from JoeMyGod (not so sexy!) :(
 

CANADA: Florist Refuses Gay Wedding

A florist in New Brunswick has refused to provide flowers for a gay wedding because she "must respect her conscience before God."

After agreeing to provide the flowers for a wedding, Kim Evans of Petals and Promises Wedding Flowers sent an email last month to the couple, saying she didn't know it was a same-sex wedding and would have no part of the ceremony. "I am choosing to decline your business. As a born-again Christian,

I must respect my conscience before God and have no part in this matter," the email said. Evans has not returned calls from CBC News to explain her decision. Mario Bourgeois Leduc, wedding planner for the couple, who didn't want their names released, said he was appalled by the florist's email, especially since "you're celebrating love and you're going against all of the odds to celebrate what is important in your life." "This is going to stay with them for years, because they were again told that their lives are not OK."

According to the New Brunswick Human Rights Act, businesses cannot refuse customers based on sexual orientation. This Saturday a group of LGBT activists will hold a protest at the shop.

A group of gays and lesbians form New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are planning a protest at Petals and Promises florist shop, 39 Glen Pine Drive, in Riverview, New Brunswick. The demonstration will take place on Saturday, March 19, from 3 to 6 PM. Protesters are encouraged to bring flowers to lay at the doorstep of the florist shop to make the point that the LGBT community is aware of the illegal actions of the florist in refusing services for a same-sex wedding, yet they are not condemning them for their religious beliefs.

Should the couple pursue a complaint, you can bet this incident will be heralded by the Christianist right as yet another example of the legalized homofacism coming to America.

Original Article:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-br...rist-1009.html <--for those interested, there are over 1200 Comments from our fellow Canadians with some varying opinions; so far, mostly in support of the couple, but a handful (only got through first three pages) are quite unenlightened when it comes to our Charter and equality laws. :|

/snip/

Eldon Hay, a United Church minister in Sackville and a well-known gay rights advocate, said he still sympathizes with the florist.

"The shopkeeper has every right to her own convictions as long as she is a private citizen in her own house," Hay said.

"But if she opens her doors to sell flowers, then she must be prepared to meet and deal with the public."

According to the New Brunswick Human Rights Act, anyone doing business in the province cannot refuse customers based on race, religion or sexual orientation.

LGBT Protest: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-br...rist-1009.html

Budget's in and elections are happening. Which means Bill C-389 is very likely dead in the water as of now barring a miracle...fuck.

My homosexual agenda mostly has to do with paying my rent and figuring out when I'm going to have time to do laundry. I have no idea when these people think we have time for world domination.

From joemygod
 

Canada To Help LGBT Refugees

In a partnership with an LGBT group, Canada has announced a landmark asylum program to assist LGBT refugees fleeing persecution in their home countries.
Through the project, Citizenship and Immigration Canada will work with the Rainbow Refugee Committee to share the cost of sponsoring gay, lesbian, transgender, transsexual and bisexual refugees overseas to Canada. The department will provide $100,000 in assistance to cover three months of income support for the refugees upon their arrival here, while the Rainbow committee will offer orientation services, accommodation, food and other basic needs. “These funds are a welcome first step in response to the crisis facing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people around the globe, at a time when 77 countries continue to criminalize homosexuality and five prescribe the death penalty,” said Helen Kennedy, executive director of Egale Canada, the country’s largest LGBT human rights organization.

USA Non-Profit Program for LGBTQ Refugees - ORAM

My apologies for posting this here in the Canadian thread but because I have a meeting in a few minutes, I decided to do it in support of post about Canada's Program.

__________________________________________________ ______________


Dear Friends,

I've been asked to share this with you.

“Gay Sex Pervert Can’t Boink Wife” in big black typeface covered more than a third of the tabloid newspaper Moses held up for everyone in the audience to see. These words were next to a large photo of him which took up the other third of the paper. Moses had run for his life to America seeking asylum after his community in Uganda found out he was gay. Being gay in Uganda is front page news!

