What The Heck Blog

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Pierre Trudeau's flamboyance and tendency to provoke debate often landed him in controversy and those traits have now landed him in the Queer Hall of Fame.

Trudeau is one of five inaugural inductees into the newly established hall, along with Olympic gold-medal swimmer Mark Tewksbury and three other long-time activists in the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community.

The former prime minister was a key figure in decriminalizing homosexuality and his famous partial quote – "there's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation" – helped convince Parliament to pass the law in 1969.

Trudeau's son, Justin, said he is incredibly honoured that the work his father did is being acknowledged.

"I know that the decriminalization of homosexuality 40 years ago was something that my father was very proud of," Trudeau said.

"He'd be touched," he said, of his father, who died almost nine years ago.

The former prime minister's fellow Queer Hall inductee ted northe, 72, called Trudeau his "gay hero," for the work he did to change the lives of homosexuals in Canada.

Northe, who has trademarked his name with the small t and n, said he was also very proud to be inducted into the hall along with Tewksbury.

"Because when he came out he knew his career was finished in sports," northe said.

Paul Therien, chairman of the Queer Hall of Fame, said the hall was started after his group decided they wanted to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the decriminalization of homosexuality.

"For lack of better terminology, Trudeau was the wrench that turned the nut," Therien laughed.

"There's not a lot of acknowledgment in the queer community of these people. They really are heroes."

Janine Fuller, an author and manager of the Little Sisters Book Store in Vancouver, and Robert Kaiser, also known as drag queen Joan-E, round out the list of this year's inductees.

Fuller has been a long-time activist for freedom of speech and equality.

Kaiser, an entertainer and activist, was the first drag queen ever awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal, for his volunteering and fundraising efforts in support of people with HIV and AIDS.

Therien said Tewksbury was a natural choice because he changed the thinking about sports.

"It broke down some barriers because there was always this stigma that you couldn't be lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and be into sports," said Therien.

Tewksbury won a gold medal for Canada in 1992 after setting an Olympic record in the men's 100-metre backstroke in Barcelona, Spain.

Six years later he publicly stated he was homosexual, saying that being gay shouldn't be an issue, but it still is.

Therien said Tewksbury's work afterwards, in the community and with sports, furthered the general acceptance of the gay community in society.

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An 11-year-old boy gets high marks in storytelling after staging a hoax to cover up his bad grades. Police said the boy faked his kidnapping Friday to avoid bringing home a bad report card, saying that a man with a pistol snatched him after he left Ed White Middle School. The boy said the man forced him into a "beat-up car" and threatened to kill him.

The student said he escaped by jumping out of the car but wasn't able to grab his book bag, which contained the report card.

He ran to his grandparents' house and later confessed to lying. His grandfather called police to apologize.

Sgt. Mark Roberts said police were suspicious that the boy was able to "escape" with his band instrument, but not his book bag.

Roberts said the boy faces no charges at this time. But that doesn't mean the "charges" aren't going to happen at home...

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With a possible election in the offing, the federal Liberals today turned up the air war with the release of two new television ads.

One ad is in English and features Michael Ignatieff talking about jobs and the need for the nation to "invest in Canadian know-how" to help fight the recession.

"This isn't just a recession, it's a restructuring of our economy and we need to create the jobs of tomorrow today," says Ignatieff.

Like previous ads, this one shows the Liberal leader looking relaxed in a blue shirt with a forest backdrop.

He said Canada must be focused on opening up new markets overseas and "make sure every Canadian gets the training and education they need.

"We can come out of this stronger than ever," he said.

The other ad is in French and tackles Canada's place in the world, a theme that Ignatieff will showcase tomorrow in a major speech in Ottawa.

In the ad, he tells viewers that Canadians are the "best in the world" and that Ottawa needs a government that invests in their ideas and a new way of thinking. He also highlights the importance of India and China.

The Liberals have declared they will no longer support the minority Conservative government in Parliament, setting the stage for a possible election in weeks.

Parliament resumes tomorrow with the possibility of a key budget later in the week. The Conservatives require the support of at least one of the opposition parties in order to survive any confidence vote.



Video: http://ping.fm/SEPIm

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Roman Catholic couples are being encouraged to pray together before they have sex.

A book published by a prominent Church group invites those setting out on married life to recite the specially-composed Prayer Before Making Love.

It is aimed at 'purifying their intentions' so that the act is not about selfishness or hedonism.

