Roundup: Save your prayers

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As reaction to the Orlando shooting started to roll in, the rote phrase of “thoughts and prayers” was pretty much stock on most public officials’ tweets and posts, including in Canada. The Governor of Florida went so far as to say that now was a time for prayer. And yes, reaction to these kinds of events is now rote and ritualised, and it gets worse with every time that it happens.

https://twitter.com/scott_gilmore/status/742066737995231232

In this particular incidence, however, people calling for prayer are precisely the wrong thing to say. Why? This was a crime directed at the LGBT community (in this instance, particularly gay men), and it should not bear reminding that this is a community that has to deal with spiritual violence directed toward them on a consistent basis. What exactly do you think that calling for prayer for a community that is constantly told that they’re going to hell means to them? Do you think it somehow comforts them to know that the same god who is wielded against them is supposed to be looking after them? Really? As well, the fact that the word “homophobia” is absent from most of the leaders’ statements is a problem in my opinion.

While it’s all well and good to call it domestic terrorism – which it undoubtedly is – the problem with that narrative, particularly with an ostensibly Muslim shooter (that he may have declared allegiance to ISIS being entirely irrelevant) is that it diminishes the act perpetrated against the targeted community. Both Trudeau and Ambrose are supportive of the LGBT community, of that there is no doubt, but for them not to call out homophobia point blank is disappointing, particularly because words matter, and when the word they choose is “terrorism,” it sets up for a specific response, and in today’s climate, that response gears toward Islamophobia instead. Across the Twitter Machine, people insisted that it was Islam who planted the seeds of homophobia in the shooter, which is rich considering how much the Christian right-wing in America uses blatant homophobia (and more recently transphobia) for political ends. But suddenly these same American politicians care about the lives of 50 people gunned down in a gay nightclub (without ever having to say the words “gay” or “homophobia,” natch). Fortunately, things are a little better on this side of the border.

I would like to see more statements like Rempel’s, where homophobia is called out, and there are no calls for prayer; and likewise with Oliphant’s, who reminds people that Muslims are not automatically homophobes or hate-mongers. Words matter. We should ensure that they are used wisely.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau talks to Paul Wells about parenting and work-life balance, and how his father modelled it.
  • Today, Trudeau will meet with young civil servants, before meeting with the Chief of Attawapiskat.
  • The NDP’s opposition day motion today will be calling for an immediate decriminalization of marijuana possession in advance of legalization.
  • The government is ordering an independent review of the gong show that is Shared Services Canada.
  • A Liberal MP’s flyer wrongly says that veterans lifelong pensions have been restored, and oh, look, it’s Robert-Falcon Outlette, who has been wrong before.
  • Here is a look at challenges facing doctors in the assisted dying debate.
  • HMCS Windsor is back at sea after engine troubles. Here’s a look at how it participated in stealth training with Special Forces troops last fall.
  • Aaron Wherry looks at the complications around a referendum on electoral reform outside of the problems with the current Referendum Act.
  • If you won’t take my word for it, Kady O’Malley offers her assurances that yes, this is the way the Senate is supposed to operate.

Odds and ends:

The “reality” series Border Security (aka really, really telegenic CBSA officers doing stuff) has been cancelled after privacy breaches were found.

At the Ottawa ALS Walk on Saturday, Mauril Bélanger was serenaded with his gender-neutral version of O Canada.

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