Rain, the remnants of Hurricane Ida, is coming down in sheets in Halifax as I am reading the recent update by street navigator Eric Jonsson on people sleeping outside in Halifax. It makes for grim reading, especially today. A section on the harm caused by the recent evictions by force of the unhoused people living in tents and crisis shelters is particularly disconcerting.
“Queer and trans youth understand that reporting sexualized violence is not a safe option for them because they feel, and rightfully so, that they will not be believed and that their cases will not be understood within the current legal system.” Carmel Farahbakhsh of the Youth Project addresses the Subcommittee to Define Defunding the Police.
A new toolkit aims to educate and train doulas in 2SLGBTQ+ birthing people and their families, while also increasing the number of queer-identifying doulas in Nova Scotia. Stephen Wentzell attended the launch and spoke with some of the driving forces behind the project.
Media release: Wellness Within: An Organization for Health and Justice invite all to join us for the official launch of the Queer Doula Toolkit, by zoom on June 17 at 730pm AT.
Statement: We welcome and support the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies (CAEFS) policy shift in the last few years to be trans-inclusive and we cannot let this work go anywhere but forward. We recognize that several of the women who wrote a recent Open Letter to CAEFS share that they are formerly incarcerated, and we honour their experience and pain. We do not support their discriminatory comments about incarcerated trans women, nor their assumptions about who speaks for incarcerated and criminalized women, or their calls for the creation of new prisons for trans people.
PSA: The team behind the Eastern Front Theatre Accessibility Project wants to speak with artists who have faced barriers in the Nova Scotia performing arts scene because of who they are.
In this second and final part of a series Lily Barraclough continues to tell the stories of some of the queer activists inside Nova Scotia’s environmental movement. Meet climate and queer rights activist Sabrina Guzman Skotnitsky and Naomi Bird, a two-spirited Cree person.
In this first of a two-part series Lily Barraclough sets out to tell the stories of some of the queer activists inside Nova Scotia’s environmental movement. Meet school strike organizer Julia Sampson and forest defender Nina Newington.
In April of 1977 about a dozen men were thrown out of the Jury Room bar, on the corner of Argyle & Prince streets, for being gay. They fought back, and Rebecca Rose tells the story.
Today’s LGBTQ2S+ landmark is Forrest House, a.k.a. a Woman’s Place. Many lesbians and bisexual women were involved, though they didn’t always feel welcome, Rebecca Rose writes.