Interligne x Bota Bota

“In the current political climate, we are always afraid to imagine the future. Seeing companies that dare to be visible, that show their affiliation with the LGBTQ+ community, really helps us a lot with turnover and with the social climate in general,” explains Jade Lepage, coordinator of philanthropic development at Interligne.

Bota Bota proudly belongs to these companies mentioned by Jade. The reason is that 30% of the management team on site is part of the LGBTQ+ community, not to mention the crew members who come from this diversity. Discussions on topics that affect them happen daily.

To dedicate time to the cause, the marketing team at Bota Bota joined the teams at Interligne on a rainy day in March to help them implement several projects.

Originally called Gai Écoute, Interligne was founded in 1980 to primarily assist gay people through a volunteer telephone helpline. “At that time, homosexuality was barely decriminalized. Gai Écoute was therefore a listening ear for isolated individuals,” Jade specifies. This service also extended to the families and loved ones of those concerned, who sought specific information.

At that time, issues related to queer, trans, and non-binary individuals were rarely, if ever, discussed. “These people were invisible back then,” Jade continues. Over the years, Gai Écoute became an increasingly important organization, and in 2017, a name change became a natural step. Interligne was born out of a need to make these services accessible and visible to the entire LGBTQ+ community.

The importance of an organization like Interligne lies in the glaring lack of protection for individuals from this community. “They are quite isolated. Social rights are not necessarily guaranteed for them,” laments Jade. “Coming out is a reality that is out of the norm for many people.” The volunteers and employees of Interligne are trained in sexology, psychology, and social work to provide a mental health resource for those in need.

During this half-day of volunteering, Bota Bota employees helped gather materials that Interligne uses for awareness-raising in schools and community centers. “The more people talk about us, the more we get requests for this kind of material,” Jade happily reports. They also assembled documents given to participants at the launch of a Canadian survey on the mental health of the LGBTQ+ population versus the non-LGBTQ+ population.

To learn more about Interligne, visit: https://interligne.co/