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Loading ...Quebec funds gay seniors program
05.08.2009 2:30pm EDT
(Montreal, Quebec) The Quebec government is spending half a million dollars on an education campaign meant to improve the lives of gay, lesbian and transgendered seniors.
It’s a subject so taboo that the cabinet minister responsible for seniors and representatives of the gay and lesbian communities couldn’t find a seniors residence willing to host a news conference.It was eventually held in a community center on the fringes of Montreal’s gay village.
Still, Minister Marguerite Blais says it’s more about ignorance than malice.
“We would have found a residence eventually,” she said. “I don’t want to accuse anyone of anything. I just want to show how important it is to educate people on this issue.”
Laurent McCutcheon of the gay helpline Gai Ecoute says homosexuality isn’t discussed in most institutions that serve the elderly, leading many Quebec seniors to hide their sexual orientation.
As they age and lose their autonomy, gay, lesbian or transgendered seniors face stigma, loneliness, social isolation, rejection and in extreme cases, harassment from the very institutions they depend on to meet their needs.
The new initiatives funded by the government are meant to highlight the isolation many of them feel.
“We know there are gays and lesbians in these institutions who, sadly, spent their lives in the closet and will stay there until the end,” McCutcheon said.
“We’ll try to do as much as we can for them but also lay the groundwork for the generations coming up.”
In some ways, it’s become the final frontier of gay and lesbian rights.
“We’ll be the first generation to reach to our golden years after fighting for our rights,” McCutcheon said, a comment later echoed by Blais.
“Baby boomers don’t want to accept these situations after a lifetime of living openly,” she said.
Gai Ecoute will receive $400,000 over four years to produce an education campaign for people who work with the elderly that will include a website and an information kit.
The Quebec Lesbian Network will receive $120,000 over three years to broadcast a film that portrays the lives of six lesbians in their golden age.
Diane Heffernan, director of the Network, spoke about the resistance she faced when she approached old age homes about airing the film.
She says she was rejected outright by 118 of the 120 institutions she petitioned and in one home, only 25 of some 4,000 residents attended the screening.
“They were rebels,” Heffernan joked. “They’d been warned they’d be marked as lesbians if they showed up.”
Blais says her support for the projects came after statements made during Quebec-wide public consultations in 2007 on issues facing the elderly.
“There’s a long way to go in their social recognition. These two projects won’t end taboos but it’s a start…(But)I believe a human being is allowed to have dreams, a fulfilling life, right up to their last breath.”
Once again, Canada rules re gay rights!!
Once again Quebec leads the country in a human rights issue. Too bad no such initiative is in Victoria, senior capital of ROC (rest of Canada).
[Screw] Canada, vive le Québec LIBRE.
Canada had nothing to do with this, this is Québec’s doing NOT Canada.
Right Rodney. I suppose YOU had something to do with it? Quebec IS Canada, like it or not. You could at least curse us out in French. Maybe next time, eh?
Golden Girls for lesbians!?! I totally want to see this film. Bet it won’t have the witty dialogue though
The Minister should check out the glbt club, Molly Wood Senior Social Club, at one of the City of Toronto’s Homes for the Ages. It has been actively supporting senior glbt residents and were the group that a City of Toronto Diversity Committee used to help write a Toolkit for Homes to use in making their environments more gay and lesbian positive.
CAnada is so far ahead of Us. Why – because the single biggest denomination in Canada is the United Churches of Christ.
Many – I think a majority of them will do gay marriage ceremonies.
And some of them – it started in Minn – while they do str8 as well as gay marriage ceremonies – refuse to be the legal witness to the legal marriage paperwork that makes a couple married “in the eyes of the law”, until the law in their states allows legal gay marriage.
ps: the str8 couples can go to their county clerk or courthouse and simply file the proper papaerwork to be legally married. The good ministers of the UU church are simply refusing to be legal witnesses supporting laws which are discriminatory.
Va te faire enculer par un chien de tabarnak, tu ostie de cave.
Le Québec ne veut rien à voir avec le Canada, et quand le Québec fait qqchose pour les gais et lesbiens ça c’est le Québec qui la fait pas le Canada.
Le Québec était le premier gouvernment nord-américain d’interdire la discrimination contre les gais et lesbiennes quand le Canada(anglais) disait toujours “speak white” et appellait tout du Québec, Queerbeck ou pire.
