As a long time fan of the website Scarleteen, I’m part of 20 to 30 000 visitors this site boasts every day who are looking for real, unbiased, raw information on sex, sexuality, and everything in between. That’s quite a feat for not having any major organization behind them, public funding, or having ever done any advertising.

I’m proud to announce that I, along with an amazing roster of fellow activists, teachers, and just general people in the sexual know-how will be taking part in Sexuality in Color: Writing Outside the Lines at Scarleteen.

It will be a series focussing strictly on people of colour writing about sex from their perspective, and giving voice to the myths, realities, and racism that still permeate the sexual health world.

Heather Corinna, editor (and owner!) of Scarleteen who is White, hit the nail on the head by saying:

Even if you have no personal experience yourself being of color, or don’t talk to people of color in your life about these issues, statistics alone make it very clear that race (and, more to the point, how different races are treated and valued) and our perception of race changes things.

HIV and unplanned pregnancy has hit women of color harder than white women, for instance. Contraceptive and sexual health access can often be tougher for those of color. Being gay, lesbian or bisexual can play out differently being of color and in communities of color. I can see all of those things in the work that I do.

I can read about all of those things in journals or newspapers. I can certainly feel empathy, compassion and upset about racial imbalances… but what I can’t do is acutely feel and experience those things the way my brothers and sisters of color do and can. That’s not a minor quibble: it’s major.

We’re just gearing up to get going, so be sure to stop by later this week and onwards to check us out!

A big thank you goes out to all of you who attended Global Choice? Abortion, Access, and Reproductive Rights last night, and special thanks to our fabulous Shameless editor Megan, amazing RABBLE.ca activista Michelle, and directors of the Abortion Democracy and The Coat Hanger Project Sarah Diehl and Angie Young who actually paid their own way to be there.

I’m not alone when I say that everyone’s eyes were opened a little wider last night when looking around the world at abortion rights and the realities of choice. Some facts that were highlighted include:

-The 80 000 women who die each year around the world due to complications from illegal, botched abortions, and the 50 000 who retain major injuries.

-The fact that there is only one provider in the state of South Dakota, whose citizens will again vote this Fall on making all abortions illegal except in the case of rape.

-That Europe isn’t always the dream getaway destination if you are thinking of terminating a pregnancy. In Ireland and Malta a total ban exists, and in Poland abortion is allowed only in exceptional circumstances (life-threatening situations, fetal deformation or in case of rape).

-Although abortion on demand was legalized in South Africa in 1997, 99% of providing hospitals and the only two community health care centres that do provide are situated in the highly urbanized province of Gauteng (meaning you are SOL if you are black, poor, and living in a rural area. Oh wait, that’s like a good majority of the country!)

If you missed the screenings in Toronto, there will be screenings tonight in Montreal and Wednesday in Ottawa.

Hot damn, I’m proud to be pro-choice!

I’m a little late on posting this, but with all the hub-bub and media overkill everywhere, we all know what date I’m talking about.

Only this time, it’s not in America, but in Chile, and the roughly 50 000 people who were arrested, tortured, several murdered, and whose democracy has since been stolen away. Not to mention the more than 2700 people who have been killed since September 11, 1973 in Chile, opposing the US-lead military rule in their country, who overthrew president Salvador Allende to put an Army Commander-in-Chief and dictator into power.

Tito Trico over at the Guardian has an awesome article where he asks; Were the lives of those killed at the World Trade Centre more valuable than the innocents murdered in Chile’s US-backed coup? that’s definitely worth a read.

I won’t say much else but to ask you all to remember those who you think aren’t front of mind on this day.

I know I’m also commemorating my own people, the Mohawks, and the generations of our families who helped build the World Trade Centre (among other landmarks like the Empire State Building and much of the New York City Skyline), some dying over the years, but all rarely given our due for these historic contributions.

You be the judge on who gets to be remembered.

As more time and events transpire with my partner, I find myself battling with mainstream ideology on what long-term commitment is all about. I’ve shared some of the similar musings of other feminist writers on being vocal about it, and while I’m not sure that mine are exactly the same, I do know that I personally don’t believe in inviting the government into my private affairs by way of “marriage”, and as a Native woman, I know I don’t need to do that in order to solidify or celebrate my partnership. (We honour unions in our longhouse as something you become twice as responsible to the community for with two people coming together, so it’s actually not just about you, it’s about what you are giving back. Oh and you don’t have to sign a paper to prove that.)

I’m all for people doing what they think is best for themselves, and I truly believe in choice in every sense of the word, but I can’t help but see these “yeah, I know the system sucks but I did it any way” occurrences everywhere that I don’t know how to feel about, especially as a life-long rebel and stick-it-to-the-man-er.

Case in point. My partner and I finally got out to see a movie together (something we rarely get to do) and what do we see on the screen before the show starts:

“Want to enhance your relationship? Then go to www.thinkmarriage.org!”

