Xtra Toronto #758 — Nov 14–27, 2013

Transcription

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#758 NOV 14–27, 2013
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ARTS
SAYE IT
OUT LOUD
Poet, spokenword and rap
artist Saye Sky
wins inaugural
Telus Award E22
Editorial
In praise of the parklets
By Danny Glenwright E6
Feedback E6
Xcetera E7
Upfront
Parklets may not return
to Church Street next year
Many residents enjoy the
public space, but some Village
business owners are unhappy
with the project E9
Local news Etobicoke man
arrested in Chris Skinner
murder E10
History Boys
From bed-hopping to
mountain-climbing with
Anne Lister
By Jeremy Willard E19
Montreal snow job
The city famous for its hot
summer nightlife also provides
a brilliant winter escape E34
Out in the City
Xtra Living E37
Arts roundup
Uncovering Thom Allison E21
Toronto at Night
Curing the November blues
By Ryan G Hinds E25
Homo heritage minutes
The Gay Heritage Project makes
a complex history personal E26
What’s On E28
Cover story
From ancient Greece to
Sochi A gay history of the
Olympic Games E12
Club Scene E29
National news Quebec
group launches Sochi poster
campaign E14
Daily Xtra Travel
Online activism in North
Africa Moroccan gays and
lesbians hope their growing
cyber movement is the first
step to wider acceptance E16
Deep Dish
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Edible Key West
Exploring the Conch Republic
one bite at a time E32
COVER ILLUSTRATION
BY PAUL DOTEY
Classifieds E36
Xtra Hot
By Drasko Bogdanovic E37
online at
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E Toronto kink
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E A new Montreal
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rise of designer Rad
Hourani
E Confessed murderer
of Halifax-area gay men
says he was ridding city
of “demons”
XTRA! NOV 14–27, 2013 5
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In praise of the parklets
EDITORIAL
DANNY
GLENWRIGHT
The Church Wellesley
Village BIA’s vacillation over the
“parklet” project is further proof
that the businesses and stakeholders
in Toronto’s gaybourhood remain
obsessed with maintaining the status quo.
The BIA’s members recently put
the brakes on the street-side patio
initiative (see page 9) — a venture
they announced just a few months
back with much fanfare. On several occasions, BIA manager David
Wootton confirmed to Xtra that the
patios were here to stay, especially
for WorldPride in 2014. “Instead of
waiting for the properties to change
their look and feel, we need to dress
around them,” he said about a year
ago. A couple months later, Wootton told us, “This is an idea the BIA
board is completely behind... we
will probably take on a project manager to help with that.”
What’s changed?
The BIA says the price tag is too
high and some businesses didn’t notice any financial gain after the city
installed the patios in early August.
But surely the BIA knew the cost
when it announced the project last
year. And it’s clear to anyone who’s
walked through the Village that it
will take more than fancy street-side
furniture for Church Street businesses to increase sales.
It’s a shame for establishments
like Smith, Byzantium and Statlers,
which managed to incorporate the
parklets in a way that added new life
to the street and, I would imagine,
brought in some extra cash. Even
though the patios went up late in the
summer, management at all three
spots evidently recognized the possibilities that came with the streetside seating.
But they’re the exception on the
strip, whose business owners — while
endlessly talking about “beautification” — have perpetually been unable
to use their imagination to come up
with long-term initiatives that actually beautify the neighbourhood. They
instead appear content to wring out
every last drop of queer creativity, as
they did recently when they covered
Village poles with uniform fake tree
bark, relegating posters to a couple
overcrowded community boards.
The BIA is joined in its torpor by
Tourism Toronto and the City of Toronto — both have so far failed to deliver the cash or creativity needed to
make a splash for WorldPride. The
LGBT section of Tourism Toronto’s
amateurish website continues to
list businesses that have long since
closed. And while the city paid for
the first year of the parklet project,
that won’t matter much at WorldPride if the BIA kiboshes it.
“Meh, whatever,” noted one Facebook commenter. “Let Montreal
be the innovative city. It closes the
entire length of Sainte-Catherine in
the village from May to September
and it’s a huge hit.”
He’s right. Montreal’s open-air
Village project, Aires Libre, which
sees a summer-long 1.2 kilometre
street closure, has been a huge boon
for business owners there. Denis
Brossard, that city’s Village business
organization president, told Xtra the
vacancy rate for storefronts on the
street dropped from 22 percent to
eight percent in less than two years
thanks to Aires Libre, which gets
support from Tourism Montreal and
the City of Montreal. “When the city
shortened the length of the project
this year, businesses, residents and
the gay community all came together
to voice their displeasure,” he said.
If only we weren’t so complacent
in Toronto. Folks — as our beloved
mayor would say — the time is now.
WorldPride is around the corner.
The BIA and Village residents can’t
wait for Councillor Kristyn WongTam to do all the heavy lifting, as
it appears she did with the parklet
project. “This summer was a pilot
project... Everything was done for
FEEDBACK
you,” Wong-Tam told the BIA’s AGM.
Wong-Tam also first pitched the
mural project, which looks to be one
beautification initiative that will actually last until WorldPride.
The BIA should reconsider and
look for ways to expand the project
and make it work, teaming with
those business owners prepared to
think outside the box. Why not join
with Pride Toronto and find a way to
incorporate the parklets into WorldPride plans? Or what about further
collaborating with the team at The
519, who have already championed
the patio project? They know how to
put on a fundraiser, which might be
what’s needed to help offset the cost
of the parklets. What about working
with Toronto artists or promoters
to find clever new ways to use the
parklet spaces and bring in cash to
pay for them? An open-air gallery
tour, a street-long parklet tea dance,
a patio sidewalk sale, a street-side
busker fest?
It would be a huge waste of money
and effort if the project is squelched
before it’s had a chance to see a full
summer.
Danny Glenwright is Xtra’s managing
editor.
The outcome that we seek is this — gay and lesbian
people daring together to set love free.
Xtra is published by Pink Triangle Press, at 2 Carlton St, Ste 1600, Toronto, M5B 1J3.
Priape closure
When you think that every other gay man
uses poppers and the number of poppers
bought over the year, the cost is significant,
but I still find it hard to imagine that poppers could bring down such an enterprise
as Priape [“Priape Closes Its Stores,” Xtra
#757, Oct 31]. It sounds like the company
had credit problems long before Health
Canada banned the sale of poppers. I hope
that the employees of Priape were given
severance pay, as many of them will be unemployed. Is there any way the community
can fight the Health Canada ruling? Considering the high demand for poppers, I’m
surprised that entrepreneurs aren’t making them, as they are quite easy to make.
PETER IVESON
TORONTO, ON
I think the poppers ban by Health Canada
was only one of the reasons Priape got into
financial difficulty and had to permanently
close their stores in Toronto, Calgary and
Vancouver. Another reason is that there
are a number of gay websites in the US and
Europe that sell the same products that
were formerly offered by Priape but at a
fraction of the cost — even when you add in
taxes and shipping costs. These mail-order
websites were able to do so since they don’t
have all the costs of a storefront location,
like high rents in local gay ghettos, and can
employ fewer people in processing and
shipping the online orders. Today, you can
buy lube, sex toys, leather fetish items, et
cetera online from these websites.
KEVIN B
TORONTO, ON
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XCETERA
100,000
Sushi
A BIWEEKLY HELPING
OF POP CULTURE,
SERVED À LA CARTE
Number of disco balls
produced yearly at the
height of the disco era
by Omega National
Products.
Louisville,
Kentucky
The home of
Omega, which now
makes about 20
balls each month.
FROM THE PTP ARCHIVES 5 YEARS AGO
XTRA #628, NOV 20, 2008
In 1978, Harvey Milk became the first openly gay man
elected to public office in the United States. He was
assassinated the following year. The 30th anniversary of
his murder was marked in 2008 with the release of Milk,
the Gus Van Sant–directed biographical film about the San
Francisco politician and gay rights advocate.
Ice cream
cone
It’s against
the law to
transport
one in
your
pocket in
Kentucky.
OUT ON THE STREET BY KYLE BURTON
Receiving anal sex
Also not allowed in
Kentucky.
“Will you be watching the
Olympics in February?”
Dee
Julian
Bjorn
WARDROBE STYLIST
YOGA INSTRUCTOR
COOK
INTERIOR DESIGNER
I’m going to boycott
the Olympics
this year. Not big
on Russia at the
moment.
Yes, I enjoy
watching the Winter
Olympics and winter
sports. I’ve been a
snowboarder for
about 12 years.
I’ll probably watch
parts of it, but I’m
not really into winter
sports. Unless it’s a
snowball-throwing
competition.
I’m probably
going to watch the
Olympics because
I enjoy speed
skating. And I’m
also really good at it.
6
Number of months
after France legalized
gay marriage that
the first gay divorce
happened.
Stéphane
Parisian candidate for
the famed Mr Gay title
given by Têtu magazine.
For more about the Olympics, see our cover story on page 12.
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Lady Gaga speaks to Attitude magazine about Madonna
incorporating “Born This Way” into her last tour.
Real Estate Sales Representative
Romero vs Romero
A divorce case
unfolding in
Kentucky between
Alysha Romero and her
spouse, Rebecca Sue
Romero.
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All it meant to me
was that Madonna
Ciccone was singing
my song on her stage
and I’m 27. And as a
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Têtu
James Franco is on the
cover of the November
issue.
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XTRA! NOV 14–27, 2013 7
A BENEFIT FOR THE
CANADIAN HIV/AIDS LEGAL NETWORK
AWARDS
PRIX FOR
DE AC T ION
L’ACTION
2013
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Svend Robinson
Please join us to celebrate the work of the
Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network and to
honour the winners of the 2013 Awards for
Action on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights.
Grandmothers Advocacy Network
CANADIAN RECIPIENT
Alternatives-Cameroun (Cameroon)
INTERNATIONAL RECIPIENT
For 20 years, the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network has been a global
leader in the movement for health and human rights, fighting to ensure
that people living with or affected by HIV are supported by laws and policies
that promote prevention, care and dignity.
SUNDAY
DECEMBER 1, 2013
AT 7:00PM
WORLD AIDS DAY
BRAM AND BLUMA APPEL SALON
TORONTO REFERENCE LIBRARY
789 YONGE STREET, TORONTO
The Awards for Action were established by the Legal Network and Human
Rights Watch in 2002. They honour excellence and commitment to work
that has a direct impact on HIV/AIDS and human rights—in particular,
work that benefits marginalized individuals and communities.
TICKETS
$75 (includes $25 tax receipt)
Refreshments to be served. Complimentary open bar.
To purchase tickets or for additional sponsorship information, please contact
Kimahli Powell at [email protected], or call 416.595.1666 ext. 245.
Tickets can also be purchased via www.aidslaw.ca/awards.
Sponsored by
8 NOV 14–27, 2013 XTRA!
Upfront
My family are religious, pious people ... they would not accept this idea;
it would take too long to explain. Moroccan lesbian Laila E E16
Parklets may not return to Village
Many residents enjoy
the public space,
but some business
owners are unhappy
with the project
COMMUNITY NEWS
ANDREA HOUSTON
Reviews are mixed for the bright pink parklets that
lined the east side of Church Street this summer,
and some local business owners are questioning
whether to repeat the program in 2014.
At the Church Wellesley Village Business Improvement Area annual general meeting Nov 4,
BIA manager David Wootton said some businesses
on the west side of the street feel they missed
out, but he says the price tag to implement the
program on both sides of the street, at $250,000,
is just too high.
Budget-wise, Wootton says, the BIA was able
to do it this year only because Councillor Kristyn
Wong-Tam’s office took care of almost all the costs.
“As of now, we won’t see them in 2014 unless a
corporate sponsor coughs up the money,” he says,
noting the BIA is not actively looking for sponsors.
Wong-Tam says that putting parklets on both
sides of the street is not realistic. “From a parking
perspective, there are no restrictions in removing
parking spots on the east side of the street,” she
says, but to install them on the west side, a traffic
study would be required, which would cost $10,000
to $15,000.
Avery Pitcher, co-chair of the BIA, said some
businesses, especially the bars and restaurants on
the west side of the street, feel they missed out on
patio business. “The other side of the street asks
why the parklets aren’t on their side.”
Wong-Tam has also heard criticism from businesses. “I understand Pride takes the street for the
first part of the summer. So you lose some of the
patio season,” she said, noting that the parklets
can’t be installed on the street during Pride.
“This summer was a pilot project. It was like
concierge service. Everything was done for you,”
Wong-Tam told the AGM.
The parklets, which sat on Church Street for three
months, were part of a pilot project modelled after
2012’s Celebrate Yonge event. From start to finish,
all expenses were taken care of, Wong-Tam says. The
patios were built and installed, then, near the end of
October, they were taken down and put into storage,
The BIA says the street-side parklets cost too much and don’t translate into increased sales for Church Street businesses. ADAM COISH
all paid for by the city and corporate partners. Home
Depot donated $20,000 in building materials, and
the Carpenters Union Local 27 donated the human
resources to build the parklets. The city is paying
the cost of storage through the winter.
If the BIA decides to keep the parklets going,
businesses will have to pick up the tab. “For the
first time around, [the city] wanted to demonstrate
to the community what the parklets could be like,”
Wong-Tam says. “But, going forward, you are going to have to want it, champion it and pay for it.”
The BIA now owns the parklets, she says. “You
are not starting from ground zero. You have an incredible infrastructure investment to work from.”
Still, BIA co-chair Liz Devine, from Rainbow
High Travel, says response to the parklets has been
mixed. “The residents enjoy the space, and the businesses like the extra seating,” she says. “[But] we’re
a small destination to do the parklet program.”
Rupert Hon, BIA treasurer and TD Canada Trust
branch manager, notes that $250,000 to put parklets on both sides of the street is a lot of money.
The approximate cost to repeat the parklets on
just the east side is $50,000 to $100,000, he says.
This includes materials to assemble the parklets,
labour to install and dismantle them, landscaping
and storage. Hon says storage alone costs between
$6,000 and $10,000.
Before next year, Hon says, the BIA will consult
with the community, both businesses and residents,
to gauge whether there’s interest in pursuing a corporate sponsor. That would likely mean corporate
logos and branding on the parklets, he says.
