It’s heartening that after Xtra published its recent interview with progressive Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett over Canadian federal AIDS funding, Toronto’s Globe and Mail also weighed in to support such calls.
Seriously, provincial HIV/AIDS prevention and support networks are being compromised by the Harper Tory federal government’s refusal to clarify when funding cuts will be made, […]

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When I wrote about Britain’s LGBT/black feminist protests against tolerance of homophobic homicide and violence against women in Jamaican “murder music,” I gave passing notice to similar Canadian initiatives.
As luck would have it, Canada’s Xtra LGBT newspaper chain is also discussing its local version of that controversy.
Stop Murder Music Canada wants concerned Canadians to refuse […]

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In today’s Toronto Globe and Mail, I noted a rather disturbing story about the withdrawal of textbooks dealing with three instances of genocide- the Nazi Holocaust and European Jews, Rwanda’s one million dead in the early nineties, and the Armenian genocide during the First World War.
Textbook censorship is a loathsome practice, no matter who carries […]

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I first heard about gay conservative Catholic John Heard in Melbourne’s DNA Magazine two years or so ago.
Apparently, John is a ‘gay conservative Catholic’ who is opposed to same-sex marriage and civil unions.
I have no problem with John’s belief system. Evidently, he believes in the sanctity of Catholic marital rituals and is willing to obey […]

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Regular readers of this blog will be aware that I have a low opinion of “citizens” referenda, and California’s LGBT communities are probably agreeing with me at this point in time. They’re now facing a determined Opposition campaign using exactly that strategy
As I reported two days or so ago, California’s Supreme Court has given the […]

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Let’s see…on TVNZ’s Agenda programme this morning, Opposition Finance spokesperson Bill English said that there would undoubtedly be Wellington public sector and regulatory cuts if the Opposition won this year’s general election. We’re told we must tighten our belts… so why can we also afford an anti-MMP electoral reform referendum?
For that is also apparently within […]

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Ever wondered what life would be like if we were the dominant sexual orientation, not straights? Welcome to Earth Q, an alternate Earth to our own…
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Selenegrad Log: Commander Alicia Megaerastides, Verda 42, 513 Anno Matria:
I was nauseated to see that excesence on the wall, and it didn’t take much searching on the camcord to see […]

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What do the late lamented McGillicuddy Serious Party, the Jedi “faith”, Ceiling Cat and the Flying Spaghetti Monster have in common with one another, and what on earth do they have to do with LGBT rights?
The above are all religious and political jokes, or in the case of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, thought experiments. The Jedis […]

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After California’s welcome verdict in favour of same-sex marriage in that state, what happens now?
The US Christian Right isn’t sure what to do. If it merely uses the citizens initiated referendum “bigot’s charter” again, and churns out yet another anti-SSM citizens referendum result, then it risks having that invalidated within the Californian Supreme Court, as […]

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On May 15, 2008, California became the second US state (after Massachuesetts, 2004) to have its State Supreme Court strike down legislative and ‘citizens’ referendum barriers against same-sex marriage.
In In RE Marriage Cases [2008],  the Supreme Court of California revisited its own earlier decision in  Lockyer versus City and County of San Francisco. Then, it […]

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