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POWER (Prostitutes of Ottawa / Gatineau Work Educate & Resist) — cordially invites you to witness…
INDECENT SEX ACTS ON PARLIAMENT HILL

Why INDECENT SEX ACTS ON PARLIAMENT HILL?
The event is intended to denounce the indecent Legislative Acts that regulate sex work and sex workers. We maintain that the laws are indecent because they are moralistic, discriminatory, increase the danger and stigma experienced by us in our work lives and inhibit our full participation in Canadian society. We also maintain that the laws are detrimental to communities. The laws do not work. They endanger sex workers and they undermine communities.

Please join us in this call to action!

INDECENT SEX ACTS ON PARLIAMENT HILL
September 18, 5-6 pm
Meet on the steps of Parliament Hill for a celebration of sex work & a rally for sex worker rights

Join POWER’s Facebook group.

or e-mail us at POWERottawa@gmail.com

CIHR Café Scientifique hosted by the Institute of Gender and Health presents:
He’s a player, she gets played: Challenging gendered stereotypes about youth sexual health

Tuesday, September 16, 2008, 5:00 p.m.
Buddies In Bad Times Theatre
12 Alexander Street, Toronto

Information fair starts at 5:00pm
Panel begins at 6:00pm
Light refreshments provided

Please RSVP: ea-igh@exchange.ubc.ca

Young people of all genders and sexualities are sexually active; the average age that Canadians first have sex is 17. So why is it when a girl is sexually active, she can be considered to be easy, but when a guy is sexually active he can be called a stud? How do these gendered stereotypes affect young people’s physical, emotional and sexual health? How do they intersect with race, class, and oppression? In what ways do these stereotypes influence how parents, teachers, researchers and health care providers talk and think about youth sexual health? Join us as we challenge these stereotypes in a lively discussion with experts in the field of youth sexual health.

If you have accessibility needs, please contact the organizers and we will do our best to accommodate you.

The expert speakers featured at the Café are:

Dr. Sarah Flicker, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University

Dr. Jean Shoveller, Associate Professor, School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia

Jessica Yee, Founder & Director, Native Youth Sexual Heath Network

The event is moderated by Dr. Joy Johnson, Scientific Director, CIHR Institute of Gender and Health.

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I’m so freakin’, flippin’, can’t-contain-myself excited for this, I can hardly stand it!

Mark it in your calendars with a big red marker all because on September 23rd, AGOKWE is coming to rock your world at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre and you definitely don’t want to miss it!

A new production from the mystical and magical 23 year-old Anishinaabe artist extraordinaire Waawaate Fobister (and he deserves every single accolade that comes his way), Agokwe explores unrequited love between teenage boys from neighbouring reserves. They meet briefly at a post hockey-tournament party where they bashfully confess their desire for each other. However youth, distance and isolation strive to pull the threads apart when tragedy intervenes.

I haven’t even seen this yet and I’m already moved, shaken, and completely inspired. We already know in the queer community how hard it is to be open with your sexuality, but imagine living in any one of our Native communities and the ongoing oppressions that are shoved down your throat every day, on top of what your sexual preference is.

Especially when way back when, you wouldn’t have been persecuted for being who you are since many of our nations used to revere two-spirited people as our medicine people and healers. Hmm, now I wonder how that got taken away?

Agokwe is actually an Anishinaabe word meaning “wise woman” but it is often used to refer to a gay man.

Aww!

Running until October 12th, now is the time to make sure you get your ticket for the show of all shows. Now I KNOW I’ll see you there!

Choice listserves are abuzz with the news that Stephen Harper and company recently decided to drop the notoriously anti-choice Bill C484 - also known as the “Unborn Victims of Crime” act, which threatened to give fetuses personhood status, as a backdoor way towards repealing abortion rights.

Instead they will draft a new bill that they say focuses more on punishing the person actually committing the crime against a pregnant woman (whoa so wait, did they just admit Mr. Epp tried to punish women more with his bogus bill? Nah, I’m too hopeful.)

It’s only too obvious that this is conveniently coming at a time when an election is looming this Fall, and we know only too well that the Conservative government can’t hide from its long anti-choice roots. They still won’t say anything about their support for abortion rights or do much anything to protect them.

I have to say that it was quite a good reminder this year that we all need to pay more attention to the scary anti-choicers out there and the sneaky ways they try to take away choice for what’s best for our own bodies, but we musn’t rest for too long.

There are a multitude of attempts going on every day that threaten us.

I have the pleasure and privilege of being part of this amazing project, and I encourage you all to come out and have your senses disrupted at the launch party, tomorrow night!

Tomee Sojourner’s Embracing Intersectional Diversity Project explores living expressions of intersecting identities through the visual ‘essence’ of marginalized workers, activists, students, and community members. The EID Project aims to open spaces for critical intervention/disruption and dialogue around what we ‘see’ and understand about intersectional identities, and the underlying assumptions that surface in our multicultural framework where difference is acknowledged, and mainstream representations of diversity still compartmentalize people into immutable ethno-cultural identities.

Join Tomee Sojourner and the Embracing Intersectional Diversity Project Crew as they launch Phase I- 2009 Calendar and Posters.

Date: Thursday, 28 August 2008
Time: 7:30 p.m. until the last dancer out!
Venue: Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, 12 Alexander St, Toronto

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