incredible work in advocacy and for establishment through chevra kadisha [burial societies] of burial practices for the queer and trans communities,” he said. “That legacy will last for generations to come.”
“JQT leaves behind an incredible legacy of doors opened, voices heard and supports leveraged that weren’t there before,” said Aviva Rathbone, who was the second of three board chairs, following Aaron Demes and preceding Morin. “One of the reasons we are winding down operations is because we were successful in the important and difficult work of advocating for more queer voices in Jewish spaces and more Jewish voices in queer spaces – and though that work is far from over, others have taken up the mantle and I am so excited to see them pick up where we left off and to step through the doors we helped open.”
Of the work that JQT did and the events it hosted, there is much to be proud of, said Rathbone, but two items stand out for her: the mental health support series and JQT’s response to Oct. 7.
The series offered no, or low, cost mental health supports to JQTs over two years, she said, “everything from a belly-dancing lesson to a drag show to producing a JQT-affirming toolkit for mental healthcare providers. We responded to a direct ask from the community and filled a need identified by JQTs.”
As for Oct. 7, JQT board members were pressured by members of the JQT community and outsiders “to make a strong statement,” Rathbone said. “And, instead, our board took a thoughtful, measured approach that spoke to our mandate to be a welcoming and supportive resource for all members of our community.
“This approach did not come without a cost,” she added. “There were difficult and painful conversations…. We listened with open (and broken) hearts. We were the targets of angry emails and angry words, and yet we persisted and we became the safe space we dreamed of in doing so, and I am incredibly proud of that and of the board for being brave and thoughtful and caring while carrying our own pain.”
One of JQT’s last projects was to update the Twice Blessed community needs assessment, as part of its partnership work with JFS Vancouver.
“I would like to encourage Jewish Independent readers and members of the Jewish, 2SLGBTQIA+, healthcare communities and beyond to listen to what Jewish queer and trans people are sharing in our final report,” said Tanaka. The link is jqtvancouver.ca/twice-blessed-2.
“Our remaining energy and funds are focused on properly archiving all of our work and ensuring it is housed in multiple locations, such as the Jewish Museum and Archives of BC, the ArQuives: Canada’s LGBTQ2+ National Archives, the Gay & Lesbian Archives housed by the City of Vancouver, and possibly two more archives for posterity’s sake,” said Tanaka, noting the “materials will include everything you would expect from a charity (i.e. annual reports, meeting minutes, financial statements, etc.), as well as a record of our social media presence on Facebook and Instagram (i.e. posts and pictures) and, most importantly, all the projects and events we dreamed up while in operation.”
As hard as winding operations down has been, Tanaka said, “Thank you to all those who believed in JQT Vancouver and in me.”
There were countless people involved in JQT over the years, and most, like Rathbone described, gave of their time and effort “out of love for the community.”
“I am so proud of what we created and of the hurdles we overcame and progress we made together,” Rathbone said. “I feel so grateful to my fellow board members and to Carmel, who’s served the community with heart-centred passion and integrity and we are all the better off for it.”
To learn more about JQT, visit jqtvancouver.ca.