Moses was orphaned at a young age. Both of his parents died of AIDS. The irony is that the same country that donated money to “help” people like Moses’ parents, people with HIV, also imported radical anti-gay evangelism that ultimately forced Moses to flee his own country to save his life.

For the past several years, influenced by American evangelicals who have taken their anti-gay fight overseas, the Ugandan government has been trying to pass a bill that would make homosexuality a crime punishable by death and would give life sentences to anyone who knows about an LGBT person and doesn’t report them to the government. While this horrific law has not passed, LGBT people in Uganda are public enemy #1 and have been violently attacked, some brutally murdered, because of the climate of virulent homophobia.

Moses has a beautiful smile and an androgynous appearance. He is gentle and extremely intelligent. You could hardly imagine the horrors he has experienced by his calm demeanor. He’s clearly someone who has learned to roll with the punches. For Moses, the punches started when he was just a boy and caught engaging in sexual play with another boy his age at his school. Moses spoke about being repeatedly beaten by his father after this was discovered. He learned to hide, but never deny, the truth of who he was.

When he was “outed” again as a young professor, it became clear that he was going to lose his job. He was pressured into marrying a woman. This of course did not make him a heterosexual, nor stop his true sexual orientation from being expressed, and he was finally forced to leave the country to save his own life. He’s applied for asylum in the United States several times and there have been several errors in his case. To date, he has not been granted asylum.

I met Moses at a forum on LGBT Asylum presented at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley and sponsored by Rev. Roland Stringfellow of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies.

Neil Grungas, the Executive Director of the Organization for Refuge, Asylum and Migration (ORAM), painted a grim picture of the situation LGBT asylum seekers face. Unlike LGBT asylum seekers, most heterosexual asylum seekers are reunited with other family or community members. They have the support of their culture and religion to fall back on.

LGBT asylum seekers, however, are fleeing from homophobic family, community, and religious organizations. They are isolated beyond measure and completely dependent on the kindness of strangers. Many LGBT asylum seekers, Grungas says “flee violence by community members or ‘honor killings’ by their own families.”

Grungas says that even upon relocation, LGBT asylum seekers are at-risk for suicide and substance abuse. Many have severe Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder from childhood abuse, sexual abuse, and violent acts against them. In the U.S., they are unable to go many churches for support because of the churches’ anti-gay stance and the LGBT community is not set up to provide the kinds of psychological, vocational, and other support these refugees need.

The Organization for Refuge, Asylum and Migration (ORAM) is committed to providing training and support to LGBTI organizations and mainstream organizations to help educate them about the needs of LGBT refugees and to helping LGBTI refugees resettle.
They have an “Adopt An LGBTI Refugee” program where folks can make donations or literally house an LGBTI refugee. Their website is www.oraminternational.org

We met another man from Uganda at the forum, a young gospel singer. He had fled the country only a week earlier after his picture was published in the paper stating that he was involved in a sexual relationship with a priest. A friend of ours had sent out an e-mail the week previously asking us if we would be able to house a young man fleeing Uganda for his life or if we knew anyone else who could. We have a small two bedroom house and I work out of the one room, so I knew it wouldn’t work for us. It was surreal to meet this young man at this event and hear his story. Gratefully, another LGBT colleague and his husband took this young man in and are now doing a movie to raise more awareness about this dire reality in Uganda.

We asked Moses, Neil, and the young man how we can help. Moses and the young man said “Tell our stories. Please let people know about what’s happening in Uganda. We need more people to know about the LGBT persecution.” Neil Grungas encouraged us to let people know about ORAM. “We need volunteers, interns, donations, pro-bono therapists, all of these things could help.”

I invite you to share this blog with at least 5 other people so that they can know more about the realities facing LGBT Ugandans and other LGBT asylum seekers. The State Department and Social Services organizations need more education and information to understand the needs of LGBT people seeking asylum. You can help.

