Gay Canada News & Reports 2010-11

by News Editor
Despite being shunned by his community, the devout Muslim and PhD candidate in Economics began a new area of study in Islam and homosexuality, and hopes for Muslims to rethink the possibility of consensual, supportive relationships as opposed to violent homosexual rape which he says is what the frequently referred to story of Lut (or Lot) in the Qur’an is about.

The following is an extract published by Canada’s National Post on January 3, 2010.

Junaid Bin Jahangir was such a devout Muslim that when he arrived in Canada he ate only yogurt for two days until he was sure which food followed halal dietary rules. The university student prayed five times a day, and joined a local mosque. Then one day, at age 27, he started to wonder why he had never been with a girl. "Why don’t I like women that way?" he asked, and it led him to a counselling office, where he sat, sobbing, with the realization that he was gay — a pariah to his community.

Mainstream Islamic leaders say gay men should be shunned and some around the world are killed each year. Mr. Jahangir’s world imploded; work on his PhD ground to a halt. But out of that despair, Mr. Jahangir began to work on another project: Understanding the teachings of Islam on homosexuality. From his office at the University of Alberta, he contacted experts, read everything he could on the subject and studied the scriptures intensely for two years, rebuilding his own identity in the process. His work is starting to be recognized internationally.

Now he argues Muslims misinterpret the Qur’an if they consider the ban on homosexuality to be as firm as bans on alcohol or pork. The common story from which most Muslims draw their teaching is about violent homosexual rape, he says, and it’s time to rethink the possibility of consensual, supportive relationships. Although his PhD in economics is still incomplete, Mr. Jahangir was asked to contribute a chapter to a new anthology on homosexuality compiled by a noted Australian academic. The book, Islam and Homosexuality, edited by Samar Habib and published by Praeger Publishers, appeared recently in bookstores.

But he remains fearful of talking about the subject. He doesn’t want his face shown in photographs, and when he agreed to do a presentation at the University of Alberta in the run-up to the book launch, organizers asked campus security and a local newspaper to attend in case someone wanted to cause trouble. The meeting went well, and it appeared that some Muslim students attended, judging by the half-dozen head scarves among the crowd. But he still complains no Imams or professors with the university Islamic Studies department will speak with him or about the topic. The silence is so deep it’s frustrating, he says.

"The apathy is unbelievable. How many more marriages do we want to fail as we pretend this doesn’t exist? Gay youth are committing suicide," he says. "The 13- or 14-year-old girls, they are the ones who need this. [If they believe they are lesbian], what do they do? Get married and follow through the motions? What joy do they have in their lives? "Let’s at least talk about the issue because it affects us all."

Mr. Jahangir wrote his views in an opinion piece (Hope exists for LGBT Muslims) published in the Gateway, the University of Alberta student newspaper.

January 9, 2010 – Canada.com

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‘I’m a pariah’ says Muslim scholar who is gay – Man shunned by Islamic community tries to shift attitudes through research, education

by Elise Stolte, Edmonton Journal
Junaid Bin Jahangir was such a devout Muslim that when he arrived in Canada he ate only yogurt for two days until he was sure which food followed halal dietary rules. The university student prayed five times a day, and joined a local mosque. Then one day, at age 27, he started to wonder why he had never been with a girl. "Why don’t I like women that way?" he asked, and it led him to a counselling office, where he sat, sobbing, with the realization that he was gay — a pariah to his community.

Mainstream Islamic leaders say gay men should be shunned and some around the world are killed each year. Jahangir’s world imploded; work on his PhD ground to a halt. But out of that despair, Jahangir began to work on another project: Understanding the teachings of Islam on homosexuality. From his office at the University of Alberta, he contacted experts, read everything he could on the subject and studied the scriptures intensely for two years, rebuilding his own identity in the process. His work is starting to be recognized internationally.

Now he argues Muslims misinterpret the Qur’an if they consider the ban on homosexuality to be as firm as bans on alcohol or pork. The common story from which most Muslims draw their teaching is about violent homosexual rape, he says, and it’s time to rethink the possibility of consensual, supportive relationships. Although his PhD in economics is still incomplete, Jahangir was asked to contribute a chapter to a new anthology on homosexuality compiled by a noted Australian academic. The book Islam and Homosexuality, edited by Samar Habib and published by Praeger Publishers, appeared recently in bookstores.

But he remains fearful of talking about the subject. He doesn’t want his face shown in photographs, and when he agreed to do a presentation at the U of A in the run-up to the book launch, organizers asked campus security and a local newspaper to attend in case someone wanted to cause trouble. The meeting went well, and it appeared that some Muslim students attended, judging by the half-dozen head scarves among the crowd. But he still complains no Imams or professors with the university Islamic Studies department will speak with him or about the topic. The silence is so deep it’s frustrating, he says.

