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February 17, 2009

Pink is the new black

Posted by Elaisha Stokes at 12:10 PM ET | Comments (0)

I love pink. I look good in pink. In fact, I think everyone looks good in pink. And that's good news, because February 19th marks the first international Day of Pink, an annual event to raise awareness to stop bullying, discrimination and homophobia around the world.

This Thursday, a quarter of a million people will go about their daily lives wearing pink. "The reality is that homophobic bullying makes up over 60% of the bullying and discrimination in North America, but the majority of the research and funding is directed to unrelated forms of violent and social bullying" says Nadiajah Robinson, Day of Pink Director of Education. "The only way we can solve this problem is to raise awareness, talk about it and create local solutions. That's the brilliance of the Day of Pink - each community can make it their own."

Alas, when I stopped by the website to grab some photos of people in pink, I was sadly disappointed. The background was pink, the font was pink, the logo was pink, but the photos of the organizers themselves were not pink. They donned whites, greys, blacks and blues, but there was a decided lack of the colour pink.

I guess it will be up to us in the office of This to get our pink-freak on. Stay tuned for Thursday's photos...

More entries on: LGBT

November 17, 2008

Guest Blogger: Fracturing the rainbow alliance

Posted by Graham F. Scott at 10:53 AM ET | Comments (0)

[Editor's Note: from time to time we feature guest bloggers on important issues. Email editor at thismagazine dot ca to enquire about contributing.]

BY CATE SIMPSON

Forty years after the Stonewall riots, Julie Bindel, writing in The Guardian earlier this week, claims that trans men and women haven't earned the right to be recognized by an organization named for the movement they started. She claims that trans people have grown disillusioned with "heterosexual society, and asked to be included in our rainbow alliance." I've got news for her: they were here first.

Stonewall, the UK queer rights organization Bindel criticizes takes its name from riots that broke out late one June night in 1969 outside the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York's Greenwich Village. That night marked the symbolic beginning of the gay rights movement in America. A year later, the first gay pride marches took place in New York and LA.

Who was there that night in New York, fighting back against police who had beaten and harassed them for years in their place of sanctuary? Mostly transsexuals, transvestites, and sex workers.

This much would be obvious to Ms Bindel if she had so much as flipped through Martin Duberman's Stonewall, or watched the film of same name. The definitive text on the Stonewall Riots, Duberman's book follows several people closely involved in the events of that night, among them Sylvia Rivera, founder of the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries.

Unfortunately, this is not the end of Ms Bindel's ignorance. "Queer" does not mean "into kinky sex". "Queer" has never meant "into kinky sex". Once used as a slur against gay people, "queer" refers to anybody who is not straight. Because LGBTQII is a mouthful, and because it still doesn't encompass everybody, and because many of us believe that a wildly diverse group of people united behind a cause is not an "unholy alliance" but a force to be reckoned with.

As for Ms Bindel's fear of being "lumped in" with other people's "odd sexual practices", the continued existence of Stonewall and every other gay rights organization stand as testament to the fact that plenty of people think being gay or lesbian is merely an "odd", and distinctly unsavoury, sexual practice.

Gay rights aren't about the right to sleep with men if you're a man and the right to sleep with women if you're a woman. They're about keeping gay teenagers safe from harm; the right to full membership in society regardless of other people's personal opinions of your relationships and sexual practices; they're even about the right not to be likened with devil worshippers by members of your own purported community.

We can't break down the queer community into factions defined by who we sleep with. As Ms Bindel herself points out, gay men couldn't fight Section 28 on their own. This is why workers have trade unions, this is why we have gay-straight alliances, and this is why Stonewall Scotland has broken from Stonewall in England and Wales in including transsexuals.

Last week Proposition 8 passed in California, along with two other state bans on same-sex marriage, and gays still can't call their unions marriage in the UK. We have so far to go. We won't get there by declaring that we have just as much equality as we need and pulling the ladder up behind us. And we certainly won't get there by embracing the bigotry of our oppressors and complaining that there are too many "odd" people on our side.

Cate Simpson is a freelance journalist and the web editor for Shameless magazine. She lives in Toronto.

