roses, bruises, 'bout your shoulders

AAAAARGH I had this thing like 3/4 written in the text box with my last post then decided to make it separate and public and cut it but didn't paste it somewhere else to save it and then I copied another URL and now it's gone, gone into the capricious aether. Dagnabbit. Time to start again.

It's an exciting time for reproductive justice (i.e. activism oriented toward sexual and reproductive rights, sexual and reproductive health and social justice) right now, particularly here in Canada; unfortunately the news is mostly grim.

Clusterfuck #1: Premier Dalton McGuinty's provincial government promising a lovely (in theory--practice depends on teachers) new sexual health education plan for the province, and then backing down under pressure from a coalition of shrill people (who, I conclude, must really love STIs, unintended teen pregnancies, hate crimes, stupidity or all of the above). More current word is that the curriculum is being "reworked". To express your support for the complete (i.e. sexual health and all) curriculum, please write to Minister of Education Leona Dombrowsky.

Clusterfuck #2: Harper's federal gubbermint cutting off funding to humanitarian projects that provide abortions to women in developing nations, claiming that "Canadians want to see their foreign aid money used for things that will help save the lives of women and children in ways that unite the Canadian people rather than divide them." I'm about ready to get smashy on these Conservative lunchboxes, I really am. You know what, Mr. Dead-eyes McMurdering Genocide-Denying Oilguzzler? I'm a Canadian, and I want to see my foreign aid money used for things that will actually help save the lives of women and children, including access to safe hassle-free abortions (but then I'm the kind of freaky radical who wouldn't vote for you for a bucket of diamonds and puppies, so I suppose my opinion doesn't count). For this one write to your MP and the BPM.

Without downplaying the seriously skeezy colonial implications of condemning in "less-developed nations" practices which are legal and even covered under provincial medical insurance here in Canada (not that I imagine the Tories are happy with this situation, but women here are possibly harder to push around), I want to remind readers that the fight for abortion access "at home" is far from over. For just a few examples, this excellent article covers obstacles to accessing abortion services in Canada, particularly the Maritime provinces, as well as documenting the struggles of reproductive justice activists protesting campus presentations by the headsplodingly noxious and evil anti-choice "Genocide Awareness Project" which uses giant billboards to "graphically compare the victims of abortion [i.e. fetuses, which must be kept alive until parturition but apparently no longer because in no place do they or many other anti-choice groups, so far as I can tell, advocate any kind of post-natal health care] to victims of other atrocities, such as Jews in the Holocaust" (WTF I don't even!) at Canadian universities. Yes, this is from 2010--22 years after the Canadian supreme court cut the law against abortion.

Clusterfuck #3, slightly less about reproductive justice and more about sexuality and education: Music teacher fired from Catholic school in Vancouver, apparently for being a lesbian. She took a short leave to spend time with her partner and their new baby and was prevented from returning to work, reportedly because of complaints from parents fearing she might "influence" their daughters. A-can I get a "*headdesk*"?

ETA: not a clusterfuck: my friend, writer and sex educator Andrea Zanin, is doing some research in preparation for a new workshop, and if you perform or receive cunnilingus (or analogous acts for men and women of trans experience--see survey) you can help by sharing your experience here.