Hon says the businesses were expected to keep
the patios clean, but that didn’t really happen, so
the BIA also had to pay for cleaning.
Not all the parklets were licensed because WongTam requested that some should be designated
public space, usable by anyone. But, Hon says,
business owners told him, ‘If they can’t be licensed,
what’s the point in having a parklet right in front
of my business?’
“The BIA is here to promote business,” he says.
“We want to promote people coming here to shop,
play and spend money,” he says. “So we don’t want to
take on any projects that discourage business. Now,
I understand the residents have a different opinion.”
Resident Chris Drew, a member of the Church
Wellesley Neighbourhood Association, loves the
parklets and wants the BIA to keep the program
going. He says residents want to help the BIA do
whatever it takes to make sure the project happens
again next year. “We thought the parklets were a
great first step,” he says. “We’d like to see it back
next year in some way, shape or form. We’d actually love to see it expanded further up and down
the street.”
XTRA! NOV 14–27, 2013 9
LOCAL NEWS
St. John’s Norway
Cemetery and Crematorium
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HAVE YOU HAD A LOVED ONE DIE?
Chapel and Crematorium
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On November 25, vote
It’s time to stand up for equality—
at home and abroad.
Help Linda McQuaig
Arrest made in Skinner murder
Four years after Toronto gay man Chris
Skinner was beaten, run over and left
for dead on the corner of Adelaide and
Victoria streets, Toronto police have arrested and charged one man and served
notice that up to five more people may
face charges related to the murder.
Agustin Caruso, a 23-year-old Etobicoke man, was arrested Nov 6 on his
way to York University, where he is a
student. He is alleged to have participated in the beating and to have been
the driver of the SUV that ran Skinner
over. He was 19 at the time.
Detective Sergeant Stacy Gallant says
the police do not consider the murder
a hate crime.
“There was nothing in the investigation that supported anything in relation
to the knowledge that anyone in the
vehicle knew Chris was gay. It still has
no bearing on the investigation. Chris
was just a guy walking home — nothing
more, nothing less,” Gallant says.
Gallant also disputes the suggestion
put forward by some people who knew
Skinner that he was someone who
would be easily recognizable as gay.
“His family would tell you different,”
Gallant says. “It could’ve been anybody
walking down the street and come in
contact with these individuals.”
Skinner was walking home from
his younger sister’s birthday party
around 3am on Oct 19, 2009, when it is
believed that he got into an altercation
with Caruso and his friends when he
brushed against Caruso’s car while hailing a cab. The men then beat Skinner to
the ground and ran over him with the
front and back tires of the SUV before
taking off.
Police say that six people were in the
car at the time of the murder, four men
and two women. All could face charges
Warren and Ellen Skinner address the media at the Nov 6 press conference.
when police confirm their identities.
Police are urging the five remaining
suspects to come forward.
“I have some idea who the others
are involved, who was in the vehicle,”
Gallant says. “I’m sure they are aware
that I am pursuing them.”
Police warn that “at least two more”
arrests are to come in the case.
“Potentially everyone in the vehicle
could be charged, depending on their
participation and if they assisted in any
way, concealing any evidence or helping
him get away with it for the past four
years,” Gallant says.
Police were not willing to go into
detail about how they tracked down
Caruso or whether he has given them
any more information.
In October, police announced that
they had recovered more security camera footage related to the murder and
had figured out the make, model and
approximate year of the SUV in question. Gallant says that Caruso had sold
the SUV and that it recently came into
police possession.
Police had offered a $50,000 reward
for information leading to an arrest in
the case, and the family had offered
$100,000 more, but no one came forward to claim the reward. Instead,
Gallant says it was the police’s dogged
pursuit of the investigation over four
years that paid off.
For Skinner’s parents, the news of
the arrest was “bittersweet.”
“There is a small sense of relief that
he is not on the streets any more,” says
Skinner’s mother, Ellen. “Christopher
was larger than life. He was smart, he
was in the gifted program.”
Skinner’s father, Warren, says he
“never lost hope” that the police would
find his son’s killers even as the years
wore on.
The family has set up the Chris
Skinner Memorial Foundation, which
raises money in his name for children’s
groups and other charities. Money
from the family’s reward trust that
is unclaimed by the original donors
will be put in the memorial foundation.—Rob Salerno
and the NDP support
LGBT rights in Russia.
Add your voice:
www.ndp.ca/LGBTRussia
Paid for and authorized by the official agent for the candidate.
878 Yonge Street // 416-900-7493
lindamcquaig.ca
10 NOV 14–27, 2013 XTRA!
Toronto residents call for Rob Ford to step down
Protesters gathered outside Toronto
City Hall Nov 6 to call on Mayor Rob
Ford to step down.
After months of lying about his drug
use, Ford admitted Nov 5 that he had
smoked crack cocaine and that he has
an alcohol problem. However, rather
than stepping down to get help, he said
he will stay on as mayor. He did not
address allegations that he is heard
making homophobic and racist slurs in
the same video that shows him smoking what appears to be crack.
“The man needs help, he needs to
leave,” one protester told Xtra.
Another said he was at city hall to get
answers: “I hear that there are homophobic slurs in this video, and I’m wait-
ing to hear what the mayor has to say.”
A second protest has been planned
for Wed, Nov 13 at noon at Nathan
Phillips Square.
Meanwhile, Councillor Kristyn
Wong-Tam says Ford will not be invited to an official City of Toronto
WorldPride event that will welcome international elected officials and global
human-rights leaders.
The reception will take place on the
same day as the WorldPride opening
ceremonies in June, she says.
“This will be a VIP reception for
elected officials, and we will be inviting the world,” she says. “We want to
demonstrate to them that this is how
Toronto celebrates its diversity. This
city is an inclusive place for LGBT
people.”
The reception will be hosted by the
City of Toronto. “I am not inviting Mayor Ford,” Wong-Tam says. “His time has
passed. He has never acknowledged our
community. We have these [homophobic and racist] comments. He has never
denied making those comments . . . I
don’t want this mayor to embarrass us
in front of international guests . . . The
mayor of the most diverse city in Canada should not be making homophobic
and racist slurs.”—Andrea Houston
For more on these stories,
go to dailyxtra.com.
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ROBERT G.COATES,
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BARRISTER, SOLICITOR & NOTARY
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John Brac,%(G2&706:56:
www.growingheart.ca
XTRA! NOV 14–27, 2013 11
FROM ANCIENT
GREECE TO
SOCHI
A gay history of the Olympic Games
COVER STORY
JP LAROCQUE
T
here is no room in competitive sport for homosexuals.
That was the basic message of Russian legislator
Vitaly Milonov in an interview earlier
this year. Ardent in his support of his
country’s anti-gay laws, he dismissed
the International Olympic Committee’s
assurances that international athletes
and tourists would be exempt from arrest. “The federal law is valid throughout
the territory of the Russian Federation
and no one has the right to suspend it,”
he stated. Meanwhile, Russian athletes
were “traditional, normal people with
big families,” whereas gay and lesbian
athletes were framed as inherently weak
because of their sexual preferences.
“I just think that if an athlete is normal... everything is normal. And if [they
are gay], there should be some excuse
they come up with — “I’m not running
because I’m not a man or a woman.”
Milonov’s comments provide fascinating insight into the way in which
Russian lawmakers have shaped the
conversation on sexuality and gender in
their country. Perhaps most interesting,
however, is how his statements about
sexuality and athleticism reveal an utter lack of awareness about the origins
and traditions of the Olympic Games —
namely, that from their very inception,
the Games have always maintained a
strong link to same-sex desire.
“Eroticism and sexuality have always
been part of athletics, sport and other
forms of physical activity, even though
some institutions have sought to channel the discipline and exhaustion of
12 NOV 14–27, 2013 XTRA!
sport and physical activity into sexual
abstinence,” says Professor Bruce Kidd,
of the University of Toronto’s Faculty of
Kinesiology and Physical Education. “In
the ancient world, homosexuality was
closely associated with athletics and
celebrated as such in poetry, sculpture,
vase painting and other representations. The ancient Olympics began as
an integral part of the system of power
by which male aristocrats garnered
a disproportional share of the social
surplus for themselves. The cult of
Figure skater John Curry was the first
openly gay athlete to win Olympic gold.
homoeroticism was closely bound up
with that system of power.”
Between 776 BCE to roughly 260
CE, the Games were considered to be
the most prestigious event in ancient
Greece. Every four years, the sacred site
of Olympia was flooded with spectators
from the surrounding regions for an
event that was a combination of both
religious ceremony and pure voyeuristic
spectacle. And key to that spectacle was
the celebration of the male body, considered to be the physical embodiment
of the perfection of the Greek gods.
Aristocrats and labourers were
brought together under a strict exercise regimen and stripped of their
garments. Foot races, discus throwing,
boxing and wrestling were just a few of
the sports performed in the nude, and
while women did participate in the
games as athletes and trainers, their
competitions were kept separate and
were less popular. In fact, many of the
surviving depictions of female athletes
often have them clothed — suggesting
both propriety and an intentional separation from erotic display.
While many historians are reluctant
to classify the ancient Games as gay in
the modern sense of identity and sexual
orientation, they do acknowledge that
the athletic competition was a reflection
of the prevailing attitudes of the time.
And in Greek culture, pederasty was
common between men of the aristocracy and prepubescent boys. Far more
than a mere sex act, this union was seen
as a mentorship that had as much to
do with an exchange of knowledge as
sexual desire and that often ended at
the onset of adulthood, when the young
men would settle down with female
partners and start families.
“Champions were rewarded with lavish cash bonuses, lifetime pensions and
generous gifts of merchandise,” Kidd
says. “Not infrequently, their victories
opened up the doors to successful careers in politics and business.”
And, in certain cases, victorious athletes would become objects of sexual
desire, profiting from their newfound
fame by becoming lovers to the wealthy.
T
he ancient Games remained
a popular draw until 393 CE,
when Christian emperor
Theodosius banned all pagan
festivals. Aside from a few regional athletic competitions in the centuries that
followed, the Games remained mostly
dormant until French educator Pierre
de Coubertin launched a version of the
Games in 1894 that would foreground
more modern concepts, such as fair play,
bureaucracy and an overall adherence
to rules.
And in many ways, these modern
Games were also a reflection of the predominant cultural anxieties of the time
— namely, that men were becoming too
feminized as a result of modernity and
the Industrial Revolution. With farming communities broken up and fathers
separated from their sons, many feared
that a lack of male influence in homes
and in schools would lead to a “softening” of Western males. Organized sports
were viewed as a means to reestablish
the gender binary by separating men
and women and reinforcing masculine
values.
Still, even with this newfound focus
on shoring up masculinity, homoeroticism at the Games has continued to
prevail in both overt and covert ways.
JP LAROCQUE
VIRTUALLY EVERY GAMES HAS
PRODUCED POWERFUL HOMOEROTIC
IMAGES, ESPECIALLY THE OFFICIAL
POSTERS FROM STOCKHOLM 1912
THROUGH TO HELSINKI IN 1952.
Above, professor Bruce Kidd, of the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Kinesiology
and Physical Education, says sex has always been a part of the Olympic Games.
Left, posters from Olympic Games in 1912, 1924 and 1952.
“Virtually every [modern] Games
has produced powerful homoerotic images, especially the official posters from
Stockholm 1912 through to Helsinki in
1952,” Kidd argues. “And of course, sex
has always been part of every Games,
which is why condoms are now distributed to the athletes in every Village and
quickly run out.”
P
prior to 1960, historical examples of homosexual Olympians are limited at best, and
the stories that do exist are
often tragic. Because of the laws in place
during much of the 20th century, few
athletes were able to be open about their
sexuality, and those who did come out
often faced harsh punishments or had
the truth buried by family and friends.
But with the gay rights movement
blossoming in the 1960s, more athletes
began to feel comfortable about going
public. In 1976, English figure skater
John Curry became the first openly
gay athlete to win Olympic gold. And
in 1982, Tom Waddell, a participant in
the 1968 Olympic decathlon, founded
the first Gay Games in San Francisco.
Over the last 30 years, the number
of openly gay athletes has steadily increased. Greg Louganis, David Pichler,
Patrick Jeffrey, Mark Tewksbury and
Anastasia Bucsis are just a few of the
Olympic competitors who have acknowledged their sexuality in the interest of making positive changes to
the system. And yet even with gradual
progress, gay and lesbian athletes continue to have a hard time finding support — both within the world of sports
and even within their own families.
“I think being a national or international athlete would certainly add to the
difficulties of coming out,” says Marko
Gadzic, who participated in both the
Outgames and the Gay Games. “However, I never worried too much about
letting people know I was gay after I
came out. It was all the people I felt like
I was going to disappoint by coming out
— mainly family and friends.”
Athlete Raymond Reid agrees but also
feels that the pressure to conform extends well beyond the personal sphere.
“In terms of athletes remaining in the
closet, it’s definitely a cultural thing in
whatever sport,” he says. “I’m not just
talking about the locker-room mentality, but even at the professional levels,
it’s a marketability thing — similar to
actors who are afraid to take the risk.”
And it was this fear of risk that motivated WinterPride CEO Dean Nelson
to seek out and create a safe space for
gay athletes. Using national pavilions in
Olympic Villages as a model, he founded
the first Pride House at the Vancouver
2010 Games, which was a huge turning
point for many queer Olympians.
“The culture prior to and leading
up to 2010 was still very much hostile
towards LGBT, and I suspect it was
in Montreal [at the World Outgames]
that the seed was planted for the Pride
House concept,” he says. “It was my
first experience interacting with LGBT
sports, and I realized that some of these
athletes... could be Olympic hopefuls or
Olympians, as in [Tewksbury’s] case.”
The first Pride House was an unprecedented success. Over the course of the
competition, 20,000 people visited the
three Pride venues, and the pavilion
was one of the top international news
stories to come out of the Games. In
2012, a similar project was launched at
the London Games.
Professor Kidd sees the institution of
Pride Houses as an important strategy
to affirm and protect the community.
“One of the moving untold stories about
the Pride Houses in Vancouver is the
number of athletes, coaches and officials
who were given refugee status by the
Canadian government.
“As long as there is so much persecution... in many parts of the world, Pride
Houses that affirm LGBTIQ among
the sports community and the greater
public and enable such refugee status
are essential.”
