Mad Pride Week started yesterday and there are some fabulous events happening all over the country (and the world) to celebrate. The annual celebration seeks to reclaim the terms “mad,” “psycho,” “crazy,” etc. from the media, and through a series of campaigns and events re-educate the general public on issues like the causes of mental “illness”, the real victims of the mental health system, and the global suicide pandemic.

Toronto Psychiatric Survivors started holding a yearly event in Parkdale in 1993, and in 2000 it aligned with Global Mad Pride to create Mad Pride Toronto. From Inside Toronto:

“Mad Pride recognizes the strength and achievements of psychiatric survivors, consumer/survivors and mad people,” said Stackhouse, the director of Friendly Spike Theatre Band and a Mad Pride organizer. “It’s arts education and identity recognition and history.”

If you’re in Toronto, check out this web site for details on how you can participate - events continue until July 20th.

I wanted to share this with the Shameless world since I’m a little baffled by the occurence.

Recently I wrote a piece for a place that shall remain nameless. In it I recounted my recent trip to the United States and all the great Native youth engagement work, which happened to include the cultural and spiritual journey my partner and I have decided to embark on.

The comment I received back went something like this “You need to refocus your writing since you seem to dwell too much on your boyfriend and that’s nobody’s business”.

Not once did I even say anything REMOTELY romantic. Not once did I refer to my own feelings about him. I didn’t even say his name. I like to keep it real so if he happened to be there while community work was going on and positively contribute to it, I’m going to say it. Just like I referenced what everybody else did.

(more inside…)

Happy Monday folks!

(Hat tip to Torontoist)

Kudos to this strong female in Chile for taking a stand against patriarchy and conservatism.

Monserrat Morilles who is a 26 year old professional pole dancer took her protest to the subways of Santiago where for one week, she would get on at one station, find a subway car with no children on it, and strip in time to exit at the next station. She refused to take tips to make a point, and was arrested during one of her performances.

Chile has a long history of widespread sexual repression, not to mention the fact that abortion is still illegal and supposed public awareness campaigns remain overtly moralisitc.

But it’s not like Chile stands alone on these issues.

Dear Andrew Coyne and Maclean’s Magazine,

Just in case you didn’t get the memo, “a woman’s right to choose” is not, as you refer to it, an “elaborate euphemism.” Choice actually means that you can think abortion is wrong, you just don’t get to decide that for anyone else. It is the fundamental belief that all women have the right to choose what they do with their own bodies, including but not limited to pregnancy and abortion. It’s the idea that that choice is not yours.

Also, I’m with this guy. Do you actually think it’s bland to have fair and balanced coverage of women’s issues? Oh no, you think it’s a better idea to have a man write a thinly veiled pro-life piece that makes pro-choicers out to be oppressive monsters that are marginalizing anti-choicers.

Actually, last time I checked, the people who were screaming the loudest were in the minority and desperately trying to take my rights away from me. I know because they stopped by recently and used words like “murderer” and “whore.” Please don’t pretend that this qualifies as democracy. Thanks.

(Please go tell Maclean’s that this shit-stirring cover story is unacceptable.)

When I was a young teenager, I had a pregnancy scare. So of course i went to a crisis pregnancy centre to get the test before I wanted to come clean to my mom or my doctor that I was having sex at a pretty young age. I didn’t have a very open and communicative relationship about my sexuality with any adult and I was leaps and bounds ahead of all my friends in terms of sexual experimentation. This all meant I had no one to talk to.

At the crisis pregnancy centre, instead of good advice and support, I was asked to pee in a cup and then I had to sit in a TV room full of toys and baby clothes and watch a 20 minute video about adoption.

I was lucky - my results came back negative and i could go back to my happy-go-lucky life. I didn’t give it much thought at the time, but the centre I went to was not an impartial and supportive centre that discussed all the options. Instead, this so called “crisis pregnancy centre” was a thinly veiled pro-life centre that used manipulative tactics during a time of high emotional stress in my life.

The centre didn’t even discuss birth control options with me. Eventually, I found another centre willing to do STI and pregnancy-prevention counselling and I got myself set up with some real sexual education.

The always amazing Teen Voices Online website has this page with tips on how to find an authentic crisis pregnancy centre with your reproductive health in mind. Pass it on!

This is pretty inspiring. Last weekend was tribal elections in Oneida, Wisconsin, which is basically the governing body for the sovereign nation (although we still have to legally answer to the federal governments - sovereignty sure is an interesting reality).

My partner’s amazing, incredible, strong sister Melinda was re-elected as councilwoman, along with six other women, making more than 60% of elected officials for the Oneida tribe of Wisconsin female! She’s 31 and this would be her second term as councilwoman, meaning she got started in the biz of running things at 28.

It’s actually a normal occurence for this place; previous years have seen women holding the chair’s seat and other righteous Indigenous women taking on significant leadership roles.

Now if only the governments running these North American countries could get it right…

My car all tagged up to support Melinda running for council!

My pal (and Sumach Publicist) Dayle Furlong is launching her first collection of poetry, Open Slowly, in Toronto tonight at The Trane Studio. It’s part of the launch of Tightrope Books’ latest catalogue - doors at 6:30, readings at 7:00. Swing by and check it out!

Three in five support Morgentaler honour.

From the Toronto Star:

The exclusive Angus Reid Strategies online poll done yesterday and Monday – a week after the Canada Day announcement – showed that, of the 1,016 Canadian adults surveyed, 60 per cent supported Morgentaler getting the honour while 29 per cent opposed it. Another 12 per cent weren’t sure.

Asked whether Morgentaler was a hero to millions of Canadian women, 66 per cent said they agreed, 26 per cent disagreed and 9 per cent weren’t sure.

It may be silent, but it’s a majority, so shut up already. I don’t really think Paul Schaffer should have gotten the honour, but you don’t hear me complaining.