Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has signed up to be the countries first Prime Minister to take part in Pride Parade.
Trudeau is expected to march in the Toronto Pride Parade on July 3rd, the event kicks off a month of Pride celebrations.
The recently elected PM and his team also got on board with an equality campaign called ‘Pink Shirt Day’ yesterday.
The awareness campaign aims to reduce bullying. In a video posted to his Twitter account the Canadian Prime Minister explained that campaign started a few years ago in Nova Scotia.
A school boy was teased by class mates when he wore a pink shirt. The next day many of his classmates wore pink shirts to show their support.
“‘Stick and Stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me’ is simply not true.’ the Canadian leader said, “Words do hurt, and bullying can leave long lasting emotional and physical scars.”
On Pink Shirt Day, we stand up to bullying and vow to spread kindness. Please RT and tag a friend to #PinkItForward:https://t.co/QS7fahq8jx
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) February 24, 2016
Prime Minister Trudeau was not alone in showing his support for the anti-bullying initiative. Navdeep Bains, Canada’s Minister for Science, Innovation and Economic Development teamed his pink shirt with a pink turban. The Minister normally wears a red turban, the colour of Canada’s flag.
Today I’m participating in #pinkshirtday because I believe kindness speaks louder than bullying. pic.twitter.com/K5MpOdyKxW
— Navdeep Bains (@NavdeepSBains) February 24, 2016
In fact all of Trudeau’s minister’s wore pink for the day and made statements about how bullying was not acceptable in schools or other part’s of society. You might also notice there’s a lot of women in Trudeau’s Liberal government, in fact half the Ministers are women.
Today our Liberal MPs are wearing pink to stand up against bullying #PinkShirtDay#PinkItForwardhttps://t.co/gFzkYV8Bwq
— Liberal Party (@liberal_party) February 24, 2016
Meanwhile in Australia….
Malcolm Turnbull caved in to the extreme right wing of his party agreeing to investigate an anti-bullying program that was designed by experts and professionals.
South Australian senator Cory Bernardi described the Safe Schools Coalition as a program that tried to “indoctrinate children into a Marxist agenda of cultural relativism.”
Fellow conservative back-bencher Andrew Hastie also came out against the program
While Queensland’s George Christensen went to town and said the anti-bullying program would lead to children seeing sadomasochist websites, discovering the addresses of sex clubs and learning how to use sex toys. If they just clicked through enough links.
Next month Australia’s biggest celebration of gay pride will be underway with the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. It’s largely held in Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s Wentworth electorate.
Will we see the first Australian Prime Minister at a LGBTIQ parade?
Unlikely, Malcolm Turnbull’s backbench have told him it would be “dangerous” for him to appear at Mardi Gras events.
Graeme Watson
