
2nd sudden resignation hits Waterloo Catholic school board as vice-chair steps down
The vice-chair of the Waterloo Catholic District School Board (WCDSB) has resigned, according to a brief release from the board Thursday.
Linda Cuff is one of two trustees for Waterloo/Wellesley/Woolwich. She will retain her role as a trustee but will no longer serve as vice-chair.
Cuff is now the second person in a leadership position to suddenly step down from her role. In late March, the chair of the board, Robert Sikora, also abruptly left the role but maintained his position as a trustee. Cuff, as vice-chair, took on the role of acting chair in the couple of weeks before the board could hold a vote.
The announcement comes just days after a special board meeting appointed Renée Kraft as the new chair of the board of trustees.
Kraft and Cuff were both up for the open position of chair. Kraft told CBC K-W's The Morning Edition Thursday that the voting came to a tie. Following due process, they drew from a hat to break the tie.
Cuff's resignation as vice-chair also comes just before a motion to ban political and identity flags in all schools within the WCDSB, including Pride flags. The last two trustee meetings have spurred protests and mixed reviews from residents on both sides of the issue.
The motion is set to be discussed in full on April 28 at Resurrection Catholic Secondary School at 455 University Ave. W. in Kitchener.
Kraft told The Morning Edition that there would be legal considerations in the mix as they discuss the best way to go about the flag debate. In the same meeting, the board will vote on who will replace Cuff as vice-chair.

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Winnipeg Free Press
2 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
‘Not just a party:' World Pride celebrations end with defiant politics on display
Washington (AP) — After the raucous rainbow-hued festivities of Saturday's parade, the final day of World Pride 2025 in the nation's capital kicked off on a more downbeat note. More than a thousand people gathered under grey skies Sunday morning at the Lincoln Memorial for a rally that will lead into a protest march, as the community gathers its strength for a looming fight under President Donald Trump's second administration. 'This is not just a party,' Ashley Smith, board president of Capital Pride Alliance. 'This is a rally for our lives.' Smith acknowledged that international attendance numbers for the bi-annual World Pride were measurably down, with many potential attendees avoiding travel to the U.S. due to either fear of harassment or in protest of Trump's policies. 'That should disturb us and mobilize us,' Smith said. Over a thousand people cheered on LGBTQ+ activists taking the stage while waving both traditional Pride flags and flags representing transgender, bisexual, intersex and other communities. Many had rainbow glitter and rhinestones adorning their faces. They held signs declaring 'Fight back,' 'Gay is good,' 'Ban bombs not bathrooms' and 'We will not be erased.' Trump's campaign against transgender protections and oft-stated antipathy for drag shows have set the community on edge, with some hoping to see a renewed wave of street politics in response. 'Trans people just want to be loved. Everybody wants to live their own lives and I don't understand the problem with it all,' said Tyler Cargill, who came wearing an elaborate costume with a hat topped by a replica of the U.S. Capitol building. Wes Kincaid drove roughly 6 hours from Charlotte, North Carolina to attend this year. Sitting on a park bench near the reflecting pond, Kincaid said he made a point of attending this year, 'because it's more important than ever to show up for our community.' Reminders of the cuts to federal government programs were on full display, Sunday. One attendee waved a massive rainbow flag affixed on the same staff as a large USAID flag; another held a 'Proud gay federal worker' sign; and a third held an umbrella with the logos of various federal program facing cuts — including the PBS logo. Trump's anti-trans rhetoric had fueled fears of violence or protests targeting World Pride participants; at one point earlier this spring, rumors circulated that the Proud Boys were planning to disrupt this weekend's celebrations. Those concerns prompted organizers to install security fencing around the entire two-day street party on a multi-block stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue. But so far, the only clear act of aggression has been the vandalizing of a queer bar last week. Late Saturday night, there was a pair of violent incidents near Dupont Circle — one of the epicenters of the World Pride celebrations. Two juveniles were stabbed and a man was shot in the foot in separate incidents. The Metropolitan Police Department says it is not clear if either incident was directly related to World Pride.


