We’re excited to announce that we are now accepting proposals for Summit 2025, taking place November 20-22, 2025 in Montreal, QC. 

Each year, CBRC brings together diverse voices, impactful research, and innovative strategies to improve health outcomes for 2S/LGBTQIA+ communities. Whether your work is in community health promotion, research, or grassroots advocacy, we want to hear from you.

We welcome submissions from individuals, organizations, and experts across various disciplines, including healthcare providers, researchers, Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers, community activists, and policymakers. This is your opportunity to showcase your work and offer practical strategies to transform healthcare for queer individuals in your community. At Summit 2025, you can engage, educate, and empower participants to influence the future of 2S/LGBTQIA+ health.

First-time presenters are encouraged to apply. If you need assistance preparing your proposal, please contact us at [email protected].

Important Dates

• Proposal submission deadline: 11:59 PM Pacific Time on July 6, 2025 
• Notification of acceptance: End of August 2025

Ready to submit your proposal? Click here: https://pretalx.com/summit2025/cfp 

We look forward to your submissions!

Summit 2025 Theme

We are proud to announce that the 2025 Summit theme is: Convergence & Emergence.

Summit 2025 Narrative

As researchers, educators, service providers, and advocates who work in queer, trans, and Two-Spirit health promotion, our dedication to 2S/LGBTQIA+ people and communities is core to who we are. It’s what unites us and brings us together. We wouldn’t dedicate our careers, and our lives, to helping others in our community live healthier and more affirming lives if we did not believe that queer, trans, and Two-Spirit people need and deserve access to better care and support. And that our work makes a difference in improving health and well-being for 2S/LGBTQIA+ people and the diverse communities we live in.

In the year since the last Summit, 2S/LGBTQIA+ activists and advocates have continued to sound the alarm on rising homophobia and transphobia in Canada and around the world, including the erasure of trans, non-binary, and gender diverse identities, experiences, and people. At the same time, we’re also witnessing wider attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion, harm reduction, sexual and reproductive health, immigration, and on many other social justice issues and movements, raising the spectre of funding cuts and disruptions to programs or services, if not outright government hostility. 

In response, queer, trans, and Two-Spirit people are showing up for each other. When we pool our resources and spheres of influence, we emerge stronger and more able to advance our community’s health and well-being. In this moment with heightened concerns about the shifting social, economic, and political context for 2S/LGBTQIA+ health and human rights, we must remind ourselves that this is the work that we’ve always done. We must remember that generations of queer people past and present have been doing the work to challenge homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, and many intersecting oppressions. Whether in the streets, the courts, the classrooms, the clinics, or our homes, we have been doing the work.

In this time of increasing uncertainty and of growing pressure on the work of 2S/LGBTQIA+ service providers, researchers, advocates, and community organizers, we must remind ourselves and each other of the need and value of our work. It means being able to share and tell stories of the positive impact of our research, health promotion, and advocacy in queer, trans, and Two-Spirit people’s lives. Amid funding cuts and challenges facing 2S/LGBTQIA+ community organizations and providers, it’s imperative to reflect on why it matters for us to do the work, and to have a growing network of 2S/LGBTQIA+ community-based organizations, researchers, and services. 

Doing the work also means that we look back, look forward, and also, look in the mirror. 2S/LGBTQIA+ health research, promotion, and advocacy have not always understood or reflected the needs of everyone in our communities. There have always been individuals, groups, and organizations who have made moves for this to change. Then, and now, we must put intersectionality into practice: understanding how systems of oppression impact us in distinct ways, and commit to do the work in a way that recognizes distinct needs. Here’s where reflexivity, relationality, and solidarity come in. As trans visual artist Micah Bazant said, “No pride for some of us without liberation for all of us.” If convergence is us coming together, then emergence is when we depart as something better and more durable than our individual parts. This process of assembly and renewal has always been at the heart of Summit, and is now as necessary as ever.

In these times, more than ever, we have to ask ourselves: 

• What are our obligations to each other, our families, communities, and lands, and how can we show up for each other?
• What can we learn from our struggles and our successes? 
• How can we honour the work done by people in our communities—service providers, researchers, and community members and organizers—who help create a better world for queer, trans, and Two-Spirit people?

Whatever 2S/LGBTQIA+ health goal we work towards—accessible and affordable medications and care, better and more accessible health data, lower transmission rates, or better mental health outcomes—also works to improve health for all. When we make our health systems work better for 2S/LGBTQIA+ people, we make the system work better for everyone. 

