A Marshall of Public Opinion

Evan Wiens, Honored for Social Activism

Evan Wiens, of Steinbach, named 2013 PRIDE Parade Honorary Youth Marshall

21 May, 2013, Winnipeg, Manitoba

  Steinbach's seventeen-year-old Evan Wiens has been honored by Manitoba in being named honorary youth marshal of the 2013 PRIDE parade through downtown Winnipeg.

  Wiens is being honored for standing up to a legacy and faith Mennonite community in Manitoba that too often resists seeing, let alone acknowledging or protecting its own LGBTQ population.  While Steinbach, Wiens' hometown, is increasingly multicultural and multi-faith, it remains a Mennonite heritage center and has often had difficulty in relating to its own LGBTQ minority.

 “Evan set an amazing precedent for LGBTTQ youth in Manitoba and Canada,” said Jonathan Niemczak, president of Pride Winnipeg. “We’re honoured to have him lead this year’s parade. He is an excellent example of what equal rights can look like in our community.”

  Wiens made national headlines in Canada when he petitioned his public school administration to establish a Gay Straight Alliance club on the school campus.  He had earlier been denied permission to advertise or promote such a club.

  Wiens' case was made more difficult by City of Steinbach's public resistance to implementation of Bill 18, an anti-bullying legislation for Manitoba that includes specific mention of the needs of bullied teens amongst the LGBTQ community.

  Wiens took his case to the community and turned out to be quite capable of interacting with the media to promote his cause, even managing to keep his cool while being verbally harassed during a CBC interview just off school grounds.

Minnesota House Passes Same-Sex Marriage Law

Equal Rights for Marriage in Minnesota

   In two historic votes, Minnesota's state legislature has recognized Equal Rights for Minnesota's LGBTQ community to the Equal Rite of Marriage.

    Minnesota's Mennonites, Brethren and friends were on hand to lend support and celebrate.

   The following photographs will be reincorporated into a proper blog at a later time... but for now, it is important to celebrate!

Carol Wise, Steve Wall, Jim Sauder and Reuben Sancken

Praying, singing and making voices heard outside the House chambers

Jim Sauder and Carol Wise, Brethren Mennonite Council (BMC)

BMC banner in the Capitol Rotunda

Cicadas, Borage and Japanese Pancakes

Cicada (Brood II) court Wikipedia

It's going to be a noisy summer - the cicadas (Brood II) are back from their last appearance in 1996.  Do not reach for the bug spray - they won't harm you or your plants or your pets (unless your feckless Lhasa Apso eats 14 of them but he'll only throw up.)  Perfectly harmless except to your ears.

 

I opened up my pond/waterfall contraption and released my poor fed-up-to-here-with-this-tiny aquarium goldfish.  They've spent the last two days surfing in the waterfall led by Diva Gloriana of the veil-tail& the red, gold and black movie-star body.  (And yes, in spite of their tiny brains they are capable of inventing and having, fun.)  The folks that built my boulder falls got an "A" for engineering and a "D-" in rock placement (and I thought I was being nice by vacating myself from the actual construction).  So I have a big pile of rocks glued to each other by what looks like dog puke.  My job which I've already started is to chip away the extra plastic glue & fill the many unnatural looking holes with a mixture of dirt and compost and planting these little gardens with sedums.  I'm heartened that many of the plants beneath the fountain that I tried to move, survived and are emerging only slightly bedraggled.  The twin-leaf and the giant lilies made it!  There are several bare areas around the falls that I'm going to plant with columbines and johnny-jump-ups.  I'm putting some pink, purple and red hollyhocks behind the falls from seeds I got from my sister in Kansas.

 

Other garden plans - all new perennials will go in pots to get established in my over-crowded yard.  The cannas have been split up to go in separate planters;  the columbine that's come up in a crack in the patio for 3 years is back but being much put upon by Nova, my tenent's white husky.  Nice dog but he lives to pee.  I built a little brick wall around the beleaguered posie & surrounded it by pots of plants.  Nova, by the way was drinking from the pond, and was so surprised by the fish (new to him) that he fell in.  I do appreciate the fact that he puts the fear of God in the resident (not for long I hope) rats.  He really wants those tasty critters.  He's named them Hors d'oeuvre #1 & Hors d'oeuvre #2.

 

I'm planting a whole patio container with borage.  I recommend it:  A) for drinks, B) for bright blue flowers and C) because bees love it.  I'm also planting some mints up for my tenants who seem to have an uncanny knack for knowing what's good in alcoholic drinks.