I grew up in a Pentecostal church, so I remember the beginnings of some of the dominionist doctrines that characterize far right faith groups today. There was never any one principal compendium of theology that every church got behind (just as there’s no single denomination in the dominionist movement, and
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Dented Blue Mercedes: Harper’s Theological Crossroads.
Right from when it was first proposed during the May 2011 federal election, the Office of Religious Freedom (ORF?) was met with the accusation that it was an attempt to pander to its base, concerns that it would overstep the boundary of what Canada should be doing in foreign nations,
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: Canadian Evangelical audio program comes out in favour of Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill. Sort of.
Well, perhaps it isn’t a coming out per-se, since it’s questionable as to whether they were ever “in.” But RoadKill Radio commentators Kari Simpson and Ron Gray have more or less made their position known on Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill during an interview with Christian Heritage Party leader Jim Hnatiuk, who
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: C-279 Passes Third Reading (Hansard)
C-279 passed Third Reading, on a vote of 149 – 137. Aaron Wherry gives the early breakdown: “Randall Garrison’s bill was supported by the New Democrats, the majority of Liberals (Judy Sgro and John McKay abstained), the Bloc Quebecois, Bruce Hyer, Elizabeth May and, by my unofficial count, 17 Conservative
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: A Real Bathroom Bill.
The Bathroom Bill was supposed to be voted on today. No, I’m not talking about the human rights bill that opponents have tried to tag with that nickname — C-279, which proposes to clarify and enunciate legal protections for most transsexual and transgender Canadians (although the removal of the class
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: Intersex Conditions within the Transsexual Brain / Why “Born This Way” Is Not the Point
A bit of point and counterpoint here, to provoke some thought. I thought this portion of a lecture given by Robert Sapolsky at Stanford University, given in 2010, would be worth posting for folks who found this blog recently, and/or aren’t familiar with some of the medical discoveriess since the
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: C-279 amendments made, in afternoon of impassioned speeches.
Update / Correction: The amendments were given a voice vote, but not actually passed. Because there was visible opposition, it’s subject to recorded division, and the amendments will be voted on, on March 20th. More twists and turns than a mangled slinky. It’s official, the amendments to drop gender expression
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: C-279: To amend or not to amend?
… aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand we still don’t know what Bill C-279 is going to be when it’s voted on at Third Reading. The bill, which proposes to add trans people to human rights legislation, had an hour of debate at report stage. Randall Garrison requested that amendments be added to the bill,
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: Doing something about anti-gay lobbying in Africa
If you’ve frequented any LGBT media at all, you’ve heard about Uganda’s proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill (often referred to as the “Kill the Gays Bill”), and possibly other anti-gay legislative bills that have been debated in African nations. Perhaps you’ve signed on to petitions directed to various governments to urge them
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: Violence is almost never an acceptable response. Neither is rationalizing it.
In August 2012, Floyd Lee Corkins entered the Family Research Council (FRC) headquarters and opened fire, injuring a security guard as he was tackled — fortunately, before he could cause any more damage. Periodically, I see people who I otherwise respect trying to dismiss the incident as insignificant, or even
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: Guest Post: Teacher plays scene from Disney Movie to Humiliate Student in Class
[This post comes to us courtesy of Michelle Boyce at the Alphabet Community Centre. -M] Anna Saunders is a mature student who attended a summer school class at Saunders Secondary School and a teacher decided she was a “guy in a dress”, beginning to use male pronouns and “Sir” when
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: Trans Human Rights in Canada: Progress, Stalls and Confustication.
The Province of Nova Scotia passed Bill 140, the Transgendered [sic] Persons Protection Act, today. The Nova Scotia Rainbow Action Project (NSRAP) commented on Facebook: “Bill 140 passed today with unanimous support in the Nova Scotia Legislature. “Debate” isn’t the right word to express what happened – it was an outpouring of support for adding 
Dented Blue Mercedes: Dear anonymous guest.
Hi. On Sunday November 18th, 2012, you attended the Transgender Day of Remembrance ceremony commemorated in Calgary, Alberta. Thank you. You also left a small tribute. I wanted to let you know that we’ll make it a permanent part of our display for you. It’s a small thing, but hopefully it will help let everyone 
Dented Blue Mercedes: LGBT human rights in Uganda, and John Baird’s dilemma.
Recent attention from both ends of the political spectrum has focused on the efforts of the Harper government to safeguard the safety and human rights of lesbian and gay people around the world. I’ve commended Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird for taking the lead on this before, and without prompting. But what has been 
Dented Blue Mercedes: Defining human rights.
Next week or in the week following, Canada’s Parliamentary Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights (JUST) will be reviewing the trans human rights Bill C-279, to approve or amend it before deciding whether to forward it on to Third Reading. Following federal Member of Parliament Rob Anders’ disastrous attempt to lobby Canadians against the bill by 
Dented Blue Mercedes: Trans Depathologization: the spark of change.
I watch a lot of news stories unfold, reading left-wing, centrist and right-wing media alike. In the course of a news story, issues ignite, blaze hotly and then smoulder into memory. After awhile, one develops some sense of when a campaign will spread like a prairie fire or when it
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: MP’s trans predator fearmongering escalates.
On Friday, Sun News commentator Brian Lilley interviewed Rob Anders, the Member of Parliament who has drawn condemnation for conflating transsexual and transgender people with sexual predators in a petition he has been circulating on his website, and to at least one church in his riding. In “Children’s bathroom bill
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: The Mask of Gender
Normally, I’m not one to promote something if I’m in it. That kind of thing is horribly self-aggrandizing. So I’ll apologize right off for doing that here. But given the recent focus on trans issues due to the comments made by Rob Anders, I thought it would be a good
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: Rob Anders, the transsexual bogeyman, and the weird phenomenon of MPs petitioning their constituents.
Rob Anders is on a mission. Hot on the heels of having to halfway apologize for alleging that NDP leader Thomas Mulcair drove former NDP leader Jack Layton to his grave, Anders is now sending at least one church (possibly more) a letter asking them to petition MPs to oppose
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: Michelle Kosilek, Barney Frank and Prisoner Sex Changes
If Barney Frank seriously wants to be an ally for trans people, the absolute first thing he could do is stop talking about anything at all to do with trans people. To be fair, the media has this bad habit of considering him a superior authority to absolutely anyone who’s
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