CANADA: A Gay Day Out

My husband and I live in a culture that is very relaxed about homosexuality. While homophobia still runs rampant in rural and conservative pockets of Canada, Vancouver is extremely liberal.

Gay marriage is legal in Canada, and in fact, some gay friends of ours (who both have the same name – it’s so cute it’s disgusting) just got married recently.

Even our conservative Prime Minister failed at getting the gay marriage laws overturned, and I think he has given up trying. Gay marriage is here to stay.

So when it comes time for the Vancouver Pride Parade, that just seemed to us like a great day out with the family. (more…)

Carol (Canada)

Carol from If By Yes has lived in four different Canadian provinces as well as the Caribbean. Now she lives in Vancouver, working a full time job at a vet clinic, training dogs on the side, and raising her son and daughter to be good citizens of the world. Carol is known for wearing inside-out underwear, microwaving yoghurt, killing house plants, over-thinking the mundane, and pointing out grammatical errors in "Twilight". When not trying to wrestle her son down for a nap, Carol loves to read and write. Carol can also be found on her blog, If By Yes, and on Twitter @IfByYesTweets

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CANADA: An Atheist Christening

When you are the granddaughter of an Anglican minister and you marry an ardent atheist, religion is one of those things you discuss carefully before you have kids.

The brand of Christianity that I was raised on was very… metaphorical. I wasn’t asked to believe that God was actually a bearded man in a nightgown, or that Adam and Eve were real. My mother taught me that hymns and prayers were simply a way to reach God (whatever God may be) in a way which was familiar and comfortable. It was a matter of tradition and culture as much as belief.

My husband, on the other hand, comes from American parents who rebelled against their own parents’ Bible Belt values. His grandparents believed in the Bible in an extremely literal way which violates his scientific and logical mind. He associates religion with closed-mindedness, homophobia, creationism, racism, and sexism, all of which he detests. (more…)

Carol (Canada)

Carol from If By Yes has lived in four different Canadian provinces as well as the Caribbean. Now she lives in Vancouver, working a full time job at a vet clinic, training dogs on the side, and raising her son and daughter to be good citizens of the world. Carol is known for wearing inside-out underwear, microwaving yoghurt, killing house plants, over-thinking the mundane, and pointing out grammatical errors in "Twilight". When not trying to wrestle her son down for a nap, Carol loves to read and write. Carol can also be found on her blog, If By Yes, and on Twitter @IfByYesTweets

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CANADA: I Need a Pair of Ruby Slippers. Or, Maybe Lobster Slippers.

I just got back from a visit home, and I feel wistful. There’s no place like home.

I come from Nova Scotia, on Canada’s Atlantic coast, and now I live in Vancouver, on the edge of the Pacific. That’s a lot of land between myself and my family.

I came out here for the jobs, really. There’s work here, and good pay, and I have friends out here, and the city is lovely, really.
But boy, I wish that I were closer to home. (more…)

Carol (Canada)

Carol from If By Yes has lived in four different Canadian provinces as well as the Caribbean. Now she lives in Vancouver, working a full time job at a vet clinic, training dogs on the side, and raising her son and daughter to be good citizens of the world. Carol is known for wearing inside-out underwear, microwaving yoghurt, killing house plants, over-thinking the mundane, and pointing out grammatical errors in "Twilight". When not trying to wrestle her son down for a nap, Carol loves to read and write. Carol can also be found on her blog, If By Yes, and on Twitter @IfByYesTweets

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CANADA: Interview with Carol from “If By Yes”

CANADA: Interview with Carol from “If By Yes”

Where in the world do you live? And, are you from there?

I live in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, but I’m not from here, originally. I was born in Ontario, and I spent a lot of my childhood in the Caribbean on an island called Curacao. When we moved home to Canada, we moved East to Nova Scotia, which is where both my parents’ families hail from, originally. I spent my teenage years there, and I went to university in New Brunswick.

My husband and I moved out West for the jobs and the mountains back in 2007. I love the mountains, but I miss my family, my old friends, and Halifax Donairs. I am slowly putting down roots out here, though. (more…)

Carol (Canada)

Carol from If By Yes has lived in four different Canadian provinces as well as the Caribbean. Now she lives in Vancouver, working a full time job at a vet clinic, training dogs on the side, and raising her son and daughter to be good citizens of the world. Carol is known for wearing inside-out underwear, microwaving yoghurt, killing house plants, over-thinking the mundane, and pointing out grammatical errors in "Twilight". When not trying to wrestle her son down for a nap, Carol loves to read and write. Carol can also be found on her blog, If By Yes, and on Twitter @IfByYesTweets

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