Read Article HERE

21 December 2010 – The Toronto Observer

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Iranian railroad assists queers acclimatize to Toronto

by Meri Perra
At the age of 18, Yeganeh Dadui knew two things: one, that she was a lesbian; and two, even though she had just come to Canada from Iran, Toronto had a LGBT community she could join. But it took Dadui a long time to connect her Iranian culture with her queer one. “I just started finding more Iranian gays two years ago and I’ve been here since 1994,” Dadui said. “I was out, but I didn’t want to go into my own community because I didn’t know how they would react.”

Dadui’s reaction is far from naïve. In Iran, homosexuality is a capital offence punishable by death. In addition, a woman needs permission from her husband, (or if not married, from her father), to obtain a passport. Wearing a head scarf in public is mandatory. But when Dadui found out about Ashram Parsi, an out Iranian gay man who works for the rights of Iranian queers, she began connecting with other queers from her culture. Parsi is the founder and executive director of the Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees (IRQR). The organization does such things as co-ordinating English classes for queer Iranian refugee claimants in Turkey, and advocating on behalf of claimants at hearings. The small agency even manages to provide financial assistance to queer Iranians seeking asylum. “We receive two refugees a month,” Parsi said. “That means two people leave Iran and ask (us) for help.”

For her part, Dadui volunteers with the IRQR. Right now, she’s working on a campaign to get refugee sponsorship for an Iranian couple in Turkey. The couple is straight. But IRQR has picked up their case because the woman, Mahtab Mirghaderi, is transsexual. She cannot return to Iran because people know about her gender identity. Her husband, Saleh Shahsave’s family rejected them because of it. The United Nations Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has denied their application twice. “They can’t stay in Turkey because Turkey does not accept Iranian refugees,” Dadui said. “And they don’t have a income… We’re (trying) to get them out of Turkey. We’re trying to get sponsors here.”

Iran funds sex reassignment surgery as a way to “cure” homosexuality. Despite the legal sanction, Parsi says that transsexual and transgendered Iranians continue to feel the stigma. And Parsi says it’s particularly difficult for trans women, such as Mirghaderi. The reason is pure sexism, he says, because it’s easier to accept that someone would want to live as a man, than as a woman. Many Iranian queers first end up in Turkey, because Iranians don’t need visas to enter the country. But Parsi says people will go anywhere they can to leave Iran. “Most go to in Turkey, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines,” Parsi said. “We had one case who went to the UNHCR in Afghanistan.”

The English classes that the IRQR initiated in Turkey are located in one refugee claimant’s house. IRQR got him a white board, and some chairs. It’s makeshift, but getting results. And it’s why Parsi relies on the settlement services in Toronto to provide direct services to the Iranians here. “Taking care of the refugee process is very difficult,” Parsi said. “Right now our organization is dealing with almost 300 cases. Most of them are successful, and they are in Canada, the U.S. or Australia.” Parsi says that IRQR volunteers help Iranian queers once they’ve arrived in Toronto with referrals to other settlement services. They may do things such as take a newcomer on a tour of Toronto or give advice. Otherwise, Parsi says the settlement services in Toronto are very queer positive.

Rebecca Butler, the youth worker at the settlement agency Culturelink, which has a program for queer newcomer youth, says it’s good to hear Toronto’s settlement agencies are queer positive. She gives some credit to a positive space initiative by Ontario Council of Agencies Services Immigrants (OCASI). “The idea is … to make settlement services in general queer positive and make sure settlement services know about queer clients,” Butler said. For her part, Dadui is seeing the changes in her Iranian community. “I think a lot of people are coming around and learning about the LGBT issue,” Dadui said. “Parents are starting to get a little bit better with it, especially those ones that are here.”

January 13, 2011 – Xtra!

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Gay love on the rez

by Natasha Barsotti – Vancouver
“They were bawling their eyes out,” Waawaate Fobister recalls. Fobister had just performed Agokwe, his award-winning play about gay love on the rez, for the first time in front of all his native peers in Kenora, Ontario. “I had really jock-y guys going, ‘Fuck man, that was a really good play, yo!’” And the hip-hop guys: “Just saw Agokwe, was blown away, Waawaate did the town, mothafucka,” Fobister reports, perfectly mimicking their vibe and cadence before exploding into relieved laughter at the memory of his peers’ positive reception. “I was so happy. It was really awesome,” he says, still clearly basking in the afterglow.

“It was scary,” he admits of his decision to take Agokwe to Kenora. He hasn’t yet performed it in Grassy Narrows, his home reservation about an hour north of Kenora near the northwestern Ontario-Manitoba border. But he doesn’t rule it out. In Agokwe, Kenora plays host to the tentative, complicated and ill-fated attraction between the tightly wound hockey jock Mike and powwow grass dancer Jake, drawn to each other through their shared passion for the physical grace of movement.

