This is frightening – preliminary approval has been given by the Texas Board of Education to a list of right-wing, reactionary, anti-civil-rights, anti-women’s-rights changes to the Texas history program. What’s worse is that Texas prints many of the textbooks used across the United States – a country that doesn’t have a reputation for particularly responsible public education in the first place. This Change.org petition aims to protest these changes. Read more about it there.

This has got to be a joke. This National Post article decries Women’s Studies programs in post-secondary institutions as having “done untold damage to families, our court systems, labour laws, constitutional freedoms and even the ordinary relations between men and women.” This article is so radically right-wing and reactionary that it seems, to me, to smell suspiciously of tongue-in-cheek humour, but it’s not April first, and this is the National Post we’re talking about.

Ideas like these – which are more widespread than I would like to believe, and which, sometimes, enveloped in my liberal bubble, I forget exist at all except on the raving crazy edges of society – are the reason that, while feminists have won loads of territory in past decades, we are still watching things creep backwards. Like a rising tide, every advance comes with a matching recession. There are still leagues of rabid anti-feminists out there who can feel their privilege being contested and don’t like it.

But seriously, this does sound like a joke. I find it hard to believe that anyone could write this with any sincerity:

Their professors have argued, with some success, that rights should be granted not to individuals alone, but to whole classes of people, too. This has led to employment equity — hiring quotas based on one’s gender or race rather than on an objective assessment of individual talents.

US-centric list of the funniest protest signs of 2009 over at Huffington Post is heavy on the healthcare reform and marriage equality jokes – which make me laugh extra hard. Check it out.

In the vein of yesterday’s post, Rabble’s Samantha Power reviews Satya Das’ Green Oil – a book that asks Alberta, Canada’s biggest (and most stubborn) contributor to the greenhouse gas/climate change problem, to take some responsibility and help Canada reverse (or buy off) some of the damage it’s done.

Unfortunately, Power writes, Alberta doesn’t really have a track record that lends a lot of hope to the situation. I know; I grew up there and escaped at the first opportunity. Albertans have a holier-than-thou attitude about their economic role within the nation and some delusion that that gives them the power to do whatever they like at the expense of not only the rest of the country but the entire fucking planet.

If I’m ashamed to call myself Canadian, I’m doubly ashamed to be Albertan, and I’m glad I escaped – but the “green flight” out of Alberta is likely part of the problem. If things are to be changed, Das’ book suggests, Albertans need to make those changes – and if all the activists in the province flee to the bike- and vegetarian-friendly coast, who’s going to do the work? It is vital now that Albertan activists team up and work together to change the prevalent view in the province. And they are. They have an incredible bond, those Albertan idealists.

I feel guilty for having taken the selfish way out and come somewhere that’s already a bit more enlightened. Someone’s got to do the dirty work.

If you’ haven’t read George Monbiot’s article (The Urgent Threat to World Peace is…) yet, you really should – it’s vital reading for Canadians and non-Canadians alike. Our Conservative government, and our Bush-pandering Prime Minister Stephen Harper, have turned us into the laughingstock of the world. When it comes to tackling the very real problem of global climate change, Canada is the least proactive nation in the world (second only to Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s oil capitals). And we are potentially one of the worst contributors to imminent ecological global catastrophe.

The Athabasca Tar Sands project is the dirtiest oil excavation project in the world, and it’s in Northern Alberta. It’s not even economically feasible – the gunk that is pulled out of the earth is ” a filthy mixture of bitumen, sand, heavy metals and toxic organic chemicals” (Monbiot) that’s devastating the delicate Northern Alberta ecosystem. Treehugger posted an excellent before and after photo of the Athabasca Tar Sands area. There are people working at the Sands whose job is to scrape dead birds off of the surface of the drainage ponds.

This shit is fucked up. Harper even promised the U.S.A. to increase output at Athabasca, despite the fact that it’s destroying the Canadian ecosystem, single-handedly reversing our Kyoto promises, and is (arguably) the biggest current contributor to global climate change.

Being Canadian, as Monbiot writes, used to be something we could be proud of – at least we’re not American! But I don’t really feel that way anymore. It makes me sick to be part of this machine, to know that my tax dollars are supporting things that, in my gut and in my head, I know are so wrong.

In semi-related news, I am still glad I’m not American… did you know that more Americans believe angels are watching over them, and that UFOs make stops on Earth, than that humans have a role in climate change? Seriously.

The world’s in Copenhagen, Denmark right now to talk about combating climate change – and the Danish hosts are hopeful for an agreement that will allow 190 world nations to join together like Power Rangers to fight the worst imaginable threat to our species.

“The biggest climate talks in history opened on Monday with a stark U.N. warning of the risk of desertification and rising seas and an assurance by hosts Denmark that a deal to combat climate change was ‘within reach’.”
-Alister Doyle & David Fogarty, Reuters

The summit, held at the end of the conference – which goes until December 18th – will be attended by even the most negligent of world leaders, including my very own Prime Minister, Stephen “I’m a Robot” Harper. The man – and my nation’s record of jerk moves on climate change – makes me ashamed to be Canadian.

Watch it live streaming right now or don’t. Equal marriage has been a hot topic of late, obviously. You’d have to be living under a rock to have avoided hearing about it. The United States is, unfortunately, a model for civil liberties worldwide, and I think it’s sick and sad that equal marriage is still such an issue of contention.