W
hich, of course, brings the conversation back to Sochi.
With the massive success
of the Pride House concept,
queer sports organizations like the
Gay and Lesbian International Sport
Association, the Federation of Gay
Games and InterPride had expressed
an interest in creating support and
continuity between international host
cities and major athletic events. These
conversations laid the groundwork
for Pride House International, a coalition of community groups and leaders
that was founded in the wake of the
Russian government’s rejection of an
application to create a Pride House at
the Sochi Games.
Nelson and WinterPride are a part
of the coalition, and they are working
closely with Konstantin Yablotskiy
and the Russian LGBT Sports Federation to help protect queer athletes and
spectators in Russia during the 2014
Games. “We are lobbying the IOC to
update their charter to include sexual
orientation, gender identity and gender
expression in Article 6 of the Olympic
Charter, where it states sports must
be free of discrimination of any sort,”
he says.
Pride House International is also applying pressure on the IOC to update its
selection process to ensure that future
host destinations embrace full equal
human rights in order to avoid a situation like Sochi happening again. Or, as
Nelson puts it, “if a destination wants
to host the Olympics and sees the value
in bringing the Olympic spirit to their
nation, they will need to modify their
laws to ensure [they are] in line with
the Olympic Charter.”
In the event that the group is ultimately unsuccessful in getting a Pride
House off the ground in Sochi, the coalition is looking into the possibility of a
virtual Pride House, as well as creating
additional houses in other countries
around the world and spearheading a
same-sex hand-holding initiative that
would encourage those who attend the
Games to hold hands with other people
of the same sex. “Keeping up a friendly dialogue with
the IOC and other sporting bodies is
important. We will collectively continue to lobby, at a local, national and
international level, the Olympics and
other major sporting bodies to ensure
a safe and inclusive space for all athletes
is possible.”
M
eanwhile, the Russian LGBT
Sports Federation has been
organizing a gay-friendly
athletic event to be held in
their country following the Winter
Olympics. Dubbed the Open Games,
the competition welcomes athletes of
all orientations and will take a more
indirect approach to promoting tolerance by placing emphasis on athletics
rather than on human rights or politics.
“Sport is a universal instrument
to solve many different problems,”
Yablotskiy recently told The New York
Times. “By developing LGBT sport, we
can improve the standing of the LGBT
community in our country. Our society
has a very one-sided image of gays.
People don’t understand that anyone
could be gay. Your boss could be gay;
any good, normal person could be gay.”
In contrast to a less direct approach,
Kidd sees value in visibility as an extension of personal identity. “I think the
campaign within the Olympic movement should focus on... individual selfidentification as the basic human right.
“Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter may
prohibit political demonstrations, [but]
wearing a rainbow triangle or carrying a
small rainbow flag should not be taken
as a ‘political demonstration,’ but simply a statement of self-identification...
not unlike the act of waving an eagle
feather or wearing a crucifix, turban,
Métis scarf or hijab — all of which have
happened at previous Olympics without
incident.”
Gadzic is reluctant when it comes to
demonstrating on foreign soil. “I would
love to compete in Sochi, [but if I did] I
would comply with the laws of the land.
We can’t expect a country to openly be
accepting of gays overnight.”
But Reid disagrees. “Laws like this...
are a reminder that politicians aren’t
above sacrificing human rights for political gain. The Russian government
doesn’t own the Olympic movement, so
I think it would be within the Olympic
spirit to still compete.”
He pauses. “Doing so openly would
be a tremendous benefit in terms of
upholding the humanity of the Olympic
spirit and fighting homophobia.”
XTRA! NOV 14–27, 2013 13
NATIONAL NEWS
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14 NOV 14-27, 2013 XTRA!
Sochi posters provoke
A Quebec LGBT organization hopes
its eye-catching Sochi 2014 campaign
will encourage more people to rally
against Russia’s discriminatory antigay laws and will show Russian LGBT
people that the world is behind them.
On Nov 1, Fondation Émergence
launched the campaign by releasing two striking posters: one of male
hockey players kissing and another of
female snowboarders doing the same.
The posters read “Sochi 2014” in
stylized script — a nearly wordless
design intended to make the posters
usable across the globe, says Martine
Roy, Fondation Émergence’s president.
The Montreal-based advocacy group
is known for its annual International
Day Against Homophobia organizing,
as well as for campaigns that touch
on everything from support for LGBT
seniors to workplace rights. Under
Russia’s new bill, dubbed the “antigay-propaganda law,” both the posters and the acts depicted on them, if
done in public, could be considered
“propaganda of nontraditional sexual
relations amongst minors.” Offenders,
both citizens and visitors, can be fined
or jailed if found guilty.
“We find it is incredible we are going backwards like this, especially in
Russia,” Roy says of the bill, which
the Russian parliament passed unanimously in June.
“It made me very scared because
when you see a country as influential as
Russia, as big as Russia, turning around
Fondation Émergence used few words on its posters in the hope they’ll be used
around the world in the lead-up to the Sochi Olympic Games.
like this, deciding to put such a law in
place, it means it can happen to us.”
In a statement in French posted to
Fondation Émergence’s website, Roy
condemns the law for violating freedom of expression — especially in its
much-criticized ambiguity — and for
how it may incite intolerance.
She also criticizes the International
Olympic Committee for not condemning the law, especially given its contravention of paragraph six of the Olympic
Charter, which takes a stance against
discrimination during the Games.
In her statement, Roy calls Russian
President Vladimir Putin’s assurance
that athletes will be respected during the
Games “a strategy to ease tensions and
to help forget this homophobic law that
will continue to harm Russian LGBT
communities and to put them in danger
once the Olympic Games are finished.”
Fondation Émergence has prepared
5,000 copies of the posters and matching stickers with the help of funding
from the Quebec government. The
campaign material, along wi th information about the Russian law, is
available at fondationemergence.org.
—Natascia Lypny
Government making ‘contingency plans’ for Sochi attendees
The federal government will be providing assistance to Canadians who might
find themselves ensnared in Russia’s
infamous anti-gay laws at the Sochi
Winter Games.
With fewer than 90 days left until
the world heads to Russia, concerns are
growing that the country’s draconian
laws could cause trouble for Canadians,
even as the Russian government has
tried to assuage fears. But Ottawa is
looking to ensure that no problems
arise at the event. “Special contingency
plans will be put in place, including
extra capacity in both Ottawa and Moscow,” says Adria Minsky, a spokesperson for Lynne Yelich, minister of state
for consular affairs. Minsky would not
elaborate on what those plans entail.
The NDP has called on the government to send a dedicated representative to deal with any problems that may
arise for LGBT Canadians, in the face
of harsh “anti-gay-propaganda” laws
implemented by President Vladimir
Putin. It seems unlikely that that will
happen, however.
“As with previous Olympic Games,
we will increase our ability to provide
consular services to Canadians at the
Sochi Olympic Games,” Minsky told
Xtra via email. She would not comment as to whether a dedicated official
would be sent.
Randall Garrison, NDP critic for
LGBT affairs, says he spoke with Yelich
and was told the government is not currently considering sending a dedicated
consular official to deal with the issue.
The opposition critics for sport, foreign affairs and LGBT issues co-wrote a
letter to Foreign Affairs Minister John
Baird (who is not responsible for consular affairs), asking that a designated
representative for LGBT issues be on
hand at the Games. “By designating
a consular official, the Conservatives
can demonstrate a real commitment to
making sure the Sochi Games are open
to all Canadians,” foreign affairs critic
Paul Dewar said in a statement.
With new legislation being implemented that would crack down on rallies
or demonstrations before, during and after the Olympics, it seems quite possible
that Canadians could find themselves in
trouble with Russian authorities.
While Putin has swatted away concerns about the laws, politicians from
around the world have condemned his
agenda. Baird said he hopes that the
Games will put pressure on Putin to
repeal them.
The NDP demanded that the minister go a step further and implement
a visa ban on any of the authors of the
original anti-gay legislation.
The Department of Foreign Affairs
says it will be setting up a website to
help Canadians who plan to make the
trip to Sochi. —Justin Ling
For more on these stories,
go to dailyxtra.com.
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XTRA! NOV 14–27, 2013 15
Online activism in
Moroccan gays and
lesbians hope their growing
cyber movement is the first
step to wider acceptance
INTERNATIONAL
RUBY PRATKA
The interview has something of a cloakand-dagger feel about it.
“Nadya,” an elegant social worker
in her mid-20s, rushes into a dark and
crowded jazz club in downtown Rabat,
the capital of Morocco. She finds the
foreigner holding the notebook and
begins to speak in an urgent whisper.
“We’re going to have to leave; this
isn’t something we can talk about in
bars,” she says. “I set it up so we could
meet in my friend’s flat. Let’s go.”
Only when we leave the bar and begin
plodding through Rabat traffic does she
begin to talk normally. Nadya doesn’t
want her real name used because she
fears losing her job if her bosses find
out she campaigns, in her spare time,
with a few queer and allied friends, for
the decriminalization of homosexuality
in Morocco.
“My parents don’t know, and no one
at my job knows,” she says. “Most people
who are gay just live in hiding. I know
I’m going to have to ‘come out’ someday,
but I’m really scared.”
Here, as in the rest of North Africa,
same-sex attraction is truly “the love
that dare not speak its name.” The Moroccan criminal code threatens “anyone
who commits an indiscreet act or an
act against nature with someone of his
or her own sex” with a prison sentence
of six months to three years and a fine
of 200 to 1,000 dirhams ($25 to $125
Canadian). According to data collected
by Kifkif, a Spain-based organization
advocating for gay rights in Morocco,
about 5,000 gay and lesbian people have
stood trial on homosexuality charges
since Morocco gained independence
from France in 1956. In May of this year,
two young men in Rabat were sentenced
to prison for homosexuality.
Nadya says she knows many young
people who have been kicked out of
their homes. At 28, she has already
moved into her own place but still fears
her family’s reaction to her identity. “It
would be total panic,” she says. “If they
rejected me because of it, that would be
a real shame.”
While the Arab Spring of 2011
spawned a protest movement and
brought a reformed constitution and
a breath of political fresh air to this
monarchy, it did not ruffle the official
stance on gay rights. Even in a bustling,
cosmopolitan city like Rabat, where
people of all races live and work and
as many women wear the veil as don’t,
latent homophobia simmers below the
surface. “Phobia” is perhaps more accurately used in the Greek sense than
the modern one — people react with fear
when the subject is brought up.
“I don’t want to talk about it; it just upsets me,” says one train passenger in Rabat, moving away from the conversation.
“You must be very stupid to pursue
this story,” adds another.
Very few civil society organizations
address homosexuality. “Even the activists who led us through the Arab Spring
reject homosexuality, and organizations
who work on other forms of antidiscrimination do not include discrimination based on sexual orientation,” Nadya
says. “The Organization for the Fight
Most people who are gay just live in
hiding. I know I’m going to have to ‘come
out’ someday, but I’m really scared.
16 NOV 14–27, 2013 XTRA!
North Africa
against AIDS has a gay men’s working
group, the Alternative Movement for
Individual Liberties [a leftwing protest
movement] has touched on it, and that’s
about it.”
Nadya participates — with her face
covered — in cheeky YouTube videos
calling for decriminalization, set to
Lily Allen’s “Fuck You.” Inside a cozy
Rabat apartment, rented by an actress
friend of Nadya’s and filled with young,
artistic people, her friends can play the
videos on repeat and laugh. Outside,
not a chance.
Nadya believes there are many reasons for hostility toward gays and lesbians in Morocco. “Politics, religion and
fear enter into it. Women are also afraid,
like, ‘You’re a lesbian, so you are going
to jump on me.’”
Top left: Rabat, Morocco’s capital,
is a bustling city of 1.2 million
people, with vibrant street life,
crowded cafés and noisy traffic
jams. THINKSTOCK
Above: The As-Sounah mosque
towers over the city’s main artery,
Avenue Moulay Hassan. RUBY PRATKA
A selection of covers from
Aswat, an online Moroccan LGBT
magazine.
Fear of rejection leads many queer Moroccans to live elaborate double lives.
“My family are religious, pious people... same thing with my colleagues
at work who are conservative Muslims. They would not accept this idea;
it would take too long to explain,” says
Laila E, Nadya’s girlfriend, an administrative assistant. “So I can only be
myself with the [queer] community.”
Ishaq Nouri and Marwan Bensaid
have taken their double lives one step
further. The two wide-eyed 21-year-old
computer scientists turned journalists
edit Aswat, an Arabic-language LGBT
monthly magazine. They each use two
different first and last names, with different Facebook accounts and groups of
friends to go with each. Ishaq and Marwan are not their legal names, rather the
names of their Aswat identities.
“Our friends don’t know what I’m
doing; my family doesn’t know what I’m
doing,” Nouri says. “We avoid publishing our real names; all of our writers use
pen names, and we avoid using photos.”
The magazine talks about sexual
health, current events and films; it includes advice on potential problems,
such as coming out, and interviews with
prominent queer Arabs, such as FrenchMoroccan novelist Abdellah Taïa and
Ludovic Zahed, founder of Europe’s
first gay-friendly Muslim prayer room.
A TALK WITH
ABDELLAH TAÏA
The man hailed
as Morocco’s first
openly gay author
Known as the first Arab writer to
publicly declare his homosexuality,
Abdellah Taïa grew up in Rabat,
where poverty and queerness both
stunted and stoked his literary
ambitions.
Today, as he edges into his
40s, his work has become a
necessary, and perhaps unique,
bridge between the Arab world
and the West. To the Englishspeaking world, his best-known
work is his autobiographical
novel Salvation Army — a brief
and heart-wrenching account of
his coming-of-age and eventual
departure from Morocco. By
speaking unabashedly about
sex tourists, the latent sexuality
of invisible populations, and his
first contacts with a bewildering
Europe, Taïa scandalized the
Moroccan press even while he won
international acclaim.
The English translation of
his new novel, Infidels, will be
published this spring. On Oct 23
he participated in the Beyond
Queer event at the Vancouver
International Writers Festival. —
Michael Harris
XTRA: Your Wikipedia page says
you’ve been in self-imposed exile from Morocco since 1998. Is
that what it feels like? Exile?
