they are the grit in my mennonite eye
says the young mother
with the hundred year sigh

the bitter green melon at the tom boy store
the one that is rotten
to its pale green core

you are the bread that would not rise
lonely and sad
under cotton dry skies

his is the hand with the frail wrinkled skin
the piano teacher
softly
let us begin

they are the fist clenched in loud might
tell me then girlie
what wars did you fight

he is the kind of girl we all knew
a solo skirmish
on a pew made for two

die owlah grips my arm with a clasp o so firm
until seven or eight
the extent of my term

so pitter and patter
and round we all go
fox and geese in the binary snow

time comes for us all
surprisingly fast
and the first ones now
shall later be
last

~ ~ ~

My old hometown, Steinbach, Manitoba, has recently enacted a policy through the City Council requiring library staff to place a warning label—an “LGBTQ content” sticker—on the cover of children’s books in the city’s public library. Is it permissible for a publicly funded institution to do this? LGBTQIA2S residents of Steinbach may ask why the City Council is using public funds to enact and fund a bylaw that discriminates against them. After all, neither LGBTQIA2S taxpayer parents in the city nor their children need a warning sticker on books with LGBTQIA2S content. In fact, they desire these books to be in the public library along with other non-dominant topics and are entitled as citizens of Canada to this. Does the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms not prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation? Is the Council edict not discriminatory in its intent? It is certainly not comparable to a library listing books under broad literary genres like Mystery or Cook Books or Christian but rather is an attempt—potentially—to isolate LGBTQIA2S authors and their work. It is bullying. It is openly segregationalist. LGBTQIA2S stickers are tantamount to book banning in a conservative community like Steinbach. It is religious overreach disguised as generic public policy. Is this not an aggressive move by a homophobic, ideologically unified Council to effectively banish (or “shun”) certain authors based on their sexual orientation? Will The Writers’ Union of Canada become involved in prosecuting actions that mistreat its members?

The Steinbach Public Library is not the private library of the City Council nor is it a private church library.

Warning: RACCOON CONTENT! Recently, while discussing this issue with other ex-pats from Steinbach, I asked this: “Are LGBTQ cover stickers not the same as demanding that a sticker be placed on a children’s book about raccoons? After all, if a children’s book can coerce children into wanting to change their sexual orientation, it must also—by definition—be able to persuade kids to want to change their species.” Is it not just that ludicrous? A book cannot coerce a child to change their species or their sexual orientation. No stickers are required for either raccoon books or LGBTQIA2S books.

Were ANY LGBTQIA2S members of the local community asked for input when the policy was under discussion?

Last, here’s some rainbow logic of my own colourization: You don’t have to be green to recognize that the colour green exists. You don’t need to be the blue sky to co-exist in a world that contains a blue sky. Bullies are all yellow.