The prayer, which appears in the Prayer Book for Spouses, implores God 'to place within us love that truly gives, tenderness that truly unites, self-offering that tells the truth and does not deceive, forgiveness that truly receives, loving physical union that welcomes'.

It adds: 'Open our hearts to you, to each other and to the goodness of your will.

'Cover our poverty in the richness of your mercy and forgiveness. Clothe us in true dignity and take to yourself our shared aspirations, for your glory, for ever and ever.'

The 64-page book has been published by the London-based Catholic Truth Society.

The group has close links to the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales.

The Rt Rev Paul Hendricks, who is the Auxiliary Bishop of Southwark and sits on the charity's board, said he thought the prayer's inclusion was 'brave but good'.

'I suppose it is a bit idealistic but it is recognising that God is at the heart of the marriage relationship between husband and wife,' he said.

'It is important for the Church to affirm the value of marriage and family life and I suppose this is a particular way of doing that.'

'Perhaps it is something that has not been tried, certainly for a while - I can't remember seeing something like that before.'

The book contains prayers for every stage of marriage and family life, including engagement, planning for parenthood, pregnancy and caring for children and elderly parents.

The prayers, written by a variety of authors, are interspersed with Catholic teaching on the meaning of marriage and family.

The book pushes the message that marriage should be exclusive and life-long and condemns abortion.

It criticises 'those who, in our times, consider it too difficult, or indeed impossible, to be bound to one person for the whole of life, and those caught up in a culture that rejects the indissolubility of marriage and openly mocks the commitment of spouses to fidelity'.

It adds: 'It is a fundamental duty of the Church to reaffirm strongly the doctrine of the indissolubility of marriage.'

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CHRIS BROWN has hit out at a reports he can't remember what happened the night he brutally attacked ex-girlfriend RIHANNA.

The R&B singer reacted to a promo clip of an interview with LARRY KING - due to air in the US tomorrow - in which he answers "no" when asked if he can recall details of the assault.

However, Brown - appearing on the show with his mum - insists he merely didn't deem it fair on himself or Rihanna to discuss the violent altercation that he'll never be able to forget.

In a lengthy statement, he told People: "There have been reports on the Internet that I didn't remember what happened that night with Rihanna. I want to try and set things straight.

"That 30 seconds of the interview they used of me was taken from a one hour interview during which that same question was asked something like four or five times - and when you look at the entire interview you will see it is not representative of what I said.

"The first four times - or however many times it was - I gave the same answer - which was that I didn't think it was appropriate for me to talk about what happened that night. I said it was not right for me and it really wasn't fair to Rihanna. The fifth time - or whatever it was - I just misspoke. I was asked, 'Do you remember doing it?' and I said, 'No.'

"Of course I remember what happened. Several times during the interview, my mother said that I came to her right afterwards and told her everything. But it was and still is a blur. And yes, I still can't believe it happened because it is not me or who I am, nor is what happened like anything I have ever done before.

"As I have said several times previously, I am ashamed of and sorry for what happened that night and I wish I could relive that moment and change things, but I can't. I take full responsibility for my actions. What I have to do now is to prove to the world that this was an isolated incident and that is not who I am, and I intend to do so by my behavior now and in the future."

Meanwhile, Brown admits his feelings for Rihanna haven't changed in the aftermath of the bust-up, saying: "I still love her."

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Tiffany Shepherd sent out 2,500 resumes, said Palm Beach, Fla., Post columnist Jose Lambiet in Page 2 Live, but nobody seemed interested in hiring a former high-school teacher who was fired last year after photos surfaced of her moonlighting, wearing a skimpy bikini, on a fishing charter boat. So the unemployed 31-year-old biology teacher transformed herself into Leah Lust, porn star, and started performing in videos like My First Sex Teacher.


It doesn't sound like Tiffany Shepherd is happy about her "new career" as the star of Leah Lust videos, said Eitan Gavish in the New York Daily News. "I'm not particularly proud of it. To be honest, I hate it," she told Page 2 Live. Apparently it was a charter boat captain—who happened to own a porn Web-cam business, too—who convinced her she'd never get her old job at Port St. Lucie High School back, so she needed to cash in on her beauty while she could.

Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy, said Tim Worstall in Examiner.com. Tiffany Shepherd will never get her old job back now. "The tragedy here is that the reaction to Tiffany Shepherd doing something almost entirely innocent, fishing in a bikini, has led to her being forced (by her account) into hard core porn and Leah Lust videos."

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