Tim Stevenson

Career

He is an openly gay City Councillor. Stevenson received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of British Columbia, a Master of Arts, Spirituality from Holy Names College in Oakland, Californiawith Matthew Fox and a M.Div from the Vancouver School of Theology. Stevenson was the first openly gay person to be ordained in Canada.

In 1993 he began his ministry at Saint Paul"s United Church in Burnaby, He also served as a board member at the First United Church in the Downtown Eastside for 10 years.

Stevenson has worked in the Philippines and South Africa. In 1994 he was an International Observer in South Africa"s first election after the fall of apartheid.

Also in South Africa he has worked with the Black Liberation Gay and Lesbian Movement and other organizations that focus on social injustices. He was the first openly gay M.L.A. elected in British Columbia.

He served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health as well as the Deputy Speaker of the House.

Between 2000-2001 he held a Cabinet position as Minister for Employment and Investment. He was the first openly gay Cabinet Minister (either Provincial or Federal)in Canada. Cabinet Minister in Canada.

He lost his Provincial seat in 2001 to the British Columbia Liberals.

In 2002 he was elected to the Vancouver City Council in British Columbia. When gay marriage became legalized in British Columbia, Tim Stevenson performed the first legal gay weddings in the Province.

In 2014 Stevenson represented the City of Vancouver as Deputy Mayor at the Sochi Olympics. He met with the President" General’ s Office of the International Olympics Committee urging them to add "sexual orientation" to the Olympic Charter.

They subsequently did southern

Stevenson was a candidate in the 2005 British Columbia Provincial Election, again in Vancouver-Burrard. Conflicting results throughout election night had both Stevenson and Mayencourt declared the victor at different times, and the uncertainty continued for several weeks. After a judicial recount, Mayencourt was declared the victor by 11 votes.

Same sex marriage in Canada is legal, and Stevenson and Paterson were legally married in 2004.

Achievements

• In the official count of regular ballots, Stevenson was declared the winner by 17 votes. However, when absentee ballots were counted on May 30, 2005, Mayencourt was declared the winner by a margin of 18 votes. Stevenson won re-election as a City Councillor in the 2005 Vancouver municipal election as a member of Vision Vancouver, and again in the 2008 election and the 2011 election.

Politics

In 1991 he was a Canadian representative at the African National Congress Conference in Durban when Nelson Mandela was elected African National Congress party president

Membership

He is currently an elected member of the Vancouver City Council as a member of Vision Vancouver. He was a founding member of Vision Vancouver. In the 1996 Provincial election he was elected in Vancouver-Burrard to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia as a member of the British Columbia New Democratic Party.

As a member of the City Council and board member of Tourism Vancouver, he is known for modernizing Vancouver"s entertainment and tourism industry.