When Liberal MP Scott Brison was a teenager going to high school in rural Nova Scotia, there were no Gay-Straight alliances and openly gay students like there are today. Students, reports The Montreal Gazette, did not come out in the 1980s, even to their closest friends. "Back then," says Brison, 44, one of Canada's few openly gay politicians, "most of us who were gay at that time either repressed our orientation or hid it." Today, he says, is very different, although the changes have not been uniformly positive. On the one hand, Canadian society has moved forward, encouraging young people to be open and accepting of their sexuality. But at the same time these youngsters are left vulnerable to the "tremendous cruelty" of "those bigots who still exist in society." It was in the context of the suicide this month of 15-yearold Jamie Hubley that Brison spoke to the Gazette about his own struggles over his sexual orientation. Before killing himself, Jamie, who was in Grade 10 at A.Y. Jackson High School in Ottawa, blogged about the despair and isolation he felt as a gay student. His family said Jamie had told them he was called vicious names in the school hallways and online after he tried to set up a club at school to promote acceptance of gays and lesbians and others who felt marginalized. Jamie's suicide sent shock waves through Ottawa and the rest of the country. It was a painful reminder of the tragedy of teen suicide. It remains a leading cause of death among young men in Canada; it reaches a peak among gay youth, who attempt suicide at a rate as much as 14 times higher than that among heterosexual youngsters, according to a Concordia University study. Harassment takes a terrible toll on gay, lesbian and transgender teens. According to a recent survey, more than half say they are insulted, and one in five has been physically attacked over their sexual orientation. Fully two-thirds say they feel unsafe at school. Society needs to "make sure we stand up for the rights of young gays and lesbians during those difficult teenage years," Brison said. "We have to make sure there is the support for them." Being gay was not something he wanted, he said, “I can remember in my early 20s and I was trying to deal with the whole issue - there were times I was incredibly depressed. I thought all the things I wanted to do in life, including politics, would never come to fruition because no one would ever accept" his homosexuality. He remembers as a young man in Nova Scotia "a couple of times driving along Highway 101 and seeing big rocks along the highway and thinking, 'I could drive into those rocks and no one would ever know it was a suicide.' " At the time he was about to graduate from university and enter professional life - a young man, in other words, who had the resources to cope with being different, with being gay. Even so, he said, "this issue seemed insurmountable. So for a teenager who is incredibly vulnerable and incredibly sensitive and exposed to cruelty - and teenagers can be very cruel sometimes - I have tremendous empathy for all these victims and their families." Brison said he sometimes goes to schools to talk about being gay. He came out in 2002, the fourth parliamentarian to do so, along with Svend Robinson, Réal Ménard and Libby Davies. "It touches me greatly when a parent or a student tells me that my being out has made a difference. It would help if more politicians who are gay would come out. [Not coming out] sends a terrible message to teenagers who are trying to develop the courage to come out." As a teenager, Brison said, he found a way to cope by concentrating on work. "Instead of romance, I focused on work, full-time jobs, part-time jobs; I started my own business at age 19. I got involved in politics at an early age. I avoided my teen years by not having romantic entanglements - not that I recommend that." He is amazed at how much has changed since he graduated from high school in 1985, he said. "In the late 1990s, I was in Parliament debating same sex benefits for civil servants. Then came the debates over same-sex marriage (which was passed into law in 2005) and then I got married myself" in 2007. "I have been incredibly fortunate. It has less to do with me than good fortune, who you fall in love with. I just feel devastated when I see someone who has not had that. I don't really like to talk about myself, but I hope it helps people. I have a wonderful and fulfilling life, professionally and in every way, and it really does get better."
In Quebec, a driving school instructor in Chateauguay is getting ready to "fess up" and apologize for anti-gay derogatory remarks he made to a pupil in one of his classes. A sixteen-year old pupil sat in a classroom with a dozen others roughly his age for a theory class at the Tecnic Driving School in Chateauguay. The instructor appeared annoyed at the way the young man had crossed his legs. He appeared to feel the pose too feminine, and berated the pupil, repeatedly using an anti-gay slur and telling him to "sit like a man.” A driving school pupil who witnessed the scene told CJAD News the young man appeared hurt, and that he entire class sat in stunned silence. The owner of the chain of Tecnic driving schools, Ybes Aube, said that the instructor will apologize to the young man in front of the class. But he says his employee will stay on the job, despite the insistence of one parent that the man be fired.
Memorials are being planned for early gay rights pioneer Frank Kameny, who died October 11 and the Smithsonian will display of some of Kameny's picket signs. NBC Washington reports that friends of Kameny have organized a farewell viewing on November 3 at the historic Carnegie Library. A formal public memorial service is being planned for a later date. Kameny, who served in the Army during World War II, later earned a PhD in astronomy from Harvard. He was fired from his job as a government astronomer due to his orientation. He appealed, and his case went to the Supreme Court in 1961. He lost, but the defeat engendered his heroic activism. In 2009, the federal government formally apologized for his firing and presented him with the prestigious Theodore Roosevelt Award. Last year, a section of 17th Street in Dupont Circle was named in his honour. On Friday, October 21, the National Museum of American History is opening a special exhibit of Kameny's protest signs. That exhibit will be on view through January 16, 2012.
A moustachioed Zac Efron spotted leaving the infamous Box Club in Soho, London, after celebrating his 24th birthday. Efron was a little wobbly and a lot stained, his trousers a collection of various spillage.
Robert Pattinson seen Friday at LAX accompanied by a big, bushy beard – literally.
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