More entries on: LGBT

February 05, 2008

From pages of a magazine to the jailhouse: Gay men in Senegal

Posted by shawnsyms at 08:34 AM ET | Comments (0)

Up to 20 men have been arrested in the African nation of Senegal because they are gay, according to yesterday's press release from the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC).

"Many consider Senegal to be one of the most progressive African countries on the issue of homosexuality," said Joel Nana, IGLHRC's Program Associate for West Africa. "The government has included a commitment to fighting HIV among men who have sex with men in its national AIDS response plan since 2005. That's why we found these arrests to be very distressing."

The arrests occurred last Sunday after a local magazine published pictures of a marriage ceremony between two Senegalese men (the wedding apparently took place over a year ago). After the publication, attendees who were identified were rounded up and arrested.

"Mass arrests of people simply because they are gay terrorize the entire community," said Paula Ettelbrick, IGLHRC's executive director.

More entries on: LGBT

December 06, 2007

Gay man in Iran executed for alleged "sex crime"

Posted by shawnsyms at 08:24 AM ET | Comments (2)

Makvan Mouloodzadeh was executed in Iran's Kermanshah Central Prison at 5 a.m. yesterday morning, according to a report from the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC).

Mouloodzadeh, 21 at the time of his execution, had been accused of having raped other boys when he was 13. But at his trial, all the witnesses retracted their pre-trial testimonies, claiming to have lied to the authorities under duress, according to the IGLHRC report. Mouloodzadeh also told the court that his confession was made under coercion and pleaded not guilty.

After an international outcry spearheaded by IGLHRC, Iran's Chief Justice issued an order to nullify the death sentence. But prison authorities went ahead anyway, informing Mouloodzadeh's family and lawyer after the fact.

IGLHRC is continuing to investigate the facts of this case.

More entries on: LGBT

November 15, 2007

Uganda Rising

Posted by shawnsyms at 09:42 AM ET | Comments (0)

More than a hundred people gathered in Uganda's capital city two weeks to debate the future of LGBT rights in the notoriously homophobic nation.

According to Uganda's Penal Code Act, homosexuality is a criminal offense. In 2004, the government fined a radio station $1000 for airing a positive portrayal of LGBT people. More recently, James Nsaba Buturo, Minister for Ethics and Integrity, told the All Africa news agency that gays are "trying to impose a strange, ungodly, unhealthy, unnatural, and immoral way of life on the rest of our society."

The debate was organized by Queer Youth Uganda and was a part of a conference whose other participants included several local human-rights organizations. As an outcome, a national chapter of the organization IDAHO (International Day Against Homophobia) was founded. The assembled group was addressed by France-based IDAHO founder Louis-Georges Tin, who is working toward a UN Declaration of Decriminalization of Homosexuality.

More entries on: LGBT

October 18, 2007

Leave no one behind

Posted by Ariel Troster at 01:43 PM ET | Comments (0)

Wait your turn. I'm sure we all heard those words as children, as we stood in line for rides at amusement parks, or impatiently allowed siblings to play with coveted new toys. But in the fight for human rights, should we be telling anyone to wait their turn when it comes to such urgent matters as hate speech protections and workplace anti-discrimination laws?

This is a question that the queer rights movement in the United States is grappling with right now, in regard to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), a piece of legislation that has been on the books in one form or another for over 30 years. Because believe it or not, it is absolutely legal to fire someone for being gay under U.S. federal law, and in 31 states. And this is the first time in U.S. history that the ENDA has enough Democrat votes to make it through the House of Representatives relatively unscathed.

The most recent version of the bill, which has been floating around for several months, included language that would protect people based on both sexual orientation and gender identity. This version of the ENDA had wide support from hundreds of queer and trans organizations in the U.S. But on September 28, Congressman Barney Frank announced his intention to split the ENDA into two bills -- one that would protect sexual orientation (and would likely pass), and another to protect gender identity (that would surely fail).

