I’ve been asked why CFI Ottawa would want to walk at Pride? After all I was told, “GLBT aren’t being oppressed here in Canada as they once were”. “Why do GLBT want to have a party about being queer?” “I’m straight so it would not be right for me to march with you.” I had to explain over and over again that from our perspective it is not a celebration of a queer culture nor is it a party. We are supporting GLBT against the irrationality of beliefs based upon scripture. Our own signs carry the message “Stop faith based bigotry”
Every year we have hateful preachers who stand in front of churches or at street corners telling the marchers that they are going to hell. Every year we have our very own Jesus in the form of Brad Murphy to make a mockery of these people.
Our “Jesus” has quite a fan following at our pride marches.
Our Jesus “saves” the hateful preachers from their “sin”
This guy is a regular and stands on a street corner carefully keeping his face hidden behind the cross.
This guy uses a microphone and loud speaker each year to harass the marchers and we helped silence the hate from this guy at least for a few minutes.
This was my first year leading CFI Ottawa into the pride march but the first year where I realised that many people still don’t understand just how important it is for us to show that hate from the religious is something that cannot be tolerated. We must make bigotry from the religious made to look as ridiculous as possible
Thank you Diane. I think that we have as much a political point as a philosophical one. Your activism is appreciated.
Good on you Diane. 🙂
I have marched in the Ottawa Capital Pride Parade for over 5 years. Clearly those who are marching in the parade (not to mention the organizers) have invited and welcomed those of us who are “straight but not narrow”. I’m not a psychologist, but I do have to wonder what a person who says “I’m straight so it would not be right for me to march with you” really means by that – perhaps they are uncomfortable with the prospect that they might be identified as being LGBT themselves (which might contradict their assertion that being LGBT is now considered mainstream).
Of course, just being an atheist does not necessarily imply any sort of philosophical, social or moral position. But many of us who are atheists are committed to helping to build a fair and just society based on rational principles, and want to stand up for the principle of equality for all people, including (among other things) the freedom for people to express their sexuality without being subjected to faith-based hate.
I love the CFI Jesus!! I was in Ottawa this weekend and saw people from the parade getting on the bus I was on but I didn’t know there was a Pride Parade and especially didn’t know about CFI Jesus or I would have made the effort to divert some time to come down!
It would have been great to see you!
Thought shalt not blaspheme the gay, lest ye lose your right to free expression. 1:1 Book of PC
I want to come out of the closet to a group I gravitate towards. Now this isn’t about being gay, but I have felt the toxic sting of religious oppression in my own way. I want you particular Ottawans to know that I am a legitimate and dedicated user of opioids. Not that it matters, but it is a natural form. I feel very strongly that the religious communities in North America have absolutely demonized people such as myself to choose to feel a certain way. This is who I am and I WAS born this way. It’s not deviant and it’s not immoral. I am who I am and I will never apologize for it or accept the typical brainwashed pseudo-logic. For a long time I kept silent about this vulgar hatred against me and people like me. Never again. I don’t know how you people will react to these words, but ultimately we are one in the same. The drug war and all the suffering it brings is the product of religious power in our society. I commit myself to resist it with all my strength. As a representative for the voiceless I stand alone. I hope that will not be true forever. Please feel free to email me.
Matt, you are a person too, and you deserve more respect as nothing less than a person.
Myself, i have a painful neuromuscular challenge that feels like a mix of parkinsons and ms, and while on a disability pension much lower than what is considered a minimum wage, it more accurately resembles that of a dying wage, and even though medical marijuana helps take the edge off a neuromuscular storm, Health Canada still presently only wants to acknowledge factor, for war vets.
Having not been in any govt issued regulated battlefields myself beyond the one that they placed me into, as i am sitting with 2 rescued loving cats who dont mind me at all, the field i reside in is now 4 hours away from my more familiar unaffordable world class city of a hometown of Toronto. When it rains, i begin to have running water through my falling apart ceilings. That’s the only running water indoors I’ve had for years now since 10 days after refusing to let a violently themed alcoholic and his friends rent the upstairs portion of this rural fixer upper, for half the previously agreed upon monthly rent, which was already very reasonably affordable and in line with being less than what is typical for this geographical location in sw Ontario.
The biggest hulking yelling alcoholic threatened that he was going to return, that it wasn’t over yet, and that was 10 days before my well pump stopped working. I’ve contacted 3 different advertised places that repair well pump installations, or so they claim, yet, even after paying one of them 100 dollars to return back to complete their hired task, they chose to throw me under a bus as well..
Sure, i could probably keep calling other places hours away, though i did get saddened by the greed in this world, and somewhat have adopted living like the two loving rescued cats do, though i dont lick myself to be cleaner, i sponge bathe with cold water instead, after hauling buckets of water inside the broken down fixer upper on this isolatingly spun planet that resides in a universe that simply does NOT care at all about how any of us on this planet wish to interpret it.
