Rainbow refugees increasingly look to Canada for safety: Requests for assistance climbing as members of 2SLGBTQ+ community displaced in crackdowns around the world
rainbow refugees
these diverse dialects
of silence
FYI: For more about LGBTQIA+, see Special Feature: Selected Poems for the Pride Parade and Gender Identity Reflection
Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, LXXV: "breaking Gaza news"
on Canada Day, written in response to Toronto Star, June 30: Thousands sing, dance and celebrate at Pride Parade until protesters strand marchers and floats mid-route
Floats and marchers making their way south toward the parade’s finish at Nathan Phillips Square were stranded behind the protesters, who chanted “Free Palestine” and “Pride is a protest.”
breaking Gaza news ...
I look out the window
as round after round
of fireworks rocket into
the First of July sky
Added: Game Show, 2024, LVIII
written in response to the least LGBTQIA-friendly Supreme Court of the United State's immunity ruling on July 1:
a King
above the Law ...
a veteran
murmurs, immune, immune...
in the gathering dark
FYI: Democracy Now, July 2: “A King Above the Law”: Supreme Court Rules Presidents Have Broad Immunity from Prosecution
In the majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote, quote, “The nature of Presidential power entitles a former President to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority. And he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts. There is no immunity for unofficial acts,” he said.
In a scathing dissent on behalf of the minority, Justice Sonia Sotomayor warned the ruling would make the president above the law. She wrote, quote, “The President of the United States is the most powerful person in the country, and possibly the world. When he uses his official powers in any way, under the majority’s reasoning, he now will be insulated from criminal prosecution. Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune.” Sotomayor went on to write, “In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law,” she wrote.