Frank's argument is that it's better to pass the partial legislation and protect millions of gay and lesbian people in the workplace, than to sacrifice the ENDA at the alter of trans rights. He argues that the American public hasn't had enough time to absorb and understand trans issues, and that if the gender provisions were to be struck down at this stage, it could force politicians into a corner. Because if they were to vote against trans rights due to a lack of understanding or constituent support, they could be forced to stick to that position in the future, due to intense scrutiny of perceived "flip flopping" on issues that are brought to the House for a vote.

"Antidiscrimination legislation is always partial," Frank writes. "It improves coverage either to some group or some subject matter, but never achieves everything at once. And insistence on achieving everything at once would be a prescription for achieving nothing ever."

Frank's decision has ignited what several writers have referred to as a "family feud" within the U.S. queer community. Hundreds of bloggers are grappling with the question of what's more important -- pragmatism or principle -- in regard to the ENDA. But after an absolutely deafening outpouring from hundreds of queer advocates, the consensus that seems to have emerged (even belatedly supported by the squarely mainstream Human Rights Campaign), is that people want to see a united ENDA, and will not stand for gender protections being parsed off into an un-passable bill.

The arguments in support of a united ENDA vary. Many people simply refuse to leave their trans friends to fight another decades-long battle for employment protection on their own. They argue that the trans community has stood shoulder-to-shoulder with gay activists since Stonewall and have been instrumental in the fight against AIDS and in support of same sex marriage. They recognize that the political climate in the U.S. is so hostile to gays and lesbians, that it's virtually impossible to conceive of a stand-alone trans rights bill passing during their lifetimes.

Others argue that the gender protections in the ENDA don't just protect trans people -- they protect everyone. Lambda Legal recently released an analysis of the stripped-down ENDA, arguing that it is riddled with loopholes that would erode any protection of gays and lesbians in the workplace, specifically "lesbians, gay men and bisexuals who may not conform to their employer's idea of how a man or woman should look and act." In other words, "straight-acting" queers might be offered come level of protection under the split bill, but butch women and effeminate men could easily be fired, if their employer claimed that "their conduct was actually based on gender expression, a type of discrimination that the new bill does not prohibit."

In Canada, employment rights for gays and lesbians have been on the books for more than 20 years, and some argue that the provisions in the Charter of Rights and in provincial human rights codes based on "sex" provide sufficient protection against gender-based persecution. But trans activists are working hard -- particularly in Ontario -- to see gender identity explicitly protected in provincial and federal laws. Their campaign is gaining momentum, and it seems likely that unlike our allies in the U.S., we will see this legislation passed within the next decade.

Unfortunately, the deep soul-searching over the ENDA in the U.S. really boils down to a matter of semantics. Because the bill probably doesn't have enough votes to pass through the Senate, and if it does, President Bush will veto it. Given that the decks are so stacked against U.S. queers, doesn't it make more sense for the community to stand together and let no one be left behind?

-- Cross-posted to Dykes Against Harper

More entries on: LGBT

July 23, 2007

Smooch against homophobia!

Posted by Ariel Troster at 08:42 PM ET | Comments (2)

Last Thursday, I puckered up with my sweetie, and did some smooching for social change. The venue was a cheesy Mexican restaurant at Dow's Lake in Ottawa -- an unlikely venue for a queer kiss-fest. But after Adam Graham and Phillip Banks were asked to "cool it" for sharing a gentle kiss by the water, we didn't just get mad ... we organized!

Here's Adam and Phillip, explaining the situation that merited the kiss-fest:

It was such a fun action. Taking up space -- if even for an instant -- in a hetero-normative environment felt powerful. Taking direct action against the casual homophobia that many of us face every day felt like such a breath of fresh air. And not only was it hot, it was also a success. Check out xtra.ca for the full story.

More entries on: LGBT

July 11, 2007

We recruit!

Posted by Ariel Troster at 10:43 AM ET | Comments (0)

The internet has been going berzerk for the last few days, after Bill O'Reilly aired this report on CNN:

Yes, O'Reilly reported that "a lesbian gang called GTO, Gays Taking Over, are involved in raping young girls. And in Philadelphia, a lesbian gang called DTO, Dykes Taking Over, are allegedly terrorizing people, as well."