ABDELLAH TAÏA: To be honest,
I’m not totally comfortable with
the expression “self-exiled.” But
I did decide, when I was 13, to go
one day to Paris in order to be who
I am: a free individual.
Being gay has become integral
to your identity as a writer. Do
Author Abdellah Taïa,
on the cover of Aswat.
you think this will change as
your career develops?
No, this will never change. I create
from a world that I know very
intimately — what’s happening
inside of me. Homosexuality is
here, in me, in that world. But
homosexuality is not my subject;
it’s a subject for everyone, even
for heterosexuals. I don’t say
to myself that I have to write
about homosexuality. This very
important part of me simply
comes out every time I write,
in a very natural way.
And that gay identity intersects with class and cultural
background. All these parts of
you sort of run into each other
in your writing. Is there a hierarchy, do you think, between
these aspects of identity?
There’s no hierarchy at all. Never.
There’s a lot of chaos, in my head
and on the paper. Everything is
mixed up: politics, sexuality, love,
social problems . . . What’s very
important for me is to succeed
in finding the right form for this
endless chaos. To find a little
phrase with a certain rhythm. Not
to be descriptive, but to be poetic.
And to never, never let go until the
end of the story.
Go to dailyxtra.com for a
video interview with Taïa.
continued next page E
XTRA! NOV 14–27, 2013 17
Online activism
in North Africa
E continued from previous page
Twelve people, mostly students, put
together the magazine on a volunteer
basis, on their own laptops.
“We have no office, and we have to
hide what we do from our families,”
Nouri says. “With school, it takes a lot
of time. We do take risks, but it’s for a
good cause.”
“If my parents find out what I’m doing, I’ll have to leave the house and
permanently leave the country,” says
Bensaid, more cautious and softspoken
than his extroverted co-editor.
“In the eyes of the law, homosexuality is a crime,” Nouri says. “And we’ve
had problems — Marwan’s computer
has been hacked twice, and after another Moroccan magazine did a story on
us, an imam posted a video on YouTube
saying we would burn in hell. But if we
were scared, we wouldn’t be doing it.
“With the magazine, our goal is to
raise awareness among gays and lesbians of what’s going on in the community and then approach the general
public,” he says. “We need to think
about changing people’s mentalities.
They think that we’re some kind of
criminals; others think we don’t exist
in real life.
“We’re here to make things move and
to start talking about ourselves,” he
continues. “We have to admit that we
exist and that people different from us
exist and that’s natural. People haven’t
realized that yet.”
A print edition remains out of the
question. “It wouldn’t be possible to do
a print edition,” Bensaid says. “Here in
Morocco there are a lot of taboos, a lot
of red lines you can’t cross — too many
red lines.”
Reporters Without Borders, a Parisbased press-freedom organization, has
declared that “religion, the king and the
monarchy in general, the country and
territorial integrity cannot be questioned” in the country’s press.
With the print media and the public
space closed off, the Moroccan LGBT
movement is a child of the internet; of
forums like lgbtmaroc.com and gaymaroc.net, which have hundreds of
members; of Facebook groups and websites; of online magazines like Aswat
and its predecessor, Mithly. According
to Nouri, Aswat now has 5,400 unique
visitors a month.
“The whole movement started virtually, through Facebook and other social
networks,” says Laila E. “You get to
know one person, that person gets to
know others and it gets bigger.”
“Having a public [offline] event like a
Pride would be much more challenging.
I’ve dreamed about that, but it’s not a
realistic dream.”
There is no separation of faith and
state in the Islamic monarchy, where
the reigning king, Mohamed VI, is
considered to be the “commander of
the believers” and a descendant of the
Prophet Muhammad. During Ramadan,
the holy month during which observant
Muslims fast and pray throughout the
daylight hours, restaurants are legally
forbidden from serving food to adult
Muslims.
Although the current king has decreed the equality of men and women,
Islam remains inextricable from politics
and law.
“Religion blocks us from making
progress, because in this country you
can’t legalize something which is forbidden by religion,” Nadya says. “Hopefully,
in a few years we will be able to put in
place secularism; that would open the
door to a lot of other things.
“To come out is to be a pariah; it’s
difficult to find work,” Nadya continues. “Already I’m somewhat rejected
because I keep my hair short and I’m
unmarried at 28. But I have an advantage in that I’m financially independent.
Most young people still live with their
parents, and we know a lot of people
who have been kicked out. There’s no
group that is working on that issue specifically; people talk among themselves.”
We need to think about changing
people’s mentalities. They think that
we’re some kind of criminals; others
think we don’t exist in real life.
Rabat, the second largest city in Morocco, is an administrative centre
and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. RUBY PRATKA
Nadya says that as a lesbian she has
had less difficulty finding and keeping
a job than her male or transgender
counterparts.
“I’m lucky, because I can pretty much
go unnoticed. The ones who have the
most trouble are gay guys and transgender people,” she says. “Where I went
to university, I knew someone who
was gay. He wasn’t able to find work
even though we’d gone to a very good
university and our field was very much
in demand; everyone in my graduating
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class got work except for him. You can
imagine, there are people who have a
really difficult time because of this. For
transgender people, prostitution is the
only option.” It’s an option with its own
dangers, of course, as prostitution and
consensual sex out of wedlock are both
crimes in Morocco.
“One of the reasons people condemn
homosexuality is because people associate it with prostitution, because
some people use it for prostitution,”
Nadya adds.
Fortunately, unlike in some southern
African countries, violence and death
threats are not part of daily life for
these activists.
But other forms of intimidation can
be scary, especially for trans people
and those who don’t dress according
to gender norms.
“There is violence; it’s verbal above
all, but it can be physical,” Nadya says.
“I personally haven’t had to deal with
any violence, but I had a girlfriend
whose orientation was very visible,
and people would call her ‘brother’ in
the street; it was really quite scary.
“If you do get physically attacked, the
people who attack you have absolute
impunity. Because the law does not protect you, you can’t go file a complaint
with the police. It’s like being an illegal
immigrant. Because there’s no law; it’s
the law of the jungle.”
Despite the Arab Spring and the
increasing liberties taken by other
minority groups in the country — for
example, atheist groups who have become increasingly visible — the young
activists can’t imagine a Pride in the
streets of Marrakesh or Tangier anytime soon.
“We want to get together, to mobilize
and to tell people that we are normal,
that being homosexual is not a psychological disorder,” Nadya says. “We need
to work things out with our families,
our friends and ourselves before starting a movement. Are we ready for the
consequences of rejection?”
For Nouri, the Arab Spring has
planted a welcome seed of dissent in
the public sphere in Morocco. If atheists and religious dissenters now dare
to eat in public during Ramadan, how
unrealistic is a public LGBT event?
“It’s still impossible under the law,”
he says, “but people have become more
courageous. People are starting to fight
for good causes; there is a little seed
of a movement. Now we can express
ourselves better. Nothing concrete has
changed, but we can say, ‘We’re here,
we exist.’”
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18 NOV 14–27, 2013 XTRA!
Softly gentleman-like
Four same-sex couples file lawsuit
challenging Idaho’s gay marriage ban
From bed-hopping to mountain-climbing
with Anne Lister
HISTORY BOYS
JEREMY WILLARD
I’m not ashamed to
say it: recently, while
snuggled up in my big tub with
a cup of tea, I watched a lesbian
melodrama. It was The Secret Diaries
of Miss Anne Lister. I had just spent
several days researching Lister and
thought a drama based on her life
would be a pleasant conclusion to my
studies. I was disappointed that the
film shows a one-dimensional Lister,
motivated only by her lusts. The film
seems to fall into a trap we might all
easily fall into: reducing Lister to her
many sexual exploits.
Lister (1791–1840) was born
in the English town of Halifax,
West Yorkshire. She inherited her
family seat, Shibden Hall, in 1826
and worked hard to improve the
property, including adding a Gothic
tower and opening a successful coal
mine. But what’s caught people’s
attention most of all is the content of
her diaries.
Most of the more than four million
words she wrote deal with national
events and her business and academic interests, but about a sixth of
the diary was written in a code combining algebra, numbers and Greek.
When eventually deciphered, it
revealed a lifetime of lesbian desires
and experiences. When she wrote
“kiss,” it meant orgasm, “connection
with the ladies” meant lesbianism,
and “going to Italy” meant sex. She
famously wrote, “I love & only love
the fairer sex & thus beloved by them
in turn, my heart revolts from any
love but theirs.”
Her first experience was at
boarding school, Manor House,
with a girl named Eliza Raine. When
Lister was 19 she began a sexual
relationship with Isabella Norcliffe.
In 1812, Norcliffe introduced Lister
to Marianna Belcombe. Lister
ditched Norcliffe for Belcombe,
fell in love, but was distressed
when Belcombe, because of family
pressure and for financial reasons,
married a widower named Charles
Lawton. However, the two women
didn’t stop seeing one another.
Lister considered herself married
to Belcombe, but not monogamously,
and soon resumed sleeping with
Norcliffe. She also seduced at least
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While many reduce Anne Lister to her sexual exploits, she was also a smart
businesswoman and a record-breaking mountain climber. ERIC WILLIAMS
one of Belcombe’s sisters, also named
Anne. Lister wrote, “Talking... but
then got more loving. Kissed her, told
her I had a pain in my knees — my
expression to her for desire — & saw
plainly she liked me & would yield
again, without much difficulty, to
opportunity & importunity.” By 1824,
Lister was also making frequent
trips to Paris to see another of her
partners, Maria Barlow.
In 1825, Lister and Belcombe had a
sort of secret wedding. Lister wrote,
“Marianna put me on a new watch
riband & then cut the hair from her
queer [genitals] & I that from mine,
which she put each into the little
lockets... for us always to wear under
our clothes in mutual remembrance.
We both of us kissed each bit of hair
before it was put into the locket.”
It’s pleasantly steamy, but it’s easy
to forget there’s anything beyond
the steam. While her relationships
are important in helping to show
that she was living a lesbian life in
a more modern sense, it’s not just
her bed-hopping that now causes
some to call her “the first modern
lesbian.” Lister cultivated a mannish
demeanour and maintained it
in the face of the prejudice of
her neighbours, who called her
Gentleman Jack. When she was 27,
she wrote, “The people generally
remark, as I pass along, how much
I am like a man... three men said
as usual, ‘That’s a man’ & one
asked ‘Does your cock stand?’” She
describes her demeanour elsewhere
in her journals: “Yet my manners are
certainly peculiar, not all masculine
but rather softly gentleman-like. I
know how to please this fair maiden
of mine.”
She not only “married” whom
she pleased, but was fiercely
independent and had an adventurous
nature — oh, did I mention the
mountains? While travelling with
her final partner, Anne Walker,
whom she also considered herself
married to, Lister became the first
woman to climb two mountains in
the Pyrenees: Mont Perdu, in 1830,
and Vignemale, in 1838. At a time
when most lesbians were forced to
hide themselves, and English tourists
visited the mountains mainly to
recuperate in resorts, Lister was
setting records. I don’t remember
seeing that in the film.
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XTRA! NOV 14–27, 2013 19
C R E AT ED A N D
P ER FO R M ED BY
D A M I E N AT K I N
S
PA U L D U N N
ANDREW KUSH
NI
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D I R EC T ED BY
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RAN
TH E G H P CO LL
E C T IV E
I N A S S O C I AT I O
N
WITH
BU DDIES IN BA
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TR
P
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design by lightupthesky.ca | photo of Paul Dunn by Tanja-Tiziana, doublecrossed.ca
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Out in the City
I was viscerally surprised by the amount
of outrage it awoke in me. Paul Dunn E26
Uncovering Thom Allison
Thom Allison may be the hottest thing
on the stage right now, but he has a
tough time wrapping his head around
it. “It’s good! It’s weird. What else is
there? It’s great to have people thinking
that, but you know — back to the show!
Maybe it’ll get me more and more interesting work. It’s lovely and flattering.”
He certainly has been getting more
interesting work. Allison is part of
the all-star lineup for Acting Up Stage
Company’s new show, UnCovered: Sting
& The Police, based on the songs and
lyrics of Sting. “The thought of taking
something that is known and changing
the context of it, that’s really what this
event is,” Allison says. “What’s great,
and what I love, is that these are songs
people know really well, but we show
a personal version of the song; it’s a
fresh take on a classic. It’s a whole and
complete experience that is so fresh.
People will get to really hear the lyrics
and what they’re really saying. There’s
a lot of ‘I’ve never heard this before! I
Thom Allison takes on the songs of
Sting. DREW ROWSOME
understand this now!’
“The one I’ve been singing and fell
in love with is ‘Mad About You.’ It’s so
complicated and interesting and has
so much poetry, and I’m drawn to a
narrative with a real emotional line.”
Beyond UnCovered, Allison is prepar-
ing for his own cabaret show — Shut
Up, It’s Christmas! — at the end of
November. “I’m not very idle,” he says,
chuckling. “I don’t settle very well. The
show is hilarious, and so ridiculous —
can I really do this for people in public?
But it tickles me, so I think others will
enjoy it as well. It’s very kooky and crazy
and campy and fun.”
Before Allison gets back to rehearsals, we ask the hard-hitting question:
if he had to adopt one of Sting’s signature items — tight leather pants or
a too-small T-shirt — which would he
choose? “Oh god. Leather pants are
too much on my ass, and the T-shirt
wouldn’t highlight anything on me.
I’ll find my own version of what Sting
wears.” — Andrew Jacome
UnCovered: Sting & The Police
Mon, Nov 18, 8pm
Koerner Hall
273 Bloor St W
actingupstage.com
OTTAWA, HERE I COME
Forte: The Toronto Men’s Chorus is holding its upcoming
cabaret in Erotico, the upstairs performance space at the
strip club Flash. While the downstairs is men-only, for the
purposes of this performance Erotico will be accessible via
a separate entrance and female patrons will be allowed in.
“I won’t have an erection while I’m singing, but I’m a real
hand talker, so there’ll probably be some gesturing,” says cohost Vince Ciarlo. “I’ll be doing a solo called ‘My Unfortunate
Erection’ from the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.”
