blades.politico

Jason Collins comes out. Big deal!

Seriously?

I don’t understand the “big deal” comments in reaction to Jason Collins’ coming out as gay.

It actually is a big deal.

While there have been many women in pro sports who have already made the leap out of the closet, the double standard still holds firm for male pro athletes.  Thanks to Jason, that double standard may soon start to weaken.

Collins set a big milestone by coming out as a gay, black, male professional athlete, currently active in the NBA. Anyone with a sense of social awareness and empathy can see how significant and ‘risky’ this is, both to Jason and his career as an NBAer.

Before some people toss forward their “big deal” comments, maybe they should try to place themselves in Collins’ shoes, and think about the struggles he had to go through in making the decision to come out publicly, and acknowledge the uncharted territory through which Collins is travelling.

How about placing themselves in the shoes of current athletes, young or old, pro or amateur who know they are gay and struggle with coming out, and can now can seek inspiration from Jason Collins’ bravery?

Hopefully Collins is the first of many people who will start to chip away at the status quo, and show people that you can be an NFLer, an NHLer or an NBAer and still lead an open and authentic life.

So yes…it is a big deal.

CBC, Sportsnet, TSN and RDS team up for Sochi2014

Great news!

CBC/Radio-Canada landed broadcasting and sub-licensing rights for Sochi 2014 and Rio 2016.

It was announced today that RDS, Sportsnet and TSN are partnering with CBC/Radio-Canada to bring Sochi to Canadian viewers.

I am very relieved.

When the rights were first granted to CBC/Radio-Canada, I was worried that we’d only get one or two channel coverage, and would have to tune to NBC for the remainder of the coverage.

Now it looks like Bell and Rogers are in a make-shift consortium again—this time with the CBC/Radio-Canada, which means we’ll get multi-channel coverage in HD.

On a related topic, it will be interesting to see how CBC rolls out its marketing plans for coverage, especially across the broadcasting brands it has partnered with. 

With one year away from the opening ceremonies, CBC Television has been ramping up its publicity; there are a lot of Olympic related spots/stories on national newscasts, and tons of ads flaunting CBC as “Canada’s Olympic network”

According to cbc.ca, more broadcasting and platform coverage details are to come, so stay tuned.

CBC/Radio-Canada gets rights to 2014/2016 Olympics

Firstly, congratulations to CBC/Radio-Canada.  It must be exciting news for their team to know that they are headed to Sochi and Rio to cover the greatest multi-sporting event ever.

Personally as an Olympic fan in Canada, I take this news with mixed feelings.

Ultimately I would have preferred that Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium in its present state for Vancouver/London take on the next two games.

Realizing Rogers will back out of the agreement after London 2012, the next best alternative would have been for a Bell/CBC joint bid.  It’s too bad that option didn’t work out either.

It is likely that CBC will need to partner up with another media entity due to schedule/time constraints.  We’ll have to see how that plays out.

I am a big fan of the Consortium’s multi-platform coverage spread out over internet, mobile, radio (which I don’t listen to) and TV; it really has been unprecedented and quite impressive.

When the Olympics were on CBC, I had to tune to NBC 50% of the time to get a different perspective, or to see if they were covering different sports. This meant that I couldn’t always get a Canadian perspective on the events I was watching. 

With the Consortium’s coverage, particularly for the summer games, I can stream from the office, or when at home, tune into Sportsnet, V, TSN/2, RDS/2, CTV or even OMNI and a different set of events will be covered, all with a Canadian (and multilingual) perspective — *and* all without ever having to watch NBC.

I wonder how CBC is going to be able to pull of coverage like the Consortium’s?

CBC doesn’t have a dedicated sports channel.  Bold has been known to show some sports, but it isn’t a “sports” channel. 

CBC’s other properties will have to digress from their regular content (usually arts, culture, documentary, news) to show sports, at the expense of their regular viewers who likely don’t care about the Olympics.

CBC’s current streaming experience is decent, but needs a lot of work to be on par with Bell’s. CBC will need to have a good network backbone to cover the comprehensive event streaming that is required for the Olympics in order to match the level of coverage by the Consortium’s.

The budget cutbacks and constraints suffered by Canada’s public broadcaster are worrisome, and seem to conflict with the apparent need for CBC to ramp up its broadcasting talent in preparation for comprehensive coverage of an event like the Olympics.

In the end, as an Olympic fan, I need to have coverage as good as or better than what the Consortium is doing now.

Is CBC up to the task?  I hope so. We shall see.

Why Pride is still important to Canadians

It is that time of year again.

The Pride summer is upon us, and it forces me to reflect and assess how far we have come in the west, particularly in North America as it pertains to LGBT rights.

There is still a bit more to do in terms of LGBT rights in Canada.

It’s not “perfect”, but wow, we have come a long, long way and it is pretty damn close to being “perfect”.

I can get married here if I choose to, and I know that I can’t lose my job simply for being gay.

If I choose to raise children, I feel comfortable knowing that I can send them to a school environment where there is a heightened awareness on providing an inclusive environment for all students, whether they are LGBT or otherwise.

