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In a landmark ruling that could impact passport procedures and even influence other provinces’ ID requirements, the Ontario Human Rights Commission released a decision on April 11 requiring that the Province of Ontario modify its requirement for “transsexual surgery” in order for people to change their sex designation on their birth certificate.

AIDS Action Now!, a Toronto non-profit org, has literally blown the roof off of decades of stale, fear-based poster campaigns, and replaced them with “memes” called POSTER/VIRUSes by seven fabulous, engaged Toronto-based artsists, including the acclaimed Kent Monkman (banner image), ex-Montrealer Mikiki, low-fi penman Daryl Vocat, and alt-cinema superstar John Greyson (quoted exclusively for 2Bmag). Herewith, our conversation with steering committee member Alex McClelland.

On November 8, 2011, the designated gay village of Ottawa finally became a reality, but no one was informed in advance, including the Village Committee who have been advocating for the re-naming of the street for the last six years. No one’s complaining that Ottawa now has a visual symbol of their GLBT Village, but why the surprise signs?

After six years of lobbying the City of Ottawa to create a designated Gay Village in the Capital, the City finally put up some signs last week. Non-profit initiative The Village was behind the community consultation and benefit actions like Build our Bank in recent years, but Ottawa’s Councilor Diane Holmes beat them to the punch…

Riley Murphy, 25, and their girlfriend, Patricia Pattenden, 23, say they were shocked and offended when the manager of a Blenheim, Ontario Tim Hortons told them the coffee shop is “family friendly” and threatened to call police on them, reports Xtra. The incident took place in late September, and has spawned a Facebook call-out, direct action, and the threat of a human rights complaint.

Dr. Charles McVety, President of Canada Christian College has begun a campaign to stop the Toronto District School Board from introducing a new curriculum entitled “Challenging Homophobia and Heterosexualism: A K-12 Resource Guide”. The “Institute” ran a full page ad in yesterday’s National Post that has triggered accusations of transphobia and journalistic collusion.

The 7th annual Ottawa Dyke March took place on Saturday, August 27th with about 300 participants taking over the downtown streets in a peaceful act of solidarity for women. However the event was marred by rude, abrasive and threatening behavior from the Ottawa police.

“Yes, a village is here!” proudly announced Glenn Crawford, Village Committee chair at the unveiling of the “We Demand” mural on Friday, August 26 on Bank and Gilmour Street. The mural designed and painted by artists from Falldown Gallery celebrates 40 years of queer civil rights activism and portrays the first LGBT demonstration held on August 28, 1971.

Mural commemorating the first LGBT civil rights demo in Canada to be unveiled Fri Aug 26 during Capital Pride by Ottawa non-profit organizers The Village

Jeremy Dias is the Founder and Executive Director of Jer’s Vision: Canada’s Youth Diversity Initiative; he is also the Executive Director of the international Day of Pink. Herewith, his and editor Jordan Arseneault’s best bets for rocking Capital Pride this week!