Please consider Adopting-A-Refugee. Go to www.oraminternational.org/adopt-a-refugee.html

That's right bitches, the government has been dissolved. Time to get a new one.

And if that douchebag Harper gets back in I will lose my mind.

You SO should make this your signature!

When's the vote? I should get Elections Canada to send me an out-of-country ballot!

I'll tell you as long as you promise not to vote for the Conservatives.

(It's May 2nd)

Fuck no! I'm going to vote in my Aunt's riding in Halifax and she usually votes NDP/Liberal.

Is public transporation supported in Canada in any congruent manner? Are the existing systems in major cities "user friendly?" The US never seems to grasp how essential public (and rapid) transit is to our well being. Wondering if Canadians treat is in the same hit and miss manner as the US does.

Well, I know Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal are pretty good. Not sure about others. Halifax wasn't too bad when I visited but living there might be a different thing.

Durham Region (where my sister lives) (East of Toronto) actually has a pretty good set-up right now. They've essentially amalgamated their public transit systems so you can travel from Pickering to Oshawa on one fare and formed a partnership with the Go Bus system so you can take parts of your trip with them along Hwy 2 included in your DRT fare. It's not bad at all.

I'm TOLD that Vancouver has good transit, but I never cared for it when I lived there - but I guess because I was so used to Toronto.

Even where I live now (dumb little town of about 70,000 people) the transit is pretty good, my only complaint being that it doesn't run late enough at night.

Thanks- it has been years since I was in Toronto. I was in western CA in 2003- but on the Alcan up to Alaska mostly. Didn't explore larger cities that trip really.

The TTC in Toronto is pretty good. The only complaint I'd have of it is that they need to do something about hooking up with Viva (Richmond Hill, Newmarket etc.) and the Mississauga buses, because it sucks having to pay two different fares just to go to a house party or something. I know a dude who commutes to UofT St. George from Richmond Hill every day and ends up paying like 12 bucks in transit fare a day. Its craziness. GO has a new smartcard for seniors and kids (why do they always forget the poor uni students? :( ) that I think they should extend to be used throughout the GTA's transit systems including the TTC...and make it available for everyone.

I'm always surprised how efficient the TTC is at getting frequent shuttle buses going whenever the have to cut off subway service on a line. It's a pretty efficient system overall. Or at least they try to be with our stupid municipal gov't.

Montreal has a pretty decent system from what I remember, but figuring it out is kind of crazy, lol.

Only ever taken the buses in Ottawa and they're pretty cheap and easy if I remember right. Take you just about everywhere, but Ottawa's pretty small so if you're downtown you can just walk everywhere.

St. John's has an ok bus system that takes you mostly where you need to go, but it's not as frequent as big city buses and doesn't run past midnight or 1am if I remember right. Pretty inexpensive if I remember. At least last time I was there it was $2,75. That doesn't really matter though because the city is small enough that you can walk just about everywhere that isn't out by Torbay or something.

Dooooo eeeeeeetttt...and vote for Ignatieff! :D

Btw, has anyone else seen those stupid Conservative campaign commercials? "A vote for the Liberals is a vote for Michael Ignatieff!" No shit sherlock, here I was thinking a vote for the Liberals was a vote for Gilles Duceppe lol

Ya. I've been listening to Chum-FM and noticed their ads are "scare tactics". I'm not quite sure what Ignatieff has done or did that warranted it. I mean the whole idea that he joined the Liberals to become Prime Minister is.. well. DUH!

What is the cost of say, a monthly pass?

Michael Ignatieff - he didn't come back for you. OH NO! I'm terrified of the Liberals now! I mean, seriously. If the biggest issue with the guy is that he lived in the US for a while - he's looking pretty sweet.

I'm probably going to vote for the NDP, though. I love me some Jack Layton.

Where? Where I am now it's $60 a month for a pass, although I don't personally buy them. (My work and grocery store are both within walking distance so it's not been worth it to me - although at tax time I always wish I had bought monthly passes because you can claim those when you file.)

Toronto is $121.