[lgbtq newcomers to canada: strengthening support and understanding - videos]

Are you in contact with newcomers to Canada? Whether as a volunteer, at your place of worship, or during your daily routine, you likely are in contact, and some of the newcomers (whether you know it or not) will be LGBTQ.

The AMSSA (Affiliation of Multicultural Societies and Service Agencies of BC) website has a series of web videos shot in 2015 focuses on highlighting the issues and needs of LGBTQ immigrants and refugees and provides settlement workers with greater understanding of how to strengthen the support.

The titles of the five videos are:

• Exploring the Issues Affecting LGBTQ Immigrants and Refugees
• Exploring Gender and Sexual Identity Affecting LGBTQ Immigrants and Refugees
• The Journey of LGBTQ Immigrants and Refugees in Canada
• The Intersection of Immigration and Gender & Sexual Identity
• Exploring Spirituality and the Role of the Home Culture for LGBTQ Immigrants and Refugees

Check them out at: https://www.amssa.org/resource/lgbtq-newcomers-strengthening-support-and-understanding/

[museum of black joy]

Skyways, 2019, Bartram's Garden
(c) Andrea Walls

Andrea Walls began the Museum of Black Joy in response to ever frequent days filled with bad news about violence and hatred, often directed toward people of colour and other minorities. As a poet and photographer, she began taking photos of everyday joy in the Black community and posting them on her site.

Check them out at:

https://www.museumofblackjoy.com/

You can read an article the NPR wrote about her:

https://www.npr.org/2021/08/14/1026447517/museum-of-black-joy-andrea-walls?s=09 

[affirmation guide for trans & gender-expansive identities]

Affirmation Guide for Trans & Gender-Expansive Identities, plus Trans & Gender-Expansive Identities eCourse

"Q Christian’s second Affirmation Guide features Taj Smith. This guide is designed to counter the idea that transgender and gender-expansive people cannot be Christians. This guide is also meant to support anyone who is and/or loves someone who is transgender. Taj dives into the Scriptural, theological, and relational affirmation of trans people in this foundational resource. Video content for the guide can be found below." (from webpage)

The guide is free though a donation is requested from those who are able. The page also features five videos that relate to content in the guide:

• Introduction
• Scriptural and Theological Affirmation
• Life in Community
• Resources
• Conclusion

 https://www.qchristian.org/guides/trans

[what it's like growing up transgender and Deaf]

As part of Transgender Awareness Week (November 13-19), I'd like to let you know about this video of Blake sharing their story of growing up Deaf and transgender. 

This is an important piece because most people's lives are not one-sided ... and because disabled people are often overlooked when discussing other dimensions such as race or sexuality.

You can learn more about Blake at:

https://www.instagram.com/legendofblake/channel/

the real Meta

 

Interestingly, God is also "with us", "incarnate", "embedded"...

Posted in response to a large social media company rebranding itself as "Meta" with a logo looking like two collapsed kidneys...

the beauty of transgender people...

When I started in my current job, I didn't know of any transgender employees. Now, five years later, I know three colleagues who are transgender and out in the workplace. This is good. This is progress.

Laverne Cox, American actress, said, "It is revolutionary for any trans person to choose to be seen and visible in a world that tells us we should not exist." 

To all transgender people who read this post, I just want to say, 

“You rock! You are wonderful and amazing! You are an inspiration!”

Wishing you much strength and wisdom as you live an authentic life, and many family members, friends, colleagues and acquaintances who love and support you! You do exist and should exist, and your beauty and your gifts make the world a better place!

Happy Transgender Awareness Week!

[colored hockey championships]

 

"Canada Post’s stamp honours the Colored Hockey Championship and the all-Black hockey teams in the Maritimes that competed for it between 1895 and the early 1930s.

It is impossible to fully appreciate this story without understanding the Canada of the day, when Blacks lived in segregated communities that often lacked proper roads, health services, water or street lamps."

Read the rest of the story at Canada Post.

[gender decoder for job ads]

Words are words... and we tend to associate some of them with men and others with women. 

If you are writing a job description or a job ad, you can test out the associations for the words using the new (and free) Gender Decoder for Job Ads:

http://gender-decoder.katmatfield.com/

Note: this is not about whether an ad uses "he/him/his" and "she//her/her" instead of "they/them". It's about words that are typically in English associated with masculinity or femininity.

happy international pronouns day!

 

To all the hes and the shes,

The aes and the faes,

The pers and the xes,

The zes and the zies,

The eys and the others,

And most of all, to all the theys

(but only cuz there’s more of them):

Happy International Pronouns Day!

