Funds raised in Josh's memory his legacy for LGBTQ2S+ youth

DETAILS

Joshua Brown Speak-OUT! Fundraiser and Drag ShowSaturday, Aug. 7

Doors open at 7:30 p.m. with the fun and entertainment starting at 8 p.m.

Fabulous performances and touching tributes by some local favourites. Hear from the Brown family, meet the team behind CHEW, and come together with the LGBTQ2S+ community and suicide-loss survivors in a meaningful way.

Performers currently scheduled to appear include Vanity Fair, Andra Jini, GoDiva, Bianca Lovegood, Jennie Talia, Irena Cox, Honey Dijon, Lady Tenderflake, Selena Cuchina, and Miss Steak.

Evolution Wonderlounge, 10220 103 St. in Edmonton

Tickets are $10 for general admission or $20 for reserved seating (plus fees) through Eventbrite

100 per cent of ticket sales and 33 per cent of all sales during the event will be donated to the CHEW Project

Visit facebook.com/events/494781021703200 for more information. *Please note that EVO customers can park in the Revillon parkade on 104th Street for free during the month of August. Just ask security on arrival for the code to scan and sign in your car.

Who Josh was

To hear Ashley Brown talk about her brother Joshua is to immediately get the sense that he was a young man full of life – someone who was loved and valued; someone who lived surrounded by friends while making new friends at every turn. To hear her glowing words coupled with the phrase: "died by suicide" is a head-shaking tragedy. It doesn't make sense.

“He was larger than life. As early as he was able to walk, he was full of life. He had to investigate everything. He had to know about it. No matter who, no matter what, no matter where … he had to experience it,” said Ashley, who listed off his endless interests: nature, science, travel, movies, being in the outdoors, and more.

Josh was 13 when he came out as gay. His sexuality was not going to be what defined him, but rather his assertiveness, self-assuredness, and straightforwardness. He did not want to wait for the world to be ready for him. He wanted to be who he was, and help others be themselves, too.

“Even at that young age, he knew that he did not want hide who he was as a person, and that included his sexual identity,” his father Mark wrote in an email to The Gazette. “His decision that day set in motion a life that was to be lived being true to himself, no matter the consequences. It also began a life of activism for the LGBTQ2S+ community.”

Doing so was an act of empowerment, with added emphasis on power. Growing up in St. Albert, he was bullied throughout his childhood and teen years, so he steam-rolled through his high-school studies, becoming a hair stylist at 17, and later a server before expanding his ever-eclectic tastes for work and the world. With his intelligence and aptitudes, he became a successful manager in the construction industry, traveled through Asia, and returned to Edmonton to attend MacEwan University to study for his Commerce degree.

Ashley admitted that his vivacity belied the plagues of his personality and his personal life. He was out as a teen but he didn't have the community resources or the mental-health support network to manage everything as he moved into adulthood. Those early experiences of being bullied and facing added social pressures as a teen carried over and multiplied into his 20s.

“He inspired me. He was very, very cultured … highly intelligent. He just had a devilish sense of humour. I think that when everything happened, we were all so very in shock,” she said.

Mental-health struggles and a substance-abuse problem had a hold on him over the last few years, before he finally couldn't break their grip. "His depression kicked into overdrive," Ashley said. "There's not a lot of coping mechanisms there outside of substance abuse for people."

He committed suicide in February 2020, a few days before he was meant to get into a treatment program.

As outspoken as Josh was, his own mental health was something he did not easily open up about. He was somebody others gravitated toward, whether they were up or down. If they were sad, Ashley said, he would make them feel great, herself included. But it was a one-way street.

"In my mind, I see tremendous value in creating a safe space for people to talk about suicide without stigma. I asked him about his mental health and asked him about the resources that he might have while my parents were away. He got very embarrassed and very shy and kind of shut down and said he was fine," she said.

His legacy, CHEW, and a fab fundraiser

The Brown family has teamed up with Josh's many friends to put together a special event to celebrate his life, to give voice to stories that need to be spoken, stories that need to be heard by more and more people, and to help keep an important new downtown Edmonton drop-in centre going.

On Saturday, Aug. 7, Evolution Wonderlounge is hosting a fundraiser for the CHEW Project (Community Health Empowerment and Wellness). The CHEW OutPost is a safe space at 11725 Jasper Ave. for all non-heterosexual-identifying youths aged 14 to 29. For two years now, it has created families out of strangers and helped in a way where no other harm-reduction centre or crisis centre can.

Corey Wyness, project co-ordinator and community mental-health worker at CHEW, said the complex issues of mental health, poverty, substance use, and homelessness reach an added level of challenge when a person is 2SLGBTQ+.

"Our folks are very much an invisible population in the city," he said, adding that other shelters aren't necessarily friendly for all. "They face homophobia and transphobia. A lot of times our folks will go to the shelter and they get bullied by other youths. They get beat up. It's not safe for them. They don't tend to even go to shelters and so they just wander around without having a place to go to. OutPost is a place where they don't have to worry about any of that. They can just be themselves and thrive in environments that [are] safe for them."

"When you walk in here, it's just like having a family," Wyness said.

When someone drops in to OutPost, they can hang out, they can talk to a friendly social worker, and they can even get help when their thoughts turn to suicidal ideation, or talk about their substance use and get immediate assistance.

According to the Centre for Suicide Prevention, lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth are five times more likely to consider suicide and seven times more likely to attempt it than their straight peers.

These are just a few big reasons why OutPost needs to exist, but mostly it goes back to its atmosphere of a supportive family; it's a place where 2SLGBTQ+ youths can feel safe and free to be themselves, talk openly, and be loved.

It even does more than that, according to Wyness.

"I think that the main thing is it just it provides hope for people. That's a big thing. If someone has hope they're going to be resilient and thrive."

For Ashley, she said there's no question her brother touched people's lives, and that's why it's so important for his name to be emblazoned on this event as a flagbearer for the CHEW OutPost. It's because Josh Brown helped others to have hope and make their lives better.

"He really gave the confidence and encouraged people who were struggling with their identity to come out and be who they wanted to be, and this is all from age 13. I think my brother touched a lot of lives and I want to see that carry on now that he is gone," she said.