We proudly fly the rainbow flag at our Toronto home to show our support for queer rights but we were targeted three times. The message was loud and clear, so we put up more flags in more places.
homophobia
Bashing the rainbow flag
Queer bashing is on the rise in Toronto. Unfortunately, I've seen the evidence first hand.
This fall, the rainbow flags my partner and I display on our home and car were systematically torn down, ripped up or stolen. Initially, I felt irritated and annoyed, brushing off the incident as the likely handiwork of some queerphobic kids. After the second incident I began to feel watched and targeted. The message of queerphobia and hate was loud and clear.
After the third incident -- I'm angry.
Sasha: Questioning sexual orientation and getting an IUD
Dear Sasha,
I'm a 30 year-old man and I've had a bit of a recurring problem that I first became aware of back in high school. The girl I was in love with at the time asked if I might find men attractive. I think my answer was along the lines of "Well, I could point out which I think are better looking than others, but that doesn't mean I want to make out with him or fuck him".
Sasha: Easy does it
Dear Sasha,
My boyfriend and I have been together for about a year and a half. We're totally in love, committed to each other, have an open and fluent line of communication and plan to spend the rest of our lives together.
I'm bisexual and would love to share that side of me, and another woman, with my boyfriend.
In the beginning of our relationship it was such a turn-on for me to hear stories about him with past lovers and his attraction to other women, but now that our relationship has gotten more serious, I've become possessive and jealous when he expresses this attraction. It now puts a knot in my stomach.
Lt. Dan Choi is discharged from the U.S. military
"As we mark the end of America's combat mission in Iraq," President Barack Obama said this week, "a grateful America must pay tribute to all who served there." He should have added, "unless you're gay," because, despite his rhetoric, weeks earlier the commander in chief fired one of those Iraq vets: Lt. Dan Choi.
Choi was an Iraq War veteran, a graduate of West Point and a trained Arabic linguist. I ran into Choi the day after he received his official discharge. We were at the Netroots Nation conference in Las Vegas, a gathering of thousands of bloggers, activists and journalists.
Though Choi had known the discharge was coming, he was still shaken to the core. He took out his phone and showed me the letter he was e-mailed.
The fruit machine
Though given the nickname from a simple slot machine, the Canadian fruit machine was anything but benign. It was a top secret system of persecution and oppression of queer Canadians, spurred by homophobia . It involved the calculated and systemic demotion and firing of queers in the civil service by the RCMP.
Context
January 6, 2012 |
Hate crimes against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered individuals continue to climb, with 74% of these crimes being violent in nature.
Gay Blood Ban
In the 1980s Health Canada instated a new policy which banned any man who has ever had sex with another man since 1977 from donating blood for life. At the time, this logic went largely uncontested in light of the HIV/AIDS crisis.
However, in recent years the ban has come under fire for continuing homophobic stereotypes about gay men and treating heterosexuals with similar behaviours differently. Men who are bisexual, in monogamous relationships or have abstained from sex for years are not allowed to donate.
History