For Summit 2025, we’re moving to Montréal/Tiohtià:ke—a first after 20 successful years in Vancouver/Coast Salish Territory. For two decades, we’ve been gathering in Vancouver for the Summit to share insights, to build connections, and to mobilize knowledge and evidence. But now, it’s crucial that we expand our horizons as we work to meet the challenges of this moment and beyond. 

This year, we’re thrilled to be hosting the Summit at a much larger venue (Le Centre Sheraton Montreal) over three days instead of the usual two (November 20-22, following the Two-Spirit Symposium on November 18-19). This additional capacity means new conference programming, including space for ancillary events and an exhibition hall (for conference posters as well as rentable tables or booths for community organizations, corporate sponsors, and other partners). 

Additional information including key dates regarding the conference schedule, ancillary events, exhibition, and sponsorship opportunities will be shared in early June along with the launch of Summit 2025 registration.

About Submitting a Proposal to Summit 2025

Who We're Looking For

We welcome submissions that identify and respond to 2S/LGBTQIA+ health needs, as well as promising programs or services that have a positive impact on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility for queer, trans, and Two-Spirit people and communities in Canada. Submissions can be based on:

• Research
• Programs or services
• Policy initiatives
• Advocacy and activism
• Art-based approaches
• Personal lived experiences and stories
• Community-based actions, grassroots responses, and organizing

Presentation Formats:

Through a variety of session formats, the Summit aims to foster dialogue among participants and presenters on latest research, programming, and advocacy work by and for 2S/LGBTQIA+ people. Summit sessions can be any format that you propose, including formats listed below:

• Short oral presentation: Presenters deliver 12-15 minute presentations on a topic. Summit organizers will group presentations under a common theme together as a one-panel session. The session will conclude with a question and answer period between participants and all presenters in the session.

• Roundtable discussion: One presenter, or multiple presenters, presents on a topic and leads a discussion with participants in a 90-minute session.

• Talking Circle: Facilitated sessions (90-minute) where participants learn, listen, and actively participate in discussions on a specific topic.

• Workshop: As part of a 90-minute session, workshops aim to build the capacity of Summit participants in specific skills. Workshops are facilitated as interactive sessions.

• Panel: Panels bring together multiple experts on one subject, concept, or theme over a 90-minute session. Panel presenters each give their unique insight into the topic with short oral presentations, and the session concludes with a question and answer period between participants and presenters.
• Poster Presentation: The presenter submits a poster to be displayed at the conference. An interactive conference reception session featuring all posters will be hosted, and will allow poster presenters the chance to interact with participants and answer questions.

We welcome and encourage submissions on non-traditional presentation formats, including art-based approaches. If there is a format that works best for you that you do not see listed above, please let us know! We are always happy to incorporate new ways of presenting and exchanging information into the Summit. If you have questions or concerns about which presentation type is the best fit for your proposal, please reach out to [email protected] for assistance.

Selection Process:

All proposals are reviewed by a panel of external Summit Programming Committee members and CBRC staff. Reviewers are located across the country and represent diverse lived experiences, reflecting the Summit’s “by us and for us” approach. All proposals will be evaluated based on their alignment with the Summit 2025 theme and how well they answer the questions posed in the proposal submission form.

Speaker Benefits & Logistics: 

Summit presenters are required to register and cover their own travel and accommodation costs, but will be given a 25% discount on registration fees. Limited financial support may be made available to presenters who do not receive funding support to participate in the Summit. Additional information regarding potential scholarships will be released when registration is launched in June.

Summit 2025 registration rates, without discount, are:

What’s New for Summit 2025:

Summit 2025 will be hosted at a much larger venue (Le Centre Sheraton Montreal) and will be held over three days instead of the usual two days (November 20-22, following the Two-Spirit Symposium on November 18-19). It will definitely feel roomier than in previous years!

This additional capacity in our schedule and physical space means new conference programming, including hosting additional ancillary events and an exhibition hall (for conference posters as well as rentable tables or booths for community organizations, corporate sponsors, and other partners). Additional information including key dates regarding the conference schedule, ancillary events, exhibit, and sponsorship opportunities will be shared in early June along with the launch of Summit 2025 registration. If you are interested in organizing an ancillary event or having a booth in our exhibition hall, please contact us at [email protected].

Questions?

For any questions or additional information, please contact us directly at [email protected].

Submit Your Proposal:

Submit your proposal at https://pretalx.com/summit2025/cfp. You'll need to sign up for a Pretalx account if you don’t have one already!

Disponible en français.