Source: edmontonjournal.com

EDMONTON – Last month in Edmonton, a group of people participated in the Hate to Hope rally organized by Chevi Rabbit, a gay University of Alberta student who was viciously attacked two years ago by three assailants. Police investigated the attack as a hate crime.

Rabbit bravely used the rally to highlight the disproportionately high amount of hate-based violence faced by the LGBTQ community. He is also concerned about the lack of resources and communities for young aboriginals, who leave the reserve for a better life but end up living in poor neighbourhoods where they experience prejudice and racism.

Hateful rhetoric by news pundits and bloggers is problematic when social ills are conflated with ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation. Such rhetoric sows the seeds for violence, which affects us all, including the LGBTQ community or those perceived as part of that community.

People congregated at the Alberta legislature to stand against hate in all its insidious forms, including racism, homophobia, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism.

Chelsey Smith, a media and communications professional, hosted the event. Speakers included MLAs Thomas Lukaszuk from the Progressive Conservatives and David Eggen from the NDP. Other speakers included Fran Forsberg, a Saskatoon-based …read more at edmontonjournal.com