Uganda recently passed an anti-gay law described by United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk as “probably among the worst of its kind in the world.” Anyone engaging in gay sex can be imprisoned for life. Even attempting to have gay sex can earn seven years behind bars. Homosexual acts
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Views from the Beltline: Africa’s anti-gay madness—the Christian connection
Uganda recently passed an anti-gay law described by United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk as “probably among the worst of its kind in the world.” Anyone engaging in gay sex can be imprisoned for life. Even attempting to have gay sex can earn seven years behind bars. Homosexual acts
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Cancelling Tommy Douglas
If I had to choose my favourite Canadian, I would without hesitation choose Tommy Douglas, the man most responsible for Medicare, one of Canadians’ two most popular institutions. I’m not alone. In 2004, CBC audience members voted him the “greatest Canadian” in a network competition. He was indeed a great
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: On Gender Identity
I was born in 1950 at a time when spouses were specifically excluded from rape laws and homosexuality was illegal. Homosexuality was only whispered about in “polite company” and people with a gender identity or gender expression that differed from their assigned sex did not exist, and by that I
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS…and more!: National Coming Out Day 2017
It’s October 11. In the United States, at least, it’s National Coming Out Day. I know of no such celebration in Canada but we’ve been ahead of the pack inn most ways having to do with lgbt-2 liberation. For me, Coming Out Day was sometime in February of 1981. I
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS…and more!: Susan Mabey to receive 2017 Chaplin Memorial Award
“A Christian who happens to be a lesbian”, Susan Mabey’s is a name which has been more than incidental in the long struggle for LGBT inclusion in the United Church of Canada. Cited by the Chaplin Award committee for her recent bridge-building, even as a self-described ‘lightning rod’, as the
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS…and more!: Meanderings of a mental health client in good company
Originally posted on My journey with AIDS…and more!: Would it be much of a surprise, even to the casual reader, that I am a mental health client? I have been since soon after my conclusive HIV diagnosis in 1990, although I wish now that I had sought such accompaniment long
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS…and more!: Remembering “The Romans” – The Romans II Health and Recreation Spa
just an illustration🙂 I found it in the Yellow Pages, which I was checking out at the Toronto Coach Terminal on Bay Street. I had just arrived from Niagara College. It was 1979. I was 19. I thumbed through the book, checking “Baths”, which brought up bathroom fixtures mostly, then
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Orlando shooting: Is there a link between being in the closet and being homophobic?
This research-based piece discusses the possibility that Orlando shooter Omar Mateen was motivated by a struggle with his own homosexuality, Islam and parental pressure.
The post Orlando shooting: Is there a link between being in the closet and being …
My journey with AIDS…and more!: I am reminded
I am reminded of December 6, 1989 at Montreal’s Ecole Polytechnique. I am reminded of February 5, 1981 – Toronto’s bath house raids, the catalyst for my coming out. I am reminded of stolen innocence as a child at the hands of a strang…
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS…and more!: Out for 35 years
Reading something which noted that 1981 was 35 years ago jarred me into realizing that it was three-and-a-half decades ago this very month that I officially came out of the closet, by which I mean letting my family know that I was gay. It was in the co…
Continue readingDeath By Trolley: Follow up Post: Is Milo Yiannopoulos a “self-hating homosexual”?
Recently I did a blog post and YouTube video that was critical of an appraisal made by Joe Rogan and Kyle Kulinski (Secular Talk; a link to the video I was responding to can be found in the info section of my YouTube video). Milo Yiannopoulos, a well-known gay conservative
Continue readingDeath By Trolley: Follow up Post: Is Milo Yiannopoulos a “self-hating homosexual”?
Recently I did a blog post and YouTube video that was critical of an appraisal made by Joe Rogan and Kyle Kulinski (Secular Talk; a link to the video I was responding to can be found in the info section of my YouTube video) that Milo Yiannopoulos is a self-hating
Continue readingDeath By Trolley: Progressive Shaming: Milo Yiannopoulos, the “self-hating” homosexual.
In the video below I talk about how Joe Rogan, who I often find myself agreeing with, and Kyle Kulinsky of Secular Talk accused gay conservative Milo Yiannapoulos of being a self-hating homosexual. Why? Because he indicated that he would have preferred to have been born straight. I think this
Continue readingDeath By Trolley: Progressive Shaming: Milo Yiannopoulos, the “self-hating” homosexual.
NOTE (October 12, 2015): I have written a follow-up post on this issue. In the follow up I argue that while self-hatred is probably an overly-inflammatory descriptor, in his discussions regarding homosexuality Milo is sometimes pretty much “asking” to be interpreted as having anti-homosexual inclinations. He is a complicated man
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The DWR Sunday Religious Disservice – Imprison Pat!
Morning everyone. I’d like to share a Word of the Master video with you today. The intolerance is strong with religion and really is only a path to further divisiveness and conflict. Let’s not continue the religious cycle of marginalizing and fearing other people based on bronze age melodrama. Filed
Continue readingPutin leads Russia from Communism to Fascism
Russian president Vladimir Putin is on record as saying that the collapse of the Soviet Union was one of the 20th century’s major geopolitical disasters. Some might say this suggests he is an unregenerate communist but that, I suspect, is not the case. He was comfortable enough in the USSR,
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: I’m Thinking, “This is Going to Hurt!”: On ‘How Not to Deal with Grief’
From my friend Betty Ann on her Facebook page: “This article deeply moved me…as I suspect it will for any of you who have been impacted by the kind of grief associated with multiple loss, deaths due to overdose and or HIV/AIDS. Rather than just clicking on “like”, can you
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: Letter to The Star Re: When free speech becomes hate crime (Letters, June 23)
From among the throngs walking past, largely ignoring him, a street preacher standing with a mic and an amplifier in front of Old City Hall called me out leaving the opening ceremonies of World Pride taking place at Nathan Phillips Square last Friday. Punching his words from between what he
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Ric McIver and the March for Jesus: A Lake of Fire Redux?
Tweet “Last year alone, Calgary’s streets were flooded with people of wrong sexual preferences during a homosexual parade of over 30,000 attendees and none of them were embarrassed the slightest to publicly even present their nakedness in front of families and in front of future generations to openly proclaim and manifest
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