Canada

Blogger Blazing Cat Fur exposed the fact that Lee Hicks, an elementary school teacher for the Toronto District School Board, developed a 70-page guide for a new curriculum entitled “Both/and …” that encourages students to cross dress. The guide is for students from kindergarten to Grade 6. Hicks comments on some of his methods, “I ask the class members to all take a minute, close their eyes, and think carefully about the outfit that they either have or wish they had to describe their true self.” Hicks believes identifying people by male or female falls under the category of stereotyping … The graduating class of Trenton High School in Ontario, voted 18-year-old Connor Ferguson to be this year’s prom queen. Ferguson has claims to be a woman and has dressed as such for four years, maintains “I believe the ‘shock value’ is gone and most people just accept me for me” … On July 19, Les and Susan Molnar, a couple who were members of a Mennonite Church and who that owned the Riverbend B&B in Grand Forks, B.C., a now closed bed and breakfast, were fined $4,500 by the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal for refusing to room and board to a homosexual couple. Tribunal member Enid Marion wrote: “While the business was operated by individuals with sincere religious beliefs respecting same-sex couples, and out of a portion of their personal residence, it was still a commercial activity” … On June 22, Bill Whatcott, a Weyburn, Sask., pro-life and pro-family activist, filed a civil suit against the CBC because it allegedly misrepresented his pro-family views. Whatcott’s lawyer Tom Schuck maintains that state broadcaster showed a flyer that read “kill the homosexual” thus implying the satirical flyer was part of a story regarding his 2011 Supreme Court battle with the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission when it was in fact a spoof of a 2008 Alberta Human Rights Commission ruling on the death metal song “Kill the Christian.” The CBC refused to retract the story and Whatcott proceeded with the case because, Schuck says, “anyone viewing the broadcast would have reached the conclusion that Mr. Whatcott advocated the killing of homosexual people. That impression is false.”

United States

Tonya Reaves, 24, died following a botched second trimester dilation and evacuation abortion at the Loop Center Health Care Planned Parenthood in Chicago. Day Gardner, president of National Black Pro-Life Union, said: “To this day, Planned Parenthood’s billion dollars a year, genocidal formula continues to kill women and children – with black women and children being disproportionately targeted for abortion. This is no accident – it’s just business – a very cruel and bloody business.” Operation Rescue has documented ten botched abortions in the United States resulting in death in the past 18 months … Andrew Moore, 20, was killed when he was struck by a car near Stilesville, Indiana, while participating in the Crossroads Walk … Jane Pitt, mother of famous actor Brad Pitt, criticized President Barack Obama in a letter to her local newspaper, the Springfield News-Leader (Missouri) and created a national furor when she noted his stand on abortion and same-sex “marriage.” Jane Pitt strongly encouraged Christians to vote for Mitt Romney because Obama “is a liberal who supports the killing of unborn babies.” Brad Pitt has reiterated his strong support for Obama … Scott Peterson, who was accused of being responsible for the death of his wife Laci and her unborn child in 2002, is now appealing to the death penalty that he received from the state of California.

International

Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, the president of Argentina, personally handed out new identity cards to people who legally switched their genders … British Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, Nick Clegg, told the London Evening Standard: “This is a personal view at the moment, but I think that in exactly the same way that we shouldn’t force any church to conduct gay marriage, we shouldn’t stop any church that wants to conduct gay marriage” … Singer Elton John and his homosexual partner, Canadian-born filmmaker David Furnish, arranged for a surrogate mother to give birth to their son Zachary in 2010. Last month John told NBC Today’s Matt Lauer, “it’s heartbreaking for him to grow up and realize he hasn’t got a mummy” … Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr announced Australia will double annual funding for family planning services by 2016 as part of the country’s foreign aid to developing countries … Hadi Rajabli, chairman of Azerbaijani’s parliamentary social policy committee and a member of the governing Yeni Azerbaijan Party, has proposed banning abortion in Azerbaijan, the largest country in the western Asia Caucasus region that has one of the highest abortion rates in the world. Because of the gender imbalance in the country – 112 boys are born for every 100 girls –  Rajabli called sex-selective abortion “savagery.”