• Conservative MPs laugh at concerns that trans people face flight ban: A British Columbia lawyer plans to launch a legal challenge [ XTRA, February 2, 2012]

Chow says Lebel and other Conservative MPs were openly "snickering" and disrespectfully mocking Garrison, Morin and Liberal MP Justin Trudeau as they pressed the government for answers.

"The response was outrageous," Chow says. "It's totally ridiculous. If you listen to the audio, you can hear [Conservative MPs] snickering in the background."

Garrison says Conservative MPs were "making light" of a very serious situation.

• Catholic trustees snub Dalton McGuinty on gay-straight alliances
[ Toronto Star, January 31, 2012]

Now, using the language of a witch hunt, the trustees warn that "activism" or "advocacy" of "anything that is not in accord with the Catholic faith foundation of the school" is banned. What a way to intimidate school kids for daring to show solidarity against bullies: No activism that strays from catechism.

Oh, and no discussion of personal "gender identity." So if you've already come out of the closet, you'll have to go back in during lunch hour club meetings. Or perhaps put that lunch bag over your head?

Fearing Sodom and Gomorrah in the blessed province of Ontario, Catholic trustees are making a spectacle of themselves. By turning the spotlight onto these small, localized solidarity clubs for well-meaning school kids, they are resurrecting a latter-day version of the Inquisition, where those who challenged the doctrine of the faith were, um, bullied into submission.

• College asked to investigate Catholic principal who banned gay-straight alliance
[ Toronto Star, January 29, 2012]

Ontario's College of Teachers has been asked to investigate a Catholic principal for professional misconduct after students were banned from starting a gay-straight alliance at their Mississauga high school.

In a formal complaint, teacher Thomas McCue asks that the college look at the alleged "actions or inactions" of Frances Jacques, principal of St. Joseph Catholic high school last year, that could have "put certain groups at increased risk, which is contrary to the code of conduct of members."

McCue is referring to a group of students led by Leanne Iskander, who asked to form a gay-straight alliance but were turned down. They said the principal instead offered talks with the school's chaplain or that they join other groups already running at the school.

• Ontario bishops release student group guidelines: Document reaffirms Catholic doctrine that states homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered [ XTRA, January 26, 2012]

Leanne Iskander says new Catholic anti-bullying guidelines released Jan 26 put Catholic teachings before student needs. The guidelines maintain the church's position that homosexuality is "contrary to natural law."

Iskander has been fighting to start a gay-straight alliance (GSA) at her Mississauga Catholic school since March.

The long-awaited "guidelines," developed by Ontario Catholic bishops, state that students will be allowed to start a "Respecting Difference" group. It is not clear if the clubs will be general "anti-bullying groups" or clubs specific to queer youth.

The guidelines note that Catholic schools expect student groups to keep discussion about gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans issues controlled, supervised and with "Catholic teachings" as a resource.

"There is a lot of room for interpretation in the language," Iskander says. "Other school clubs don't have all these guidelines."

• Celebrating Peter Tatchell Day: Nikolay Alekseev: The visionary Peter Tatchell
[Pink News, January 25, 2012]

Writing these lines, I was trying to remember on which occasion I first heard about Peter Tatchell. I cannot remember simply because in the last 45 years Peter has been on all the fronts. His early campaigns with the Gay Liberation Front, with Outrage!, but also his citizen's arrest of despotic Robert Mugabe put him on all the fronts. He took part in every fight. Even in Eastern Berlin when he organized the first Rainbow March behind the Iron Curtain in 1973 Berlin.

Peter is a visionary. He has this capacity to understand how to take a problem and drive the maximum public attention to it in order to make the society think and force the politicians to address it. A recent example is the campaign "Equal Love" he launched for the opening of same sex marriage in the UK. Finally, the government agreed to review the definition of marriage and open it to same-sex couples.

• Ontario education minister will listen to students on GSAs: Laurel Broten has taken
advice from Jamie Hubley's father [ XTRA, January 24, 2012]

Ottawa councillor Allan Hubley told Broten that students should have the right to call their groups whatever they want.

"Mr. Hubley told me that Jamie wanted to start a Rainbow Club, that's what he wanted. My expectation is that we will together work to ensure all schools in the province have an accepting climate. I set out my expectation in the legislation."

