Join Hands for Justice rally
Sunday October 12, 2008
1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Davie Village, Vancouver

An open invitation to all members of the LGTB community, all our allies and supporters, friends and families, colleagues and neighbours

Join with us in a joyful celebration of community in solidarity against violence

Early Saturday, September 27th Jordan Smith was violently assaulted as he was walking along Davie Street holding hands with another man.

Holding hands is a beautiful gesture that should elicit nothing harsher than a smile

Sunday October 12th we will come together to demonstrate that the LGTB community is supported by people from across diverse cultural, religious and ethnic backgrounds.

The tone of the rally will be positive, this is not a time for anger nor is it a time to meet hate with hate. It is a time to show that our communities will not be scared off the streets. It is time to show the power of education, awareness and love.

Feel the strength of community, see the diversity of community and spread the joy of community

Join Hands for Justice - Sunday October 12, 2008

1:00 p.m. - assemble in the parks on the English Bay side of Davie and Denman
1:30 p.m. - begin making our way up Davie Street through the Davie Village, all of us walking hand in hand
2:00 p.m. - congregate at Davie and Hornby for music and messages of support from community leaders
3:00 p.m. – wrap up

Please spread word of this rally among your contacts.
We hope this rally will be a very large, uplifting community effort of love.

For media inquiries, more information or to offer help please contact –
Jennifer Breakspear executivedirector@lgtbcentrevancouver.com 604.685.4832
The Centre - A Community Centre Serving and Supporting Lesbian, Gay, Transgendered, Bisexual People and their Allies

We will showcasing the programs and services available for children and Youth in the Lower Mainland.  The program and services are focused to serve local families and newcomers and immigrants.

If there is any further question, please contact me at 604-683-2554 or at this email ana_maria@gordonhouse.org

Gordon Neighbourhood House on October 16th, between 3 and 6 p.m.

Have you looked at our English Bay Business and Community Directory Yet?  Chances are you have….  It is the largest point of entry to our site.  If not check it out here: English Bay, Vancouver, West End Business & Community Directory

Do you have a local business, community group, personal homepage, blog, photo gallery or any other web presence?  If so you can exchange links with us.  Our directory is also a link exchange.  To submit a link just click here.

EnglishBay.com is a quality directory to exchange links with!  We are the topped ranked Google search for English Bay (and many other searches), we enjoy a Google page rank of 5, we recive around a 1000 visits a day, and we are always growing.  So please check out our directory and if you have a business, group, or website of interest to the Vancouver, English Bay, West End crowd please exchange links with us.

Last night my partner and I cast our vote in the Canadian Federal Election with advance polling.  I must say that I am so happy to have now voted!  It is a weight off my chest.  This year I had a hard time trying to decide who to vote for. I think Danny Williams summed it up best: ABC, Anything But Conservative!  Especially in our riding where the Conservative candidate is Lorne Mayencourt.

I’ve gotta tell you: I really dislike Lorne Mayencourt!  It’s even on a sub-conscience level.  Once at the community centre I volunteer at I spoke to him on the phone, and didn’t know it was him I was talking to, he called on behalf of a constituent when he was the Liberal MLA.  I couldn’t understand why I had this overwhelming sense of not liking this person on the other end of the phone….  It made no seance and my feelings (i thought..) were irrelevant to the job at hand: serving the needs of the caller.  It wasn’t until after he identified himself that I understood it was Lorne Mayencourt I was talking to….

His cocktail politics: the Apology Act (simply stupid), Safe Schools Act (toothless and a waste of time that will not save a single LGTB student from harassment and possibly worse), or the Safe Streets Act (on this he accomplished nothing other than the time he assaulted a homeless person and got away with it) he has done nothing affective in government and hopefully his time is over.

At any rate, I have voted and it was not for the Conservatives.  I voted for Hedy Fry because she was the candidate that has held the position for years now and I hope that at least in our riding the Liberals win and my vote didn’t help to split support and elect Lorne Mayencourt! I do like the Liberals Green Shift and I think the Liberals are in the best position to help Canada out of our current federal situation of a Prime Minister that is a bully turned leader.  I for one don’t think he has done a good job unless that job is to be over controlling, bullying, breaking his own laws.  Not to mention the 12 billion dollar surplus he has thrown away on pointless tax cuts like the GST. (seriously now: how much have you saved on a 2% cut to the GST?  A few dollars literally, unless you bought a $500,000 home, well actually this is Vancouver so 1,000,000 home).

I would have voted Green because I like what I have heard from them.  But now was not the time for that unfortunately. I’d have voted NDP if I like Jake Layton more….  But I dont.  It’s not that I don’t like him. It’s just that I don’t like to see a politician that seems more interested in the optics of things and so sends far to much time posing for pictures with stuffed polar bears, or a photo op of the one time this year he actually took a bus somewhere (or did he just jump on and then off again all at the same stop?)

