User:Aarond8/sandbox

Ahmed Danny Ramadan (born 1984) is a Syrian-Canadian novelist, public speaker, and LGBTQ-refugee activist who was born in Damascus, Syria. In a Vice Media interview in 2016, Ramadan talked about the underground work he used to do to support and sometimes house queer individuals while he lived in Damascus. He later elaborated on this experience in a 2018 interview and stated "I turned my house [in Damascus] into an underground LGBTQ centre... it was actually quite the loving community until I was arrested for it." Ramadan mentioned in a separate interview to The Media Line, that he was arrested at the airport by Syrian officials and held for six weeks. After his release, he was declared a persona non grata by the Syrian government and as a result he immigrated to Lebanon as a refugee in 2012. Eventually, Ramadan was granted asylum in Canada, and in September 2014 he immigrated to Vancouver, British Columbia. By 2015, Ramadan already began working at Qmunity, a queer resource center in British Columbia. Around the same time Ramadan was working for Qmunity, he started volunteering for the Rainbow Refugee Society which describes itself as, "a Vancouver based community group that helps individuals seeking refugee protection in Canada based on sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression (SOGIE) or HIV status.". While volunteering at the Rainbow Refugee Society, Ramadan helped organize and support the sponsorship of Syrian refugees. Since May 2015, Ramadan has also run an annual fundraiser known as An Evening in Damascus. The goals of the fundraiser are to introduce the community to authentic Syrian culture and heritage, build a safe space for Syrian Queer and Trans refugees to celebrate their identity, offer opportunities to foster friendship and integration between Syrian Queer and Trans newcomers and LGBTQ2+ Canadian community members, and fundraise for private sponsorships. Through the fundraiser, Ramadan has raised over $150,000 for LGBTQ-identifying refugees, and he has helped 23 individuals obtain refugee protection in Canada. Ramadan speaks publicly about issues related to gay Syrian refugees, and he has expressed his views as a speaker at conferences and conventions such as TedxSFU, Qmunity's IDAHOT Breakfast, the Liberal Party Convention, and Six Degrees Conference. Ramadan used to write a bi-weekly column for Daily Xtra between 2012 and 2016, covering topics such as what it's like to live as a refugee in another country, and how to integrate LGBTQ refugees into Canadian society.

Since November 2016, Ramadan has served as Director-at-large for the board of Vancouver Pride Society, and as of 2019, Ramadan now serves as Director for the board of the Rainbow Railroad.

In 2016, Ramadan was honored as the grand marshal of the Vancouver Pride Festival for his work supporting LGBTQ-refugees and newcomers. In 2017, he was awarded the Social Activist StandOut Award by the Vancouver Pride Society for his social-activist work. That same year he was also picked as one of the 25 Top Immigrants to Canada by Canadian Immigrant. In 2018, he was a recipient of the 2018 Bonham Centre Award from the Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies.