News Week 28 – 2014

Week 28’s News – Rob Ford is being, well, Rob Ford and more religious bigotry creeping into Canada.


Rob Ford’s ‘spendaphobic’: Mayor’s not against gays, he’s just against funding them, Doug Ford says

Asked about Mr. Ford’s controversial vote Thursday against a study on a shelter for homeless gay youth and about his refusal to join two council tributes to World Pride, Mr. Oliver said only “I have a different opinion. My opinion reflects that of our government.”
The issue of gay rights and support for gay issues has dogged Mr. Ford all week. On Friday, his brother Doug Ford tried to put it to rest. “Rob is not homophobic,” he said. “He’s spendaphobic.”
Later, Councillor Shelley Carroll, an opponent of the mayor’s, suggested he didn’t even really know what he was voting against. “If he read the report, he’d know this is a study,” she said, adding that he’s “read-the-report-a-phobic.”

Rob Ford seems homophobic. This is not exactly news, he’s a terrible Mayor, a person in need of a lot of help, and seems utterly unpleasant. I look forward to Ford vanishing from the media forever.

Source: National Post


Transgender woman files human rights complaints after detention in men’s jail

A transgender woman from London, England, who was held in a men’s jail after being detained over an apparent immigration issue in Canada has filed two human rights complaints.
Avery Edison, 26, said she has filed complaints with both the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario and the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

Excellent, let’s hope this is the case that prevents anyone in Canada being held in the wrong gendered cell blocks. It’s degrading and very dangerous.

Source:  Prince George Citizen


Transgender pianist shunned in U.S., gets career encore in Canada

After coming out, she was shut out of the conservative concert scene in the U.S. and, despite earning some money teaching children piano lessons, was on the verge of becoming homeless.
So she moved north.
“The conductors and presenters in Canada were much more open, because they hadn’t really known me,” Buechner said. “They judged me on the music itself.”
As a child growing up in suburban Baltimore, Buechner knew she was a girl as much as she knew she loved playing Mozart.

Go Canada!

Source: WhistlerQuestion


Lawyers fight N.B. law society’s Trinity Western approval

More than 120 lawyers are calling on the Law Society of New Brunswick to reverse its decision to accredit British Columbia’s Trinity Western University’s new law school.
The university plans to open a law school in 2016, but has faced criticism over a community covenant it requires students to sign that forbids sex, unless within a marriage between a man and a woman.
In British Columbia, thousands of lawyers have voted to reverse the B.C. law society’s decision to accredit Trinity Western University.
The Law Society of Upper Canada in Ontario voted against approving the law school in April, meanwhile law societies in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador and Nunavut have decided to accept Trinity Western’s graduates.

Proud of my home province BC for preventing this anti-LGBT college go ahead. It’s a shame not all provinces have done the same. It is sad when religious extremism and zealotry take precedence over humanitarian rights. We’re better than this Canada.

Source: CBC


Laverne Cox’s actress Emmy nod puts trans people in bigots’ living rooms

History was made on Thursday morning when the 2014 Primetime Emmy Award nominations were announced: they included one for Laverne Cox as Best Guest Actress. Cox, who plays Sophia Burset on Orange is the New Black, is the first out transgender woman to be nominated for an acting Emmy.
Cox is certainly deserving of the nomination: she brings a depth and humanity to the role that is more than what’s in the script.

This the second Emmy for an out transgender woman. In 2009, Michelle Poley won an Emmy for her work on CNN election night coverage. I guarantee that other transgender people have won an emmy before this. We’re everywhere.

Source: Guardian

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