• Challenging publicly funded Catholic education in Ontario: Lawyer files new case arguing current structure is discriminatory [ XTRA, January 19, 2012]

Ontario Catholic students fighting for equality in schools are closely watching a constitutional challenge against the publicly funded Catholic education system that was recently launched by a Toronto woman.

Reva Landau, a non-practising lawyer, filed the case with the attorney general in Ontario's Superior Court of Justice in December. She says the Supreme Court should take another look at its previous decisions.

Ontario's publicly funded Catholic school system is the relic of a deal that was struck with Quebec at confederation. Quebec no longer funds religious schools.

"So the other party [Quebec] has withdrawn from the great historic compromise," says Landau. "The argument to continue funding the separate school board is gone. I think this should be reconsidered because it is so out of tune with the way things are today. The Charter of Rights says there should be no discrimination."

• Despite legal about-face, Harper has 'no intention' of reopening gay marriage
[ Globe & Mail, January 12, 2012]

The Harper government has served notice that thousands of same-sex couples who flocked to Canada from abroad since 2004 to get married are not legally wed.

But speaking in Halifax Thursday, the Prime Minister said the issue was not on the agenda for his majority Conservatives. "We have no intention of further re-opening or opening this issue," Stephen Harper told reporters when asked about The Globe and Mail's report.

The reversal of federal policy is revealed in a document filed in a Toronto test case launched recently by a lesbian couple seeking a divorce. Wed in Toronto in 2005, the couple have been told they cannot divorce because they were never really married - a Department of Justice lawyer says their marriage is not legal in Canada since they could not have lawfully wed in Florida or England, where the two partners reside.

• Anti-Trans Policies at Gay/Lesbian Newspaper 'Xtra'
[ Bilerico Project, January 12, 2012]

Xtra, Canada's gay and lesbian newspaper, has been creating a stir with ethical concerns over the treatment of trans people interviewed for their paper. Two policies seem to be at the center of the concerns. First is the assertion by editor Danny Glenwright that it can be journalistically relevant to reveal a trans person's birth name without their consent. Glenwright said this after using the birth name of a trans sex worker interviewed in the paper on his personal Facebook account. Secondly, the paper refuses to print the preferred pronouns of those who use "they" as their pronoun. The paper claims it is grammatically incorrect, even though their critics have pointed out that Miriam Webster has released a video saying that 'they' used as a gender-neutral singular pronoun is grammatically correct.

The controversy is becoming increasingly burdensome for the paper. A petition was circulated last spring, and calls for a boycott have been growing since Danny Glenwright's statements in December. Queer musician Rae Spoon was set to be on the cover of Xtra in January, yet they refused permission to be included in the paper when they learned about the boycott and discovered that their pronoun preference would not be respected. Rae wrote a compelling account of the experience on their personal tumblr. This week Ivan Coyote, a columnist for Xtra, wrote a column for the paper pleading with them to change their policy.

        I humbly request that Xtra do some serious thinking about what it means for a queer paper to refuse to honour such a fundamentally basic issue so important to many of its readers, or potential readers. All of its trans, gender non-conforming, gender-queer readers and all of our many allies. Call us what we wish to be called.

• History repeating: new funding for religious schools
[ XTRA, January 10, 2012]

After watching Ontario's Catholic students battle for gay-straight alliances (GSAs) and the ongoing calls for the province to fund only one secular public school system, it is absolutely baffling that Saskatchewan is now offering public tax dollars to religious schools not already part of the public system. ...

"As the recent controversy over gay-straight alliances has shown, Catholic doctrine cannot be reconciled with the promotion of gay rights. It is impossible to honour gays and lesbians while simultaneously teaching a faith that believes any sexual or romantic expression of their love is sinful."

• Choosing a Liberal Party president: Xtra asked candidates what they would do to
reach out to queer Canadians [ XTRA, January 6, 2012]

At its 2011 biennial convention, starting Jan 13, the Liberal Party membership will elect a new president who will be responsible for helping the party rebuild over the coming years.

Xtra asked each of the five candidates what they think the Liberals needs to do to reach out to queer Canadians.

Sheila Copps: First of all, it has to actually have a strategy. At the moment, we've moved mountains on public policy, and we've never actually told anybody about it. One of the things that I'm actually doing is encouraging the creation of the [queer] caucus, and we've been working with . . . [Brad Lister, who] has just set one up. I'm looking for a way to create the momentum for a national [queer] caucus in the context of the Liberal Party, and that's one of the reasons that we're kicking off the convention with a party at Mercury Lounge, and we have Dixie Landers coming on Friday night [Jan 13].