For Fobister, the actual Kenora and the realities of Grassy Narrows are just as complicated and challenging — personally, and as part of its Ojibwa First Nations community. “It’s pretty conservative; everyone’s kind of small-minded,” he observes. “Native people have been colonized and Christianized; some people go to church, so there’s a lot of homophobia on the reserve,” he quickly summarizes. “I was bullied my whole life by the boys on my reserve,” Fobister recalls. “I was in the closet, but I’m pretty gay,” he adds with a laugh. “I got a pretty bad beating when I was 15, 16. I was in the hospital for four days, got all this surgery done to reconstruct my mouth.”

The homophobia didn’t stop until Fobister came out. “It was almost like, ‘Okay, so he is gay,’ so now they can’t say anything. I came out to my dad first, and once I got his approval, no one else mattered. My dad did take it well,” he says. “If my dad didn’t take it well, then I think I’d be in a totally different place.”

If all goes according to plan, his dad will see Agokwe for the first time when Fobister performs in Ottawa after its Vancouver run at The Cultch this month. Agokwe, which means two-spirited, blossomed from a QueerCab open-mic rant at Toronto’s Buddies in Bad Times Theatre to a 30-minute solo piece in Buddies’ Young Creators Unit to, ultimately, a full-length one-man show involving six characters Fobister inhabits. Agokwe opened Buddies’ 2008/2009 season as a world premiere, playing to “standing ovations mostly,” Fobister notes.

When Fobister brings Agokwe to Vancouver, it’ll be only his second time performing it in its entirety. The piece takes place around a weekend hockey tournament, where all the native communities come together. “Hockey and powwow are the biggest social events that happen in native communities, so they intertwine,” Fobister explains. “Powwow people will go to hockey tournaments, and there’ll be hockey players who powwow dance or sing, so that’s how the two boys connect.”

Homophobia stymies the love that wants to blossom but can’t. “Back in the day, they could have,” Fobister asserts through his character Nanabush, the mystical trickster spirit who moderates the action with risqué wit and generous sprinklings of traditional wisdom. A fixture in Ojibwa storytelling, Nanabush, who can be either a man or woman, testifies to what has been lost to history — what could have been for Mike and Jake — but also what can be reclaimed.

Their salvation is also contained within themselves, Fobister contends. “I don’t try to blame [the past] — sometimes I do a little bit — but it’s also finding something within oneself.” Fobister, who identifies as both gay and two-spirited, says being gay doesn’t automatically mean you’re two-spirited as well. “You’ve got to fulfill these roles and responsibilities to consider yourself two-spirited,” he says.

“My career is as a playwright, theatre creator, actor and storyteller, also dancer and a choreographer,” he says. “In the contemporary time, that’s the role that I have to do, to adapt to how this landscape is now across the country and into the United States. It’s to wake up the spirit of my people, because I think a lot of our spirits have been hurt. Our fire is really dim as a people. There’s some people that have strong spirit, and it’s our job to ignite their fire,” he says. “I believe that. That’s my job as an artist.”

Part of the reason for performing Agokwe, he adds, is to bring back teachable-moment storytelling. Fobister had such a moment in Moosenee, near James Bay, after a performance of Savage, the work of a fellow artist, which includes an excerpt from Agokwe. A boy who seemed “a bully type” raised his hand during the Q&A to ask if Fobister was “really gay.”

“I said, ‘Yes, I’m really gay!’ And he goes, ‘Oh, oh okay… well, okay, well… okay… I’m just gonna sit down then.’”

March 28, 2011 – Xtra.ca

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Gay immigrants rejected by gays and straights

by Jeremy Hainsworth
Vancouver – Xtra.ca only asks for your email address to tell the recipient who sent them a story. We will not sell your contact details to a third party, and we will not use this information to send unsolicited email. Racist reactions from the "mainstream" gay community in the wake of recent gaybashings may be forcing immigrant gays and lesbians deeper into the closet, says a University of BC professor. "I think the mainstream gay community at large has a tendency to blame the South Asian community [for gaybashings] and say ‘send them back,’" Dr Brian O’Neill of the UBC School of Social Work told the Diversity Within Diversity session at the 2011 National Metropolis Conference on immigration March 25.

"It’s easy to fall into that trap and I think people do," he says, adding such stereotyping can have a negative effect on gay people who have just arrived in Canada and are struggling to adjust and fit in. "People felt rejected by the mainstream community and the mainstream Anglo white gay community," O’Neill says of some findings from a recent study on immigrant gays in smaller BC communities. "You face double discrimination."

Some observers posted racist comments on Xtra’s website after assault charges were laid against Parminder Singh Peter Bassi and Ravinder Robbie Bassi in connection with last year’s alleged attack on David Holtzman and Peter Regier after a nearby Ultimate Fighting Championship event. "Fucking ugly fat-faced brown immigrants in their stupid glitter shirts. Hope these two animals get gang raped by HIV positive cell mates then Deported," one wrote. Similar comments appeared when charges were upgraded against Michael Kandola, who would later be convicted for attacking Jordan Smith, his actions designated a hate crime.

