In the Blog
Mid-week round-up: JULY 30
S. Bear Bergman and the folks at Flamingo Rampant have launched a Kickstarter campaign for their new project, Flamingo Rampant Book Club. Subscribers will receive one book authored specifically for the book club every other month celebrating LGBTQ2S kids, families, and communities. Half of all books will center Black, Latin@, Indigenous, First Nations, Asian/Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, and mixed-race people and cultures, written by people of colour.
Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party, has submitted a motion condemning the continued expansion of Israeli settlements as “undeniable obstacles to the Israel-Palestine peace-process.” The proposed resolution was up for discussion at the party’s weekend convention in Fredericton where it passed. The party calls it a position of “engaged neutrality”, meaning speaking truth to power while naming injustices on the part of both Israeli and Palestinian groups. To date, the Conservative, Liberal, and NDP parties have all been supportive of Israel .
Stephen Harper’s government has issued economic sanctions and travel bans against Ukrainian and Russian individuals and organizations. Sanctions are in response to Russian Prime Minster Putin’s continued illegal occupation of the Crimean region.
Reproductive Justice New Brunswick continues their campaign to save the Morgentaler Clinic in Fredericton. The clinic’s final day of service was honoured with a rally and march to the legislature where activists appealed to the government to overturn a regulation restricting public funding for abortions. The group has raised more than $100,000 and hopes to open a health centre staffed by pro-choice doctors willing to perform abortions. For more information on how to donate visit their fundraising page.
The first Mockingjay:// Part 1 trailer was released this week! The third installment of the film follows Katniss Everdeen as she steps in to her role as figurehead for the rebellion against The Capitol. The film is scheduled for release in November.
A former “Ex-Gay” activist and past proponent of California’s Proposition 8 now supports GLAAD. Yvette Cantu Schneider spoke publicly about “overcoming her homosexuality” in support of the religious right for more than a decade. She is now distancing herself from the ex-gay movement through a series of conversations with GLAAD. She is donating 10% of the proceeds of her new book, Never Not Broken, to the organization.