We're actually looking at setting up a tour office as far as the party goes and doing a lot more outreach, so we would actually be at Pride parades and different things in a more organized fashion, because people choose to be there individually, but it's not organized. The party leaves it up to every individual, and what we're trying to do is have a more concerted approach to public policy, and it's certainly an area that can differentiate us from the current government, for sure.

[Note: I've only met Brad Lister one time and that was at a reception at UWO for GLT Alumns. Like most young gay men, Brad didn't seem much interested in older, more mature alums. I wonder if he'll treat us any differently as leader of the Liberal party's new GLT caucus. Time will tell.]

• Gay youth vying for vacant school board seat: Ward 17 trustee by-election set for Feb 27
[ XTRA, January 5, 2012]

If elected on Feb 27, Tyler Johnson, 23, will be the youngest trustee in the history of the Toronto District School Board (TDSB).

As a gay youth, Johnson says he can relate to many of the everyday struggles students experience. Johnson's personal story includes time spent homeless on the streets of Toronto -- he was kicked out after his stepmother found out he is gay.

The former Pride Toronto youth coordinator is one of 12 candidates running in the upcoming Don Valley East by-election.

"I represent a very diverse minority group, and I have experienced a lot of what our students are experiencing, such as single-parent families, homelessness, and I am a queer youth of colour," he says.

Johnson grew up in poverty, moving through 14 different schools from kindergarten to Grade 12.

• Starting a Liberal gay caucus: Brad Lister wants to reach out to 'lost Liberals'
ahead of this month's convention [ XTRA, January 5, 2012]

Brad Lister describes himself as the "ultimate volunteer guy."

When people started talking about getting the Liberal Party more involved with the queer community and starting a queer Liberal caucus, Lister says he was keen to take up the challenge.

"Sometimes people say this is a bad time to be a Liberal, and I think it's a good time," he says. "As I was looking around, a lot of my other gay friends had started lining themselves up politically with the NDP and kept saying 'why are you still with the Liberals, Brad? You're such a passionate guy, you should come over here and enjoy the Orange Crush.'"

Instead, Lister decided to re-connect Toronto's gay community with the Liberal party and "maybe build into something bigger."

• Trans woman files complaint against NWT minister: Gabrielle Landrie says she was
asked to leave official event because she is trans [ XTRA, December 20, 2011]

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association says a trans woman was blatantly discriminated against when the Northwest Territories' Finance Minister allegedly asked her to leave her Fort Smith college campus Dec 9.

Gabrielle Landrie, who is a math and business student at Aurora College, says minister Michael Miltenberger asked her to leave when she was standing near a computer lab with a friend, the CBC reports.

Noa Mendelsohn Aviv, director of CCLA's equality program, calls Landrie's treatment "clearly unacceptable."

"I can't comment on the facts, but it certainly seems like an egregious and blatant form of discrimination on the basis of gender identity," says Mendelsohn Aviv. "I thought that we were decades beyond this discrimination. But we're not when it comes to sexual orientation and gender."

At the time, Governor General David Johnston was touring the school on an official visit hosted by Miltenberger, who allegedly re-routed Johnston's tour to avoid the sight of Landrie.

Landrie tells CBC that Miltenberger asked her three times to "leave the premises." When she asked why, he told her, "You spooked the governor general so you have to leave."

• New Ontario curriculum on sexuality and gender: Diversity training to hit teacher
college classrooms by 2013 [ XTRA, December 19, 2011]

New teachers in Ontario will soon graduate from college with an improved understanding of gender and sexuality to bring to the classroom, says queer activist Davina Hader.

Hader is part of a group, led by Toronto Centre Liberal MPP Glen Murray, that will soon be developing training for new teachers to focus on equity and diversity. "It's incredible. It will be required for every teacher. This is pretty groundbreaking," Hader says.

Schools must be accepting and welcoming for students and staff, Hader says. "And teachers' curriculum is part of that change."

Hader says the issue of inclusive education has been underscored this year as Ontario students have fought for gay-straight alliances (GSAs).

"The problem the Liberals have been up against with regard to GSAs is the separate school board," Hader says. "Boards have been saying ministry policies are not enforceable because Catholic schools have special rights. Well, they can't use that card anymore. This is a push for equality in education right across the board.

"With this we are teaching the people at the top, and they're going to have to listen. It will be mandated as part of their curriculum. They won't have a choice."