"I call for a total boycott of Indo Candian (sic) men from bathhouses, parks, bathrooms and such. If they going to use the gay community its (sic) not okay to bash us after you get your rocks off," someone posted in 2008. "I call for a all out boycott of Indo Candian (sic) men at all gay sex places, they know who they are lets (sic) not be fooled they use the services of gay men I have seen many at a few bathhouses and down a few trails, they know who they are, but not anymore." This rejection may lead some immigrant queers to feel isolated and behave recklessly. "Homophobia and this closeted lifestyle and the discrimination in the community is leading to health issues," O’Neill says.

Social services agencies can help, he suggests. "There really needs to be an orientation to rights for gay and lesbian newcomers.” However, he adds, social services providers need to be culturally respectful and provide such information discreetly where needed. And there needs to be more education in ethnic communities on sexuality issues, he adds. "Local gay and lesbian organizations need to do systemic outreach," he says. While Canada may have made great strides in rights for gay people on a legal or philosophical level, it is still filtering down to the level of social services. "Certainly, the real issue we’re at in the social services is actually implementing some of these ideas," O’Neill says.

March 03, 2011 – Xtra

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PFLAG reaches out to gay youth with a new national help line

by Andrea Houston
If they live outside of Ontario, gay, lesbian and trans youth reaching out for help have very few places to turn. That’s about to change. Stacy Green, president of PFLAG Canada (parents, families and friends of lesbians and gays), says the organization is preparing to launch a national peer-support help line, similar to the Lesbian Gay Bi Trans Youth Line, which services Ontario. The hotline will be staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, offering crisis counselling and peer support.

Green says the help line answers an urgent need in Canada. “This will change the face of the LGBT community across the country,” he says. “This will fill a hole in Canada. Right now there is no national support line geared specifically to gay, lesbian and trans youth.” Green says PFLAG aims to launch the crisis line in September.

From March 18 to 25, PFLAG plans to meet with stakeholders and other potential partners in the community to discuss the plan and hear feedback and ideas. One of those potential partners is the LGBT Youth Line. “Our service may cross over, so we are inviting all similar services to the table,” he says. “We want to know how we can put this together with the highest amount of impact possible.” Along with community partnerships, Green says PFLAG will also be looking for financial investment. He says about $1.2 million will be needed by the end of the first year.

Like the LGBT Youth Line, the PFLAG service will be peer-to-peer, so youth will speak to a voice on the other end that can draw on personal experience, someone who’s “been there.” “It won’t be volunteer-run. We will be paying staff,” he says. “Our board stressed that the people answering the phone know exactly how the callers are feeling and what they’re going through because they were there themselves.” Green doesn’t know yet if the office will be based in Toronto. “The office may be in Moncton or Fredericton. We will probably have one in Alberta. We’re a national organization, so we are trying to link our chapters together across the country.

“We are targeting the entire country for this. Anyone with questions about gender identity, sexual identity, sexuality, anything like that. We will work with schools.”

LGBT Youth Line’s acting executive director, Brandon Sawh, says any program or service that helps gay youth across the country is very positive. “More people helping gay, lesbian and trans kids is a great thing.” “Good for them. It’s wonderful news,” he says. “In fact, expanding our service to serve all of Canada is something we’ve had in our plans as well. That’s been on our radar for a little bit. PFLAG has chapters all across Canada, which is lovely, so we will probably help them.”

“There’s a real need to form these services, peer-to-peer, youth talking to youth,” Sawh adds. “An older adult doesn’t always understand as well as someone who has lived through it and experienced it.” Anyone interested in getting involved or learning more about the project can contact Green.

April 3, 2011 – Behind The Mask

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Homosexuality Not Accepted By Canada’s African Community

Despite their long stay in western countries where homosexuality is accepted, African people living in Canada have not really accepted the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community and still share the same prejudices with the large majority of those living on the African continent, according to Honoré Noumabeu, a Cameroonian born film director. Une Vie Interdite/The Forbidden Life produced by Noumabeu is a documentary that looks look at how homosexuality and transgender are perceived within Québec’s African community.

“My observation is that it is still very difficult for those who were born and had lived in Africa to accept homosexuality , as long as they are not confronted themselves to this reality through one of their relatives or love ones, because they grew up or have inherited of its cultural beliefs and values” says Noumabeu. According to Noumabeu, despite the environment in their host country where homosexuality is well accepted, most African born Canadians or even African nationals living in Canada, still perpetuate the same stereotypes and feel the same dislike towards same sex practices.

