The Queer Ontario Education Committee is developing the organization’s Think Tank — a space on the QO website where one will be able to find critical writing and analysis about queer issues and its liberationist principles.

We are currently looking for people interested in taking part in these formative discussions to help us determine:

1. how to structure and run the Think Tank (looking at what kind of group would run it and what their decision-making process will be, especially when it comes to selecting, reviewing, and editing items for publication); and
2. how to structure the Think Tank section of the website (looking at what kinds of items we would want to publish and how we would want to present this to the public)

If you are interested in being part of this, please contact me. Do note that this opportunity is open not just to academics, but to anyone with relevant skills anywhere in Ontario.

Thanks in advance for your enthusiasm and we hope to hear from you soon!

Alana
alana.boltwood – at – gmail.com

Joint Book Launch

Pride and Politics: Queer Rights in Canada and
Government’s Role Then and Now

Gary Kinsman & Patrizia Gentile’s
The Canadian War on Queers: National Security as Sexual Regulation

and

Tom Warner’s
Losing Control: Canada’s Social Conservatives in the Age of Rights.

Where: The Croissant Tree, 625 Church Street, Toronto.
When: Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Time: 7:00 – 10:00 PM
*This event is wheelchair accessible.

Gary Kinsman and Patrizia Gentile provide a disturbing view of the history of queer surveillance and regulation in Canada, while Tom Warner documents the progress and status of more recent struggles for queer rights, and sheds a light on the forces of social conservatism that seek to reverse this progress.
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Toronto: Queer Ontario strongly supports the inclusion of the terms “gender identity” and “gender expression” in human rights legislation as tabled in private members bills brought forth by NDP MP Bill Siksay at the federal level and NDP MPP Cheri DiNovo at the provincial level in Ontario. The extension of human rights protections to Canadians who do not base their gender identity or expression solely on their innate biological gender is long overdue, given they are one of the most disenfranchised and oppressed populations in the country.

Queer Ontario urges that all MPs support Siksay’s Bill-389 that would include “gender identity” and “gender expression” in both the Canadian Human Rights Act and Hate Crimes Provisions. Similarly, Queer Ontario calls upon all MPPs in the Ontario provincial legislature to support DeNovo’s private member’s bill known as Toby’s Act that would include “gender identity” as an enumerated ground in the Ontario Human Rights Code. Queer Ontario also urges organizations and residents across Ontario and Canada to support these legislative amendments to prectect trans people from harassment and discrimination.
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