• Canadian-developed HIV vaccine approved for human studies
[ Toronto Star, December 20, 2011]

The vaccine, developed by researchers at the University of Western Ontario, has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to start being tested in humans in January.

It is the first preventive HIV vaccine approved for clinical trials to use a whole HIV-1 virus, which has been both killed and genetically engineered, to activate immunity. In this way, the new vaccine is much like the killed whole virus vaccines that are successful against polio, rabies and influenza.

Other HIV vaccines currently in clinical human trials have largely focused on one specific component of HIV to trigger an immune response. Right now, there is no effective HIV vaccine.

• Why are two school trustees on a US anti-gay-marriage site?: Vancouver School Board
chair says she's "appalled" [ XTRA, December 15, 2011]

Gay activists want to know why two Vancouver school trustees are starring in an American anti-gay-marriage group's video criticizing the Out in Schools (OIS) anti-homophobia program.

Vancouver School Board chair Patti Bacchus tells Xtra she's "appalled" by the video and by the fact that the interviews were filmed on school board property.

The video does not represent the direction of the board on homophobia issues, she hastens to add.

The video, posted on the website for the Marriage Anti-Defamation Alliance, shows reelected Non-Partisan Association (NPA) trustee Ken Denike and newly elected NPA trustee Sophia Woo discussing their concerns about an OIS booklet. They say the booklet, published in 2006, points youth to "a website ostensibly oriented toward counselling students," which, they claim, is actually an "adult website which contained very explicit videos containing pictures of homosexual activities."

"Trustee Denike and Trustee Woo do not speak for the Vancouver School Board," Bacchus says. "I am the spokesperson for the board."

Bacchus calls the anti-marriage website "offensive."

• Time names 'The Protester' as Person of the Year
[ CBC, December 14, 2011]

The magazine cited dissent across the Middle East that has spread to Europe and the United States and said these protesters are reshaping global politics.

Time said it is recognizing protesters because they are "redefining people power" around the world.

• 'It's just hateful' in Norfolk County, Ontario village of Villa Nova
[ Simcoe Reformer, December , 2011]

The normally quiet hamlet of Villa Nova was hit by a wave of spray-painted vandalism Saturday night that left nasty homophobic and white-supremacist graffiti on buildings and vehicles.

A number of cars and trucks parked in driveways had their tires slashed while Fords, for some reason, appeared to be targeted for spray-painting.

Especially hard hit was a greenhouse operation. All eight buildings, including an old farmhouse, were struck. Some were left with explicit (and unprintable) remarks in black ink as well as large-sized illustrations of penises.

"It's just hateful," said Ron Brookshaw, who runs a hot tub business in the hamlet and had one of his service trucks targeted. "This is the year 2011, not 1940.

• Gay and bi men wanted for prostate study: Doctors think men who sleep with men may
react differently to prostate cancer treatment [ XTRA, December 8, 2011]

Despite all the Movember handlebars and mutton chops, a study on gay and bi prostate cancer patients at the Ottawa Hospital is having trouble growing.

"Initially, the recruitment was fast. But now it has decreased and I don't know why," says Dr Tsz Kin (Bernard) Lee, the radiation oncology resident who initiated the study.

Lee says the study, which is being heavily publicized, is the first of its kind.

It started in July 2011 and researchers need at least 100 prostate cancer patients who were treated at the Ottawa Hospital. By calculation, says Lee, there should be up to 500 gay Ottawans with prostate cancer.

"We really want to talk to them," he says. ...

"Our main goal for this study is to really identify an issue," says Lee's supervisor, Dr Rodney Breau, a prostate cancer surgeon.

There's speculation that gay and bisexual men are physically, emotionally and psychologically affected by prostate cancer treatment differently than straight men, but there's no data, says Lee.

The difference lies in the experience of treatment side effects, he says.

• Jane Taber: Abortion, gay marriage could be next on chopping block, Chrétien warns
[ Globe & Mail, December 13, 2011]

Jean Chrétien is warning Liberals that gun control and the Kyoto accord are dead because of Stephen Harper's Tories, darkly noting that same-sex marriage and abortion rights could be next on the Conservative government's chopping block. He even raises the return of the death penalty as a possibility.

"Unless we are bold. Unless we seize the moment. Everything we built will start being chipped away," the former prime minister writes in a toughly-worded fundraising letter. "The Conservatives have already ended gun control and Kyoto. Next may be a woman's right to choose, or gay marriage. Then might come capital punishment. And one by one, the values we cherish as Canadians will be gone."