Sure, i could probably call other places to change that oil furnace that probably want 7 grand as being the quote offered by the oil delivery person who told me he wont return unless i update the furnace that remains OFF for years now. Wearing a winter coat on indoors as a form of heating, it’s helped me develop a humbling understanding of what its like for homeless people on our planet that are in even worse off situations than my own really, and we as a species should raise the bar and end homelessness and starvation on our watery world. Watery, not only with the sadness of tears, but also watery as sea levels increase from all those tears that the melting bergs cry at will, if only they had feelings too.
Dude, i completely empathize with your challenges, and while you may feel that opiods are your thing, i do have to say that i hope maybe some day you will be able to taper off of those gradually and consider something less harmful to your physical self.
I dont want to sound like a hypocrite though because i smoke and use medical mj whenever its affordable, even though i’m smoking some flakes of weed leaves that are over 10 years old that seem to provide much of nothing in helping my neuromuscular challenges.
And if that wealthy high-rise construction employer back in Toronto wasn’t so fixated on chasing those always only paper god$ he would’ve purchased a 1000 dollar proper breathing apparatus rather than to only offer me a dust mask to place DOW Firestop D2000 around junction points that traverse through all those stacked levels of residential flooring. I quit with a mild headache on a Monday when i showed up and the boss’s nephew gave me a threatening look as he said i wasn’t there on Friday and he wanted to not pay me for it, when in fact, i was one of the only people who actually did show up on that Friday, and i noticed he wasn’t there. I still worked diligently, completing floor by floor as i did up until that point. A about a month or so later, i woke up in bed shaking and feeling stiff one day, as my head shook side to side as i layed there feeling that maybe i’m dying at the time.
It slowly progressed to my torso, and i get fibulations with digestive muscles sometimes, and the arms and legs are nothing nearly like they used to be prior to having those daily mild headaches that i still feel today.
Really with Jody Wilson Raybould actually cared during her stint as the Minister In Charge of Making Other Canadians More Challenging, because if she really cared without a disingenuous smile, she would’ve made sure to not overlook people who are humbled with painful isolating forms of disabilities.
Please consider emailing HealthCanada’s Health Minister to request as i already did just over a week ago, that the Canadian’s govt begins in a timely manner to provide medical mj for free of charge to people such as myself who remains falling through the thin ice of life itself, courtesy of the little brother of Wall Street, Bay Streets greed on this watery world.
I moved to this rural location, because my older brother was violent to me in ways going way back to my single digit years, and when i moved away from the illegal always cold feeling basement basement apartment after our sadly missed atheist arts and sciences loving parents passed away, and because my older brother was frauding me for over half my disability pension for years before i moved, as he lies to the govt by saying his live in girlfriend is merely only a roommate on paper, because they want that 25 grand they get each year since i moved out after she began stomping her heels on the floor to wake me up shaking out of my control each day, though she was a lot more quietly respectful for the first month after she arrived welcomely into our home on the main floor, and even her violently threatening tall 20 something son stole my car key and a box of electronics on moving day, and because the month before i moved to this rural fixer upper falling apart in a field of somewhat broken dreams, my older brother’s long time drinking friend (i really rarely touch booze myself, gives me headaches), she called me one night while she was going through a messy divorce and she knew i was a shoulder and a lending ear of sympathy towards her, she informed me that my older brother told her that he wished he had the entire world class city overpriced home all to himself, including my isolating basement segment.
A year after moving to this strange new rural area, the person i first met locally 5 miles away from here at his used furniture store, after that first year, he asked me to drive over to his rental home to help unload some building supplies from a trailer of his, and while standing on opposite sides of that trailer in his driveway, i remarked to him that its so nice and peaceful since moving away from the city where gunshots from gangs were often heard off in the distance. He suddenly replied back to me by saying that he buried a body in his backyard, then he smiled and nodded at me!
I went into shock mode at that point, managed to return to talking about something related to building supplies, and that was in 2008.
He drove into my driveway one day unannounced to check on his store shelving/display cases he’s been keeping in my metal barn for free for years ever since he closed that used furniture store down, and while walking towards the barn door, he smiled and said in front of his new girlfriend at the time that i helped move into his place for free after i helped rebuild his bathroom and one of his bedrooms for free, and helped him move another one of his friends from a apartment 20 miles away from here, she married him after walking towards my metal barn entrance doorway, as she no doubt also heard him smilingly say to me that bad people can become good.
After hearing him say that bad people can become good, i went into shock mode again, C-PTSD began to kick in moreso into me, because he was apparently referencing what he said back in 2008 the year after i moved here in 2007 from Toronto.
3.5 years ago, that religious narcissist who once hand delivered a Christmas card to my rural roadside mailbox without a stamp on the envelope, he went into my home uninvited while i was back in Toronto for a few months during a record cold winter period, as he must’ve really wanted to see me suffering, suffering even moreso than when he pointed out that he is a violent religious narcissist with a gun collection, suffering moreso than when he mislead me to thinking he was going to install that new woodstove chimney kit i purchased in front of him at his recommendation, the one that he responded to after being periodically asked when he was going to get around to installing it for several years, he responded back to me over the phone by saying that it’s awfully high up that ladder.
He knows i’m afraid of heights and shake like a leaf on a ladder.
