What I would like to share with you today is that no one - not even you who have gathered here
today did so because you have a single-identity - just one context from which you experience
life.
Who among us today can say without a doubt that on his/her way to this gathering did not have a
few moments in a short span of time in which you experienced your life from your gender,
ethnic, professional, geographical, marital or say cultural contexts?
So if that is true of us individually - the question is why do we create structures, organizations,
movements that seemingly strive to get its members, workers, participants to be homogenous?
Why do we have blatant or oftentimes subtle expectations that people will join our cause and
become like us because they have?
Why do we as a nation continue to quietly and sometimes not too quietly expect "the others" to
assimilate even after the sad experience of trying to get the Aboriginals of this country to become
other than who they are?
And here is where I stand on rocky grounds ... with this question - why do we in the LGBTQ
community have not learned from the experiences of those who masterminded the residential
school and recognize that multiculturalism is more than a word but a way of life?
That is what I would like to begin to explore... . There is not enough time to do a wholesome job
of it so my time with you should be regarded as "fodder" for the imagination.
Neither can I touch on all the way that we of this community continue to perpetuate the mistakes
of our fore parents. Ways that affect the lives of people who would love to journey with this
community, with the United Church, with Affirm United, with LGBTQ groups and/or
neighbours. But they are terrified at the price they may have to pay so they keep their distance.