• Time to pull public funding of Catholic schools
[ Globe & Mail, December 9, 2011]

It will never be easy, trying to tell Catholics they no longer need their own publicly funded schools. But other provinces have done it. And because of a convergence of social and economic factors, the time is about as right in Ontario as it will ever be.

The social ones have received more coverage of late. Catholic high schools' reluctance to provide supports for gay students - a key component of the province's emerging anti-bullying strategy, prompted partly by the suicide of an Ottawa teenager - has put the church-and-state issue in sharper focus than usual.

But while less flashy, the financial pressures should be no less difficult for the province to ignore.

• Human Rights Milestone Remembered By Toronto's Queer Community
[ Torontoist, December 7, 2011]

Last Friday the anniversary of an important milestone in queer history quietly slipped past: the inclusion of sexual orientation into the Ontario Human Rights Code 25 years ago, on December 2, 1986. The change meant legal protection against harassment and discrimination based on sexual orientation at a time when being fired for being gay was not uncommon, and employees so fired were without recourse.

The victory wasn't won easily, with conservatives and the religious right arguing that inclusion would lead to moral and social decline-the same arguments that have been trotted out anytime queer rights are involved (cf. same-sex marriage and gay-straight alliances).

Naturally, giving more citizens wider protection has done nothing of the sort. ...

With the unveiling of new legislation from the McGuinty government, more progress is being seen with regard to protecting queer youth with Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs) in schools. Credit for this work lies in large part to the advocacy being done by students at Catholic schools, who have clashed with a school board that does not want organized groups that refer specifically to sexual orientation under religious grounds. The students, who have now banded under a group called Catholic Students for Gay-Straight Alliances (CS4GSA), were given the John Damien Award For Outstanding Activism for having "caused a major stir this year," notes the Queer Ontario website description.

• Many with HIV in Haldimand and Norfolk don't know it
[ Simcoe Reformer, December 5, 2011]

HIV/AIDS is no longer confined to gay men and needle drug users in rural areas and is spreading through the heterosexual community, warns the head of a newly-formed support group in the area.

"Heterosexual sex accounts for a very large percentage of the virus in this area," said Robert Vanidour, chair of the HIV/AIDs Working Group for Brant Haldimand Norfolk that was launched last week.

"There are lots of people who do not know how they got it."

Of the 53 recorded cases of HIV/AIDS in Haldimand and Norfolk, 14 were contracted from heterosexual sex and include women, said Vanidour.

The virus is spreading quickly in the three counties, he said, in part because of the number of people who have HIV but don't know it.

• McGuinty and Harper making it worse for Queer kids
[ Queer Thoughts blog, December 5, 2011]

It's a crime. While Stephen Harper and his government are building prions to put pot smokers in jail, they are ignoring the plight of many young people in this country. While the Harper Government ramps up the new program to speak out for religious freedom around the world, the Ontario Liberal government is finding ways to allow systemic, may I say religious passive genocide against queer kids. They do that by allowing the Catholic Church to continue to teach gay is bad, that you gays can have a club, but it can not be called the Gay straight Alliance or the rainbow group or the queer Clan. Perhaps in McGuinty's world we can call it the FHnN, (Faggots have No Name").

Those are tough words. In polite society one would not say this. Can any of you say I am too hard in my views? Can you defend the endless numbers of attempted and unfortunately successful suicides due to bullying and perceived/understood homosexuality?

• Everyone but the Sun agrees: ON Liberals still aren't doing enough for gay students
[ XTRA, December 4, 2011]

Words are powerful. They can liberate, educate and empower. But in the battle for gay-straight alliances (GSA), they are being used to silence.

Premier Dalton McGuinty's new anti-bullying legislation left the Catholic school boards a loophole, a way to strip GSAs of visibility and shove queer students back into the closet.

At first, no one really seemed to notice or care about those last three words. The stories praised the Liberals, as well as the PCs, who released their own anti-bullying bill the same day. But they have the effect of creating a distressing loophole.

The legislation makes boards legally required to approve student-led support groups that promote gender equity, anti-racism, respect for people with disabilities and people of all sexual orientations and gender identities, "including organizations with the name gay-straight alliance or another name."

