A Teacher Blogs

For the last few days I've been volunteering at PrideHouseTO , which operates out of Toronto's 519 Church Street Community Centre , during the run of the 2015 Pan Am Games . The PrideHouse movement began with the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, when Pride organizers in Whistler thought international visitors might enjoy their local festivities. The idea took off, and every multi-sport international games since has hosted a PrideHouse, with the notable exception of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi .  My normal shift involves either photographing or live-tweeting events at the pavilion. Today, one of the volunteer managers asked me if I'd like to take in an event called #HUDDLE2015, at Isabel Bader Theatre, which included pairs figure skater Eric Radford  and former collegiate track athlete and VP of You Can Play , Anna Aagenes . Headlining the event mixed martial arts competitor Fallon Fox was there, the first out Trans* fighter in the sp...

John Tory isn't the first Chief Magistrate of Toronto to embrace the role of LGBTQI ally. That would be pre-amalgamation Toronto Mayor Barbara Hall, who marched in Pride as both a City Councillor and Mayor. (As a lawyer, Ms Hall had defended men arrested and charged as found-ins in the infamous 1981 bathhouse raids in Toronto.) Her successor Mel Lastman, was a reluctant participant at first, but soon got into the fun. David Miller marched with the Chief of Police. But Mr Tory, no stranger to Pride, seems right at home at #IDAHOTB. John Tory at IDAHOTB 2015 / Photo: Gordon Nore . More so than his predecessor. Rob Ford at IDAHOT 2013 / Photo: NOW Toronto Some interesting reading in this 2012 NatPo piece --  Newsmaker: How does Rob Ford's Pride Parade attendance compare to past mayors?

#Pride4Michael I haven’t been asked to lead any marches at Pride this year and, frankly, I doubt that’s ever likely to happen! Michael Coren I was wrong June 28, 2014 Toronto Pride 2013 / Photo by Gordon Nore Across Canada many communities are preparing for Pride celebrations sometime this summer. Toronto's celebration will close on Stonewall Sunday -- the last Sunday of June, marking the riots that began in the wee hours Sunday, June 28th, 1969.  It caps a weekend that includes the *Trans March on Friday evening, and Saturday's Dyke March, now in its twenty-first year. All of this comes at the end of a nine-day festival. Michael Coren's I was wrong   column came out on the day of the Dyke March at WorldPride Toronto , on Saturday, June 28th, 2014. This year, as it so happens, Toronto's big Sunday Pride parade comes on -- you guessed it -- June 28th. Since the publication of that column, Michael has been vilified by some people of faith ...

It was inevitable.  Following the airing of the Bruce Jenner interview on ABC News , the atmosphere was ripe a backlash of ugly, reactive commentary. And I suspected it would be used to buttress the non-fact-based campaign against  Ontario Health and Physical Education curriculum . What I had not expected was the ammunition would be would be the horrendous tragedy of David Reimer . Gender Identity and John Money  tells the story of David Reimer , born 1965, whose penis was irrevocably damaged in a botched circumcision, setting the stage for a life of torment and indignity, culminating with his suicide. The author of the blog post is Lou Iacobelli, a devout Catholic, parents rights advocate, and a retired teacher. In fact I took eleventh grade English with him nearly forty years ago. On the essential facts of the case, I don't dispute what Mr Iacobelli posted: Psychologist and sexologist John Money told young David's parents that he could give their chi...

Critics have scoffed at claims by Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne that they are literally taking their anger over the 2015 Health & Physical Education Curriculum to the next level -- the federal level, that is -- to bolster the fortunes of the Conservative Party of Canada. More distractions and obfuscation from the Premier, they say. In this case, Ms Wynne is absolutely right. Exhibit 1. Let's call this The Money Shot . It had everything: WorldPride 2014 in Toronto, a lesbian Premier, the Liberal Party of Canada's best hope, and a now-convicted child sex offender. It's been used to attack Pride, the Premier's Office and the new curriculum. It will get a second life when the federal election campaign begins. As a bonus, the Tories won't have to use it. The Sun and TheRebelMedia will do it for them. Exhibit 2. Cheryl Gallant She's a federal Tory with the FordNation touch, demanding that the House make federal Liberal leader Justin Trudeau orde...

S. Bear Bergman is a writer, activist, storyteller, and a publisher . He's celebrated for his creative efforts and living his life openly as a trans man. I've read some of his children's books and other writings, and I really enjoy his work. His writing can be funny and sweet, and it can also be edgy and irreverent. Bear wrote a lovely piece for HuffPo called, I Have Come to Indoctrinate Your Children Into My LGBTQ Agenda (And I'm Not a Bit Sorry) . And unless you are a person devoid of humour and imagination, you know that title is a playful bait-and-switch, along the lines of Harvey Milk's I want to recruit you speeches.  This is the indoctrination of which Bear wrote: I am here to tell you: All that time I said I wasn't indoctrinating anyone with my beliefs about gay and lesbian and bi and trans and queer people? That was a lie. All 25 years of my career as an LGBTQ activist, since the very first time as a 16-year-old I went and stood shaking a...

Just in time for Easter, Rebel Commander Ezra Levant , has a rant about religious freedom. And he's got a zippy graphic of Jesus on the cross with a pride flag in the background. When you mouse over the text link, it turns red. I point all this out because the piece pretty much goes downhill from there. Mr Levant is enunciating, as only he can, over reaction to Indiana's RFRA legislation, which has recently been modified amidst human rights complaints.  First, here's what Ezra and his vest had to say about RFRA - Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act -- SB 101 . Levant begins where apologists for the legislation begin -- by saying it is virtually identical to legislation of the same name passed under President Bill Clinton two decades ago. They're similar in name, but that's about it. The national legislation provided some protection to persons of faith who found themselves in violation of federal law in their practice of religion...

This blog continues an interesting dialogue that has begun with my eleventh-grade English teacher. Lou Iacobelli is a retired teacher, also a blogger and advocate for Catholic education and parents' rights. The discussion began when I posted, on March 15th, a response to two entries on his blog Everyday for Life Canada regarding a TDSB equity document focused on LGBTQ issues. I took umbrage with some of his assertions, posted, and linked my response to the comments section of his blog. An email exchange began. And here were are. Lou summarizes: In this post, I would like to respond to a recent entry by a teacher and a former student from my teaching days at De La Salle College here in Toronto. He says it was forty years ago. Where have all those years gone? But I digress. The entry is at "A Teacher Blogs" and tilted "The Sin of Omission." The author refers two of my posts: "The bottom line in the 'new' sex education curriculum:...