The cabaret, called Broadway, Here I Come, will fund
Forte’s trip to Ottawa for the 2014 Unison Festival, Canada’s
gay choral festival. The evening will feature solos, duets
and ensemble performances, including “The Internet Is
for Porn,” from Avenue Q, and hits from Cabaret, Chicago
and Oklahoma.
Every year the choir does two large, formal concerts — one
at Christmas and one in the spring — as well as a cabaret
preview for the spring show. The Erotico show breaks the
routine not only because it’s above a strip club and features
only Broadway hits, but also because it’s not one of Forte’s
annually scheduled performances and will therefore be far
more casual — no tuxedos allowed.
Ciarlo seems to be the chief architect of the Broadway
theme. “My neighbour tells people that every time she walks
by my apartment I have show tunes blaring,” he says. “The
title, Broadway, Here I Come, comes from a song in the
The Toronto men’s chorus will perform their
new show in a strip club.
second season of Smash. If you read the lyrics, it’s all about
making a leap to being a Broadway star, so once we decided
on the Broadway theme, we thought it’d be a perfect song
to open with.”
The space can’t accommodate the entire 40-voice choir,
so the show will feature only the most Broadway-obsessed
members and special guests, including cabaret singer Sherry
Sylvain and drag legend Michelle DuBarry. —Jeremy Willard
Broadway, Here I Come is Fri, Nov, 15, 8pm at Erotico,
461 Church St. forte-chorus.com
BENT BEAUTY SUPREME
Queer people love a beauty queen.
Whether we’re cheering on an archly
avant-garde RuPaul’s Drag Race
contestant, a catch-phrase-spewing
Honey Boo Boo hopped on go-go
juice, or a Miss America contestant
who can’t spell her own name, there’s
just something about a competition
to crown the “fairest of them all” that
is so camp, so earnest and so glamorous that it can’t help but demand
queer adulation. So, it should come
as no surprise that Toronto is about
to play host to a new queer beauty
pageant, although the beauty it celebrates is deliciously outside the norm.
Toronto Bent Beauty Supreme:
A Busted Beauty Pageant is the
brainchild of Sigourney Beaver,
Cherry Piqued and Joe Blow, part
of the team behind west-end tradition Steers & Queers. A gay country
night in Toronto is the kind of idea
that could be a total train wreck, but
it’s actually one of the most consistently fun parties in the city. So
how about a beauty pageant that
pits drag queens against gay rap-
pers and boylesque hunks against
burlesque divas? That’s the twist at
the heart of Bent Beauty Supreme;
while categories like beachwear,
talent and formal wear are cookiecutter classics, the contestants are
a diverse lineup of local weirdos, including James and the Giant Pasty,
ManChyna, Fay Slift, Beever, Nancy
Bocock, Belle Jumelles and Axel
Blows, and they’re all competing
for the same tiara — not to mention
$500 cash. “It’s going to be a shit
show,” Beaver says. “God willing.”
Taking its cue from Toronto’s infamous Miss General Idea Pageants,
Bent Beauty Supreme promises to
be a night of uncompromising, ravishing beauty in every flavour under
the sun. Best of all, proceeds from
the event are going to Rainbow Railroad, a group that supports queer
refugees. What a beautiful idea! –
Johnnie Walker
Toronto Bent Beauty Supreme is Fri,
Nov 15, 10pm at the Gladstone Hotel,
1214 Queen St W. gladstonehotel.com
XTRA! NOV 14–27, 2013 21
Saye, Saye, Saye what you want
Poet, spoken
word and rap
artist Saye Sky
wins inaugural
Telus Award
SERAFIN LARIVIERE
UP AND COMING
“In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals
like in your country. In Iran, we do not
have this phenomenon. I don’t know
who has told you we have that.”
When ex-Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spewed forth those
words during his disastrous 2007 speaking tour of the United States, it confirmed what many of us had long feared
for our brothers and sisters in the Middle
East. Not only were these women and
men being hunted, tortured, imprisoned
and executed, but apparently their very
existence was to be obliterated from the
country of their birth.
To imagine living under such horrific
conditions is nearly impossible here in
relatively tolerant Canadian society. It
would be easy to shy away from these
disheartening stories were it not for
the brave queer voices shouting above
the homophobic din.
Saye Sky is one of those voices. This
astonishingly talented poet, spoken
word and rap artist is making waves
internationally with both her music and
her activism on behalf of the oppressed
in her home country of Iran.
Sky was just 13 years old when she began writing about the rights of women,
children and the LGBT community — a
HH Theatre presents:
Saye Sky is making waves internationally through her music and activism on behalf of the oppressed in her home country
of Iran. ANGIE ARAND
veritable trifecta of punishable offences
in a land ruled by men.
In 2009 she released her first single,
a blistering song about lesbian rights
in Iran called “Shadow of an Iranian
Woman.” Of course, this didn’t go over
well with authorities, forcing her to seek
refuge in Turkey before she was finally
granted asylum here in Canada.
“I didn’t want to leave Iran,” says Sky,
FEAR
and
DESIRE
(and the
whole da
mn thing
)
Enjoy an amazing triple-bill of
queer mystery, comedy and more!
22 NOV 14–27, 2013 XTRA!
who now makes her home in Toronto.
“I had a girlfriend from Vancouver who
was supposed to come and live with me,
but everything changed after I released
my first song.”
Until then, Sky had enjoyed a relatively safe life as a university student
in her home city of Tehran. It was there
that she took her first steps out of the
closet and found that there were others
who bucked Iran’s official position on
homosexuality.
“When I was in university we had a
lot of lesbians, and no one would care
or say anything. But in the older generation you never hear about it, like
it doesn’t exist. In every single family
there’s someone who’s gay, woman or
man. The LGBT population in Iran is
extremely high, and it’s so funny that
the government says there are no lesbians or gays or transgender in Iran. It’s
so ridiculously funny.”
Sadly, Sky’s parents weren’t as supportive as her university friends. Her
mother and father remained clueless
until Sky took the final step of publicly stating her sexuality. In front of
a camera.
“I came out on TV,” she says. “There
is a program called VOA Persian. It is so
famous in Iran, and everyone watches it.
It was the first time somebody showed
up as a homosexual. I’m pretty sure
they saw it.”
She’s had no contact with her parents
since leaving in 2009, something that
makes her sad despite the dramatic
improvement in her personal safety.
“You have to sacrifice to get something more important and bigger in
your life, and I sacrificed a lot for my
freedom. Now I have the microphone
in my hand, and I’m so free. When I go
to bed I’m not afraid of any noise. I’m
not afraid of the government any more
and I can sleep at night.”
Sky was recently awarded the inaugural Telus Newcomer Artist Award,
a distinction that recognizes her work
both as an artist and an activist. The
prize was $10,000, but for Sky the real
reward was in the validation and increased visibility of her work.
“I think I want to be a role model
for a lot of girls who live in the Middle
East,” she says. “Those countries where
women are so oppressed and they’ve
been told they can’t do anything.
“The freedom that I have here is
priceless, absolutely priceless. I can
walk on the street holding my girlfriend’s hand, and no one would care.
I’m not afraid any more.”
Follow Sky on Twitter @sayesky.
Nov. 28–Dec. 1, 2013
Buddies in Bad Times Theatre
Tickets: $20 Call the Box Office at
416-975-8555 or online at:
www.buddiesinbadtimes.com/tickets
Two queer plays,
performances and more!
Hosted by Keith Cole!
5 SHOWS ONLY
XTRA! NOV 14–27, 2013 23
T–
FAS
UT
GO
LIN
SEL
!
OW
YN
BU
Messiah
“…one of the best Messiahs
I have ever heard.” – THE GLOBE AND MAIL
American style
Philadelphia
cheese steak
sandwiches
All sandwiches
made with
AA Ribeye
DIRECTED BY IVARS TAURINS
Emma Kirkby, soprano | Laura Pudwell, mezzo-soprano
Colin Balzer, tenor | Tyler Duncan, baritone
Handel
MESSIAH
at Koerner Hall
I WENT TO
PHILLY
Two
pornstars,
one photo
shoot, one
million views
WE HAVE
Dec 18–21 at 7:30pm
Koerner Hall
TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning, 273 Bloor Street West
Tickets: 416.408.0208
Sing-Along
MESSIAH
Massey Hall Sun Dec 22 at 2pm
462 YONGE STREET, NORTH OF COLLEGE
Open ‘til 3am Fri & Sat
416.927.9090
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Snap out of it!
Curing the
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Every year, November
rolls around and it sucks. I’m usually the
happy-go-lucky, positive-vibes type, but
November is my once-a-year mope-fest,
and every year my thought process goes
something like this: Halloween is dunzo,
as is decent weather. Christmas and
New Year’s Eve seem so far away, at the
other end of a looooong stretch of grey,
cold, probably wet and gusty days. Why
bother doing your hair for a date when
it’ll get blown to hell and be soaked
by the time you get to 7 West? Let’s
be honest, who’s got a date anyway?
That dude from online lost interest,
exes should stay exes, and if there was
anyone around worth dating, you would
have met them already. Even if you were
dating someone, is there anything to do
that you haven’t done already? Either
way, you’d be stuck taking TTC to get
there; as anyone who ever takes the TTC
knows, that means you’d get there late
and annoyed.
Clearly, the best option is to stay
home, hide behind a pint or 10 of ice
cream and wait out the season watching Golden Girls on TV. Oh, it’s not on
TV anymore? Channel surfing shows
Rob Ford’s mug every other second.
Does he really count as Can-con? The
round-the-clock Ford follies on CP24
are draining, so maybe a quick trip to
the library sounds good. Wait, you still
have a fine from when you borrowed
Les Misérables last year after the movie
came out and didn’t finish it because
it was 1,488 pages of characters getting killed and failing in their goals. Is
the movie on Netflix? Maybe people
getting killed and failing in their goals
while singing about it isn’t the best
watch. Hey, isn’t the musical playing?
It sure is, at $130 a pop, which you
totally can’t afford. Maybe that dude
from online is still interested... will
just one more message really make you
look that desperate? Ouch. Blocked.
416.926.9806
[email protected]
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November is Ryan G Hinds’s mope-fest month, which calls for the Cher treatment.
Well, guess that’s a no. So, to wit: online
dude thinks you’re a stalker; Russell
Crowe singing, failing and dying is
just as watchable as it sounds; Dorothy
Zbornak exists only on DVD; the world
is a cold, lonely, expensive, depressing
place... and it’s only mid-November.
When I get like this, it’s time for the
Cher treatment. That “thwack” sound
is the sound of a really good backhand.
What was Cher’s line in Moonstruck?
“Snap out of it!” Say it out loud. Write
it on your bathroom mirror. Put it on
a sticker. I’m going to take my own
advice and do the same, and I’m going
to do it because there’s no excuse for
mopiness, either my own or yours!
November might be one of those weird
seasonal transitional months, but that
doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Use it
for personal growth and go play. Get a
haircut that won’t get tempest-tossed.
Instead of Les Misérables, pick up some
of the $45 Aladdin tickets floating
around — or go see cheaper theatre
anywhere else! If your library fines are
embarrassing (and frankly, mine are a
lost cause; I expect the library police on
my doorstep any time now), get thee to
Glad Day’s sale rack or haunt your local
Chapters... those chairs were made
for sitting and reading! I will never say
that ice cream and sitcoms is anything
but a good thing, but keep your energy
up with regular trips to the YMCA;
whether you’re doing easy treadmill/
bicycle or a demanding aerobics class
or team sports, getting your blood
flowing and your joints and muscles in
motion will help keep the blues at bay.
As for the social factor? Puhh-lease.
Only boring people get bored, and
that’s a fact. Go clubbing! Fly has a
new Saturday night format and you
can tell Michael or Gilles I sent you.
DJ Relentless has every Friday night
in The Zone at Crews & Tangos and
the monthly Poz TO parties in the same
space. Retro Night on Sundays at Zipperz is always, always a good time, as
is Miss Conception’s Sunday show at
Woody’s (where you should catch her
before she flies south for the winter).
Further south on Church, Club120
always has a full calendar of parties,
from hot guys in underwear to a Janet
Jackson tribute to T-girl nights and
mixed queer dance parties.
Want to get away from the Village?
Go east to WAYLA and holler at owner
Brian Duval or west to one of the Henhouse’s drag nights and holler with the
queens. Check out the Brazil Film Fest,
starting Nov 28.
There are so many things going on as
we get closer to holiday season there’s
no excuse to hermit yourself away. I’m
determined to shake off the shackles
of my November doldrums... and if
anyone sees me looking dour, you have
full permission to give me the Cher
treatment. Don’t be gentle!
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XTRA! NOV 14–27, 2013 25
Homo heritage minutes
The Gay Heritage
Project makes a
complex history
personal
CHRIS DUPUIS
THEATRE
Choosing The Gay Heritage Project as a
title for their current theatrical offering
wasn’t an act of laziness for creators
Damien Atkins, Paul Dunn and Andrew
Kushnir. Rather, it acknowledges the
inherent complexities and problems in
the monstrous task they’ve undertaken.
Neither a comprehensive overview of
queer identity through the ages nor a
conclusive account of what it means to
be gay today, the project is more a way
for the creators to identify a lineage and
situate themselves somewhere within it.
“There’s no word that accurately
puts a finger on the people we’re looking for through history,” Atkins says.
“‘Homosexual’ doesn’t go back far
enough. ‘Queer’ isn’t a word everyone
we’re looking at would identify with.
We settled on ‘gay’ because it’s the word
we use in our own lives, and we started
this exploration from a personal place
because that’s what we know best.”
“Using the word heritage meant we
also had to use the word project in
recognition that it’s ongoing and everevolving,” Dunn adds. “We’ve come to
embrace heritage as an activity, rather
than simply a concept.”
The work’s earliest flickerings developed during another theatrical process:
Hannah Moscovitch’s East of Berlin.
Cast to play the gay son of a Nazi war
criminal in the show, Dunn decided to
research the treatment of homosexuals
under the Third Reich and came upon
Heinz Heger’s 1980 book The Men with
the Pink Triangle.
“I was viscerally surprised by the
amount of outrage it awoke in me,”
Dunn says. “Maybe because it was in
the context of theatrical research, my
first impulse was to connect with these
guys to make something.”
For their part, Atkins and Kushnir
had early reservations.