Winnipeg Free Press
20 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Cloudy skies can't dim joy as thousands fill nation's capital for World Pride parade
WASHINGTON (AP) — Gray skies and drizzle gave way to sunshine, multicolored flags and celebrations as the nation's capital held the World Pride parade Saturday. Tens of thousands of people participated in parades and other festivities, in defiance of what activists say is an unprecedented assault on the LGBTQ+ community that challenges the rights many have fought for over the years. A rainbow flag the length of three football fields flowed through the streets, carried by 500 members of the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington, D.C., to kick off the parade. Behind them, people waved Pride flags and flags representing the transgender, asexual and bisexual communities from atop a bus. Singer-songwriter and actor Reneé Rapp laughed and blew kisses from the back of a pickup truck draped with a transgender flag while Laverne Cox, a transgender actress and activist known for her role in Netflix's 'Orange is the New Black,' waved from an open convertible. 'Pride means us looking out for each other no matter what,' she declared to the crowd as the convertible rolled to a stop. 'We know how to be there for each other.' Many LGBTQ+ travelers have expressed concerns or decided to skip World Pride due to anxieties about safety, border policies and a hostile political climate that they say hearkens back to another time. But that did not keep international travelers and other participants away, with groups visible from Iran, Namibia, Kenya and Russia. Along the parade route, hundreds gathered outside the National City Christian Church as rainbow flags and balloons lined its steps and columns. A child with rainbow face paint blew bubbles at the base of the steps while Whitney Houston's 'I Wanna Dance with Somebody' blared from loudspeakers.' 'D.C. is already one of the biggest cities in the country for celebrating Pride,' said Cheo White, 33, from Annapolis, Maryland, 'But we are all collectively more united and turning out more because of what's happening in the White House.' Many have said the gathering has taken on a new meaning amid the Trump administration's aggressive policies against protections for transgender Americans and diversity, equity and inclusion programs. White's partner, Nick Kerver, 26, who was visiting from Toledo, Ohio, said Pride has 'always been a political tool' but has taken on more importance this year amid mounting threats to the LGBTQ+ community, especially transgender and nonbinary Americans.' 'It feels more important than ever,' Kerver said while wearing a rainbow hat, sunglasses and a T-shirt. 'But we also have to get involved in our local communities too.' David Begler, a 58-year-old gay man from Philadelphia, expressed disappointment that many international travelers felt unsafe visiting D.C. for World Pride but said he appreciates its presence in the city during this political climate. 'It's the perfect time to have World Pride in D.C.,' Begler said. 'We need it right now. I want us to send a message to the White House to focus on uplifting each other instead of dividing.' Stay DeRoux, 36, usually plans a day trip to D.C. Pride from her home in Fredericksburg, Virginia. But this year, she and her wife, Deenie DeRoux, planned a full weekend. ''This is a really big year,' Stay DeRoux said. 'There's been a lot of turmoil. So it's an amazing thing to be among allies, among people who love because we've experienced so much hate on a daily basis.' Wednesdays Columnist Jen Zoratti looks at what's next in arts, life and pop culture. For the day, the idea of threats and opposition took a backseat to the celebration. Streets were closed, but filled with floats, and impromptu parties broke out with music and food in streets adjoining the parade route. Johnny Cervantes Jr., dressed in a black suit and top hat, headed to a grandstand at a church themed float to marry his partner of 28 years, Freddie Lutz, owner of Freddie's Beach Bar and Restaurant in Arlington, Virginia. Events culminate tomorrow with a rally and protest March Sunday and a giant street party and concert covering a multi-block stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue. 'This is World Pride in the best city in the world,' Mayor Muriel Bowser declared as she walked the parade hand-in-hand with her daughter, Miranda. ___


CTV News
a day ago
- CTV News
As a generation of gay and lesbian people ages, memories of worse - and better
Rayceen Pendarvis speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Washington, Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) WASHINGTON — David Perry recalls being young and gay in 1980s Washington D.C. and having 'an absolute blast.' He was fresh out of college, raised in Richmond, Va., and had long viewed the nation's capital as 'the big city' where he could finally embrace his true self. He came out of the closet here, got a job at the National Endowment for the Arts where his boss was a gay Republican, and 'lost my virginity in D.C. on August 27, 1980,' he says, chuckling. The bars and clubs were packed with gay men and women — Republican and Democrat — and almost all of them deep in the closet. 'There were a lot of gay men in D.C., and they all seemed to work for the White House or members of Congress. It was kind of a joke. This was pre-Internet, pre-Facebook, pre-all of that. So people could be kind of on the down-low. You would run into congresspeople at the bar,' Perry says. 