To make your day even happier, here's a new cartoon by me:

[shame and prejudice - a story of resilience (book and exhibition)]

"Kent Monkman’s Shame and Prejudice: A Story of Resilience takes you on a journey through the past 150 years of Canada. It is a journey that reclaims and reinserts Indigenous voices into the collective memory of our country, challenging and shattering colonial ideas of our history."

(from website)

Through his art, Kent Monkman has been critiquing the colonial world of the museums which have been so silent about Canada's history of colonization, which have presented the colonizers' view of history, which have whitewashed the horrible things that were done.

Expand your mind by taking part in this excellent curatorial tour of the exhibition:

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mACqPVUXzk8

Read the book online, in Cree, English and French: https://online.fliphtml5.com/xkla/ttia/#p=1. Note: I'd suggest watching the above video first, as it gives a clearer explanation if you are new to this.

things god forgot to put into the Bible (#9)

 

In honour of yesterday's social media outage.

[face equality]

With another 007 film about to come out, featuring more villains with disfigured faces, it's timely to mention Face Equality International, an organization whose goal is:

Creating a world where everyone is treated fairly whatever their face looks like.

"Face Equality International is an alliance of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), charities and support groups which are working at national, regional or international levels to promote the campaign for ‘face equality’."

"The campaign for ‘face equality’ was launched in May 2008 by the UK charity/NGO, Changing Faces, with the aim of creating a world in which people who have disfigurements to their face from any cause are accepted and valued as equal citizens, free of prejudice, low expectations and stigma. The campaign has attracted worldwide attention and has strong parallels with those against racism and sexism."

Even though I'm involved in a lot of diversity and inclusion initiatives and projects, it had never crossed my mind to consider how people whose faces are disfigured (for any number of reasons) are typically portrayed as villains and "bad guys" in the movies and TV shows. I certainly notice how most shows feature white people as the primary characters, perhaps with a Black person as a secondary character -- the friend, or the neighbour, etc.

Read more:

https://faceequalityinternational.org/

Including great resources for schools and teachers: https://faceequalityinternational.org/resources/

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/faceequalityint

Metro article on new 007 movie and how it promotes fears of facial scars:

https://metro.co.uk/2021/09/30/why-i-worry-bonds-new-villain-will-promote-fears-of-facial-scars-15310850/

[Indigenous art in the public eye]

Lori Blondeau, Asiniy Iskwew, 2016

"How do you make the work of First Nations, Inuit and Métis women artists in Canada more visible? Some people write research papers. Some people build collections. Some people advocate for funding.

Mohawk curator and scholar Lee-Ann Martin has participated in all of these modes of support in the past. But this summer, she is taking a very different approach—namely, putting the art of 50 Indigenous women artists on 167 billboards from coast to coast to coast." Leah Sandals, 

https://canadianart.ca/news/mawa-resilience-lee-ann-martin/

While this project took place three years ago, the Resilience Project is still offering two great resources:

"Resilience: 50 Indigenous Art Cards and Teaching Guide is a boxed set that contains 50 full-colour, 8" x 10" reproductions of contemporary Indigenous art and a bilingual (English/French) teaching guide, full of ideas on how to use the art cards to animate discussions and inspire activities in all subjects, from kindergarten to grade 12. It is based on the exhibition curated by Lee-Ann Martin, with teaching guide developed by Yvette Cenerini, Lita Fontaine, Dawn Knight and Albert McLeod." 

You can download the guide for free or purchase the complete box set at http://resilienceproject.ca/en/.

Nadya Kwandibens, Concrete Indians – 10 Indigenous Lawyers, 2012.

a practical guide to the new world of pronouns

Here's a great learning opportunity that I've created for you -- a practical guide to the new world of pronouns. 

This 36 minute video covers key topics like:

• Correct Pronouns Matter
• People Who Might Use Other Pronouns
• Pronouns for the New World We Live In
• Getting Practical About Sharing Pronouns
• Messing up with Grace

Link to watch directly at YouTube.com: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdtVLgU6OxA&t=6s

[feeling through - film]

This is a pretty cool short film, featuring an unhoused youth and a DeafBlind man. 

"After a late-night chance encounter with a DeafBlind man on a New York City street, writer/director Doug Roland wrote the award winning short film, Feeling Through. Doug knew from the start he wanted to cast a DeafBlind actor to star, so he partnered with Helen Keller Services to realize that mission."

(from the website).

While casting a DeafBlind actor to play a DeafBlind character might seem like the logical thing to do, too often this does not happen and able-bodied people are cast to play disabled people.

 Watch this short film and read more about it at: https://www.feelingthrough.com/

Watch directly on YouTube