Noumabeu, said what sparked his interest on this issue, was his first encounter with his colleague’s father who, much to his astonishment, happened to be a woman. “Coming from Africa where homosexuality is perceived as a witchcraft practice, against all our cultural values and even liable to a prison sentence, I arrived in Canada and met a colleague who used to speak openly about her father who was gay”, he said.

Noumabeu says it is unfortunate that people still perceive homosexuality that way because “if one looks at it closely, the human being is unique in each individual and that makes it special. Each person is a hope and finds oneself in this hope to grow, to find her or his place in this world that condemns instead of learn, communicate and love.”

The documentary Une Vie Interdite/The Forbidden Life filmed and produced in Canada was first screened on the 12 February 2011 in Montréal, Canada, at the Massimadi Festival, an Afro-Caribbean lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) film and documentary festival hosted by Arc en Ciel d’Afrique (African Rainbow) a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender organization, during Black History Month.

The production started on July 2009 and the team is in the process of writing the English subtitle in order to make the documentary available to the English speaking community. “It is my hope and my intention to screen this documentary at as many as possible film festivals, the next one could certainly be the Festival Vues d’Afrique in Canada, and of course I am open to all propositions,” says Noumabeu.

For more information, please contact Honoré Noumabeu at hdoudoun@yahoo.fr or honore.noumabeu@gmail.com .

May 12, 2011 – Lifewise

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Homophobia rampant in Canadian schools: Report

by Sheena Goodyear, QMI Agency
Even in the era of gay-pride pop anthems, same-sex romances on popular teen TV shows, and widely endorsed movements like the It Gets Better campaign, most gay teenagers still face daily verbal, and often physical, harassment. What’s more, teachers are letting it happen. More than three-quarters of lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender, queer or questioning (LBGTQ) students feel unsafe at school, according to the nationwide survey of Canadian high school students.

Half of all Canadian students hear the words "faggot," "queer," "lezbo," and "dyke" on a daily basis. More than three-quarters of students hear the expression "that’s so gay" every day. The findings are reported in the Every Class in Every School report from Egale Canada, an anti-homophobia organization. Researchers from the University of Winnipeg and the University of Manitoba surveyed 1,700 high school students in every province, some through an online survey, and others through in-school sessions in 13 schools under four school boards. "The lack of a solid Canadian evidence base has been a major impediment faced by educators who need to understand the situation of LBGTQ students in order to respond appropriately and to assure the school community that homophobic bullying is neither rare nor harmless but a major problem that needs to be addressed," reads the report.

The report found 60% of LBGTQ students have been verbally harassed, and three-quarters feel unsafe at school, particularly in washrooms, change rooms and hallways. The situation is particularly bad for transgender students, whose gender identity doesn’t match their biological sex. Ninety percent of them say they’re verbally harassed at school and 95% feel unsafe there. But it doesn’t stop with words. About 25% of gay, lesbian and bisexual students, and 20% of transgender students, said they’ve been physically harassed.

Many LBGTQ students have been sexually harassed: 49% of trans students, 43% of bisexual girls, 24% of bisexual boys, 40% of gay boys, and 33% of lesbian students. Straight students with same-sex parents are also victims of harassment: 40% said they feel unsafe at school and 45% said they’ve been sexually harassed. Students often feel they have nowhere to turn, the report notes, with most students reporting they’re not comfortable talking to teachers or counsellor about their problems.

That’s understandable considering 34% of gay, lesbian and bisexual students reported their teachers failed to intervene when someone hurled a derogatory comment at them, while 47% of transgender students said the same. What’s more, 10% of all students said they hear their teachers make homophobic comments on a weekly, or even daily, basis. Egale recommends schools in Canada not only implement anti-homophobia policies, but make sure they are widely advertised to students, staff and parents. Provincial ministries of education should make these policies mandatory. The group also recommends more schools support and encourage students to start Gay-Straight Alliance clubs.

July 28, 2011 – Straight.com

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LGBT Native tradition has two spirits – Two-spirit people find acceptance in their communities at Gambier gathering

by Carlito Pablo
Like many others before him, Chuck Lafferty left his village as a young man. Born to the Dene Nation in the Northwest Territories, Lafferty later found himself in Vancouver and was soon immersed in urban life. Lafferty also came into contact with the queer community. Although he wasn’t entirely open about his sexuality in his hometown, coming out in the big city became a natural process for Lafferty. But his self-discovery wasn’t complete until he heard about an international gathering of two-spirit people, a term that refers to aboriginal lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals. That was 1991, and Lafferty headed to Eugene, Oregon.

“I got invited to this two-spirit gathering, and at first I just didn’t have any concept about what it was around,” Lafferty recalled in a phone interview with the Georgia Straight. “All I knew was that there was going to be outdoor camping. And there’s going to be great food, and there was going to be some wonderful people and some traditional and cultural practices that were going to happen.” Indeed, traditional practices such as sweat lodges were available, but what surprised Lafferty was that a gay man like himself was welcome to participate in these Native activities. “It was an awakening to discover that I wasn’t alone and that I could be involved in cultural practices and some traditional cultural protocols and there would be no issues,” Lafferty said.

