Transgender Canadians may be offered sexless passports
NB: Some of the terminology in the article is fucked.
Source: fuckyeahgenderstudies
QBits: Police arrest anti-gay activist for his own safety
Whatcott was fined $17,500 by the Saskatchewan Human Rights Tribunal for distributing hate speech in 2005. The appeals court of SK overturned the decision in 2010 and the case is now pending before the Supreme Court of Canada. But that is obviously not slowing him down.
Q.
Whatcott goes door…
Source: calgaryherald.com
University Dean calls for teaching acceptance of LGBTQ students in Canadian schools | LGBTQNATION.com
Teaching acceptance of LGBTQ students needs to be part of the school curriculum in Canada because the majority of bullying in schools is centered in homophobic attitudes, says James McNinch, Dean of Education at the University of Regina.
“We have anti-bullying programs across this country, but very few of them point out that most bullying occurs around perceptions of people, or name-calling related to, someone being gay or lesbian,” said McNinch, who has studied how gender and sexual identity is treated in the nation’s schools.
Support programs for LGBTQ students are “hit and miss” in Canada, he said.
After the recent suicide of 15-year-old Ottawa resident Jamie Hubley, which has put homophobic bullying under intense scrutiny, McNinch warns that more students are coming out at a younger age and schools need to change their attitudes and approach to same-sex issues.
“Kids are going to continue to be coming out at a younger and younger age and schools have to be prepared to support them,” said McNinch, “Even the fact the school Jamie went to would only allow the group he wanted to start to be called a “rainbow club” means the word gay is like the elephant in the room.”
A major change to Ontario’s sex education curriculum was proposed in the summer of 2010, but Premier Dalton McGuinty backed away at the last minute after backlash from some interest groups across the province.
University of Ottawa education professor Joel Westheimer agreed with McNinch, saying many schools do not acknowledge homophobia is the backbone of a lot of bullying.
He added a lot of anti-bullying programs and promises are made on a whim after a tragic event. pointing to newly-appointed Education Minister Laurel Broten, who said Thursday she would find out if the school system could have done more to prevent Hubley’s suicide.
“Right now in schools, teachers are not given the freedom to create the closer communities that prevent this kind of bullying where students know each other in deeper relationships and teachers get to know students,” Westheimer said during a conversation on CBC Radio’s Ottawa Morning Friday.
CBC
McNinch said he believes the solution can be gay-straight alliances within schools. But often, straight female student activists are behind them and there is not enough support from teachers and administration. As a result, they often fall apart after the student graduates. But research shows any support for adolescents who choose to come out as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transsexual in high school or earlier is essential.
“I think, in schools, what we need to do is not to be afraid to name what we know is a common occurrence — and that is: people whose sexual orientation is not heterosexual,” he said. “There’s this huge gap between the romance of a Glee-type program and where you’re shoved up against the locker and called a ‘fag.’”
Canadian Parliament calls for acceptance, tolerance in wake of gay teen’s suicide | LGBTQNATION.com
In a speech before the House Of Commons on Thursday, Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, told the gathered Members of Parliament and ministers that there is no place in the nation’s schools for the bullying that drove an openly a gay Ottawa teen take his own life.
On Oct. 14, Jamie Hubley, 15, committed suicide — according to Jamie’s father, Allan Hubley, an Ottawa city Councillor, “bullying was definitely a factor” in his son’s death.
First Gay Couples Married in Canada Celebrate Tenth Anniversary
Today is the tenth anniversary of marriage equality in Canada:
Two same-sex Canadian couples who made international headlines and North American history by being the first to be legally married, will renew their vows, along with 50 others, in a 10th-anniversary celebration Friday.
Joe Varnell and Kevin Bourassa, along with Anne and Elaine Vautour, were the first same-sex couples to be married in Toronto at Riverdale’s Metropolitan Community Church on Jan. 14, 2001.
Happy anniversary from the dark ages!
Canadian School Board Member Compares Gay-Straight Alliances to Sex Clubs
The Halton Catholic School Board in Ontario has been under international pressure for the past few weeks, after the board moved to ban all gay-straight alliances in the district.
One board member, Alice Anne LeMay, even said that it would be morally wrong for the board to allow gay-straight alliances, just like it would be morally wrong for the school to recognize clubs for Nazis.
Nothing like comparing gay students to Nazis to get the makings of a giant controversy. And sure enough, community outcry actually pressured the board to revisit their ban on gay-straight alliances last night at a policy committee meeting. During the meeting (which Xtra’s Andrea Houston covered extensively), board members decided to take a second look at what’s known as their equity and inclusive education policy. A vote will happen on Tuesday, January 18, where board members will decide whether to keep the gay-straight alliance ban in effect, or dump it and come up with something more consistent with community standards and Ontario’s Human Rights code.