• Minister of education vows GSAs will be mandated in all schools: Catholic schools will
refuse GSA as the name [ XTRA, December 1, 2011]

Ontario Catholic schools will not allow student groups to be called gay-straight alliances, pledges the president of the Ontario Catholic School Trustees' Association (OCSTA).

Nancy Kirby admits the Liberal's new anti-bullying legislation makes boards legally required to approve student-led support groups that promote gender equity, anti-racism, respect for people with disabilities and people of all sexual orientations and genders with groups called gay-straight alliance "or another name."

For Kirby, the words, "or another name," means Catholic boards can overrule students and force them to re-name the groups, even if they specifically request a GSA. "We can have other names," she told Xtra on Dec 1.

Upon hearing that education minister Laurel Broten told Xtra, unequivocally, that student can use the words "gay-straight alliance," Kirby says, "Then that is a discussion I will have to have with her."

• Globe Editorial: Catholic Schools' 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy bad for gay students
[ Globe & Mail, November 30, 2011]

Ontario has entered "don't ask, don't tell" territory. Gay students in its publicly funded Roman Catholic schools would be given the right - in law - to form gay-straight clubs or alliances. But not necessarily under that name.

The government has gone so timidly about doing the right thing that it has done the wrong thing. Its measure on gay-straight clubs is part of a new law on school bullying introduced on Wednesday. But its timidity is reminiscent of that of a bystander to bullying who - with a bit more moral courage - could put a stop to it.

The government argues that it is the support that matters, not the name. Up until now, Ontario's Catholic schools have blocked attempts at gay-straight alliances, saying that "equity clubs" can battle intolerance of all kinds, and that teens are too young to identify their sexual preference.

But the new support from the Ontario government goes only halfway. It is similar to president Bill Clinton's "don't ask, don't tell" law of 1993, now repealed, under which homosexuals were allowed in the U.S. military, as long as they didn't breathe a whisper of it. That put gay and lesbian soldiers in a terrible position - vulnerable to expulsion, and still treated as if they needed to hide who they are.

To be made nameless is not a small thing. It is to be told that some shame is associated with who you are. The clubs can exist but, depending on how the Catholic schools react, perhaps only in the closet, a place of shame.

The Catholic schools have the right to their beliefs about homosexuality. But they are public schools and they do not have the right to insist on a second-class status for students who identify as homosexual, or who simply have questions about their identity, or who have gay or lesbian parents. They need to try a little harder to make religious belief and equality work together.

This is not an abstract issue. It is difficult to be gay in high school, and gay teens suffer from depression, and depression is a factor in suicide. If Ontario truly wishes to defend those vulnerable to bullying, it should do so wholeheartedly. The best answer is to promote acceptance, and require it from those who refuse to give it.

• Radiation Treatment Is Effective And Safe In HIV-Positive Men With Prostate Cancer
[The AIDS Beacon, November 30, 2011]

Results from a recent study suggest that HIV-positive men with prostate cancer have similar treatment outcomes and side effects as men without HIV when treated with radiation.

However, the study authors also found that greater viral loads may predict decreased treatment efficacy.

Based on their results, the authors stated that plans for radiation therapy and the prescribed doses used do not necessarily need to be altered for HIV-positive men with prostate cancer.

• Seneca College student alleges homophobic attack: Iranian refugee suffers neck wound
amid flurry of slurs [ XTRA, November 29, 2011]

When he confronted the man, Mojtaba says, the man responded with racist and homophobic slurs. He says the man also called him 'bitch' and 'faggot.' "I don't remember exactly what he said, but it was like.'leave here and go back to your fucking country."

He says he followed the man down the hall and asked him to repeat himself.

"He pulled something out of his pocket," says Mojtaba. He says he didn't see what it was because the alleged attacker then pulled Mojtaba's own hoodie over his face and began to hit him. Mojtaba says his throat as cut and that there was ink was on his neck, leading police to believe he may have been cut with a pen.

• Pioneering study finds GSAs prevent depression, bullying and suicide: Researcher says
schools that block GSAs are irresponsible [ XTRA, November 26, 2011]

Results from a groundbreaking American study on gay-straight alliances (GSAs) have confirmed what Canadian students fighting for GSAs have been saying all along: clubs that provide support for queer youth help prevent depression, victimization, substance abuse and suicide.

A school with a GSA has a lower drop out rate and produces students who are more likely to attend college or university. GSAs also help educate students and community members by spreading a message of love, acceptance and equality.