Yeah, well big emphasis on "alleged." After GLAAD raised a stink, "reporter" Rod Wheeler, issued an apology, saying, "I mentioned that there are 'over 150 of these gangs' in the greater Washington DC area. What I actually meant is that there are over 150 gangs in the Washington DC area, some of which are in fact lesbian gangs."

Wow, I kind of love this idea. It brings "we recruit" to a WHOLE NEW LEVEL. Maybe we could get the lesbian gangbangers to rescue some kids from Exodus International?

More entries on: LGBT

July 05, 2007

The journalists formerly known as gay

Posted by Ariel Troster at 12:23 PM ET | Comments (1)

When I read the news a couple of days ago the Michael Glatze, former editor of Young Gay America Magazine, and one of the filmmakers behind the incredible queer youth documentary Jim In Bold, had come out as "ex-gay," I was flabbergasted. That makes two editors of queer magazines in the last several months that have "found Jesus" and become poster children for the lunatic right. The other "journalist formerly known as gay" is Charlene Cothran, publisher of Venus Magazine, which used to be aimed at queer women of colour. After being miraculously cured of "the gay," Cothran has now re-focused the magazine to speak to women who want to escape "the life."

As a lesbian writer, I'm not sure what part of this story makes my skin crawl more. The idea that even journalists are susceptible to propaganda? The thought that that Glatze and Cothran's previous good work is now tainted by their own self-hatred and denial? The fact that queer teens are now being condemned by a couple of their former most trusted allies?

I also don't want to condemn Glatze and Cothran simply because they had a religious awakening. Lots of radicals (or former radicals) have discovered some sort of spiritual side -- most famously, American feminist Naomi Wolf, who recently described seeing a vision of herself as a 13-year-old boy confronting Jesus (I kid you not). Still, to my knowledge, Wolf hasn't sworn off feminism or told young girls that they should now ascribe to the "beauty myth." In fact, she seems a bit embarrassed by the whole thing, and has skillfully steered the rest of her public statements to focus on her work, rather than her private hallucinations.

I've been stumbling to find some way to analyze this, other than saying that's it's sad, upsetting, and puzzling. I especially feel bad for Benjie Nycum, who was co-editor of YGA Magazine, and co-producer of Jim In Bold. I used to sit on the board of directors of an LGBT rights organization with him, and once profiled him for Capital Xtra. I can only imagine what it feels like to wake up one morning, and see someone that you worked so closely with denounce everything that you strove to do together.

Wayne Besen has an interesting comment about this fiasco on 365gay.com. He maintains that both Glatze and Cothran went looking for God, after their long-term relationships failed. "In a sense," he writes, "it seems like these break-ups caused nervous breakdowns where the embittered party tried to punish an 'ex' by becoming ex-gay."

Still, it's never too late to say you're sorry. Last week, three former leaders of Exodus International (the most prominent "ex-gay" group in the U.S.) apologized for "the isolation, shame, fear and loss of faith that [the anti-gay] message creates."

The press conference featured Michael Bussee, the co-founder of Exodus, Jeremy Marks, former president of Exodus International Europe, and Darlene Bogle, the founder and former director of Paraklete Ministries, an Exodus referral agency based in California. Also present was Rev. Mel White, founder and president of the faith-based gay rights group Soulforce. White was the ghostwriter for Jerry Falwell's autobiography and later came out as gay.

Perhaps Bussee's approach holds out hope for a reconciliation between the newly converted and "formerly" gay:

"God's love and forgiveness does indeed change people," said Bussee. "It changed me. It just didn't make me straight."

-- Cross-posted to Dykes Against Harper

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June 25, 2007

Making sex work safe

Posted by Ariel Troster at 02:29 PM ET | Comments (5)

I just returned from Toronto's gay pride celebrations, and I was so thrilled to spend a few hours on Friday night at Goodhandy's, Toronto's "pansexual playground." The bar is only one year old, but in that short period of time has established itself as a gathering place for trans people and their allies, alternative burlesque performers, feminist activists, queer musicians, and sex workers. It's rare to find a space that serves so many functions, and proves that diverse communities can co-exist in harmony.