The International Two-Spirit Gathering, which brings together aboriginal LGBT people in North America and their friends and families, is an annual event that started in Minnesota. Now in its 23rd year, it provides opportunities for Native individuals to learn about their culture and heritage. This year, the four-day gathering is being held on Gambier Island in British Columbia’s Howe Sound until Saturday (July 30). Participants may take part in traditional rituals and activities, like the sunrise-ceremony feast and canoeing.

The subject of two-spirit people was one of the many topics covered by First Nations 101, a book authored by Lynda Gray and released in June this year. (Details are at firstnations101.com). A member of the Tsimshian Nation, Gray is also the executive director of the Vancouver-based Urban Native Youth Association. In 2008, she cochaired the first national aboriginal GLBT summit, which was held in the city’s West End. Traditionally, two-spirit people were believed to embody both masculine and feminine spirits. “They were thought to be more spiritually attuned,” Gray told the Straight in a phone interview. “It wasn’t based on sexuality. It was based on the person and their being.”

She said that these people were accepted in their communities and even revered for their unique gifts. They performed various functions like being medicine people and leaders of sun dances. “Homophobia came about with colonization and Christian values being forced upon us,” Gray noted. According to her, two-spirit people are faced not only with the challenge of finding acceptance in broader society but also within their aboriginal communities. “They are burdened with the task of trying to make our communities reaccept our traditional beliefs about two-spirit people, so they’re really unique in that way,” Gray said.

Like other LGBT individuals, two-spirit people need services for their health and well-being. A 2007 paper on self-inflicted deaths among Natives published by the Ottawa-based Aboriginal Healing Foundation noted that the relationship between sexual orientation and suicide among aboriginal individuals has received “limited attention”. It pointed out that studies among the general population have established that homosexual and bisexual youth are at “increased risk for suicidal behaviour”.

A May 2004 update by the Public Health Agency of Canada showed that although injection-drug use remains the main mode of transmission of HIV/AIDS among Natives, 34.7 percent of AIDS cases were attributed to what is referred to as MSM (men who have sex with men). A smaller number, 7.9 percent, of HIV-positive reports were also due to MSM. This year’s two-spirit gathering is being hosted by the Healing Our Spirit B.C. Aboriginal HIV/AIDS Society. “We don’t always get a chance to come together as a unique group of aboriginal people,” Winston Thompson, the group’s executive director and an Ojibway originally from Manitoba, told the Straight by phone.

August 30, 2011 – IRQR

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2011 Sepas Award Recipients Announced

Toronto – Today, In memory of Saviz Shafaei’s 60th Birthday, The Sepas Group is honoured to announce the 2011 award recipients in recognition and appreciation of their contribution to the Iranian queer community/cause. The nominees in Applied Art category were Amir Hossein and Elahe Nejat; and the Sepas Award is presented to Amir Hossein to appreciate his contributions to Iranian queer’s organizations and magazines. The nominees in Fine Art category were Najva Soleimani and Tara Inanloo; the Sepas Award is presented to the outlaw artist Tara Inanloo for discovering all those people inside her.

The nominees in Performing Art category were Armen Ra and Mahshad Torkan; the Sepas Award goes to the best alive performer and Iranian-American openly gay Therminist, Armen Ra. The nominees in Activism category were Hossein Alizadeh and Mahshid Rasti; and the Sepas Award is presented to Mahshid Rasti to appreciate her support and contribution to the Iranian queer cause and speaking out on behalf of those who could not.

The nominees in Media category were Gay City News and Hamideh Aramide (Voice of America); the Sepas Award goes to Hamideh Aramide for all her interviews and shows regarding Iranian queers in order to inform mainstream society and fight with homophobia. The nominees in Writing category were Reza Pesar and Saviz Shafaei; and the Sepas Award is presented to Reza Pesar for his years of dedication and contribution to the Iranian queer cause as a blogger.

The nominees in International category were Philipp Braun and Doug Ireland; the Sepas Award goes to Doug Ireland for all his interviews and articles about Iranian queers and bringing Iranian queer cause out from the closet and put it on the kitchen table conversations. The members of Sepas Group board of directors congratulate all award recipients and nominees for what they have done and encourage them to get involved in the cause more than before for a brighter tomorrow. Please visit the Sepas Award website for profiles, pictures and more information: sepas@degarbash.net

Sepas Award Group

September 29, 2011 – Straight.com

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VIFF 2011: Gay Asian films explore world of prostitution

by Craig Takeuchi
Quite a number of queer-interest films at this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival (which kicks off today, in case you missed the memo) hail from Asia as part of the Dragons and Tigers program. Since LGBT communities are gaining ground in countries there, we’ll inevitably see more and more media representations of gay life emerge from them. Prostitution happens to be a common thread in three out of VIFF’s four Asian queer-interest selections this year. (The exception is Japan’s Our Future , about a tomboyish girl who is bullied at school for being too masculine.)