“I was curious but not propelled the
way Paul was,” Atkins admits. “But all
these years later, the work feels incredibly vital and indispensable to my life.”
“I wasn’t terribly excited, originally,”
Kushnir adds. “I’ve never met another
gay Ukrainian-Canadian, and trying to
26 NOV 14–27, 2013 XTRA!
Damien Atkins, Paul Dunn and Andrew Kushnir are
the creators of The Gay Heritage Project. TANJA-TIZIANA
search out some rich history I wasn’t
convinced existed only underlined how
alone I was. What became enticing was
the act of imagination in exploring
the ways we’re connected to other gay
people. It was also important that we’re
openly gay artists who are interested in
talking about that. It’s not a footnote
to our creative identities. It’s part of
our marrow.”
The research process, aided extensively by dramaturge Paul Halferty, included scouring libraries and archives
and interviewing local and international
community members knowledgeable
about the subject matter. Working in
a community spirit, they also set up a
booth during Pride, inviting passersby
to share their thoughts on the subject.
They then began developing material
using vocal masque, a highly athletic and
playful form of performance storytelling.
After creating nearly four hours of content, they began the task of chiselling it
down to a neat 90 minutes. The result is a
collage of overlapping scenes, where each
performer plays numerous characters.
They step into The Wizard of Oz, put
the HIV virus on trial and interview
Peter Worthington, the now-deceased
journalist who helmed the Toronto Sun
during the 1981 Toronto bathhouse
raids. They have a dialogue with a man
in a concentration camp, perform an
excerpt from Brian Orser’s 1987 World
Championship–winning long program
and impersonate Margaret Atwood.
So how do they go from an admittedly
incomplete list of gay history bullet still a kind of gay soul you can look for,
points to a meaningful definition of which may not be anchored in those
gay heritage? The answer is fuzzy but events but is still valid.”
depends on relating history to the presIf any conclusion can be reached, it’s
ent moment as well as the future of the that there is rising interest in the subject;
community.
they point to recent productions of semi“History includes facts, dates and nal gay works The Normal Heart and Anevents,” Dunn says. “You can put them gels in America, as well as the explosion
on paper but not necof websites dedicated to
essarily know how it
the theme.
THE GAY HERITAGE
PROJECT
connects to you. Heri“This play doesn’t
Sun, Nov 17–Sun, Dec 8
tage is the process of
give any absolutes about
Buddies in Bad Times Theatre
making this personal.”
whether gay heritage
12 Alexander St
buddiesinbadtimes.com
“History can be very
concretely exists,” Kushdisappointing because
nir says. “But what resoyou’re left feeling that gay people like nates with me is defending the right to
us, the ones who’ve formed an identity search it. When you feel like you don’t
around their desire, haven’t existed for even have that possibility, that’s what
that long,” Kushnir adds. “But there’s becomes truly problematic.”
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XTRA! NOV 14–27, 2013 27
WHAT'S ON
FOR MORE EVENT LISTINGS, GO TO DAILYXTRA.COM
ARTS & LITERATURE
Gay Men’s Art Project
Artists of all skill levels drop in to
create and schmooze in an informal
environment. Mon, Nov 18, 6–8pm.
The 519 Community Centre, 519
Church St. Free. gmaptoronto.org
Singular Sensation: A
Musical-Theatre Open Mic
Jennifer Walls invites amateur
crooners to perform their favourite
songs accompanied by a live band.
Every Monday, 9:30pm–12:30am.
Statlers, 487 Church St. No cover.
statlers.ca
Book Launch:
Compared to Hitler
Hypnotixxx: A Slightly
Naughty Comedy
Hypnosis Show
The launch of author and critic
RM Vaughan’s new book features
a lively discussion with the author
on media, print and journalism.
Wed, Nov 20, 7pm. Buddies in
Bad Times, 12 Alexander St. Free.
Brandon the Hypnotist takes
audience volunteers on a risqué
and slightly rude jaunt into the
subconscious. Wed, Nov 20,
7:30pm. The Flying Beaver, 488
Parliament St. $10 advance, $15
door. pubaret.com
David Bowie Is
Queer as Fuck:
Comedy Open-Mic
This exhibit features hundreds of
objects and costumes from Bowie’s
personal archive and a multimedia
presentation on his contributions
to arts and culture. Runs until Wed,
Nov 27. Art Gallery of Ontario, 317
Dundas St W. $21.50 and up. ago.net
COMEDY & CABARET
Broadway, Here I Come
Forte: The Toronto Men’s Chorus
holds its first-ever Broadway-only
cabaret. Fri, Nov 15, 8pm. Erotico,
461 Church St. PWYC–$10.
forte-chorus.com
Taming of the
Shrew — 1803
Danforth Ave,
Thurs, Nov 14
The creator of Laughs at Slack’s
presents a twice-monthly comedy
night in the west end. Featuring
Laura DiLabio, Brian Finch and
Shannon McDonough. Wed, Nov 20,
9:30pm. The Steady Café, 1051 Bloor
St W. PWYC. thesteadycafe.com
Mini-Mused Fundraiser
A cabaret-style benefit for local
charities. Featuring Melissa Azore,
Kalsen Cheung, Katherine Janicki and
Sara Minx, with Philippe Escayola on
piano. Sat, Nov 23, 9pm. The Flying
Beaver, 488 Parliament St. $10
advance, $15 door. pubaret.com
HEALTH & ISSUES
Pups and Handlers —
Black Eagle, Fri, Nov 22
The 519 Legal Clinic
A free, accessible service for lowincome people. Volunteer lawyers
provide legal advice, referrals and
help with forms and letters. The
confidential and private visits
are first-come, first-served. Bring
any necessary documents. Every
Thursday; registration 6–6:30pm.
The 519 Community Centre, 519
Church St. Free. the519.org
FTM Support Group
Trans men share their experiences
in a supportive environment. Takes
place the first and third Friday of each
month. For more information, contact
[email protected]. Fri, Nov 15,
7:30pm. The 519 Community Centre,
519 Church St. Free. the519.org
Positive Routes
to Recovery
A peer-led support group for gay
men working through substance
abuse issues. Takes place the first
and third Tuesday of each month.
Tues, Nov 19, 6–8pm. The 519
Community Centre, 519 Church St.
Free. pr2r.org
LGBTQ Peer Support
Drop-In Group
Queer people with mood disorders
gather for support and discussion. If
the building door is locked, press the
button under the intercom near the
wheelchair entrance. Wed, Nov 20,
7–9pm. Mood Disorders Association
of Ontario, 36 Eglinton Ave W, Ste
602. Free. mooddisorders.ca
transphobic violence. Wed, Nov 20,
7pm. The 519 Community Centre,
519 Church St. Free. the519.org
Bisexual Men of Toronto
A peer-support and discussion group
focused on community and solidarity.
Tues, Nov 26, 8–9:30pm. Sherbourne
Health Centre, Room 1077, 333
Sherbourne St. Free. torontobinet.org
A Storm of Sequins: Game
of Thrones Burlesque II
Fantasy-literature lovers indulge in a
night of Daenerys humping amid the
Dothraki and Jon Snow’s travails in
the Night’s Watch. Sat, Nov 23, 9pm.
Lee’s Palace, 529 Bloor St W. $20
advance, $25 door. gotburlesque2.
eventbrite.com
Trans Day of
Remembrance
LEISURE & PLEASURE
Folks of every stripe gather for this
annual memorial commemorating
those lost to or affected by
LGBTQ+ Garden Group
Sapphic Aquatica:
Nookie in November
Vegetation enthusiasts take part
in some rooftop gardening. To
register, contact Imrosovsky@
accessalliance.ca. Tues, Nov 19,
5–7pm. AccessPoint, 3079 Danforth
Ave. Free. accessalliance.ca
Women and trans people enjoy a
sauna, outdoor heated pool, plush
playrooms and the music of DJ
Dollface. Tues, Nov 26, 8pm–2am.
Oasis Aqualounge, 231 Mutual St.
$20. oasisaqualounge.com
Out and Out Club New
Members’ Night
Anal Play: Butts,
Prostates, Penetration
and Pleasure
The queer social club introduces
potential members to its broad range
of activities. Sessions are held the third
Tuesday of each month. Tues, Nov 19,
7–8pm. The 519 Community Centre,
519 Church St. Free. outandout.ca
SEX & BURLESQUE
Kink 201
Carrie Gray invites people of all
genders and orientations to expand
their BDSM repertoire in such
areas as rope bondage, flogging
and sensory deprivation. Preregistration recommended. Tues,
Nov 19, 7–9:30pm. Good for Her, 175
Harbord St. $33. goodforher.com
The New Wave Night:
Pups and Handlers
Puppy boys and their owners enjoy
a safe, sexy environment with likeminded people. Features a dungeon
and information related to puppy
role-play. Fetish wear is encouraged
but not compulsory. Fri, Nov 22,
28 NOV 14–27, 2013 XTRA!
10pm. Black Eagle, 457 Church St.
No cover. blackeagletoronto.com
A workshop where people of
all genders, orientations and
experience levels can learn how
to maximize anal pleasure. Preregistration recommended. Wed,
Nov 27, 7–9:30pm. Good for Her, 175
Harbord St. $33. goodforher.com
THEATRE & DANCE
The All-Female
Taming of the Shrew
Shakespeare’s funniest and most
controversial comedy is performed
by an all-female cast. For more
information, contact jacqui.
[email protected].
Thurs, Nov 14–Sat, Nov 30, various
showtimes. 1803 Danforth Ave.
$22, $15 students and seniors.
jaybirdproductions.ca
The Gay Heritage Project
Damien Atkins, Paul Dunn and Andrew
Kushnir uncover a hilarious and rich
history when they attempt to answer
the question “Is there such a thing as
gay heritage?” Sun, Nov 17–Sun, Dec
8, various showtimes. Buddies in Bad
Times, 12 Alexander St. PWYC–$37.
Speak, Love
Brendan Wyatt and Sasha
Ivanochko perform a dance duet
that explores differing views on love.
Wyatt is nude from the waist down
for the entire performance. Runs
Thurs, Nov 21–Sat, Nov 23, various
showtimes. Winchester Street
Theatre, 80 Winchester St. $17.50–
20. blackandbluedanceprojects.ca
Fear and Desire (and
the Whole Damn Thing)
A three-act evening, with the
mystery play Stiff, the queer comedy
classic People Are Horrible Wherever
You Go, and a performance featuring
three young artists. Runs Thurs, Nov
28–Sun, Dec 1, various showtimes.
Buddies in Bad Times, 12 Alexander
St. $20. buddiesinbadtimes.com
The Woman in Black
When a junior solicitor is sent to Eel
Marsh House to attend to the affairs
of a recently deceased woman, he
is unaware of the house’s tragic
secrets or the terrible purpose of
a young woman dressed in black.
Runs until Sun, Dec 1, various
showtimes. Lower Ossington
Theatre, 100 Ossington Ave. $39–
49. lowerossingtontheatre.com
Les Misérables
Cameron Mackintosh’s new
production of the musical about
the redemption of ex-convict Jean
Valjean. Features the stirring songs
“I Dreamed a Dream” and “Do You
Hear the People Sing?” Runs until
Sun, Feb 2, various showtimes.
Princess of Wales Theatre, 300
King St W. $35–130. mirvish.com
CLUBSCENE
Crews & Tangos Saturday
Superfly Saturday in Tangos, with DJ
Quinces, and DJ Craig Dominic in the
Zone. 10pm. Crews & Tangos, 508
Church St. $5. crewsandtangos.com
Random Play All ’70s and ’80s
disco, yacht rock, new wave and
more, with DJ Dwayne Minard and
guests. 10pm. WAYLA Bar, 996
Queen St E. No cover. waylabar.com
Fly Saturday DJs Shawn Riker and
Josh Karmin spins hard house beats
all night. 10pm. Fly, 8 Gloucester
St. No cover before midnight.
flynightclub.com
Go Deep Deep house music all
night long with the Mighty Real DJs,
John Caffery and The Robotic Kid.
10pm. WAYLA Bar, 996 Queen St E.
$5. waylabar.com
The Dirty Hustle DJ Blackcat spins
old- and nu-school hip hop and
R&B every Thursday night. 10pm.
The Steady Café and Bar, 1051 Bloor
St W. No cover. facebook.com/
thesteadycafebar
Sissyboy Hissyfit DJ Orange
Pekoe on decks, with a midnight
performance by Humboldt J
Magnussen. 11pm. The Beaver, 1192
Queen St W. $5. beavertoronto.com
Uncle Dickie’s Kerne and Angus
host the deep and tech house,
techno and disco event, with DJ
Feryl and guest on decks. 10pm.
Black Eagle, 457 Church St. $5.
blackeagletoronto.com
El Convento Rico Saturday
Dancing and drag show, with Charo
Batista, and DJ Danny Casto on
decks. 10pm. El Convento Rico, 750
College St W. $5. elconventorico.com
Fly Saturday DJs Quinces
and William Bhall throw down
house and tech beats. Hosted by
Felipe Caputo. 10pm–5am. Fly,
8 Gloucester St. No cover before
midnight. flynightclub.com
Sun, Nov 17
Woody’s Sunday Hollywoody
Broadway Show, with Miss
Conception, at 6pm; Old School,
with Georgie Girl, Michelle Ross
and Amanda Roberts, at 9pm; Five
Smokin Hot Divas, with Georgie
Girl, Devine Darlin, Brooke Lynn
Hytes, Teran Blake and Saphire,
plus DJ Blue Peter on decks, at 11pm.
Woody’s, 467 Church St. No cover.
woodystoronto.com
Karaoke Hosted by Chris and
Amanda Jean. 10pm. O’Grady’s, 518
Church St. No cover. ogradyschurch.ca
Mon, Nov 18
Go Hard — Club120, Sat, Nov 23 CHRISTOPHER CUSHMAN
Thurs, Nov 14
Ladyplus Party DJ Todd Klinck is
on decks for an evening of meeting
and socializing with T-girls, friends
and admirers. Complete with
spontaneous go-go shows and
private VIP dances. 8pm–2am.
Club120, 120 Church St, 2nd floor. $5
before 11pm, $10 after. club120.ca
Pup Night Argo hosts the monthly
night for pups, handlers and friends
who are into the kinky play. Novices
and experienced players welcome.