These are just some of the findings in High School Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs) and Young Adult Well-Being: An Examination of GSA Presence, Participation, and Perceived Effectiveness, a new study by Caitlin Ryan, a San Francisco State University faculty member and director of the Family Acceptance Project, a research group that provides support for families with lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans children. Ryan is a clinical social worker who has worked on LGBT health and mental health since the 1970s.

• RECOGNIZE! The 25th Anniversary celebration of the inclusion of 'Sexual Orientation' into
the Ontario Human Rights Code [ Queer Ontario, November 26, 2011]

Queer Ontario would like to cordially invite all members of our LGBTQ communities to come to RECOGNIZE! The 25th Anniversary celebration of the inclusion of 'Sexual Orientation' into the Ontario Human Rights Code. It promises to be an evening full of merriment and remembrance.

Special guests Tom Warner and Susan Gapka will be present to speak about recognition struggles past and present; and we will be presenting the John Damien Award for Outstanding Activism to an individual or group that has caused a major stir this year.

• Helping gay senior citizens: Conference will tackle healthcare, isolation and discrimination
[ XTRA, November 23, 2011]

Canada's gay seniors have seen a lot of change in their lives, such as the legalization of gay and lesbian relationships and same-sex marriage. But as they age, many continue to live in isolation.

In fact, Anna Travers, from Rainbow Health Ontario, says many seniors are driven back into the closet because they fear homophobic healthcare workers and long-term care providers.

"Often seniors stay very quiet about their sexuality," she says. "Even if they have spent most of their life living openly, they fear discrimination in long-term care."

• When straight stars play for gays it's considered daring: Prince Poppycock
[ XTRA, November 23, 2011]

Poppycock, who made headlines as a rising star on last season's America's Got Talent, welcomes recent news of AGT judge Piers Morgan's planned departure.

"His role on the show was just to incite controversy and to lash contestants with his caustic tongue," Poppycock says. "He is not qualified to judge talent at all."

• Gerald Hannon retires from sex work: Celebration set for Toronto's Goodhandy's Nightclub
[ XTRA, November 22, 2011]

Gerald Hannon is retiring from sex work and throwing a party on Nov 25 at Goodhandy's nightblub in Toronto to celebrate.

Hannon, who is also a board member of Xtra's publisher Pink Triangle Press, has been a sex worker for close to 25 years. Along the way he has been the object of lust, love and hate.

Back in the mid- '90s Hannon was at the centre of a media circus when the press picked up on this work in the sex trade and cross-referenced it with his work as an instructor at Ryerson University.

"Ryerson Prof: I'm A Hooker" screamed the cover of the Toronto Sun.

• Voters reject Parents' Voice: Reelected school trustee thanks voters for 'stamp of approval' on anti-homophobia policy [ XTRA, November 20, 2011]

Burnaby voters overwhelmingly rejected the contentious Parents' Voice slate for school board in Nov 19's municipal race, instead electing all seven candidates from the Burnaby Citizens Association (BCA).

The BCA made a clean sweep for the second election in a row, taking the mayor's seat, the entire city council and the seven-seat school board.

The highest-placing candidate for Parents' Voice came in 10th, pulling in just a little more than half the number of votes as the lowest-placing BCA candidate.

The Burnaby Parents' Voice slate, consisting primarily of opponents to the anti-homophobia policy passed by Burnaby school board trustees in June, formed with the initial intention of unseating the incumbents.

• Ontario's new education minister vows to tackle bullying: Laurel Broten says 'every
single school in Ontario will be safe' [ XTRA, November 16, 2011]

XTRA: But in Catholic schools GSAs are still banned. Students are now permitted general equity groups but nothing specific to LGBT issues. In fact, the name of the student clubs still can't contain the words gay or rainbows. What do you plan to do about this?

Laurel Broten: I've had a chance to get into some of our Catholic schools over this past week and see firsthand some of the great work that's being done by really progressive students and really progressive teachers to respond to the needs of the students in those classrooms. We absolutely need [queer] identified groups of support, and I will continue to push for that in our schools. I plan to listen to LGBT students to have them tell me what they're looking for. I have spoken out on a number of occasions about homophobia and the need for our schools to be inclusive. I come to this job with a deep appreciation for human rights and the need for respect and diversity. We need to respond to the call from students.

My premier said to me, 'Go out, have conversations, and find out what more we can do to support our students.' We must ensure that the supports they need are in place.

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