It started with a beeping smoke detector, one that kept me up half the night. The next morning I called the superintendent about that beeping thing only to discover he was away for the weekend. So I asked my neighbour for help. He came over with a huge ladder and pried the detector apart, hoping to pull out the battery. But there wasn’t one, at one least visible, there was a lithium battery tucked away somewhere inaccessible, unless you held both a hammer and rage. That was when he invited me to help him find the instruction manual. As he was rummaging through the drawer, I noticed a stack of flyers that, if a little larger, could be seen from space. They were completely red with some black text and colourful pictures. It was very “rah rah our country is the best – or it would be if Trudeau wasn’t prime minister”. There were many blurbs about our rights and how they’re being trampled, along with having Trudeau charged with treason. There are only two reasons he could be charged. One is if he physically harmed the person on the throne and two is leading a full on attack on Canada. Since I never saw him backhand the Queen during his visit or heard about him gathering an army to invade Ottawa, I think he’s safe there.
I made note of the website, which wasn’t hard, and searched it out. The website was just as red and was dotted with colourful, patriotic, primary school style cartoons. A map of Canada, Mounties, beavers, maple syrup, and hockey. They were comforting and very stereotypically Canadian. All the text was upbeat, assuring the readers that they were doing great and making a difference, before asking for donations and volunteers. I scrolled past a few links, and then I saw it, the new pride flag with a line and circle placed in the centre. Nothing like patriotism and a dose of homophobia. I steeled myself and clicked the link.
Many years ago I had a friend who I met in the tenant’s association and, when we both had Facebook, we added each other. I hadn’t realized until then that she was a huge conspiracy theorist. And her aim was to get me to see the “truth”. One day she sent me an, I am loathe to call it an article, a series of words. There were links scattered throughout, all of them from reputable sources. I clicked on the first link and it was the same topic but exactly the opposite of what they were claiming. All the other links were the same. I realized the author knew his audience would never click the links, that for all they called themselves lions, they would blindly follow anyone who said they had the truth and assured them they were on top of the pack and everyone else were sheep. This website was the same.
The whole page was devoted to fear mongering about sexual education in school. They included a link to the Comprehensive Sexuality Education. I clicked on the link and, sure enough, it was nothing like what was written. What is it about people who claim they’re leaders and know the truth? Meanwhile they can’t even click links and Google names. I’m underwhelmed with their leadership skills.
It was about what I expected. Lots of fearmongering about what sexual depravities the children are learning from 0-4 years old where they claim the children must learn about masturbation (as if they all haven’t discovered it on their own) and that they “develop an interest in their own and others’ bodies“. This escalates all the way to 9-12 years old where they should have already had sex and be browsing through online porn. It’s both sobering and frightening that grown adults could look at this codswallop and think it was real. And then I read the last piece which involves SOGI. They claimed the program is crossing into gender confusion that is harming the well being of young students”.
Whoever is operating this organization has something against the UNFPA, UNICEF, IPPF, UNESCO and the UN World Health Organization. This time SOGI was blamed on the UN, claiming it was inspired by the human rights win of “a gay man in Australia”. No mention of who he is or what the win actually entailed, they wrote exactly what their readers wanted to know, that he was gay. Because that’s the crux of the matter, that’s why they put a pride flag next to the story. Underneath the flag it says they need to “stop the segregation of students through SOGI”. First, do they even know what segregation is? And second, they’re the ones wanting to hush the queer kids into silence and to let them know, through actions, that they’re lesser than the other students.
Last year I wrote a post about a neighbour who informed me that he was fine with the LGB’s or whatever as long as “they keep their lifestyles to themselves”. He didn’t want anything rammed down his throat. This isn’t the Church of Homosexuality and Queerness. There isn’t anyone going door to door extolling rainbows and fabulousness. Nobody is wanting to put anything into any of his orifices. But there it is. An idea has permeated through our culture (and other cultures as well) that queer people are just sex, sex, sex, and perversion.
Five or so years ago I had a friend who I met through work. We got along well. She came to my Christmas party and we went out for lunch a time or two. Then I told her about an instance that happened at Canada’s Wonderland, a large amusement park just north of Toronto. Colin and I had gone to the park with PFLAG to celebrate Gay Day. It was great! Free transportation (with snacks), discounted day passes, and a bbq dinner. It wasn’t until the next day that I heard about the couple at the waterpark. They hugged briefly and parents complained vociferously that children should not be exposed to that sort of thing and the young men were ejected from the waterpark. I told my friend about the instance only to have her tell me she agreed with the parents and the staff. Things of a sexual nature should stay in the bedroom; little children don’t need to witness that. Then I what she’d think of a straight couple doing then exact same thing and she was fine with it. Because if a straight person hugs their partner it’s a show of affection. If a gay couple does the same it’s perverse and a sign they’re going to strip and do the nasty. We weren’t friends after that.
The person who wrote that page of misinformation wrote, near the bottom, that “it’s fair to note that all men and women of any orientation and gender deserve equal rights” as if this mitigated the fact they used a crossed out pride flag as the image for the post. You can’t say everyone’s equal then slap a pride flag beside a post on degeneracy. It just doesn’t work.
And SOGI was created by the ARC foundation in Vancouver, BC
I can’t remember exactly how old I was, probably around five or six, but it was summer and a handful of us girls were on “the circle”, an area of grass at the end of our court. We were trying to think of something to do when one of the girls piped up, “Let’s play wedding!”
Because I'm Fabulous 