lance_sibley: (illogical)
Wow, it's been nearly a week since I last posted... I guess nothing's been going on. Well, that's not really true, I suppose, but nothing unusual has happened in my life since last week. The stuff I've been doing at work for the past month was uploaded to the test server today, and the client is really excited about the changes. So excited he wants to know when the next batch of changes, which he gave me last Friday afternoon, will be ready.

The Programming scheduling meeting for Polaris 21 went well on Sunday. We managed to get the whole schedule done in about six hours - mind you, it was simpler than in past years because it seems that the pre-reg deadline snuck up on a lot of our regular panelists this year. We're still getting panel signups via the website. It's much easier to avoid schedule conflicts if the schedule is made before many panelists have signed up. ;)

I managed to make it to the Exec meeting on Monday night only an hour or so late. I discovered that evening that taking the Viva blue bus from work to Richmond Hill Centre, the purple line from Richmond Hill Centre to York University, the orange line to Highway 7 and Martin Grove, the York Region #7 bus south to Finch and the Martin Grove #46 bus to Dixon is even slower than taking the Viva blue bus all the way down to Steeles and then the Steeles West #60 bus from Finch station. Perhaps next time I'll take the blue bus to Finch and take the route I normally take from home (subway to Kipling, Martin Grove #46 to Dixon) and see if that's any faster (it certainly can't be any slower).

For the three or so of you who haven't been following the latest kerfuffle, there's a blog here by "Warriors For Innocence", the holier-than-thou group that's getting LJ accounts and communities shut down for listing interests that they don't agree with, in the name of protecting children from potential abusers. There aren't many posts there yet, but I'm sure that there will be more as word gets around. I read some of the comments, and it boggles my mind that they're claiming that they're not ultimately responsible just because they're not the ones deleting the journals and the communities.

Oh, and I'm a little late with this, but [livejournal.com profile] montrealais' post from the other night, along with this article in the Globe and Mail, highlights just why Gay Pride celebrations are still needed now, perhaps more than ever. For those who didn't hear about it, here are the opening paragraphs from the Globe's article:


Russian police detained gay protesters calling for the right to hold a Gay Pride parade in central Moscow on Sunday while nationalists shouting “death to homosexuals” punched and kicked the demonstrators.

Riot police detained the protesters, including two European parliamentarians, as they tried to present a petition asking Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, who has called gay marches satanic acts, to lift a ban on the parade.

Nationalists and extreme Russian Orthodox believers held icons and denounced homosexuality as “evil” while a group of thick-set young men turned up with surgeon's masks, which they said would protect them from the “gay disease”.


That's right - the police arrested the gay activists. For the most part, the mob attacking them got off scot-free.

We might have it pretty good here, but our brothers and sisters in other countries aren't so fortunate.

Oh, and the Anaheim Mighty Ducks just took a 2-0 series lead in the Stanley Cup final by beating Ottawa 1-0. As much as I hate to say it, because it implies that I'm cheering for Anaheim when I'm not... it looks good on the Senators. ;)
lance_sibley: (flag)
I don't normally make back-to-back posts, but I wanted to separate this political commentary from the personal entry I just finished.

The school board of Surrey, British Columbia, has decided to cancel Elgin Park Secondary School's production of "The Laramie Project", saying that the subject matter of the play was not suitable for family audiences.

"The Laramie Project" is about the murder of Matthew Shepard, who was killed seven years ago for the simple reason that he was gay. Lured by a group of young men who pretended to offer him sex, he was beaten and left to die, tied to a fence post. (He died five days after he was found.) The murder inspired Elton John's song "American Triangle":


Seen him playing in his backyard
Young boy just starting out
So much history in this landscape
So much confusion, so much doubt

Been there drinking on that front porch
Angry kids, mean and dumb
Looks like a painting, that blue skyline
God hates fags where we come from

'Western skies' don't make it right
'Home of the brave' don't make no sense
I've seen a scarecrow wrapped in wire
Left to die on a high ridge fence
It's a cold, cold wind
It's a cold, cold wind
It's a cold wind blowing, Wyoming

See two coyotes run down a deer
Hate what we don't understand
You pioneers give us your children
But it's your blood that stains their hands

Somewhere that road forks up ahead
To ignorance and innocence
Three lives drift on different winds
Two lives ruined, one life spent


Judy Shepard, Matthew's mother, now tours the United States speaking out against homophobia. She says, "Hate is really out there and alive and thriving in our world. It is learned from fear and ignorance. We can learn to be more tolerant and if I didn't believe that I wouldn't be out here preaching the word."

As I see it, the message being sent by the Surrey school board is that violence against gay people is something that ought not to be discouraged. The play is meant to shock and to make people reconsider their hatred and fear. It contains no overt sexuality. It contains some foul language, but nothing that most kids have probably heard on playgrounds (and the director was prepared to tone down the language). By cancelling the performance, the school board is saying, "We're comfortable with our bigotry. We don't want to be made uncomfortable."

Playwright Moises Kaufman said: "I think the kind of bigotry that killed Matthew Shepard is learned in high school. To pretend that high school kids are unaware of homosexuality is not only a fallacy but it's irresponsible. I think it's really irresponsible for them to do that [cancel the Surrey high school production] because the kind of violence that leads to hate crimes is learned at the high school age."

He's absolutely right, though in fact I would suggest that the attitudes that lead to violence is learned earlier than high school. I was being called "faggot" when I was nine years old.

The Surrey school board can be reached at:

School District No. 36 (Surrey)
14225 56th Avenue, Surrey, BC V3X 3A3
(604) 596-7733

Their website's feedback page can be found here.

And here is the full story from today's Globe and Mail; here is the Vancouver Sun's take on it.

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