Limited gear available to borrow.
10pm. Black Eagle, 457 Church St.
Toronto Drag Kings Tyler Uptight,
Cameron, Kenny and Chase
Manning perform in the weekly drag
king show. Every Wednesday, 11pm
–2am. Zipperz/Cellblock, 72 Carlton
St. No cover. facebook.com/zipperz
Smirnoff Best Chest Contest
Brooke Lynn Hytes and Cassandra
perform and host the sexy pecs
competition, with DJ Mark Falco
on decks and $300 in cash prizes.
Midnight. Woody’s, 467 Church St.
No cover. woodystoronto.com
Fri, Nov 15
Toronto Bent Beauty Supreme
Keith Cole hosts a busted beauty
pageant, with DJs Joe Blow and
Sigourney Beaver on decks.
Contestants Fay Slift, ManChyna,
Axel Blows and more compete in
beachwear, formal wear and talent
segments for cash prizes and the
honour of presiding over the ribboncutting ceremony at the 2014 Inside
Out Film Festival. 10pm–2:30am.
Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen St W.
$10. gladstonehotel.com
Bear Night Hosted by Jimmy, Gus
and Jason on the upper patio every
Friday. 10pm. O’Grady’s, 518 Church
St. No cover. ogradyschurch.ca
Barbershop DJ Michael K spins
Motown, R&B and soul at the new
west-end event. 10pm. Henhouse,
1532 Dundas St W. No cover.
henhousetoronto.com
DFMO DJs John Caffery and The
Robotic Kid spin house and bouncy
dance beats for extreme dancefloor
making out. 10:30pm–2:30am.
Buddies, 12 Alexander St. $5.
Sat, Nov 16
Fit Farewell Jacob party and sexy
sports-gear sale. $10 jockstraps
all night, with DJs Phil V and Kris
Steeves on the decks. Sale 8–11pm,
with proceeds going to the Will
Munro Fund; party at 10pm. The
Beaver, 1192 Queen St W. $5.
beavertoronto.com
Singular Sensation Open Mic
Amateur crooners bring their
favourite showtunes and perform
with a live band every Monday
night. Hosted by Jennifer Walls.
10pm–1am. Statlers, 487 Church St.
No cover.
Tues, Nov 19
Crews & Tangos Tuesday TICOT
Toonie Tuesdays at 9pm; DJ Quinces
spins in Tangos at 10pm; Industry
Night, with Brooke Lynn Hytes and
Vitality Black, at 11:30pm. Crews &
Tangos, 508 Church St. No cover.
crewsandtangos.com
Varsity Tuesday Sofonda Cox
hosts the amateur So You Think You
Can Strip? competition, with a $100
cash prize. 11pm. Remington’s, 379
Yonge St. $5; no cover with student ID
before 11pm, $2 after. remingtons.com
Wed, Nov 20
Toronto Wranglers and Drag
Kings Square dance with the
cowboys, 7–10pm, followed by the
Toronto Drag Kings at 11pm. Zipperz/
Cellblock, 72 Carlton St. No cover.
facebook.com/zipperz
Thurs, Nov 21
Retro Night Dancers and bar staff
gear up in retro threads, and patrons
in ’70s, ’80s and ’90s style have a
chance to win a prize. 5pm–2am.
Remington’s, 379 Yonge St.
remingtons.com
Naked Night Take it all off with
a diverse crowd of men getting to
know each other au naturel. 10pm.
Black Eagle, 457 Church St. No
cover. blackeagletoronto.com
Fri, Nov 22
Sun, Nov 24
Underbear DJ Knight Muzik spins
vocal house and retro for the
underwear party and fundraiser for
the Toronto
People
with AIDS
Crews & Tangos Friday Fierce
and Flawless, with Heroine Marks,
Ivory Towers and Katherine Dior,
at 8:30pm; Indigo Vibes in Tangos,
with DJ Roxanne, and Club Lite
Fridays in the Zone, with DJ
Relentless, both at 10pm;
Bitchapalooza, with
Daytona Bitch and special
guest, at 11:30pm. Crews
& Tangos, 508 Church
St. crewsandtangos.
com
History, Glamour, Magic launch
Celebrate the long-anticipated
launch of the new (and gorgeous)
art book Will Munro: History,
Glamour, Magic. Linger to the beats
of Munro’s various playlists. Special
appearances by guest DJs. 7–11pm.
The Gladstone Hotel ballroom,
1214 Queen St W. No cover.
theagyuisoutthere.org
Miss El Convento Rico Pageant
DJ Kno on decks for the drag queen
competition. 8pm. El Convento Rico,
750 College St W. elconventorico.com
Mon, Nov 25
WAYLA ’90s Trivia Night Kaleb
Robertson and (sometimes) Miss
Fluffy Soufflé test the audience’s
’90s knowledge, covering such
topics as television, music and
dance moves. 7pm. WAYLA
Bar, 996 Queen St E. No cover.
waylabar.com
Tues, Nov 26
Sapphic Aquatica: Nookie
in November DJ Dollface
spins for women and trans
people frolicking in the upscale
sex club. Sorry, no cis men
please. 8pm–2am. Oasis
Aqualounge, 231 Mutual St.
$20. oasisaqualounge.com
Regretro: The
Mustache Party
DJs Ace of Case,
Wei Back and Party
McFly spin classic
retro hits. 10pm.
Henhouse, 1532
Dundas St W. No
cover. henhousetoronto.
com
T-Girl Strippers DJ Todd Klinck
spins at the evening of spontaneous
T-girl pole shows and private VIP
dances. 8pm–2am. Club120, 120
Church St. No cover, $10 fee for allnight access to VIP booths. club120.ca
Pop Friday DJ Sumation spins top
40 and dance faves on the main
floor. Live streaming on outtv.ca.
10pm. Fly, 8 Gloucester St. No
cover before midnight, $4 after.
flynightclub.com
Wed, Nov 27
Crews & Tangos Wednesday
Soul Sistas, with Michelle Ross
and Jada Hudson, at 9pm;
Foreplay, with Farra N Hyte and
special guest, at 11:30pm. Crews &
Tangos, 508 Church St. No cover.
crewsandtangos.com
Sat, Nov 23
Woody’s Saturday The Toronto
Historical Bowling Society’s annual
Christmas party and show, at
3pm. Squirt.org Best Men’s Ass
Contest, with Jada Hudson, DJ Chris
Steinbach and $300 in cash prizes,
at midnight. Woody’s, 467 Church
St. No cover. woodystoronto.com
Woody’s Got Talent Season two
brings more amateur acts to the
stage. 10pm. Woody’s, 467 Church
St. No cover. woodystoronto.com
Cherry Bomb DJs Denise Benson
and Cozmic Cat on decks for queer
women and friends. 9pm–3am.
Andy Poolhall, 489 College St.
No cover before 10pm, $7 after.
facebook.com/cherrybombtoronto
Black Cat Ball Worn fashion
journal launches Issue 17 with a
feline-themed event. Black and
white dress encouraged. 9pm–2am.
Dovercourt House, 805 Dovercourt
Rd. $10 advance, $15 gets a discount
code for Hailo taxi, $20 gets a
discount code for Hailo taxi and a
cat-ear headband. wornjournal.com
Go Hard: Glamity Awards DJs
Blackcat and Pleasure spin reggae,
soca, hip hop and R&B for the
Bashment music/video party, with
the audience voting for hottest
dancehall crew, soca dancer, male
and female fashionista, dancehall
queen, hair affair and sexy tattoo.
10pm. Club120, 120 Church St. $15,
$10 with flyer before midnight.
club120.ca
Foundation, with prize giveaways.
4–9pm. Black Eagle, 457 Church St.
Submit your event listing
to [email protected].
Deadline for the Nov 14
issue is Wed, Nov 6.
Cassandra
Moore
hosts the
Best Chest
Contest —
Woody's,
Thurs, Nov 14
NEIL SILVERMAN
NO COVER!
$14 DAY
$17 NIGHT
BIG JUGS
465-467 CHURCH ST.
416-972-0887
XTRA! NOV 14–27, 2013 29
DEEP DISH
Operanation
THURS, OCT 24 @ THE
FOUR SEASONS CENTRE
Some say the average person’s
attention span has been reduced
dramatically over the last century.
Apparently, we are engaged for
five minutes, tops. Maybe this
explains the rise of video blogging and, perhaps, why the New
York City Opera is now bankrupt.
Once bulging with a $55 million
endowment, its list of benefactors
is shrinking. Tonight, however,
at the Four Seasons Centre, the
still rather new and stately home
of the Canadian Opera Company, our attention is captured
and money seems to be flowing.
As does the wine, the gin, the
vodka and whatever we can pour
down our throats at the sold out
Operanation: A Night of Temptation fundraiser, which funnels
much-needed cash to the COC
Ensemble Studio, Canada’s premier training program for young
opera professionals. Making a
glam entrance are Brendan Canning; Jeremy Laing; the decadent
Dixon brothers, David and Glenn;
and the always standout Suzanne
Rogers, who tonight appears to
have one too many weaves on
her head. But no one can outentrance model Stacey McKenzie,
who slithers in draped in a floorlength fur and promptly proceeds
to the make-your-own-mac-andcheese station. “Nothing gets me
like cheese,” she says, munching,
as cameras click, people point and
crowds part. After the Sam Roberts Band performs and the COC’s
Ambur Braid brings down the roof
(and crashes the glass walls — girl
was on fire!), we sneak inside the
royal box (always reserved for
the British royal family, should
they visit) to pose with a life-sized
cutout of Will and Kate. Perhaps
Prince George will grow up to be a
five-minute tenor. Perhaps.
1E Glenn Dixon & Suzanne Rogers
2E Matt & Steve 3E Michael & Al
4E Francis 5E Jermaine, Tristan &
Michael
For Anna Pournikova's
Xposed column,
visit dailyxtra.com.
30 NOV 14–27, 2013 XTRA!
1
ROLYN
CHAMBERS
PHOTOS BY
TONY FONG
Hell’s Night:
Sharon Needles
WED, OCT 30 @ THE PHOENIX
CONCERT THEATRE
Some say the average gay person’s
attention span has been reduced
dramatically over the last few
months. Apparently, we are engaged for five months, tops. When
Sharon Needles was here just a
few months ago, she packed the
house. Now she headlines the
Phoenix just before Halloween,
and the hallowed hall is not even
half full. Tragic. Not for us (including Miss Conception, Quanah
Style, Judy Virago and others),
but for those who miss out on an
incredible performance. Aside
from her constant want of more
coke, her show is witty, her songs
smart and her voice great. “Drag
queens are not role models,” she
says, tossing a half-finished can
of Pabst Blue Ribbon into the
crowd. “We’re supermodels.” She
points to one man, sans costume,
and entices him with faux compliments. “You’re interesting. Come
here. Who are you? What are you
dressed as?” “Myself,” he beams.
“The scariest costume of all,”
Needles replies, with cunty swish.
His smile fades, but it gets me to
thinking. Being yourself, to many,
is the scariest drag of all. Here
Needles stands, above her admirers, not only in drag, but in clown
drag (her big red nose most likely
packed with powder). She is protected somewhat from reality; not
just by her rubber Ronald McDonald dress and pancake makeup, but
also by the persona she projects.
But then she becomes real, talking
with us about her partner of four
years, her co-star for the night,
Alaska Thunderfuck. Topping her
amazing crowd-surfing from the
bar to the stage, her song “I Wish
I Were Amanda Lepore” brings the
room to its knees. Though Miss
Amanda, who makes a brief appearance onstage, does very little
but sway back and forth in a dress
with straps to keep all that silicone
from slipping, it’s a hauntingly
beautiful ode. And it’s less than
five minutes long. Done.
6E Venus & Tobias Funke
7E Quanah Style & Travis
8E Brendan & Kevin 9E Judy Virago
10E Surfing Sharon Needles
2
4
5
3
6
8
7
10
9
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TORO NTO’ S
GAY & LESB IAN
NEWS
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XTRA! NOV 14–27, 2013 31
A world of gay adventure
Travel
Edible
Key West
Exploring the Conch
Republic one bite at a time
STORY & PHOTOS
BY LESLEY FRASER
As the days get shorter and the temperature drops, Canadians start to daydream
about sunny, southern getaways.
Gay and lesbian foodies should consider an old standby: Key West. Like
Provincetown in the northeast, the continental United States’ southernmost
city was geographically isolated until
well into the 20th century and also became a haven for artists and homos. But
even if it looks a bit like New England,
its lush vegetation, riotous colour and
Spanish feel make it more Caribbean
than Floridian. And as the Conchs, as
the locals are known, like to say, “the
Puritans never made it this far south.”
Maybe that’s why the food’s better.
If you like your travel themed, consider one of the many festivals and
events that fill the calendar, from
the bacchanalian Fantasy Fest to the
Hemingway Days Festival to the annual
fishing tournament. Sadly, the shortlived ChickenFest (which celebrated
the town’s ubiquitous free-roaming
poultry) is no more, but food tourists
have other options.
A highlight is the five-year-old Food
and Wine Festival, which this year
kicks off with a beach party on Jan 22
and runs through the 26th (if you’re really keen, you could start the weekend
before, at the Key Largo and Islamorada Food & Wine Festival). Mustdos include the Let Them Eat Cake
masquerade party at the Green Pineapple boutique; the mile-long Duval
Uncorked, a drinking and eating tour
of the famous strip’s restaurants, shops
and galleries; the Key West Kitchen
32 NOV 14–27, 2013 XTRA!
Tour, which stops at a number of local
restaurants; the Master Chef’s Classic
culinary tasting and competition; and
the wonderful shrimp boil (where you’ll
gorge on the famous Key West pinks) at
the Hogfish Bar & Grill, located one island over at the decidedly down-market
Stock Island shrimp docks. Various
seminars are still being scheduled, but
if chef Martin Liz’s Conch cooking class
is offered, go.