In the Filipino thriller Señorita , for example, a transgender surrogate mother and upscale hooker moves to a smalltown where she gets caught up in the politics surrounding an imminent election. But far from glamorizing the business, making it appear sexy, or sugarcoating things, two of the films keep a particularly fixed eye on the consequences and complications of working in the sex trade.

Lost in Paradise (which has its first screening tonight) breaks new ground as one of the first Vietnamese films to depict gay life in Ho Chi Minh City as its primary subject matter. In the film, a handsome, inexperienced youth, Khoi, moves to the city, and is swiftly taken advantage of by two gay conmen. One of them, Lam, takes pity on him, and even falls for him. While the film veers towards material that may seem well-trodden to fans of international queer cinema, and saccharine and romantic content (such as a mute mentally handicapped man who raises a duckling) gets cloying, it does keep things realistic when it comes to the hardships of being gay in the city.

The story makes much of the emotional impact of prostitution on personal relationships. Lam’s prostitution rapidly becomes a point of contention between the pair that threatens their intimacy. Meanwhile, abuse (including a female prostitute with an abusive couple as pimps), gay-bashings, and other forms of violence circle them as well. And it makes it clear that it’s not a world that’s easy to get out of once you’re in it. Stateless Things from South Korea takes an even rawer, more grim look at the lives of two young men, one living in affluence, the other barely scraping by. But both are trapped in unhappy lives.

One is an illegal North Korean immigrant named Jun, who tries to find whatever work he can, including an abusive gas station owner. The other is Hyeon, who lives in an upscale apartment thanks to his sugar daddy—a married businessman. Both wind up in prostitution, the first out of desperation, the other out of boredom and rebellion. Jun’s first sexual experience with a john is captured in detail, and his revulsion is heightened by his precarious situation (he lacks official papers and could be deported if caught), his need to survive, and the numerous struggles he faces along the way. The film isn’t necessarily about the Korean gay scene as it is a drama about two characters living in difficult situations who resort to male prostitution. Needless to say, these films aren’t for audiences seeking uplifting or encouraging depictions of gay life. Nonetheless, they do provide a revealing look at the challenges and pitfalls in the unrelenting world of prostitution and street life.

Check the VIFF website for screening times and details.

October, 2011 – Outwords

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Targeting the Invisible World Of Men Who Have Sex With Men

by Peter Carlyle-Gordge
Ask any outreach worker in the fight against HIV transmission and you’ll find one of the hardest at-risk groups to reach is MSM, or men who have sex with men. Men in this group don’t necessarily identify as gay. Some may be married to women and have families. Some may simply avoid defining their sexual orientation and it is often hard to pinpoint where they gather or connect.

Now, if reaching the MSM group is challenging here, consider its near impossibility in such homophobic places as Africa, a place still plagued by superstition, repression and an outright burning hostility to any sexual practices beyond the vanilla heterosexual variety. In many Islamic countries such as Iran and Iraq, being attracted to the same sex may bring instant death by a mob, or less instant death after a shameful “trial” in an Islamic court, which may sentence you to be hanged, often in public.

Attitudes to same-sex attraction in Africa aren’t much better, with a nasty, often violent reaction to same-sex couplings – an official kind of homophobia that is encouraged by the Neanderthal and ignorant Catholic and Anglican churches. Indeed, the current worldwide Anglican communion is deeply split on same-sex rights, thanks largely to the Archbishop of Canterbury kowtowing in fear to the outspoken black African bishops who despise homosexuality and claim God does, too. You don’t need to go far to stack up evidence of this official homophobia. The president of Iran famously came to the U.S. and told a university audience that same-sex dalliances did not exist in Iran. The evidence in the form of beatings and hangings of gay men tends to undermine his insane statement.

In July, a news item from Ghana highlighted the same problem when a government minister ordered the arrest of any gays or lesbians found in that country’s western region. Paul Evans Aidoo, the minister for the region, directed the Bureau of National Investigations and other agencies to find gay people and bring them before the courts. He also called on landlords and tenants to inform on those they believe to be gay. “All efforts are being made to get rid of these people in the society,” this enlightened idiot is reported to have said. In Ghana, homosexuality is still considered a moral aberration, or even a myth.

Read complete stroy here

19 October 2011 – PinkNews

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Father of suicide teen says he was bullied for being gay

by Jessica Geen
The father of a 15-year-old Canadian boy who killed himself last weekend says his son was bullied for being gay. Jamie Hubley, of Ottawa, said he couldn’t take any more depression, harassment and loneliness before he was found dead on Saturday. His father, Kanata South Cllr Alan Hubley, released a family statement in which he described the bullying Jamie had suffered. Mr Hubley wrote that Jamie had tried to set up a Rainbow Club at the A.Y. Jackson school but posters were torn down and he was called a “fag” by other students. He said his son was “compassionate” and without “a mean bone in his body” but was seeing therapists to deal with his depression and struggle to accept his sexuality.

