Canada

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia -- A prominent Canadian LGBT activist and journalist was found beaten to death outside a popular gay bar in Halifax early Tuesday morning. Raymond Taavel, 49, the former editor of the LGBT magazine "Wayves" and former co-chair of PrideWeek Halifax, was found bleeding and unconscious. He died at the scene. [ Read more → ]

The Miss Universe Organization on Tuesday announced that it is changing its rules and will allow transgender women to take part in all of its competitions starting in 2013. [ Read more → ]

Paul Cameron’s Family Research Institute knows what is to blame for Canada’s declining fertility rate…gay rights, of course! In the group’s March memo, the FRI claims that gay rights have contributed to the “decline” of birth rates in the West and is threatening the “future for society.” [ Read more → ]

U.S. businessman Donald Trump, owner of the Miss Universe Organization, on Tuesday overruled a decision by pageant officials, and said a transgender contestant will be allowed to compete in the Miss Universe Canada competition. [ Read more → ]

A transgender beauty pageant contestant who was disqualified last week from the Miss Universe Canada competition after the organizers discovered that she had undergone surgery to become a woman, may be allowed to re-enter the competition if she can prove she meets the “legal gender recognition requirements," pageant organizers announced Monday. [ Read more → ]

A beauty pageant contestant has been disqualified from the Miss Universe Canada competition after the organizers discovered that she had undergone surgery to become a woman. Pageant organizers said that according to official rules, each contestant must be a "naturally born female." [ Read more → ]

TORONTO -- An Arab-Israeli lesbian couple, who fled to Canada from Israel in fear of death at the hands of their Muslim family have been told they can remain in Canada for another chance at receiving asylum. [ Read more → ]

The Canadian Minister Of Justice, Rob Nicholson, on Thursday afternoon announced that the Canadian government will re-work the current marriage law to allow non-resident couples married in Canada to obtain divorces, and in a statement said, "I want to be very clear that the government has no intention of reopening the debate on the definition of marriage." [ Read more → ]

Students at the Etobicoke School of the Arts, a specialized public arts and academic high school in Toronto, broke into cheering and wild applause on Friday when the student council president debuted a personal video from Lady Gaga aimed at encouraging an end to bullying. [ Read more → ]

The suicide of 15-year-old Jamie Hubley last month -- the Ottawa teenager who had suffered from being bullied -- has renewed a fierce and politically charged debate in Canadian society: Do public figures, as role models for youth, have a responsibility to out themselves? [ Read more → ]

Zoo keepers in Toronto are planning to separate a pair of inseparable, and -- according to some zoo staffers -- "gay" male penguins so that they can be paired with females for breeding. [ Read more → ]

TORONTO -- Egale Canada -- the Canadian national LGBT human rights organization -- has written to the Chief Coroner for the province of Ontario, Dr. Andrew McCallum, requesting a full coroner's review on the issue of LGBTQ youth suicide. [ Read more → ]

REGINA, Saskatchewan, Canada -- Teaching acceptance of LGBTQ students needs to be part of the school curriculum in Canada because the majority of bullying in schools is centered in homophobic attitudes, says James McNinch, Dean of Education at the University of Regina. [ Read more → ]

In a speech before the House Of Commons on Thursday, Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, told the gathered Members of Parliament and ministers that there is no place in the nation's schools for the bullying that drove an openly a gay Ottawa teen take his own life. [ Read more → ]

I am so fed up with writing the same story — over and over and over again. This madness has to stop, and the first way we decrease these tragedies is to stop minimizing the torment and harassment by reducing it to mere bullying. [ Read more → ]

MONTREAL, Quebec -- The Quebec government has announced it will allocate $7 million dollars for programs to fight discrimination and bullying against its gay and lesbian citizens. [ Read more → ]

Earlier today we reported the tragic death of 15-year-old Jamie Hubley, an Ottawa who committed suicide on Saturday, and who documented the final, painful months of his life on his bog. In a statement released Monday, Jamie’s father Allan Hubley said “bullying was definitely a factor” in his son’s death. [ Read more → ]

Sad news to report from Ottawa, is the suicide death of Jamie Hubley, a 15-year-old gay teen who took his own life on Saturday after documenting online the final, painful months of his life. [ Read more → ]

TORONTO, Ontario — Canada’s National Post newspaper on Friday issued a public apology for publishing an offensive, transphobic advertisement on Thursday that was purchased by the anti-gay Institute for Canadian Values (ICV). [ Read more → ]

A transphobic advertisement appearing in Canada's National Post on Thursday is calling on the leaders of the three national political parties “stop teachers from confusing” children on issues of gender identity and expression. [ Read more → ]