How to be a better LGBTQ ally
CBC
It's Pride Month in Canada — colourful pride flags are flying, drag events are popping up and parades are being planned.
If you're not part of the LGBTQ community, you can be an ally. But what does that really mean?
CBC News asked Lucky Fusca, board chair of Pride P.E.I. and the executive director of the P.E.I. Transgender Network (pronouns are they/them), and Scott Alan from PEERS Alliance, a harm reduction and education group (formerly AIDS P.E.I.). Alan's pronouns are they/them and he/him, interchangeably.
"There's really only two ways in this world: the way of love and the way of fear," Fusca said. "I think that's a super important thing to kind of keep in mind as we're talking about allyship."
Fusca said another important assumption to maintain is that "we're all doing the best that we can, and we can all do better" as allies.
"We are seeing an uptick in a lot of homophobia and especially transphobia," Alan said, so allies are more important than ever, especially for queer youth.
"Listen with loving ears," said Fusca. "When it comes to being an ally, to come into it knowing we can still feel fear and still hold love and approach it with love, then we can listen with open ears, we can listen and be open to feeling uncomfortable and work through that."
Parents of children who are coming out as queer, for instance, can simply tell that child "I love you" and not qualify it by saying, "I love you anyway."
PEERS Alliance has support groups for Island parents of queer kids and can help with how to listen supportively, Fusca said.
Recognize the difference between sympathy and empathy, Alan said — LGBTQ folk don't need your pity and judgment, they need you to understand and share their feelings. Try to practice radical empathy, he said.
"Radical empathy is actively striving to better understand and share the feelings of others," Alan said, while acknowledging this takes a lot of sometimes uncomfortable work.
Fusca encourages allies to self-educate, to reduce that burden on LGBTQ community members.
They said PEERS Alliance, the P.E.I. Transgender Network and Pride P.E.I. all have educational resources: check out their websites and Facebook pages.
Vet your sources for information on LGBTQ issues, Fusca added — there's lots of misinformation out there.
Run 3 Space | Play Space Running Game
Traffic Jam 3D | Online Racing Game
Duck Hunt | Play Old Classic Game
Yellowknife's hospital will staff its emergency room with a virtual doctor, and will regularly schedule doctors to work 12-hour shifts this summer to deal with a personnel shortage, according to three health-care organizations in the territory that have decried the situation as dangerous.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday he's terminating all trade discussions with Canada effective immediately.
The province's Chief Public Health Office has identified between four and eight infants who require medication to protect them against measles.
It's turtle nesting season in Ontario and conservationists are working to protect endangered species and their nests.
Both Ontario's privacy commissioner and Ontario Health are investigating a reported data breach affecting Ontario Health atHome, the province's home-care coordination service.
During a Thursday afternoon meeting earlier this month in Brooks, Alta., Justice Dallas Miller, chair of Alberta's new electoral boundaries commission, outlined the central challenge facing the panel.
Five doctors at a St. John's hospital have tendered a joint notice of resignation, saying their work environment has become "unsafe for both patient care and provider well-being," CBC Investigates has learned.
Adeb Arianson fled his home in Kabul just days before the capital of Afghanistan fell to the Taliban in 2021, as Western nations were evacuating their citizens and panic seized the city.
New Brunswick's two regional health authorities say the transition of primary care to family health teams has opened up access for tens of thousands of doctorless patients, with more to come.
The Toronto Raptors are parting ways with team president Masai Ujiri, according to ESPN and Sportsnet.
After at least 22 drownings in Quebec since the start of the year — including two at Montreal's Verdun Beach in recent weeks — the Quebec Lifesaving Society is renewing its calls for caution.
Winnipeg's Portage and Main intersection is embedded in the story of Canada — the crossroads of the country and one of its windiest corners — and it's held that lore despite being inaccessible to pedestrians for 46 years.
Saskatchewan's Opposition NDP is calling on the provincial government to drop the requirement for used vehicles bought outside of the province to be inspected before they can be registered.