Air turbulence: When can it become dangerous?
Flight turbulence like that encountered by a Singapore Airlines flight on Tuesday is extremely common, but there's one aspect of severe turbulence an aviation expert says can lead to serious injury.
LGBTQ2S+ Pride commemorations that sometimes have felt like victory parties for civil rights gains are now grappling with an environment of ramped-up legislative and rhetorical battles over sexual orientation and gender identity, and fears that a Supreme Court ruling on abortion opens the door to rights being taken away.
Big crowds are expected Sunday at Pride events in New York City and a range of other places including San Francisco, Chicago, Denver and Toronto, in a return to large, in-person events after two years of pandemic-induced restrictions.
Like every year, the celebrations are expected to be exuberant and festive. But for many, they will also carry a renewed sense of urgency and concern.
"There are so many anti-LGBTQ2S+attacks going on around the country, and a lot of them are really about trying to erase our existence and to make us invisible, and to make our young people invisible and our elders invisible," said Michael Adams, CEO of SAGE, which advocates for LGBTQ elders.
Extremists have taken an increasingly hostile stance toward Pride events, including plotting an attack against a march in Idaho, while Conservative state governments has proposed and in some cases passed a slew of anti-LGBTQ2S+legislation.
Another blow came Friday, when the Conservative majority on the Supreme Court overturned a nationwide right to abortion in an upending of a long-established legal standard that has people wondering whether same-sex marriage might be next.
The majority decision claimed it was solely about abortion, but in his concurring opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas said other cases should be looked at again, including the one that made same-sex marriage legal.
In March, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law barring teaching on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade, which critics decried as an effort to marginalize LGBTQ2S+ people and lambasted as the "Don't Say Gay" law.
In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott, like DeSantis a Republican, sent a letter to state health agencies in February saying that it would be child abuse under state law for transgender youth to get gender-affirming medical care. A judge has halted full implementation of any parental prosecutions.
Protest has always been an element of New York City's Pride Parade, which roughly coincides with the anniversary of the beginning of the June 28, 1969, Stonewall uprising – days of angry demonstrations sparked by a police raid on a gay bar in Manhattan.
Marchers in the 1980s protested a lack of government attention to the AIDS epidemic.
In recent years, though, they've often been celebrations of major victories for LGBTQ2S+ communities to celebrate, like in 2015 when the Supreme Court issued the Obergefell v. Hodges decision recognizing same-sex marriage.
That's not this year, though.
"This year, we have seen an onslaught of aggressively hostile anti-LGBTQ2S+ bills in many state legislatures, and more of them have passed than last year," said Jennifer Pizer, law and policy director for Lambda Legal.
It brings home a reality that in addition to celebration, there's still a need for activism, said Joe Negrelli, 70, a longtime NYC Pride attendee, who was worried about marriage equality.
"Could it be overturned? Yes, I do believe that. It is a conceivability," he said of the court's decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide. It "makes me want to put more energy into engaging in marching."
Anyone who might have been "lulled into a false sense of security" by previous civil rights victories "has been woken up now," Adams said. "I think a lot of us who understand the history of the struggle for equality and equity and social justice in this country know that the fight is never over."
It's not just legislation and court decisions. Those who track hate speech say anti-LGBTQ2S+ language has increased online, which raises the fear that extremists will take it as a call to engage in action, like the rash of protests and physical interruptions that have taken place at Drag Queen Story Hours, where adults in drag read books to children.
Earlier this month, 31 members of a white supremacist group, carrying riot gear, were arrested over accusations that they were plotting a major disruption at a Pride event in Idaho.
That doesn't mean the celebration's over, advocates said.
"There can be celebration and joy, and also purpose in protest," Pizer said.
Ellen Ensig-Brodsky, 89, has embraced both those roles in her decades of attending Pride as a LGBTQ2S+ rights activist.
"The parade is the display, publicly, of my identity and my group that I have been part of for at least 40 or more years," she said, adding that she will be marching again Sunday. "I certainly would not want to miss it."
After all this time, the animosity and hostility she's seeing around the country aren't unfamiliar to her.
"The intent to increase anti-LGBTQ2S+ existence is a return to what I started out with" decades ago, she said. Back then, "we didn't come out. We hid."
Not now, she said, "I think we need to show that love can persist and continue and spread."
Flight turbulence like that encountered by a Singapore Airlines flight on Tuesday is extremely common, but there's one aspect of severe turbulence an aviation expert says can lead to serious injury.
British Columbia serial killer Robert Pickton was attacked and sustained life-threatening injuries in a Quebec prison Sunday in what officials described as a 'major assault.'
In his latest column for CTVNews.ca, former NDP leader Tom Mulcair argues that if there's an unofficial frontrunner in the eventual race to replace Justin Trudeau as Liberal leader, it has to be former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney.
The Toronto Blue Jays have offered tickets and a signed baseball to a fan who says she was struck in the face by a 110 m.p.h (177 km/h) foul ball at Friday’s game.
Members of a killer whale pod related to an orphan orca calf that escaped a remote British Columbia tidal lagoon last month have been spotted off the northeast coast of Vancouver Island.
Ontario Provincial Police continue to investigate a long weekend fatal boat collision on Bobs Lake, north of Kingston, Ont.
An investigation has been opened into the death of Matthew Perry and how the “Friends” actor received the anesthetic ketamine, which was ruled a contributing factor in his death.
House of Commons Speaker Greg Fergus is facing fresh Conservative-led calls to resign, this time over "very partisan" and 'inflammatory' language used – the Liberals say mistakenly – to promote an upcoming event.
As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau continues the 'Team Canada' charm offensive to U.S. lawmakers and business leaders, Canada's ambassador to the United States downplayed the effect of another Trump presidency on Canada.
Montreal photographer captured the moment a Canada Goose defended itself from a fox at the Botanical Garden.
Public libraries in Atlantic Canada are now lending a broader range of items.
Flashes of purple darting across the sky mixed with the serenading sound of songs will be noticed more with spring in full force in Manitoba.
Catching 'em all with impressive speed, a 7-year-old boy from Windsor, Ont. who only started his competitive Pokémon journey seven months ago has already levelled up to compete at a world championship level.
A sanctuary dedicated to animals with disabilities is celebrating the third birthday of one of its most popular residents.
2b Theatre recently moved into the old Video Difference building, seeking to transform it into an artistic hub, meeting space, and temporary housing unit for visiting performers in Halifax.
A B.C. woman says her service dog pulled her from a lake moments before she had a seizure, saving her life.
A Starbucks fan — whose name is Winter — is visiting Canada on a purposeful journey that began with a random idea at one of the coffee chain's stores in Texas.
Members of Piapot First Nation, students from the University of Winnipeg and various other professionals are learning new techniques that will hopefully be used for ground searches of potential unmarked grave sites in the future.