Tag: LGBT

The Political Road Map: Omar Mateen and the Orlando Massacre


I began sipping my Sunday morning coffee, when upon opening my CBC app, I was confronted with the headline: “Mass Shooting in Florida, 50 Dead, 53 Injured.”
Suddenly, my coffee didn’t taste very good anymore; it became bitter and left a feeling of unease in the pit of my stomach.

This feeling did not happen because of the fact that another shooting had just been committed in the United States, no, those seem to be happening on a weekly basis as of late. The feeling developed, because as soon as my eyes glanced on the headline, I knew that someone had taken an AR-15 and used it on a group of innocent people in order to address some kind of hate or vendetta against society. I hadn’t even read the article yet and I knew the gun utilized by the person and that made me sick, because it seems that no matter how many bodies are counted, families destroyed and minority groups targeted, Americans still believe they do not have a gun problem.

The needless massacre at a nightclub in Orlando, that also happened to be a favorite spot of the areas LGBT community was more than just an example of America’s problems with guns however. I love how the media feels the need to emphasize the fact that this nightclub was a gay nightclub, as if to say it was the sovereign state of homosexuals, where no one else could join. The reality of the matter is that the opposite is the truth; this social location accepted everyone into a safe environment, which made it the perfect target.
Omar Mateen was supposedly a follower of ISIS, but unlike foreign entities coming into the country to wreak havoc, this individual was a natural born American.

His religion and his beliefs coupled with the mental illness of Bi-Polar Syndrome seem to be the catalysts that allowed his beliefs to become reality.
The media quoted a family member, who stated that the sight of two men kissing enraged Omar.
Why would this be though? Did the men motion to have him kiss him? Were they trying to impose their way of life on his or come to his home or mosque to enforce the importance of kissing members of the same sex?

Most likely not.

When someone chooses a location to stage their protest or make a stand, it will often time carry with it a significance that enforces the beliefs of the actor. In the case of the nightclub, one must question why a young man with strong ties to Islam and also suffering from a mental illness, would choose this night club out of any other areas in the city that might prove significant to the LGBT community?

Was Omar really that bigoted against the LGBT community? Was he attempting to change his approach to Jihad against America and thought that targeting a minority, much like his own group, would instill the necessary fear to get his message across? Did he leave any documentation or even a manifesto that supported his allegiance with ISIS?

Or was this act the result of a man greatly confused and torn between his own desires and the requirements of his religious faith. Was Omar Mateen truly disgusted by the fact that two men were kissing or was he in fact angered because they could never kiss him?

Was a man who may have been questioning his own sexuality, put into a position that forced him into choosing to live the life you want and isolate yourself from your faith or follow your faith, but deny yourself the identity you truly are?

This wouldn’t be the first time in history that someone who was confused or torn took to the method of lashing out against the very group they so longed to be apart of, when reality reinforced the fact that they could never truly be free.

The Political Road Map relies heavily on the discussion of our political realm and its impact on our daily lives, but what it also indirectly does is allow you, the reader, to map out your own life and how it interacts with our society.

Where are you? Where are you going? Is your government headed in the same direction?

If you find yourself in a position of isolation, of feeling lost without direction, because either your own group or the society you live in is headed in such a drastic direction how would you react?

Could the same consequences have been accomplished here in Canada?

They could have, but they would have been much more difficult and would have been illegal from the start. The AR-15 is to the Americans, what the AK-47 was to the Soviet Union. It is an easily user-friendly gun that can be built rather cheaply and sold en mass. When coupled with the right intentions, it can wreak havoc on both civilian and enemy with little difficulty.

America’s gun problem is that it allows these weapons of war to be made readily available for every house mom and working stiff with the right amount of zeroes on a cheque. Combine this with the bigotry that comes from the religious right and it is unfortunately no surprise that acts like this are being committed more frequently.

In closing, I ask that you forget about the fact that Omar Mateen pleaded his allegiance to ISIS before the attack, because this kind of hate toward LGBT individuals is not solely committed by radical Islam, but by fundamentalist Christians, Catholics and even non-religious idiots alike.

Remember the victims of this tragedy and look forward with hope and love in order to avoid such an event from happening again. More importantly though, remember the perpetrator as someone who is not a hero of infamy, but an individual who will go down in history as a confused and possibly sexually challenged individual, who did not get the required help before acting out.

Peace, Love, Hope and Sound Direction!


