Editing 2016-11-13 Meeting

Notes on the 2016-11-13 general meeting of Elderberries. Approximately 15 people attending. NOT PROOF READ OR DE-TYPO-IFIED The group picked three discussion topics. Topic: US Election British betting site said that the pattern was very similar to the pattern for BREXIT. Turnout was just 32% Seems like Trump promised things that people wanted. The election was a determined in the Battleground states. Hillary lost a lot of people who just did not vote. All Trump did was make himself a celebrity via social and traditional media. journalism is dead in North America - the press lapped up all the crazyess that Trump delivered. Electoral College: some years ago tried to reform it to become a simple majority; it passed the house of representatives but did not pass the Senate. Canada was in this situation five years ago -we were expecting Igatieff or Leyton to win, and we got Harper, and people immediately got upset. And - the world did not end, and look who we have now. In Canada we're looking at election reform =- We could have a penalty for not voting - withholding your GST cheque - or a $200 fine. PEI just had an election reform referendum with very poor turnout. Above all - Obama and Michele - the election made them look so good - they conducted themselves so well. PRIDE AGM About half of the assembled people were there SSome AGMs have had six people in attendance; this one, over 300. There was one very contentious motion; and a few more around the same issue - about Tel Aviv Tourism and how lgbT positive life in israel is. The booth is staffed with local gays and lesbians. A motionno carme forward from the Queer Arabs of Hamilcar who accused them of "pinkwashing" - that is the. Booth said it was a positive place, but, Israel violates international human rights. So the motion was: There was a very large turnout of people believed to not be LGBT - organised by the Atlantic Jewish Congress, and jewish student organisations - so it seemed like thee meeting was packed. it is appalling that the gay community would. Let itseelf get dragged into such a dirty and tawdry affair. Israel is tthe only beaconinthe Middle East. Just yesterday, the CEO of the major ewspaperrin Turkey was arrested and detained. Can you imagine that the Arabs are using our laws. We're not going to solve that - but we should not insert ourselves into this. I think that Pride did the best job they possibly could do under the circumstances. I see that NSRAP has made. This a. Priority . WhenI came here NSRAP was doing useful things; now it seems like they've been hijacked. I don't see any names associated with the Queeer Arabs of Halifax - it seems Lille they are lashing out at the queer community instead of trying to make progress with their own. I've been to Tel Aviv - it is a wonderful gay centre. Like others who were there it was a quite ann. experience with me. It took me back to my days of GALA and GAE - the politics of the olden days and the battles between the drag queens and dykes. Our community has always been divisive, but we have always tried to include everyone. but that night we saw a bunch of people from. A foreign land who brought their bigotries from there. our own forefathers cakes from places where they were fighting but we eventually decided to leave those differences behind. It seems like we should have booths illustrating. what it means to be a gay jew or a gay arab. I was there until the BBoard was voted in. I didn't get to see everything and I didn't get to hear everything but I understand that there was some intttimidatig. Also I notice that around this table, we do't hahve a lot of colour around the table. i went to the meeting because I was curious about what it would be. About. I sat in the middle, and I wanted to learn what was going on. It was sad to see people who had been together for years, suddenly ripped apart. it seems like there swede some business people there, and it seemed like some people were depressing the conflict. I've been able to ride in the town with my camera. We may want to take a stand: if certain people feel unwelcome, we may want to try to do some thinking about that at the Pride Reception. Lynn: At our last Prrrogram committee meeting, we decided to contact NSRAP for ann event together. I've been in contact with them and if they're moving towards boycotting Pride we may not want to. I think we should go ahead and invite NSRAP. January / February: can invite Pride Chairrr to talk to us.

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