Mr Hubley wrote: “He struggled with the idea that people can judge you harshly even when you are trying to help others. Jamie asked a question no child should have to ask — why do people say mean things to me?” He added: “We were aware of several occasions when he felt he was being bullied. In Grade 7 he was treated very cruelly simply because he liked figure skating over hockey.

“Recently, when Jamie tried to start a Rainbow Club at his high school to promote acceptance of others, the posters were torn down and he was called vicious names in the hallways and online. We had meetings with officials at the school and were working with them to bring an end to it but Jamie felt it would never stop. We will not say that the bullying was the only reason for James’s decision to take his own life but it was definitely a factor.”

Mr Hubley said he hoped the tragedy would go some way towards helping stop bullying in schools and online and that he would use his “energy and public position” to help anti-bullying groups. Writing on his blog just hours before his death, Jamie said he was “tired of life”. Referencing the It Gets Better campaign, he added: “I don’t want to wait three more years, this hurts too much. How do you even know it will get better? It’s not.” In previous posts, he discussed his loneliness, desire for a boyfriend and self-harming.

2011 October 21 – The Star

12
Gay students endure ‘cycle of hate’ in schools

by Michael Woods, Staff Reporter
When Jeremy Dias was walking home from school one day in Grade 11, someone called him a fag. Dark-haired, skinny and one of the few non-white students at his high school in Sault Ste. Marie, he kept walking. He was used to ignoring such barbs. But his tormentor wasn’t finished. “Before I knew it, I was on the ground and he and his friends were kicking me,” said Dias, now 27. “And while I was on the ground, I was thinking I never thought it could happen to me.”

Dias, who came out the previous year, woke up in the hospital two hours after the beating. The next day, his principal told him it was good he was beaten up — it would toughen him up and he wouldn’t complain as much about being bullied. He got through it. But the bullying onslaught becomes too much for many gay teens. Jamie Hubley, the 15-year-old Ottawa boy who committed suicide last weekend, was bullied for years on end and expressed frustration on his blog at being singled out by his peers. His father, an Ottawa city councillor, says bullying directly contributed to his son’s death. Jamie’s suicide note said he could not endure three more years until his high school graduation.

Read complete article here

2 November 2011 – Fridae

13
The reluctant Commonwealth

by Douglas Sanders
British Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Perth in October did not adopt sweeping recommendations for change that included calling for the repeal of anti-homosexual criminal laws. We are not surprised. But the door has not been slammed shut. Doug Sanders reports. British Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Perth in October did not adopt sweeping recommendations for change that included calling for the repeal of anti-homosexual criminal laws. We are not surprised. But the door has not been slammed shut. Doug Sanders reports. At one point the British Empire ruled over one quarter of the world’s people and its Navy ruled the waves. It was the largest empire in world history. British ships transported three million African slaves to the Americas before 1850. In spite of that commercial success, Britain led the Western world in abolishing the slave trade and slavery.

A remarkable aspect of the Empire was its slow evolution to what we now know as the Commonwealth of Nations. The US, of course, revolted, leaving the family in 1776. No other colony left the family by way of revolution. Latin America is full of states that had wars of independence, and Asia has some too, notably Indonesia and Vietnam. None in Britain’s Asian colonies. By 1931 the Empire was reorganised to recognise the factual independence that had gradually developed in countries like Canada, Australia and South Africa. In 1949 the present name “Commonwealth of Nations” was adopted. The Queen became the “head” of the Commonwealth, but it was decided that India could be a member, though it was a republic. The “Colombo Plan” was adopted, adding a development program to the body. Students from developing member states gained scholarships to study in richer member countries.

Post-war decolonisation, beginning with India in 1949, basically changed the organisation. It now has 54 members. The revolting US is not in. Nineteen are in Africa. Eleven are in Oceana. Ten are in the Caribbean. Eight are in Asia. Member countries have a total population of 2.2 billion. Of course, 1.21 billion are in India alone.

The Empire evolved first into a friendly club of the ‘white Dominions’ in 1931. It adopted a development focus after 1949. With decolonisation it became a predominantly third-world organisation. Could it become an advocate of human rights? It was deeply divided over sanctions against racist governments in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and South Africa. It has a history of censuring some countries for gross violations of human rights and democracy. It has suspended, at times, Fiji, Pakistan, Nigeria and Zimbabwe. It has broad policies on human rights and, in particular, against racism. But could it become a more active advocate of human rights?

Read complete article here

Gay Canada News & Reports 2010-11

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