Selon moi,, sans le Québec, le Canada n’est rien qu’une colonie Brittano-Américaine sans aucune culture nationale, point.
Vive le Gaibec LIBRE!!
Un enjeux concernant le viellisage des gais et lesbiennes québécois(e)s est le fait que pour plusieurs, ils/elles étaient les pionniers du mouvement pendant une époque beaucoup plus hostile et homophobe qu’aujourd’hui. Le Québec, pas comme le Canada (anglais) et les états-unis, a bien changé et les gais et lesbiennes se sont integrés dedans la societé populaire. Il y avait un homme ouvertement gai, et souverainiste, André Boisclair qui a pose sa candidature comme premier ministre et son orientation sexuelle n’était pas un enjeux que parmi des idiots en région. Même le mouvement nationaliste-souveraniste québécois des années 60 et 70 a une longue histoire d’acceillir les gais et lesbiennes dans ses rangs. L’égalité homme-femme, gai-hetero est un valeur commun pour des québécois, especiellement ici à Montréal. Mais pour les agé(e)s qui ont vecu dans un autre temps d’histoire, où la comunauté gai-lesbienne était plus ghettoisé mais aussi plus solidaire. La pensée de devoir prendre sa retraite avec des heteros, n’est rien qu’un peur par ces gens qui ont battus l’homophobie toute leur vie. Mes amis vieux ont des experiences de vie qui sont completement differents que celles des gais d’aujourd’hui. Après 10 ou même 20 ans de cette politique, ça pourrait faire changer.
@ Rodney Moore
FYI
Vous êtes un crétin absolu. Comme Montrealais fier et Canadien, je ne laisserai pas simplement votre parti irritable quebecois propoganda vont sans défi. Embellissez-vous pipsqueek DeGaul wannabe.
Si pas pour le Canada, Québec serait parti la voie de la Louisianne, qui est le fait pas la fiction. Vous êtes l’ignorance est tant triste qu’évident. Retournez maintenant sous la roche où vous et FLQ baisant appartenez.
You’ve now been told.
@John in Canada,
John, de toute évidence, vous ne connaissez pas grand chose du français et avez utilisé le logiciel babelfish pour essayer de vous donner un air d’anglo bin correct qui a fait sa part.
Pour un Montréalais, c’est pas fort.
Mais bon, ça sert bien votre mythe d’anglo persécuté. C’est une belle poudre aux yeux que vous pouvez lancer pour tenter de dissimuler l’emprise suprémaciste du canada anglais sur le Québec.
Canada is not Québec, Québec is not Canada. Even federalists would recognize that basic fact. Just admit your greatest heart’s desire is to see us wane and disappear so that you could bask in a see of anglo-sameness.
Is éard is dúil agat ná go n-imeóidh fraincis chéibec ar meath mar ar tharla leis an nGaeilge. Admháil é. Céibec agus Ceanada, iad ionann céanna, nach ea?
Hah! Can’t even mention Quebec in a positive light without starting a QC-Canada spat. Rodney, t’es bien méchant. T’auras quand même pu expliquer ça d’une manière un peu moins amère: la plupart des gens qui lisent ce site n’ont AUCUNE IDÉE de quoi tu parles. Au lieu d’insulter tous les anglos du continent, t’auras mieux fait d’expliquer l’historique québécoise: en effet, le Québec est un leader mondiale en ce qui concerne la politique gaie et lesbienne. Tes sentiments xénophobes envers TOUS LES ANGLOS DU CONTINENT n’ont absolument rien à voir avec le progrès admirable du gouvernement québécois.
And Jon, why did you fall for the bait? It’s amazing to see a great piece of news turn into an acrimonious hissy-fit that most readers of this site care or know little about. Thank god you did it in French. The second language on this site is likely Spanish.
Quebec deserves credit, once again, for its leadership role in Canadian human rights issues. It’s one reason I’m proud to live here. Bravo, Quebec. Period.
This is a great news for our gay community. Quebec is very diversified city and great to be part of it. Go Quebec Go…
Montreal Gay Guide
http://www.montrealgaylistings.com
je suis un jeune garcon rejette par mes parent parce qu’il ont appris que je suis gay
i am a boy who is reject in my parent because he knows that am a gay