Massachusetts, Iowa, Connecticut, Vermont and New Hampshire are currently the only states that allow same-sex marriages in the USA. In New York (as well as in Washington, D.C.), same-sex marriage certificates from elsewhere are recognized, but aren’t currently performed.

I remember seeing an interview with Vandana Shiva – an Indian physicist/feminist/environmental activist – talking about the problems of massive Multinational Coca-Cola drying up a river in India for their bottling plant, depriving the area’s population of the water supply vital to their lives. According to the India Resource Centre, as quoted in this article, groundwater levels have dropped up to six meters, leaving wells and small bodies of water dry.

Thanks, Coke. I’ve railed at you before for your ills… and now you’re trying to pass yourself off as “green” at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics? You and everyone else.

Speaking of which, I met COPE City Councillor Ellen Woodsworth yesterday (I voted for her!) and she was wearing one of these fantastic I Am A Free Speech Zone t-shirts. She invited me to come by City Hall and have tea with her when I decide to buy a t-shirt, which I will.

For more information on the zoning of our constitutional right to free speech during the 2010 Olympics, check out this article in the Sun, or better yet, Mayor Gregor Robertson’s concern over the “Orwellian nature of that label”. I voted for him, too. Vancouver is a free speech zone. Canada is supposedly a free speech zone.

Coke in green clothing | rabble.ca.

BC’s Provincial Government is trying to pass Bill 13, which will allow officials in Olympic cities (Vancouver, Richmond and Whistler) the right to barge into people’s private homes to remove or cover up anti-Olympic signage. We are already not allowed to protest; our free speech is being zoned in the city. Any companies that do not directly support the Olympics are having all trace of their existence removed from Olympic areas. And now, with 24 hours notice, the police are going to be able to come into our homes to take away anti-Olympic signage.

Our free speech is being desperately threatened. There is a huge anti-Olympic sentiment in this city and they are simply covering us up by silencing us; that is not freedom, that is not democracy. That is oppression. And if the police show up at my front door to “talk” to me about my “feelings” about the 2010 mess, I’d like them to know that I’m leaving.

I will not be in Vancouver for the Olympics. Why would I be? It’s going to be a shit show, and protesting won’t accomplish a damn thing besides getting me arrested. Free speech isn’t legal when the world’s watching.

So yesterday was Vancouver’s Pride celebration – a weekend celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer, and other non-traditional/generally unaccepted sexualities and sexual/gender identities. Last year, I sat with my friends watching the Pride Parade on Pacific Avenue, and just like every year, the Dykes on Bikes opened the parade. They rode around in loops, swerving back and forth, waving flags and raising cheers from the crowd. There weren’t only Dykes on Bikes, however – there were quite a few gay boys riding scooters. I made a joke that day (and tweeted it, of course) that it was the Dykes on Bikes and the Fruits on Scoots. Hilarious! Rhyming is funny!

Anyway, a few weeks ago it occurred to me that I ride a two-wheeled machine, but I am neither a dyke on a (motor)bike, nor am I a fruit on a scooter. I, and some of my dearest friends, are queers… who ride fixed gear bicycles. Thus, Queers on Fixed Gears was born.

It turns out that riding in the parade with Dykes on Bikes is an open invitation – no paperwork required, just show up at the parade’s head at 11am. And so, we did. I got the movement going a bit late, so there were only three of us, but we rocked it sufficiently. After preloading with a Cranberry Mike’s Hard Lemonade, we bombed down to Robson and Thurlow to meet up with the parade. Upon arriving, we decided to stick to the back of the byke brigade (though I, always the attention seeker, wanted to ride at the front – I’m glad my more levelheaded friends held me back). We were met by some women who I assumed were organizers; they said, and I paraphrase, “If you’ve got two wheels, you’re in.” Right on.

The bykes started up and cloaked us with exhaust (*cough cough*) and we were off. We rode in three-or-four-block loops, back and forth, as the rest of the parade (headed by a police car) moved slowly behind us. I wove back and forth down the hill on Robson, tapering my speed off by pumping my front brake so that I didn’t cross the paths of too many bykes.

Still, I encountered a bit of hostility – one woman barked at me under her breath, “If I hit you guys it’s not my fault,” and a few others seemed to resent our ‘raining on their parade’, so to speak. One of my companions encountered a parade viewer, filming the event, who very clearly was “trying to film the Dykes on Bikes” and wished that we would “get out of the way”. A police officer asked us to ride on the sidewalk, please, to avoid “getting in the way”.

Overall, however, even with that hostility, it was a super fun and positive experience. More than one group of people were happy to see bicycles in the crowd – “I love bikes!” – and some of the Dykes on Bikes riders appreciated our changing up the usual pattern. For me, it was a political statement. I love to fight for acceptance of bicycles as a valid method of transportation. I love my bicycle. It gets me everywhere I need to go and I feel so damn good when I ride it.

What was even better, however, was the crowd response. I adored it – that high feeling I got from riding along with my hands in the air and hearing a cheer rise up beside me like a wave.

Next year, Queers on Fixed Gears will be riding in the parade again. You’re welcome to join us, even if you’re not queer, even if you don’t ride a fixed gear. I want it to be bigger and better next year. I want us to have a banner announcing our participation. I want you to start this ride in your local pride parade. Let’s start a global phenomenon.