The Conseil québécois LGBT has launched an initiative to uplift underrepresented communities while homophobia and transphobia continue to rise in Quebec.
Developed with Cossette, the “Les Marches de la Fierté” (Pride Marches) interactive map invites members of the LGBTQ+ community to design their own Montreal “rainbow route,” a walking path tied to personal moments of liberation or self-acceptance. Participants can anonymously upload the route, along with the story behind it, and pin it to an interactive map to help build a network. Contributors will also have the opportunity to invite others to walk routes with them, transforming individual moments of courage into shared acts of solidarity.
Conseil, a non-profit group that advocates for LGBTQ+ rights in Quebec, says it leveraged Cossette’s experience and creative vision to ensure the stories were seen, heard and protected throughout Pride month in June and ahead of Montreal’s Pride celebrations in August.
Image courtesy of The Conseil québécois LGBT
To encourage participation, the campaign also includes a series of short-form videos featuring four community ambassadors – Lyraël, Chacha, Samya, and Javier – who recount defining walks from their own lives, from first dates to moments of openly expressing their identity. A 30-second compilation spot has also been launched on social media, along with vertical-video formats for TikTok and Instagram Stories.
Each submitted route is pinned to the map alongside the participant’s story, gradually creating what the Conseil hopes will become a living archive of everyday acts of resilience.
Conseil co-president Mylène de Repentigny Corbeil tells strategy that the campaign arrives at a critical time when 53% of transgender people are actively avoiding public spaces in fear of being harassed or assaulted. The map was the most effective strategy to convey the campaign’s uplifting message, she says, as a tangible display of reclaiming public spaces and turn fear into courage and hope.
“A video creates empathy, but a map creates a symbolic sense of belonging, solidarity, and occupancy,” Repentigny Corbeil says. “For far too many in our communities, public spaces are still synonymous with insecurity and hypervigilance. Social norms, convention and intolerance are embedded in the very landscape of our streets.”
For Repentigny Corbeil, the campaign’s extends far beyond next month’s Pride celebrations and serves to activate allyship and help people look beyond headlines, controversies and misinformed clickbait.
Chris Bergeron, VP of branded content at Cossette, says the agency drew inspiration from similar community-led projects, such as Queering the Map, by Montreal designer Lucas LaRochelle, and Refuge Restrooms, by San Francisco software engineer Teagan Widmer. Rather than requiring participants to download an app or create an account, the browser-based experience lets people either record a walk using their phone’s GPS or manually trace a route if they prefer not to share their location or aren’t able to complete the walk physically.
“The design process had one guiding rule: Never exclude anyone,” Bergeron tells strategy. “The person who declines geolocation, the one on a desktop computer, the one who can’t physically walk – everyone has a path.”