The bar, which hosts more mainstream musical events and dance nights, also features a members-only Diamond Room, where sex workers (largely trans women) can entertain clients in a safe space -- one that is protected by a security guard and, thanks to a recent Supreme Court decision, shielded from raids by the cops.

In December 2005, the Court overturned the conviction of Montrealer Jean-Paul Lebaye for running a "common bawdy house" for the "practice of acts of indecency" after police busted his club, L'Orage, in 2000.

"Consensual conduct behind code-locked doors can hardly be supposed to jeopardize a society as vigorous and tolerant as Canadian society," wrote Justice Beverly McLachlin at the time, opening the door for the establishment of businesses like Goodhandy's.

But the refreshing thing about Goodhandy's is that the owners don't try to hide the fact that the space is used as a meeting place for sex workers and their johns. In fact, they celebrate this fact, and recently started opening at 4pm on Thursdays, "to develop an after-work crowd of businessmen who want a discreet chance to meet t-girls," according to co-owner Todd Klink.

As it is, it's quite difficult for sex workers to find clean, safe spaces to work in, where they aren't likely to be harassed by bad dates or by the cops. The Sex Professionals of Canada are currently launching a constitutional challenge to Canada's solicitation laws, which they say are discriminatory and expose sex workers to danger. They recently held a fundraiser to support their cause at -- where else -- Goodhandy's.

After spending some time in a space that represents a real jewel in the crown of the sex workers' rights movement, I was disturbed to read this police bulletin about a recent "prostitute/john sweep" in my neighbourhood (Hintonburg, an inner city community to the west of downtown). My 'hood has a history of anti-sex worker vigilantism, which I took to task in a recent column for Capital Xtra.

How long will it take for the Ottawa police and city officials to realize that criminalization of sex workers only exposes them to further abuse and mistreatment?

Hooray for Goodhandy's for supporting Toronto sex workers. Is anyone in Ottawa willing to make a similar statement?

-- Cross-posted to Dykes Against Harper

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May 30, 2007

When tragedy strikes, community media steps in

Posted by Ariel Troster at 02:43 PM ET | Comments (3)

If you aren't from Ottawa, you might not have heard of Dixie Landers. And if you don't read the queer press, you probably haven't heard that the popular and well-loved drag personality has been in a coma for the last three days, after being severely injured in a bar fight. The story hasn't hit the mainstream press, but Ottawa's queer community is getting up-to-the minute information on Dixie's condition from Capital Xtra, where readers are also posting comments to debate a case where there have been allegations of police inaction and possible mistreatment by emergency personnel.

Meanwhile, friends and supporters have set up a "Get Well Dixie Landers" group on Facebook, which now has almost 350 members. And people posting on Egale Canada's e-list are talking about the case, wondering aloud why more people didn't come to Dixie's defence, whether or not this was a gay-bashing, and what the community can do to prevent further violence.

Not a single word about this story has appeared in print or in any mainstream media outlet. But hundreds of people are staying updated on Dixie's condition, discussing the case, and organizing a community response to anti-queer violence.

A very sad case, but a truly inspiring moment for community media and online networking.

Get well soon, Dixie. Ottawa's pulling for you.

-- Cross-posted to Dykes Against Harper

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May 16, 2007

Speaking ill of the dead

Posted by Ariel Troster at 11:46 AM ET | Comments (3)

I know I'm not the only one who started singing "ding-dong the witch is dead" when I heard yesterday that gay-hating televangelist Jerry Falwell had kicked the bucket. I felt not a second of hesitation before letting out a little cheer, imagining an afterlife for Mr. Falwell filled with teletubbies, feminists and sodomites.

Does this make me a mean, terrible person? Should I be filled with grief for his family, and do the charitable thing and forgive Falwell for his transgressions against black people, women, queers and anyone else he judged to be immoral?

Well, let's look at the evidence. To quote Maisonneuve MediaScout's analysis:

- Falwell "was known to call the civil rights movement 'the civil wrongs movement;
- He supported South African apartheid;
- He said that the prophet Mohamed was a terrorist and the Antichrist was a Jewish man;
- He warned of the deleterious moral effects of watching the children's program Teletubbies, as one of the characters seemed to him to be a gay role model;
- And, in a move that finally alienated him from mainstream America, he laid part of the blame for the 9/11 attacks on '... the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians ... all of them who have tried to secularize America' - all this, and much more of the same, while wielding considerable influence in Washington."