Of course, not to be outdone by LeMay’s Nazi reference, another member of the Halton Catholic Board took the opportunity last night to weigh in with her thoughts about gay-straight alliances. That would be Jane Michael, who told Xtra that she hopes the gay-straight ban stays in place, because youth groups for LGBT people are nothing more than sex clubs.
“A homosexual lifestyle … is not in accordance with the Catholic Church,” Michael said. “Why can’t heterosexual students have a club? I don’t think sex clubs should be in school.”
First Nazis, now sex clubs. And the hole the Halton Catholic School Board is digging for itself — not to mention the international reputation the board is carving — gets bigger.
Sarah Kelly, a student teacher in Ontario and an activist behind a Facebook page opposing the gay-straight alliance ban in Halton, told the Globe and Mail that there’s an overarching concern here that government tax dollars go toward supporting Catholic schools. Board leaders have every right to oppose homosexuality as part of their faith. But discriminating against LGBT students is inconsistent with the Human Rights Code put forward by the Ontario government, which makes for a sticky situation where discriminatory policies could end up being rewarded with government funding.
“They’re trying to find a way to legalize homophobia funded by public dollars,” Kelly told the Globe and Mail, noting that even if the Board moves to remove the ban on gay-straight alliances next week, there could still be some ambiguity about what the official policy of the school board is.
And that’s partly because Catholic Bishops in Ontario have weighed in, saying that gay-straight alliances are inappropriate for high school students. Because providing a safe space for LGBT students to learn and turn to for support is somehow contrary to Catholic principles.
Given that the vote is officially next Tuesday on whether to overturn the gay-straight alliance ban, now is the time to step up the pressure on Halton. This story has already received some much international attention, from a dedicated page on Facebook to a shout out from Perez Hilton. The board should know that the world is watching, and wondering whether Halton will be a place where gay students can be compared to Nazis or where gay youth groups can be called sex clubs, or whether gay students will have the capacity to learn in a supportive, inclusive school setting.
Source: gayrights.change.org
Gay Marriage Objectors Lose in Canada
An appeals court in Canada’s Saskatchewan province has ruled that marriage commissioners cannot opt out of performing same-sex nuptials because of religious objections.
The decision is in response to a proposed law, which had two versions: One would allow any marriage commissioner to not perform a same-sex wedding because of his or her religion; the other version would allow commissioners to opt out of performing a same-sex ceremony only if they were commissioners before Canada enacted marriage equality in 2004.
The Monday ruling declared that both versions run contrary to Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
“Either of them, if enacted, would violate the equality rights of gay and lesbian individuals,” the ruling stated. “This violation would not be reasonable and justifiable within the meaning of s. 1 of the Charter. As a result, if put in place, either option would be unconstitutional and of no force or effect.”
Read the full story here.
Gay Newspaper Boxes Vandalized in Vancouver
Police in Vancouver, Canada, are investigating the possibility of hate-motivated vandalism following damage to distribution boxes for the gay Canadian newspaper Xtra.
According to The Globe and Mail, no other publication boxes were vandalized, and a police spokeswoman said the damage against Xtra looks “targeted.”
“She said police are hoping surveillance video will provide some clues,” reported The Globe and Mail. “The newspaper boxes were primarily damaged in the city’s downtown core between Dec. 25 and Dec. 29. In most of the cases, the glass door was smashed.”
A senior manager for the newspaper said the vandalism would cost the free publication about $3,000. Xtra boxes were targeted in Ottawa in 2006 at a cost of more than $10,000.
2.5% of Vancouver’s Gays Are Walking Around Thinking They’re HIV-Negative When They Aren’t
Gay men in the United States aren’t the only ones with frightening statistics about how many of them are HIV-positive and don’t even know it: One in 40 gays in Vancouver don’t know they’re carrying the virus.
The Black & Blue Festival is the world’s largest gay-benefit dance festival, attracting thousands of tourists to Montreal every Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, which raises money for HIV/AIDS and the gay community. It is organized annually by the Bad Boy Club Montréal (aka BBCM and Fondation BBCM).
Source: pansexualpride
The Black & Blue Festival is the world’s largest gay-benefit dance festival, attracting thousands of tourists to Montreal every Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, which raises money for HIV/AIDS and the gay community. It is organized annually by the Bad Boy Club Montréal (aka BBCM and Fondation BBCM).
Source: pansexualpride