The Pride movement has contributed to a lot to these advancements.

Pride forces me to reflect on Canada being a largely immigrant nation, and the status of LGBT people across the globe.

If anyone complains about Pride losing its steam or becoming less political, they need only look outside our borders to see that there is a lot of fighting left to be done.

“Human rights for LGBT people are still not respected in many modern Western countries,” says Goran Miletic, Grand Marshall of this year’s Pride Toronto festivities.

That’s just the west.

What about LGBT rights in African nations and in the Middle East?  What about the stories of LGBT immigrants who have fled persecution in their homeland for a new life in Canada?

All of this is a great reason to get your activist boxing mitts re-fitted and polished, and your signs painted, as the global fight for LGBT rights is still quite daunting.

Toronto Pride attracts close to a million people each year and is one of the largest celebrations in the world. Toronto will also be the host of World Pride in 2014.

We have a responsibility as a progressive nation in the domain of human rights to raise awareness of LGBT issues across the globe, and effect change where possible.

Injustices against LGBT people are still occurring, and there is no reason for the political aspect of Pride to abate.

It’s Britain’s turn to carry the torch

The flag waiving and nationalism at the Queen’s diamond jubilee events are but a fraction of atmosphere needed to launch the 2012 London Olympic Games into the history books, as London has the heavy weight of the Olympic Rings upon it this summer.

As a fan of the games, it still seems like yesterday when our winter athletes were battling in arenas of snow and ice for a chance at Olympic glory.

The atmosphere of Vancouver 2010 was filled with triumph and tragedy - from unfortunate deaths and malfunctions to bittersweet victories, world records, massive street parties and an atmosphere that quite frankly, even the most nationalistic flag-waivers didn’t expect to experience.

Londoners and Britons in general have a chance to fully and unabashedly embrace the games, adding something unique to them, which could really make London 2012 the best games ever. 

Although London has hosted the games before, Londoners will still need to draw from the civic and nationalistic precedents set by cities like Sydney and Vancouver.

Londoners will need to open their hearts and arms, extending their hospitality and graciousness to the international community that will descend upon them in July, and at the same time show the world that they are a force to be reckoned with not only in international sport, but also international party hosting.

I have no doubt that London 2012, like many other Olympic games, will be full of drama, triumph, sadness, and most of all, feats of superior athleticism. 

I am also confident that Londoners will be able to make this enormous event a success not only by being gracious and proud hosts, but striving to stand atop that podium as many times as possible.

Ontario Liberals Bill-13 and gay straight alliances

No matter what side you are on in this debate, I think one can come to a common conclusion that there is a need to address bullying and make our schools safer and more inclusive.

So what is the big deal about Bill-13, an amendment to Ontario’s Education Act?

There is a specific language in the act regarding Gay Straight Alliances:

For greater certainty, neither the board nor the principal shall refuse to allow a pupil to use the name gay-straight alliance or a similar name for an organization described in clause

The Catholic religious leaders, school board officials, and parents have expressed strong concern over this clause, because they believe it infringes on the religious freedom of the school administration to be able to sensor the names of student groups - particularly sensor the word “gay”.

This bill does not mandate that every school in every public board have a gay straight alliance club.

These are student-run, extracurricular clubs, which means that students, upon assessing their school environment and their peers’ interest, make the decision to create these clubs.

Why should Catholic school principals have the power to censor and discriminate against clubs that have the word “gay” in their name?

Why are anti Bill-13 protesters trying to pretend that by censoring the word “gay” they can negate the fact that gay Catholic students exist?

Catholic schools are “separate” schools, but they are not private schools.  They are religious schools funded by tax-payer dollars, and are overseen by the Ontario government.  

With that being said, the argument of “infringement of religious beliefs” should not be used to exempt Catholic schools from upholding the same standards of human rights, student well-being, and an inclusive environment expected across all government-funded school boards.

I was raised Catholic, and attended Catholic schools during my formative years. Of course that was during a time when being LGBT and Catholic, at least in my experience was never ever discussed.  Mind you, that was also during a time when the Internet was new, and cell phones weren’t common.

I remember how school life was the center of my world - 6 hours a day, 5 days a week.  As adults, we can be oblivious to, or forget how tough the day-to-day life of today’s student is.

Kids today have to deal with cyber bullying, school shootings and other stuff I simply don’t remember ever having to deal with when I was in school.

Society continues to become more accepting of LGBT people now, as more and more LGBT youth are coming out. 

The last thing students need is a confirmation from administration that the word “gay” is bad, and that identifying as a gay student (Catholic or otherwise) is not OK. 

Students must be empowered to create groups that will positively impact the quality of student life, and be able to name these groups however they want - as long as it promotes a positive school environment.

Censoring the word “gay” and pretending that gay students don’t exist would mean many steps backwards in the fight against discrimination, bullying, and homophobia in our schools.

Michael Coren can’t seem to handle it

Individual rights, couple’s rights and marriage?

black gay marriage?