'The closet was pretty transparent. It's just that no one talked about it.' He also remembers a billboard near the Dupont Circle Metro station with a counter ticking off the total number of of AIDS deaths in the District of Columbia. 'I remember when the number was three,' says Perry, 63. Now Perry, a public relations professional in San Francisco, is part of a generation that can find itself overshadowed amidst the after-parties and DJ sets of World Pride, which wraps up this weekend with a two-day block party on Pennsylvania Avenue. Advocates warn of a quiet crisis among retirement-age LGBTQ2S+ people and a community at risk of becoming marginalized inside their own community. 'It's really easy for Pride to be about young people and parties,' says Sophie Fisher, LGBTQ program coordinator for Seabury Resources for Aging, a company that runs queer-friendly retirement homes and assisted-living facilities and which organized a pair of Silver Pride events last month for LGBTQ2S+ people over age 55. These were 'the first people through the wall' in the battle for gay rights and protections, Fisher says. Now, 'they kind of get swept under the rug.' Loneliness and isolation The challenges and obstacles for elderly LGBTQ2S+ people can be daunting. 'We're a society that really values youth as is. When you throw in LGBTQ on top of that, it's a double whammy,' says Christina Da Costa of the group SAGE — Services and Advocacy for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Elders. 'When you combine so many factors, you have a population that's a lot less likely to thrive than their younger brethren.' Older LGBTQ2S+ people are far more likely to have no contact with their family and less likely to have children to help care for them, Da Costa says. Gay men over 60 are the precise generation that saw their peer group decimated by AIDS. The result: chronic loneliness and isolation. 'As you age, it becomes difficult to find your peer group because you don't go out to bars anymore,' says Yvonne Smith, a 73-year-old D.C. resident who moved to Washington at age 14. 'There are people isolated and alone out there.' These seniors are also often poorer than their younger brethren. Many were kicked out of the house the moment they came out of the closet, and being openly queer or nonbinary could make you unemployable or vulnerable to firing deep into the 1990s. 'You didn't want to be coming out of a gay bar, see one of your co-workers or one of your students,' Smith says. 'People were afraid that if it was known you were gay, they would lose their security clearance or not be hired at all.' In April, founders cut the ribbon on Mary's House, a new 15-unit living facility for LGBTQ2S+ seniors in southeast Washington. These kind of inclusive senior-care centers are becoming an increasing priority for LGBTQ2S+ elders. Rayceen Pendarvis, a D.C. queer icon, performer and presenter, says older community members who enter retirement homes or assisted-living centers can face social isolation or hostility from judgmental residents. 'As we age, we lose our peers. We lose our loved ones and some of us no longer have the ability to maintain our homes,' says Pendarvis, who identifies as 'two-spirit' and eschews all pronouns. 'Sometimes they go in, and they go back into the closet. It's very painful for some.' A generation gap Perry and others see a clear divide between their generation and the younger LGBTQ2S+ crowd. Younger people, Perry says, drink and smoke a lot less and do much less bar-hopping in the dating-app age. Others can't help but gripe a bit about how these youngsters don't know how good they have it. 'They take all these protections for granted,' Smith says. The younger generation 'got comfortable,' Pendarvis says, and sometimes doesn't fully understand the multigenerational fight that came before. 'We had to fight to get the rights that we have today,' Pendarvis said. 'We fought for a place at the table. We CREATED the table!' Now that fight is on again as President Donald Trump's administration sets the community on edge with an open culture war targeting trans protections and drag shows, and enforcing a binary view of gender identity. The struggle against that campaign may be complicated by a quiet reality inside the LGBTQ2S+ community: These issues remain a topic of controversy among some LGBTQ2S+ seniors. Perry said he has observed that some older lesbians remain leery of trans women; likewise, he said, some older gay men are leery of the drag-queen phenomenon. 'There is a good deal of generational sensitivity that needs to be practiced by our older gay brethren,' he says. 'The gender fluidity that has come about in the last 15 years, I would be lying if I said I didn't have to adjust my understanding of it sometimes.' Despite the internal complexities, many are hoping to see a renewed sense of militancy and street politics in the younger LGBTQ2S+ generation. Sunday's rally and March for Freedom, starting at the Lincoln Memorial, is expected to be particularly defiant given the 2025 context. 'I think we're going to see a whole new era of activism,' Perry says. 'I think we will find our spine and our walking shoes – maybe orthopedic – and protest again. But I really hope that the younger generation helps us pick up this torch.' Ashraf Khalil, The Associated Press