This is the view looking east on Howard Street toward Bleecker from Sherbourne St. In eight months living here, I have never seen the sun come up before today and I'm an early riser!
3.28.2009
Good Morning Toronto
This is the view looking east on Howard Street toward Bleecker from Sherbourne St. In eight months living here, I have never seen the sun come up before today and I'm an early riser!
BC Newspaper list!
BC Newspaper list!
Are you looking for the email and or web address of BC Newspapers for the upcoming provincial election? Here is a list I found on the BC Liberal website where they are asking supporters to write in support of the Gordon Campbell Liberal government. You should note that any British Columbian can write using these addresses! Get to it progressive minds in Lotus Land!
3.25.2009
Another BC Liberal gets out
Another BC Liberal gets out
Liberal MLA Dan Jarvis (North Vancouver-Seymour) has announced he's not seeking re-election.
Late last year he had announced he wanted a 5th term prior to undergoing major heart surgery, if his health permitted it.
You may remember in 2005 Jarvis faced a nomination battle, seemingly encouraged by the Liberal party, from Cindy Silver who was the executive director of the Christian Legal Fellowship for two years in the 1990s and on staff at Focus on the Family.
Wishing him well in retirement and Carol James a new MLA on the North Shore.
3.23.2009
Vermont Senate Votes for gay marriage
Vermont Senate Votes for gay marriage
Just moments ago, the Vermont State Senate voted with overwhelming support to pass S.115 - the bill to legalize same-sex marriage in Vermont. 26 Senators of the thirty total, cast their vote in support of marriage equality.
The issue now goes to the State House of Representatives next week for a vote where it is expected to pass easily. The Governor could still veto it, though that seems unlikely.
Senators who voted for Gay marriage
Vermont's Freedom to Marry organization is asking people to contact their local Senator (in Vermont) and thank them for supporting legislation to legalize same-sex marriage.
Text of the Bill can be found here An Act to Protect Religious Freedom and Promote Equality in Civil Marriage.
Active U.S. Hate Groups
Active U.S. Hate Groups
The following is
a very useful resource in identifying hate activity in the USA. 926 active hate groups in the United States in 2008 according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Does anyone know of a similar resource in Canada? Active U.S. Hate Groups
The Southern Poverty Law Center counted 926 active hate groups in the United States in 2008. Only organizations and their chapters known to be active during 2008 are included.
All hate groups have beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics.
This list was compiled using hate group publications and websites, citizen and law enforcement reports, field sources and news reports.
A thought!
A thought ...
When I am around Gay assimilationists, I often feel like I'm associating with straight men, and I'm reminded of Gay author James Baldwin's warning that when a minority group attempts to assimilate, it always does so totally on the terms of the dominant culture. And Gay men are being accepted by hetero culture to the extent that they look, behave and think just like straight men, in the process becoming dispirited people.
EXCERPT FROM GAY PEOPLE AT A CRITICAL CROSSROADS:
ASSIMILATION OR AFFIRMATION By Don Kilhefne
3.22.2009
stealth attack
stealth attack
Queer Thoughts will soon be posting information primarily on the Harper government appointments. Several key anti gay, anti social net conservatives have recently been appointed to the highest levels of government. These people are from within the evangelical community and have long histories of opposing gay rights, refugees, child care, equal pay for equal work, progressive tax law, and are supportive of the war in Iraq, Afghanistan and defend Israel in every action against their neighbours.
You already know of some of these people but may have forgotten about them as they work very quietly generally. Part of a stealth attack on The Charter of Rights and Freedoms much like their infamous and oft successful campaigns to get on school boards and municipal councils.
Some names you may know are -- Darrel Reid, the former head of Focus on the Family Canada -- Douglas Cryer, the former director of public policy for The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada -- Paul Wilson the former executive director of Trinity Western University's Laurentian Leadership Centre in Ottawa.There are many more. If you have a name or information about any of the Harper Government appointments, send me an email in confidence. Let's take the wrapping off the Harper Government's "Middle of the Road" scam.
3.18.2009
Ottawa Sex Scandal or was it a White Slavery Ring
Ottawa Sex Scandal or was it a White Slavery Ring
As was common in this country, homosexuals were subject to police arrest, merely by being in the company of other Homosexuals. During the dates of March 3 - 20, 1975, Ottawa police carried out a large coordinated crackdown on homosexuals. Eighteen people were arrested and later found their names in print or read on the National news even those that were not charged.
On March 3 Michel Gravel, twenty-one, was arrested for running two male nude modeling agencies that were used as a front for a prostitution service involving teenage boys. Seventeen other men, all but one customers of the agencies, were arrested over the next three weeks and charged with contributing to juvenile delinquency, gross indecency, or buggery. None of the prostitutes was charged. The media sensationalized the "Ottawa Sex Scandal," calling the agencies a "white slavery ring" and a "homosexual vice ring."One individual, Warren Zufelt, a homosexual that worked for the federal government committed suicide after his name appeared in the paper.
Zufelt, a 34-year old civil servant, threatened to commit suicide if his name were published. On March 18, 1975 his name was published. He jumped to his death from his 13-story apartment building.
The media sensationalized the "Ottawa Sex Scandal," calling the agencies a "white slavery ring" and a "homosexual vice ring." The names, ages, addresses, and occupations of those arrested were published or reported not only locally, but in newspapers across the country and on national radio.
Two days after the tragic death of Zufelt, GO (Gays of Ottawa) organized a march on the Ottawa Journal and Police Headquarters...
On March 20, GO organized marches against police headquarters and the offices of the Ottawa foumal to protest police persecution of gays and biased reporting in the media, and to urge passing of a uniform age of consent law for all sexual acts.You can read more of this account here.
This issue is important today as we are still fighting the government over the issue of age of consent. The Police went after these men and laid weightier charges against them than was common in prostitution cases involving hetrosexuals. Most commonly, police would charge people with being found-ins. Age of consent at the time was 19 for homosexual sex.
The police in this instance as was often the case treated homosexuality with distain and contempt. I will have more on this in another post in the coming days.
of note: According to a CBC document, in 1975 only 24% of Canadians approved of same sex relationships. The times were certainly dire even after the famed words of former Justice Minister, Pierre Trudeau, "the State has no business in the bedrooms of the nation."
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