GLAAD in the U.S. is urging the mainstream media to avoid glossing over Falwell's legacy of discrimination against queer people, and had posted a series of video clips of him making some of his more outrageous statements.

And today in the Globe and Mail, John Ibbitson has no qualms about speaking truth to Falwell's legacy, calling him a "big, booming, bigoted man."

Michelangelo Signorile also doesn't mince words about Falwell, saying,:

I don't really buy the "don't speak ill of the dead" argument, not with 24-hour news cycles that throw out pre-fabricated obituaries and are done with the story by the end of the cycle. And no, I don't have any sympathy for his family nor care about respecting them: They didn't respect me, nor the many others who lost loved ones to AIDS, suicide or gay-bashing, enough to stand up and speak out against their monster of a relative. Let's never forget that this man is directly responsible for the deaths of thousands due to AIDS because of the stranglehold he and his "mobilized" Christians had on our government as the health crisis emerged in the 80s within the gay community. The grotesque negligence of the Reagan administration was dictated by Jerry Falwell, who would then go on to hatch many dozens of little Falwells over the past several decades who inspire the hatred against gays -- and the violent gay-bashing and teen suicides -- that we still live with today.

And blogger sabotabby dismisses the notion that Falwell's critics are being uncharitable during his family's time of mourning, writing:

I suppose what I'm saying here is that I don't think it's wrong to speak ill of the dead. I mean, it's wrong to denounce them to their grieving friends and families, but it's not inherently wrong. And what I'm also saying is that it's okay to be intolerant .. Gloves off, kids. Reagan wanted most of you dead. Falwell wanted even more of you dead. These men consider you, your friends, your families, and most of the world, subhuman. It's fine to hate them - they hated you too -if your personal moral code allows for hate. It's fine to be relieved that they're gone.

What do you think? Do we have a responsibility to express remorse when a truly hateful person dies? Does it detract from our cause when we speak ill of the dead?

- Cross-posted to Dykes Against Harper

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April 25, 2007

Gay newspaper to stay in Ottawa city buildings

Posted by Ariel Troster at 10:43 AM ET | Comments (3)

I thought I'd post a quick update, because I mentioned this a few weeks ago. Happily, the City of Ottawa has come to its senses, and remembered that it has no authority to censor community newspapers. Hooray for small victories. You can read about it here.

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April 08, 2007

Let's choose not to be pitied

Posted by Ariel Troster at 09:37 PM ET | Comments (2)

Okay, take a look at the image for yourself:

This is the photo that Fondation Emergence has chosen to illustrate this year's National Day Against Homophobia on May 17th. In my latest column for Capital Xtra, I argue that this kind of imagery elicits pity rather than celebration, and treats the queer community like we're something that should be tolerated, rather than celebrated. It also denies the reality of most queer and trans people's experiences, in an attempt to gain mainstream acceptance. It takes the sex out of homosexuality, and it harkens back to the days when gayness was considered to be a medical condition that could be cured.

What do you think?

(Cross-posted to Dykes Against Harper)

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March 12, 2007

Take your community standards and ...

Posted by Ariel Troster at 02:02 PM ET | Comments (4)

God, this feel like so-20-years ago. Censorship is rearing its ugly head in Ottawa once again, after a father complained to the Hunt-Club Riverside Community Centre, after his son picked up a copy of Capital Xtra, Ottawa's gay and lesbian newspaper. He is, of course, objecting to an ad for a gay chat line, which appears in the back section of the newspaper.

In an article in Saturday's Ottawa Citizen (not online unfortunately), Greg Evans is quoted as saying, "I sat there looking back and forth at the pictures and words and the kids' basketball practice, and I thought, 'this is wrong.'"

Now a city councillor has taken up the case, and is apparently going to encourage city council to discuss an across-the-board ban on "explicit material" in community centres.

I don't know whether to stifle a yawn or hit the streets, because this issue just refuses to go away for the queer community.