Anyway….  The point of this blog post is this: Please vote!  Vote for anyone, even Lorne Mayencourt if he is your choice.

I’ve just gotta say that I love google’s services!  Their getting a little to big for me……  Rather they long ago got to big!  Without trying to sound like an alarmist or anything: they have a TON of power over the internet!  They have as much power over the internet as microsoft has over the computers.

But I digress……  I do love their calendar and analytics web apps!  The analytics app I use to monitor how  site content on English Bay.com is doing and what problems there may be.  It gives amazing stats!  Things I have never had before like the stat on connection  speeds of our site visitors.  Our average visitor has a cable internet connection, and only 2% use dial up.  Thats useful information for me as the webmaster of this site.

There google calendar application is another great example of a highly useful web app.  I use it at the LGTB Centre where I volunteer and here on English Bay.com.  On this site it is great for showing events in this area.  Also there are a number of other public calendars you can subscribe to and show in your own calendar.  I have done that on the English Bay.com calendar and now there is a TON more listings there.  Everything from Canadian holidays, the weather, music and comedy listings, all kinds of stuff….  Check it out: English Bay.com Community Calendar

If you have any community listings for our calendar please email them to me.  We will lists any public event in the Vancouver area, big events to garage sales, it’s all fair game.

The English Bay Blog is open to anyone (inside the Greater Vancouver Area, possibly outside….) that would like to blog about life in the GVA.  As an English Bay Blogger you would get your own @englishbay.com email address, a subdomain pointing to your blog yourblog.englishbay.com, and the ability to voice your thoughts on a prominent Vancouver site.  

If you would like your own English Bay Blog just email us…….

The index page for English Bay is now the flashy FLASH page……  It always was the version of English Bay.com that I wanted people to see. Simply put is is more flashy and interesting than static HTML pages.  

The FLASH version is 8 and the size is only 800kb.  For a flash page that is almost nothing!  So I hope no one is having any troubles with loading the page or excessive load times.  Some people do not have flash enabled browsers and or may experience other issues…. So there is also a link at the very top of the page that leads to the regular HTML version.  Also there are lots of site links at the bottom of the page that lead to several areas of the site.  Please email me if you are having troubles navigating the site!!!  

So check out the new index page! English Bay.com

Colombia is the first country feature the event goes between 5- 7pm. A video about Colombia will be presented and the dinner will entertained with Colombian music. Reservation is required before 4 pm Friday September 26th. Cost of the dinner $4 adults $2 children (5-12 yrs)

Gordon House is looking to work with residents, organizations and businesses in the neighbourhood to build a more welcoming and inclusive neighbourhood.

For more information please call 604-683-2554.

Share your Grant writing skills with the Centre!

The Centre is a community resource providing support, health and social services, and public education for the well being of lesbians, gay men, transgendered and bisexual people and their allies in Vancouver and throughout BC.

Do you need an opportunity to show off your grant writing skills?
Are you curious? Love searching the web and finding information?
Do you write well?
Want to enhance your resume with some successful grant proposals?

We are looking for a talented volunteer grant writer.

A proven track record writing successful grant applications to private foundations, corporations, community foundations and government programs is a definite asset (although not necessarily required).

Experience with queer or equality seeking organisations would serve you well.

If you are familiar with the non-profit sector that would be even better.

Please send your resume to volunteerservices@lgtbcentrevancouver.com with “Grant writer” in the subject line.

You would really ‘wow’ us if you included examples of successful grants you have secured.

Angelina Marra
Volunteer Services Coordinator
The Centre
A Community Centre serving Lesbian, Gay, Transgendered
and Bisexual People and their Allies
1170 Bute St. Vancouver BC, V6E 1Z6
Phone: 604-685-7589
Fax:     604-684-5309
E-mail:volunteerservices@lgtbcentrevancouver.com
Website: http://lgtbcentrevancouver.com/

This has become one of my all time favorite pictures of Sophie our 4 year old pugmuffin.  I would like to retake the picture without her wearing the harness and tags you can see in the photo but otherwise she is never ever out side without them…….

The photo was taken early morning on a Stanley Park walk, Second Beach just beside the pool. You can tell from the look in her face that she can’t believe what she is doing. Neither could we!  However she always has been an active almost spastic pug.  She’s grown up with Jag, our Bengal Cat and her brother.  We got them at about the same time. Jag first than a month later Sophie.  So they have spent the whole lives together as play mates.  From Jag Shophie learned to jump up on the backs of couches and chairs, and bounce off anything else.  At times we believe she things she’s a cat.

Sophie is amazing!  Gerard and I love her so much.  In fact everyone loves her.  For Sophie the world is a fabulous place full of friendly loving people. Everyday, everywhere we go people just smile as she walks bye or they stop and ask to “pet” her.  It must be great to look up and only ever see smiling faces looking back at you.