Interview with Stephen Dunbar-Edge

In conducting an interview with Stephen Dunbar-Edge, a prominent activist and lobbyist within his field I came across many striking issues that we may wish to expand upon for the group project. Firstly, I would start by mentioning that Stephen is the president and co-founder/co-administrator of the "Gay and Lesbian alliance, Territories division," as well as being a national activist involved in the PRIDE community and was a prominent social mediator and lobbyist during the movement towards the legalization of gay marriage in the early 2000's. His was the last case in Canada to be appealed and was one of the only cases to go as far as the Supreme Court of Canada. He and his husband won their case and were one of only a handful of gay couples that were given a marriage licence before it was strictly speaking legal. The Minister of Justice presided over his case and he and his husband are mentioned in multiple regulatory and legal suppositions that have been passed since then. He and his husband Rob Dunbar-Edge have been married for 10 years and have joint custody of their two children.

Firstly, Stephen hit on many social support issues. He has been intimately involved in many macro scale movement aimed at support and lobbying for change. He has organized PRIDE rallies in Vancouver and Edmonton and is a supporter of the community generally. However, he has warned of over estimating the influence of such events and their corresponding communities. To him, the most relevant mechanisms for social support are on a more local and intimate scale. He has pointed to the Kids' help phone as an important tool and has expressed that the most relevant social institutions that have helped he and his husband have been of a more casual nature. He points towards his Theatre group and towards his close friends as his primary "crutches." He has brought to my attention the social facts of sports. Many gays feel uncomfortable in a sports environment and understandably so. The ream of professional sports is an entirely male-dominated enterprise and is very heterosexually oriented. He was involved in the administration of the Apollo sports league in Alberta and is part of its executive board to date. The Apollo sports league is a league for LGBTQ people to freely take part in. Many similar initiatives now exist in professional sports - "If you can play, you can play"; "Canadian Gay games etc." Each of these institutions can serve as a helpful resource for support.

He also said something that I think garnishes attention within the confines of the project: that Gay and Lesbian rights are not synonymous with Transgendered rights. In fact, he is of the opinion that they are two distinct communities and face two different social issues. The difference lies between the identification of social issues. On the one hand is sexuality issues and on the other is identification issues. I don't fully understand this dichotomy and will strive to come to a more robust understanding in the future. More research is required. To him and I think many within the community, more research is required in to the topics of sexuality and gender orientation. Literature on the topic is difficult to find and research is difficult to conduct.

There are many ethical issues in the research as it can only be conducted in a questionnaire sense. Many of these questions can easily be seen as invasive and much of the data can easily be misinterpreted or biased.  It seems that the biggest lack of research is on the sexual orientation of young people.
Stephen highlighted issues on a macro scale as important, citing the lack of political discourse as problematic and stating that the international community in general is a slow moving social construct in regards to gender equality. Another ethical issue in the community is in regards to transgendered operations and public funding. Where should the line be drawn in regards to public funding and aide for people seeking this type of operation and some of the psychological issues that these individuals experience.

More to come.