When Homophobia is Everybody's Problem

Today is International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. A day that began four years ago in Quebec.

And is now marked all over the world. From the European Parliament to the homophobic hell of Jamaica.

Where gay people are routinely murdered.

It's a day to remember the youngest victims of this murderous hatred.

What do you do with a little boy who likes cross-dressing and playing with dolls? If you're George Alan Rekers, you "extinguish" the boy's feminine behavior with a sometimes violent Pavlovian regimen while your scientific team observes through a one-way mirror.

A day to remember those all over the world who suffer for who they love.













"If people or the world cannot give me the chance and freedom to continue living with him as my lover, then I am better off to die here in prison," the message said. "Freedom without him is useless and meaningless."

And sadly it's also a day to remember that right here in Canada Stephen Harper's foul Cons are openly discriminating against gay people. Waging a culture war against them.

In a country where gay kids are still terrorized in our schools, other gay Canadians are still being  brutally assaulted just for who they are.













And a lot of Canadians, including some progressives, still earnestly debate whether Stephen Harper is good or evil. And whether we could trust him with a majority. Huh?

Which is why I was so happy to see  what big tough Brian Burke had to say today.

"I hate bullies," Burke said Monday."We need to get to a point where bullying is eradicated, not punished, not a situation where tools are put in to deal with it — but to where it doesn't happen."

Isn't that great? If his son Brendan was alive he'd be so proud of his dad.

So what am I doing to mark the day? Nothing special really, just doing what I have done since I was thirteen when I first started fighting the homophobic bullies, with almost tragic results for me...and them.

Just spitting in the faces of homophobes...and all the other kinds of bigots...as I will until the day I die. Because for me the day against homophobia and transphobia is every day of the year.

So I think I'll just leave you tonight with this video narrated by the great gay actor Sir Ian McKellen. To remind those who still don't get it, that homophobia isn't only a monstrous evil.

It's anywhere, it's everywhere, it's everybody's problem...



And enough really is ENOUGH...

Homophobia and a Flag for Michael Causer

Today people in fifty countries marked International Day Against Homophobia.

Which is pretty amazing for an event that began six years ago in Montreal.

And commemorates the day in 1990 when the World Health Organization stopped classifying homosexuality as a mental illness.

There were all kinds of events like this Pink Day in Singapore.



















The first gay outdoor event EVER in that conservative country.

And this lie-down in Hong Kong...












But the event that most moved me was the one in Liverpool, England. Where for the first time ever, the rainbow flag of freedom flew over City Hall....and over all the police stations in the Merseyside.

To mark Anti-Homophobia Day and remember Michael Causer.

The kid I wrote about here.

But even that flag raising, as moving as it was, didn't lift my spirits as much as this poll.

When children were asked whether they thought being gay was normal, 71 per cent said yes, and 86 per cent said it's like any other sexual orientation.

"In a context in which may of these parents come from countries where homosexuality is oppressed, we have to celebrate the fact that their children find distance from those attitudes and adopt values of their new country."

Which says something really good about those immigrant kids ....and our precious Canadian values.

Yup.The present may be bleak.

So many of my brothers and sisters are brutally oppressed. Bullying and bigotry are still such a huge problem. And instead of being allowed to live our lives in peace we must fight FOREVER.

But they flew the flag for Michael today. Isn't that awesome?

And the future WILL be better...