First of all, I find it hard to believe that the city is actually taking one complaint seriously. I mean, do people read the Ottawa Sun? Because I'd like someone to explain to me why the Sunshine Girl doesn't elicit the same condemnation as a photo of two men embracing.

Are we to believe that the objectification of women is socially acceptable, while the queer community's depiction of our own sexuality should be condemned as obscene? That sounds like a double-standard to me.

Besides, children young enough to be "vulnerable" to sexually explicit content should not be left alone and unsupervised in public places where they could read free periodicals. Frankly, I find anti-choice religious rhetoric more damaging than any depictions of nudity and sexuality. The Christian Right offends my "community standards." Should we also ban advertisements for church socials and anti-abortion rallies?

Also, to quote Gareth Kirkby, editor of CapX:

Queers want access to our community newspaper of choice, just like everyone else. We live throughout the city and we want our paper treated exactly on par with other papers and widely available.

Capital Xtra is not an adult publication. It is a community newspaper. Like other local papers, it has a small amount of advertising devoted to dating services, escorts and so on. But the overwhelming majority of space goes to local, provincial and national news and views, along with listings and arts and culture coverage.

The municipal government has no business restricting the content of community newspapers.

Gays and lesbians are sick of having our lives and our media put under a microscope. It's deeply offensive to keep asking us to justify ourselves. It's time Ottawa dealt with our existence and our way of life and moved on.

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March 07, 2007

Many faces of AIDS in Africa

Posted by shawnsyms at 11:40 AM ET | Comments (1)

The history of AIDS in Africa is a story intertwined with the ongoing legacy of colonialism, poverty, racial discrimination and other systemic ills. Including homophobia, according to the International Lesbian and Gay Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC).

People often point to the African situation as "proof" that "AIDS isn't a gay disease," because on that continent—home to 25-million HIV-positive people and the disproportionate location of 60 percent of the world's HIV infections—the bulk of the impact is upon heterosexuals, and children.

But the reality is more complex. According to IGLHRC's just-released report "Off the Map":

Studies in Senegal, Ghana, and Kenya indicate HIV seroprevalence rates significantly higher among men who have sex with men than in the general population. While African lesbians may have lower HIV seroprevalence rates than heterosexual women, same-sex practicing African women have self-reported HIV seroprevalence rates substantially higher than one might expect. The vulnerability of same-sex practicing men and women is not due to any biological predisposition, but is the result of an interlocking set of human rights violations and social inequalities that heighten HIV risk. Anti-gay discrimination is fueling the African HIV/AIDS epidemic.

IGLHRC's Cory Alan Johnson wrote the report. He says that while part of the problem is homophobia within some African cultures and governments, another big issue is the agenda of international and local "faith-based" organizations, whose religious beliefs mandate ignoring same-sex practising African people. "Our inclusive efforts are oppressed and stigmatized by the majority of faith-based organizations," he notes.

The needs and experiences of same-sex people in Africa may be drastically different from the agenda for queer rights in the West—but they need our support urgently. Education is the first step.

More entries on: HIV/AIDS | LGBT

March 05, 2007

Remembering a "Dyke Dynamo"

Posted by shawnsyms at 09:55 AM ET | Comments (7)

My heart sank a few days ago when I learned of the death of longtime lesbian activist Chris Bearchell.

I remember seeing Bearchell on the streets at a demo back in the late eighties and being too timid to approach her. I was shy, and she was already a legend in political circles by then. One of the publishers of the seminal queer publication The Body Politic (TBP), she was writing there about dyke politics as far back as 1975. Along with the rest of the TBP collective, she was active in the massive protests about Toronto's bathhouse raids in 1981, infamouly coining the chant that defined that moment of resistance: "No More Shit!"

Bearchell came up in the radical left and had a particular commitment to lesbians and gay men working together, at a time when many of her sisters were focused on separatist forms of community development. She hosted a collective queer household on Walnut Avenue in Toronto that incubated many new activists and served as a hotbed of local progressive politics. She was particularly committed to supporting queer youth, and sex-trade workers.

I walk down Walnut most days (it's near my office) and my thoughts often turn to the many fruits of her labour. Rest in peace, Ms Bearchell.

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