Key West has a number of high-end
food spots — Latitudes, in the Westin
Resort on Sunset Key, is a standout
(their poached lobster on polenta was
voted best main at last year’s Master
Chef ’s competition) — but some of
its best are very casual. Blue Heaven
is famous for its breakfast but also its
key-lime pie, so plan more than one
visit if you’re not the sort who eats pie
in the morning. The shaded patio at the
beautiful Azur restaurant makes for a
relaxing start to the day. Be sure to stop
for Cuban coffee at the 5 Brothers sandwich shop. Their Cuban mix sandwich is
also top-notch, as is El Siboney’s, which
offers a range of authentic Cuban food
in a sit-down environment.
Pepe’s Cafe, established in 1909, is
the oldest restaurant in the Keys, and
its low-key patio is the perfect spot for
an afternoon refresher. The Half Shell
Raw Bar, at the Historic Seaport, has
50-cent oysters at happy hour. East
Coasters craving the accents of home
should brave the cruise-ship crowds
on lower Duval and stop for fritters at
the Conch Shack, run by transplanted
Newfoundlander Matt McKnight; it’s
always open except during the Super
Bowl and hurricanes.
For lunch or dinner, Paseo’s is
Western Union’s cruises, top, sail on one of the oldest working wooden schooners
in the US. Above, participants at Chef Martin Liz’s Conch cooking seminar, offered
at last year’s Food and Wine Festival, learned how to roast a whole pig. Hogfish
Bar & Grill, right, is located on gritty Stock Island, next to the shrimp docks.
renowned for its Caribbean fare,
particularly the fire-roasted corn.
Italian-influenced Salute, sister resto
to Blue Heaven, is right on Higgs Beach
and a great place to drop in after a
swim. Abbondanza is an old-fashioned
Italian-American joint (think eggplant
parm, shrimp scampi, pasta puttanesca) with huge portions.
A visit to Garbo’s Grill is a must, provided they’re not closed because it’s
raining or they went to the beach or
their fish suppliers didn’t deliver. Run
by Eli and Kenna Pancamo, it’s the
only food truck in town; word is that
the loophole they came in through has
been closed and they’ll soon move into
a bricks-and-mortar location, so get
there while you can, just in case any of
the magic is lost. The shrimp and mahimahi tacos are fantastic.
If your sweet tooth calls, stop in at
Getting around
Key West is easily navigated by foot or
on two wheels, so if you arrived by car,
park it and leave it and consider renting
a bike: there are no hills, traffic moves
slowly, drivers are respectful, parking
is free, and with all the booze and food
you’ll be taking in, you’ll want to burn off
some calories. There are lots of shops
to rent from (most offer bikes and mopeds), and many will drop off at and
pick up from hotels. Moped Hospital’s
one-speed cruisers aren’t fancy, but the
big baskets up front are handy and their
rates are among the lowest in town.
A trolley tour is a great way to get an
overview of Key West’s geography and
history. The Conch Tour Train, which offers a 90-minute narrated tour, has been
in operation since 1958. Old Town Trolley
and City View tours let passengers get
on and off at various points, and every
Saturday at 4pm, the slightly cheesy
gay and lesbian trolley tour, operated
by the chamber of commerce, takes
a 70-minute spin through the town’s
queer points of interest.
Where to stay
PEARL’S This charming guesthouse
used to be women-only and is now
“all-welcoming,” but it’s still very
female-centric. Located near the quiet
end of Duval Street, its buildings include
a former cigar factory and the attached
workers’ cottages. The patio bar is a
popular spot for an afternoon drink.
ISLAND HOUSE I can speak only from
hearsay, since this all-male, clothingoptional resort has a strict no-women
policy. Word is that things get fun around
the pool in the afternoon. And the rooms
sound fine, too.
ALEXANDER’S This lovely 17-room
gay-owned guesthouse has tasteful and
simple décor, clothing-optional decks,
delicious breakfasts and a congenial
happy hour peopled by its many return
guests.
THE GARDENS HOTEL If money’s no
object, this is your spot. At one time the
largest private estate in town, it was
named “the prettiest hotel in Key West”
by The New York Times. Even if you can’t
afford to check in, check out the Sundaynight jazz in the stunning garden.
Top, the Garbo’s Grill food truck is a must-visit. Above, the shrimp boil at Hogfish
Bar & Grill is a highlight of the annual Food and Wine Festival.
Key West Cakes for delicious cupcakes and baked goods or for a slice of
key lime pie at any number of places;
you’ll find four of the big purveyors
along Greene Street — look for the
green-and-white-clad baker outside
Kermit’s, at the corner of Elizabeth,
and take it from there. If you’d like to
try your hand at making your own, pick
up a copy of David Sloan’s definitive Key
Lime Pie Cookbook at the wonderful
Restaurant Store, a cook’s paradise.
Of course, Key West isn’t all about
eating and drinking. It’s surrounded
by the ocean, after all, so you’ll want
to spend some time in the water, on
it, or plopped on a beach chair beside
it. And it’s chock full of fun spots to
explore: whether historical, cultural,
architectural, horticultural or just
plain sexual. Whatever your tastes,
you’ll find plenty to gorge on in this
charming and fascinating town.
For more Key West adventures,
visit dailyxtratravel.com.
On the web
fla-keys.com
gaykeywestfl.com
keywestfoodandwinefestival.com
What to read
KEY WEST ON THE EDGE: INVENTING THE CONCH REPUBLIC Robert
Kerstein’s fascinating, scholarly yet
accessible book examines how this unlikely city became a tourist mecca.
THE FLORIDA KEYS: A HISTORY &
GUIDE Acclaimed novelist Joy Williams’s
anti-guide is one of the most candid and
unlikely travel books ever written — it
never shies away from the dark side of
Florida tourism while displaying the
author’s passion for the region.
QUIT YOUR JOB AND MOVE TO KEY
WEST: THE COMPLETE GUIDE Part
guidebook, part self-help, part practical
how-to, lots of silliness, from Christopher Shultz and David Sloan, who write
from experience.
XTRA! NOV 14–27, 2013 33
A world of gay adventure
Travel
TOURISME MONTREAL, FRÉDÉRIQUE MÉNARD-AUBIN
TOURISME MONTREAL, MIGUEL LEGAULT
Montreal snow job
The city famous for its hot summer nightlife
also provides a brilliant winter escape
MATTHEW HAYS
When people hear the word “Montreal,”
they tend to think of gorgeous, hot
nights and raunchy sex in back alleys.
Well, I know some of you do, anyway.
But given its European architecture,
vibrant cultural institutions and beautiful parks, Montreal is a city that’s well
worth checking out in winter.
Cold weather makes for a great excuse
to spend time indoors, in particular at
several of Montreal’s beautiful museums. The Montreal Museum of Fine
Arts has a vast permanent collection
but also features strong rotating exhibits
year-round. The museum itself is an
architectural wonder; the old building
sits on the north side of Sherbrooke
Street, and the new progressive bit of
architecture sits on the south. The gift
shop is one of the best in the city and the
second-floor restaurant is divine. The
Canadian Centre for Architecture has
one of the largest collections of prints,
drawings, photographs and models relating to architecture in the world. The
building itself is worth a tour and the
bookshop is unbeatable. The Montreal
Museum of Contemporary Art focuses
on the works of Quebec artists but also
boasts an intriguing number of works by
Canadian artists. The current exhibit,
34 NOV 14–27, 2013 XTRA!
Beat Nation: Art, Hip Hop and Aboriginal Culture (which runs until Jan 5,
2014), is getting rave reviews.
Essential to any stay in Montreal is
a visit to the Biodome, an eco-museum
where visitors can sample various climates and the plants and animals that
inhabit them. Since its opening in 1992,
the Biodome has seen millions check
out vast rooms that recreate faraway
climes, including “tropical rainforest,”
“Laurentian maple forest,” “Labrador
coast” and “Gulf of St Lawrence.” The
people behind the Biodome also run the
Botanical Gardens — which features all
sorts of rare, exotic plants — and the
Insectarium, a museum of unusual bugs.
Another fun museum is the Montreal
Science Centre, in Old Montreal, which
features year-round exhibits on various
topics and includes an IMAX theatre
that screens educational films.
Wintry fun can be found at the Parc
Jean-Drapeau, where every year a massive snow village is created. There is a
25-room hotel made entirely of ice and
a restaurant that seats 100, but kitsch
enthusiasts will really get a kick out of
the snow-and-ice replica of New York
City. For those who are travelling with
children, there are train rides and snowsculpture workshops specifically for
kids. There is ice skating at the Parc La-
fontaine, a delightfully picturesque park
that lies just north of the Village. And on
a mild, clear day, a walk up Mount Royal
Park is just fantastic and offers a beautiful view of the city. The lookout features
a panoramic view, and hot chocolate is
served in the colder months.
The Highlights Festival (or Festival
Montréal en Lumière, is a celebration
of light in the winter, to be held this
year Feb 20 to March 2. It’s based in
scenic Old Montreal and the downtown
arts district and features food, film
screenings, music and dance performances, and art exhibits.
The newest event is Igloofest, which
will run Jan 16 to Feb 8. When it started
seven years ago, it proved an instant hit,
with thousands of fans dancing in the
snowy Old Port to the beat and hum of
electronic music. What is basically a
wintry outdoor rave continues to grow
in popularity.
Montreal, home of the legendary Canadiens, is a hub for our national sport
of hockey. Jock enthusiasts will want
to check out the Montreal Canadiens
Hall of Fame, where the history of the
team, founded in 1909, and Montrealers’
longstanding love for it, is recounted
in a number of exhibits. Another bit of
hockey history can be found in the Montreal Forum, where hockey games and
TOURISME MONTREAL, STÉPHAN POULIN
Clockwise from top left: Montréal en Lumière is a dazzling showcase of
performing arts and gastronomy; Igloofest guarantees one of the hottest nights
of winter; Mount Royal Park has sleigh rides and one of the best views of the city.
concerts were held from 1924 to 1996,
when the complex was transformed into
an entertainment centre, featuring a
22-screen cinema complex, restaurants,
pool tables and bowling alleys. There
are statues of famous hockey players to
commemorate the centre’s origins. You
can grope them if you’re feeling really
hard up.
Okay, I know who I’m writing for.
I realize many of you may be rolling
your eyes at this point and thinking,
“Enough with the culture! Who do you
think you are, Peggy Guggenheim?” So
I’ll end with a reminder that Montreal’s
nightlife remains intact, even in winter.
Get off at Metro Berri-UQAM, then
head east. There are a bunch of drinking holes and clubs to check out, all in
close proximity.
As well, after walking around in a
bunch of layers, you will undoubtedly
want to take off some clothes at the
end of the day — and you might want
to watch others take off their clothes,
too. The top strip clubs in Montreal
include the jock-centric Campus, the
raunch-infused Stock Bar, and the
borderline-NAMBLA headquarters
Taboo. And then there are the one-ofa-kind Montreal queer institutions:
Cabaret Mado, run by the city’s legendary drag queen Mado (and featuring
nightly drag shows), and the Royal
Phoenix, the city’s sole out-of-Village
queer nightclub, located in the hipster
Mile End neighbourhood.
On the web:
museesmontreal.org
montreal.com/tourism/festivals
tourisme-montreal.org
MY
Up on
the roof
Montreal
From favourite events to hidden
gems off the beaten path,
My Montreal gets the inside
scoop from local residents about
what not to miss when visiting
the city. In this installment
we asked actor/performer/
genderbender Antonio Bavaro
to name a favourite haunt. FILM FEST CRUISES
“My answer to what to look
out for in Montreal may sound
unconventional, but it’s rooftops — all and any of them!
They are the best places to
see Mount Royal, some of the
world’s best graffiti art, multitudes of bronzed church spires
looming over quickly gentrifying neighbourhoods, and to
watch your neighbours getting
dirty in the condo next door
while having some brewskies
with your buds. A bit of privacy
and uplifting perspective in an
oft-busy yet beautiful city!”
Check out other
recommendations
in the My Montreal series
on dailyxtratravel.com.
The Norwegian Breakaway will feature
a screening of After Stonewall. NCL
Montreal’s rooftops offer
spectacular views of the city.
STÉPHAN POULIN, TOURISM MONTREAL
Two upcoming Pride of the
Ocean cruises, billed as the
only “floating film festival,” will commemorate the
45th anniversary of Stonewall
and National Coming Out Day. In June 2014, a Pride of the
Ocean cruise will mark the
June 1969 Stonewall rebellion
— and the company’s fifth anniversary. The new Norwegian
Breakaway will set sail June
1 from New York City for a
seven-day cruise to Bermuda.
Featured films will reflect
the many changes that have
taken place since Stonewall in
politics, history, religion and
America’s “second religion” —
sports. Confirmed is a screening of After Stonewall, which
first aired nationally on PBS
for the 30th anniversary of
Stonewall.
In October 2014, a Pride of
the Ocean cruise will set sail
from Honolulu on National
Coming Out Day, Oct 11. The
seven-day Hawaiian Islands
cruise aboard Norwegian’s
Pride of America will focus on
Asian/Pacific LGBT films.
A sampler weekend cruise,
A Taste of Pride of the Ocean,
will sail in January 2014. It departs from Miami for Nassau
on Jan 31, returning to Miami
on Feb 3.
Organizers say that since
the ship is heading for the Bahamas, the cruise will feature
a screening of Bahamian film
director Kareem Mortimer’s
film Children of God. For more information or to
register for these cruises, visit
prideoftheocean.com.
XTRA! NOV 14–27, 2013 35
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DRASKO
BOGDANOVIC
NAME: GRAHAM AUBREY
AGE: 31 SIGN: CAPRICORN
L TH
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DEC 2013–MAY 2014
Born and raised in Toronto, Graham is a night owl whose guilty pleasure
is two-fisting bourbon. His favourite place in the city is Parkdale because
it “has the best bars, shopping and restaurants,” and on a night out he likes
to hang out and support his DJ friends. The craziest thing he has in his
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Donate to Graham’s Movember team, Ironstache, from the Flatiron Firkin, where
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XTRA! NOV 14–27, 2013 39
Exploring:
never stop
Single Tablet Regimens
(one pill, once a day) are a
step forward in HIV treatment.
Explore more at exploreHIV.ca
While they’re not a cure, these treatment options are designed
to be effective and convenient. If you’ve been exploring different
HIV treatments, talk to your doctor about Single Tablet Regimens
too. It’s good to know what is out there.

Xtra Toronto #758 — Nov 14–27, 2013

Transcription

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