Who We Are

We are a team of volunteers working together over the years to support the cause of queer and trans newcomers and refugees. We have all been personally impacted by the experience of immigration and we would like to give back to the many communities we belong to.

Danny Ramadan

Danny Ramadan is a Syrian-Canadian author and LGBTQ-refugees advocate. His latest novel, The Foghorn Echoes (Penguin - 2022) won the Lambda Award for Gay Fiction, and is shortlisted for the BC & Yukon Book awards. The Clothesline Swing (Nightwood - 2017) is translated to multiple languages. His award-winning children’s series The Salma Books is released by AnnickPress. It includes picture book Salma the Syrian Chef (2020), and early chapters books Salma Makes a Home and Salma Writes a Book (2023). He is expected to release his memoir Crooked Teeth in 2024. His short stories and essays have appeared in publications across North America and Europe. Since his arrival to Canada, Ramadan has raised over $300,000 for LGBTQ+ identifying refugees.

Matthew Ramadan

Matthew is Danny’s husband, having been together since 2016 and married in 2019. They lived in downtown Vancouver together until 2022 when they moved to New Westminster to have a yard for their French Bulldog, Freddie. They now eagerly await the arrival of their second fur child, yet to be named.

Born in Saskatchewan, Matthew grew up living between the UAE and the West Coast of Canada. He settled back in Canada to attend university at UVIC, graduating with a BA in Economics (minor in Computer Science) in 2008.

Matthew initially worked in banking, then in 2011 he became an independent Financial Advisor with his own wealth management practice working directly with clients. Matthew became a Certified Financial Planner in 2014, and then a Chartered Life Underwriter in 2020 (estate planning specialist designation).

Cee Rouhana

Cee has been Danny's friend for the past thirteen years.

He joined the event's team in 2016 after he moved to Vancouver.

He started on the reception and now helps in the presentation and organization of the event.

Bradley Babcock

A good friend of Danny and Matthew and supporter of EID over the past few years.

Bradley has worked for a number of years creating fun and exciting environments in TV and Film as a Set Decorator. When asked to help with the decor in bringing Damascus to life here in Vancouver, he couldn't have been more excited to collaborate with Danny to submerge our guests into a lovely evening in Damascus.

Cristie Rosling

Cristie Rosling is the owner of Umbrella Events, a Vancouver-based wedding and event planning company that specializes in LGBTQ+ events. Cristie brings over 10 years of event planning experience to the table.

She first met Danny when she coordinated his wedding and is excited to be reunited with him for An Evening in Damascus.

Aran Mo

Aran was born in Tehran, capital of Iran. He started to DJing at the age of 19 in the underground party scene of Iran. After moving to Istanbul at the age of 27 he started his professional carrier in music by playing at many well-known venues in Istanbul, and working as a resident Dj for some of them. Aran recently moved to Vancouver and hope to bring his taste to the city.

With his music Aran tries to push the boundaries of electronic music and iazz to combine the two and produce the perfect tunes that penetrate the body and soul for the new generation. He hopes to spread the word about the Iranian DJ scene and introduce the underground music scene of ran to the rest of the world.