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The Cracked Crystal Ball II: Bishops and Reality

Seldom do Alberta’s Bishops allow reality to interfere with their preconceived ideas.  In fact, where Calgary’s Bishop Henry is concerned, the idea of reality seems to exist in another dimension entirely where LGBT rights are concerned.  In his latest tirade, carrying the grandiose title “TOTALITARIANISM IN ALBERTA IV“, is so

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The Cracked Crystal Ball II: Bishops and Reality

Seldom do Alberta’s Bishops allow reality to interfere with their preconceived ideas.  In fact, where Calgary’s Bishop Henry is concerned, the idea of reality seems to exist in another dimension entirely where LGBT rights are concerned.  In his latest tirade, carrying the grandiose title “TOTALITARIANISM IN ALBERTA IV“, is so profoundly riddle with ignorance, hyperbole and outright paranoid thoughts that it deserves a more detailed tearing down.  

Despite the differing signage, ranging from “Flush Bill 10” to “Everyone Can Pee,” the issues are not just about bathrooms, plumbing and urination, parental rights, safety of children, how people feel, GSAs and an imperfect Bill 10. What is at stake is the very order of creation. (emphasis added)

Apparently, protecting LGBT youth in Alberta schools is now such a profound threat to the Bishop that it now represents an existential threat to the world itself!  Wow … I had no idea that LGBT, and in particular Trans, kids were so powerful.

Mr. Eggen’s guiding principle for best practices is: “self-identification is the sole measure of an individual’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.” This foundational statement is simply assumed to be true and no evidence is offered to substantiate the claim.

Such subjectivity is ever expansive and morally problematic. LGBT has now swelled to LGBTTQQIAAP2S. … The newest addition is the “2S” which denotes being two-spirited, a term used for one who does not fit into the male/female binary. Some have even added “BDSM” for those into bondage, dominance, sadism and masochism.

Oh yes, the dreaded “slippery slope” argument.  Of course recognizing that human sexuality and expression is far more diverse than the simple male/female missionary model that the Bishop seems so hung up on would collapse – a reality that most of us have figured out the hard way.

However, facts, not ideology, determine reality. On April 6, 2016, the American College of Pediatricians, representing more than a hundred pediatricians, issued an important statement concerning gender ideology … The College’s statement meshes perfectly with biblical and theological truths.

 Let’s look at this for a moment.  “Biblical and theological truths” is a key phrase in here.  Let me be abundantly clear about something.  In spite of the Bishop’s protestations, we are not talking about biblical or theological notions of truth here.  Bill 10 and the guidelines that came down earlier this year are not about those issues at all – they are about protecting children and creating a safe environment for them.  For all that the Bishop may wish to blather on about “biblical truth”, the fact is that he is miles offside here, because there is clear evidence that providing safe, secure environments that acknowledge the realities of LGBT youth provide better outcomes for their education.  (There’s a lot more like this)  From the pulpit, the Bishop is free to spout whatever he wishes, but when it comes to objective realities, the facts contradict everything he is saying.

Pope Francis, “the who am I to judge” Pope, has not minced his words: “the gender ideology is demonic.” He includes gender theory among the fundamental dangers of our era, with the same threatening potential as nuclear weapons and gene manipulation and describes it as an attitude with which man creates a new sin that is directed against God the Creator.

I love this.  The political right wing has started to use the language of “gender ideology” in its attacks on gender minorities.  Seriously?  Lovely attempt at trying to obfuscate the discussion by inventing terminology.  Rather than admitting that they are objecting to equality rights for transgender people (which means you have to admit that you are advocating for discriminatory practices), the Bishop borrows a meaningless piece of verbiage and uses it hoping that we won’t notice the sleight of hand.

“Beyond the understandable difficulties which individuals may experience, the young need to be helped to accept their own body as it was created, for thinking that we enjoy absolute power over our own bodies turns, often subtly, into thinking that we enjoy absolute power over creation… Sex education should help young people to accept their own bodies and to avoid the pretension to cancel out sexual differences because one no longer know how to deal with it.”

Really?  I wonder if either the Bishop or the Pope realize that most transgender people experience  significant levels of dysphoria from the outset?  That for some, the only option for a viable life is to transition?  Many spend years trying desperately to “accept” the lot that they have been given, only to find that they are perpetually unable to do so.  It isn’t merely “accepting their bodies”, most have struggled for years to achieve that, and failed.

Bishop Henry might want to actually get to know the realities that transgender people face, the struggles of their lives and how his hostility to them affects their lives before making grandiose pronouncements about how they should be “treated” in his judgment.  

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