I could hear him smiling and the tone of his voice over the phone, so i stopped asking him for help and began avoiding him really.
Anyhow, 3.5 years ago now, i returned to this rural fixer upper were i feel like a sitting duck without wings, and that hunter gatherer 5 miles from here with the gun collection, the one with dead animals mounted on wall plaques and a coffeetable that is a glass case with dead stuffed animals in it that he probably looks at during commercial breaks on his tv, well, he wanted me to see a fingersmudge he placed on my tv in my kitchen when i returned to this sad home. While eating my mcdonalds drivethrough meal that is a rare luxury to me really, the 11 oclock news was on, so i watched some of that, until a commercial break when the screen went dark, the lighting angle in the kitchen revealed a fingersmudge on the tv screen near the middle area of it, it’s still there too: “Cry” is what that fingersmudge is that he wanted me to read. It worked, because i lost my appetite and began to cry after i read it, while frustrated knowing that i can’t prove any of it.
I went to the local cop shop 20 miles from here this year after finding 2 valve stems on my car in the driveway had been tampered with, and apparently one of the bigger tires valve stems on my riding lawn mower (the grass is super tall now as i gave up bothering with it, the deck at the front door is tilting away from the house and covered in snow like a ramp now, and i dont care to repair it either, as i’m saddened by the greed in our world.)
Anyhow, i went to that local cop shop that morning, and asked if i could be fitted with a hidden listening device, a wire, because i wanted to try to approach that sociopath 5 miles away from here, to try to get him to make some references to what he told me a year after i moved away from my violently themed older brother who doesn’t care about my quality of life. That cop at the front desk, he told me that they don’t work that way, that they dont let people wear wires, and that i watch too much tv, and that i should stay off the internet!
I told him about that sociopath that owns a gun collection, and then that cop responded back by saying that he too owns guns, and he called me a strange person, so i frustratingly walked out the front door and left that cop shop, with my backpack on that had my laptop in it as i wanted to show the police how I’ve been taken advantage of over the years, to show them text files I’ve been creating copied from comments sections i write in on youtube.
I’m shadowbanned by most mainstream media, for using that known swear word you never never hear mainstream media mention, ‘atheism’..
It’s humbling, i get death threats from delusional types of people who want to think that if i was murdered, they should stand around my open coffin saying stupid stupid things such as i went off to a better place.
I want to try to help clean up politics, and that could help end homelessness and starvation too, and i do this by trying to put doubt into the minds of people who they claim have a Disneyland in the sky, at the end of life’s road.
Quality of life, it should be most affordable for ALL people really, not only for The Church Mafia.
Bullets bombs bonesaws toxic nerve agents, murderous pedo video uploads onto the dark web by sociopathic billionaires friend types, throwing people off ledges, throwing punches kicks knives spears rocks, slamming hijacked jets into buildings such as the govt of bonesaw country did and threatened to do to the CN Tower in Toronto last year via their twitter account (see Secular Talk – search for CN Tower Saudi Govt Twitter to see the rare mention made of it, that the mainstream media tried to make unknown to the public), none of those savage bronze age influenced sociopathic violent acts ever produced even a single afterlife!
Carefully from a safe distance, please let others know about that too, and can’t stress enough about the carefully from a safe distance recommendation.
Please be strong brother from a different mom, mister from a different sister, you do have people who care about you too, though until we clean up politics, less people do seem to care.
They are going to be surprised when A.I. and automation take away their need for those always only paper god$ they seem to want to stack as high as they trillionaire can at present.
Thankyou for reading this, and do try to remain optimistic of what the future holds ok?
Cheers and salutes from miles away, on our only viable repairable planet.
The #DigitalLifeguardProject -_-
Hello, True Tech,I hope you read this reply to your reply, friend. After so many pre-programmed responses to my particular life choices, it was refreshing to read what you wrote. I can assure you that the natural opioid substance that I ingest orally with plenty of water is no more toxic than a daily capsule of vitamin C. And it’s not some street high either – I just make some nachos and watch TV. Very similar to that magical green herb that was not too long ago released from the unreasonable confines of a devastating drug war. What does cause damage, however, is being an unwilling, unintentional pariah. Being forced to jump through hoops and bend over backwards just to access a chemical that should be as easy to access as coffee (what if the religious overlords decided coffee was immoral? Then we would have self proclaimed anticoffee crusaders!) When looked at from an objective perspectice, their stigmatization defies logic and it frays the social fabric. I will speak no more of this.
Additionally, I have to offer my sincere compassion to you for the injustices in your life. There are those of us in this world that you inhabit that do very much want to see the development of a kinder and gentler culture. One where greed is listed as a severe mental illness. Where the suffering of others is an absolutely unacceptable source of advancement. Where each individual is willingly honed into their true inborn strength. I don’t know how reason and empathy will prevail over selfishness. I do know that it will happen eventually, since they are the superior aspects. Sentience is the reduction of entropy made possible by the truly infinitesimal quality of the Terran environment.
Please remain strong in the face of your hardships. There is light that shines in the darkness. As long as there is somebody who can share your mental burden – if even for a fleeting moment.
The police:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz7ZO9r9sVE