GayCalgary Magazine - February 2012

FEBRUARY 2012 ISSUE 100 • FREE

The Voice of Alberta’s LGBT Community

ONE ON ONE WITH

MADONNA Joan Rivers

Takes off the Face

RuPaul

Back to the Races

PLUS:

Glenn Close Pride at Work Schools and LGBT Youth ...and more!

Business Directory

Community Map

Calgary • Alberta • Canada

Scan to Read on Mobile Devices http://gettag.mobi

Events Calendar

Tourist Information

Meryl Streep Iron Ladies

STARTING ON PAGE 55

www.gaycalgary.com

2

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

www.gaycalgary.com

Table of Contents

FEBRUARY 2012

Photography

Steve Polyak, Photography Rob Diaz-Marino Steve Polyak, Rob Diaz-Marino, B&J Videography Steve Polyak, Rob Diaz-Marino

Videography Steve Polyak, Rob Diaz-Marino Printers Transcontinental Printing

Printers

North Hill News/Central Web Distribution Calgary: Gallant Distribution, Distribution GayCalgary Staff Calgary: Gallant Edmonton: Clark’sDistribution Distribution GayCalgary Other: CanadaStaff Post Edmonton: Clark’s Distribution Other: Post LegalCanada Council Courtney Aarbo, Barristers and Solicitors

Legal Council

Courtney BarristersInquiries and Solicitors SalesAarbo, & General GayCalgary Magazine Sales2136 & General Inquiries 17th Avenue SW GayCalgary EdmontonT2TMagazine Calgary, and AB, Canada 0G3 2136 17th Avenue SW sales@gaycalgary.com Calgary, AB, Canada T2T appointment 0G3 Office Hours: By ONLY

Phone: 403-543-6960 Office Hours: appointment ONLY Toll Free:By 1-888-543-6960 Phone: 403-543-6960 Fax: 403-703-0685 Tollmagazine@gaycalgary.com Free: 1-888-543-6960 E-Mail: Fax: 403-703-0685 This Month's Cover E-Mail: magazine@gaycalgary.com

Main: Madonna, photo by Shaun Mader/ This Month's CoverJoan Rivers, PatrickMcMullan.com, Top Right: Cher and Christina Aguilera courtesy Sony photo

by Charles William Bush, MiddleofRight: Pictures;photo Annie courtesy ofBottom Mike Owen; RuPaul, byLennox Mathu Andersen, Right: Rex Goudie.

Meryl Streep, photo

by The Weinstein Co.

Proud Members of:

Edmonton Rainbow Business Association

Publisher’s Column

8 Back to the Races

RuPaul and her queens return for season 4

10 Living Positive brings Jeffery Straker to Edmonton 12 The Power of Pariah

PAGE 8

Mercedes Allen, Chris Azzopardi, Dallas Barnes, Dave Dave Brousseau, Brousseau, Sam JasonCasselman, Clevett, Andrew Jason Collins, Clevett, Rob Andrew Diaz-Marino, Collins, Emily Janine Collins, Eva Trotta, Rob Diaz-Marino, Jack Fertig, Janine Todd Hamilton, Eva Trotta,Glen JackHanson, Fertig, Glen JoanHanson, Hilty, Evan Joan Hilty, Kayne, Evan Richard Kayne,Labonte, StephenStephen Lock, Neil Lock, McMullen, Allan Neuwirth, Allan Neuwirth, Steve Polyak, Steve Polyak, Carey Rutherford, Carey Rutherford, Romeo SanRomeo Vicente, SanEdVicente, Sikov and Ed Sikov, the LGBT NickCommunity Vivian and of the GLBTCalgary, Community Edmonton, of Calgary, and Alberta.

Edmonton, and Alberta.

One Hundred

Star and out director talk coming-of-age film – and how other LGBT teens can relate

14 Joan Rivers Takes Off the Face

Legendary comedian on her ‘other’ self, gay crushes and going lesbian again with Babs

17 Rebranding, Fundraising, and Celebrating AIDS Calgary Takes Steps towards a Greater Future

18 Making a Better Workplace for LGBT Workers

PAGE 12

Writers and Contributors

5

e n zi

20 100 issues, Thousands of Dreams

22 The Iron Ladies

a g 24 Schools and LGBT Youth – a Making Itm Better

Out filmmaker directs Meryl Streep, who talks gay icon status – of both herself and Margaret Thatcher

26 2011: The Year for Trans Canadians 28 The OutField

PAGE 14

Publisher: Steve Polyak Editor: Rob Diaz-Marino Sales: Steve Polyak Design & Layout: Rob Diaz-Marino, Ara SteveShimoon Polyak

Jim Provenzano explores sports, sex and paraplegia

29 Hear Me Out

Kathleen Edwards, Joyful Noise

HOW TO BE AN

ALLY

30 Deep Inside Hollywood International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association

Houdini is happening with Hugh

31 Cocktail Chatter

PAGE 18

The Kir Royale

National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association

Continued on Next Page  www.gaycalgary.com

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

3

Table of Contents  Continued From Previous Page

32 PUMPS UP THE JAM America’s Six Inch Obsession

34 Equal Marriage Equal Divorce 36 GayTravel

PAGE 32

Ogunquit: Vacationland’s Glorious Little Gay Getaway

38 Jasper Comes Out To The Whistle Stop

40 Glenn, Close Up

Albert Nobbs actress talks gender-bending role, her unexpected bisexual turn and the possibility of her going lesbian – in real life

42 Madonna Expresses Herself

Gay icon relates herself to ‘strong women’ in new film, talks being an outsider and the latest era of her career

46 Book Marks

PAGE 40

PAGE 38

Jack Holmes & His Friend and Franky Gets Real

50 52 53 54 55 60 62

Queer Eye Chelsea Boys A Couple of Guys Bitter Girl Directory and Events Classified Ads Q Scopes Keep your eyes open, Libra!

Scan for this Issue

e n zi

http://gettag.mobi http://www.gaycalgary.com/RSS

Articles • Recent News • Prize Draws • Events • Travel Info http://www.gaycalgary.com/Twitter

PAGE 42

Follow us on Twitter for articles, weekly news and updates!

4

http://www.gaycalgary.com/Facebook http://www.gaycalgary.com/FacebookFan

Join us on Facebook for articles, weekly news and updates!

More articles and exclusive content online!

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

7,000–9,000 copies Guaranteed Circulation: 7,000 copies Bonus Circulation: up to 2,000 copies

Readership

Readers Per Copy: 4.9 (PMB) Print Readership: >41,650 Avg. Online Circulation: 150,000 readers Estimated Total Readership: >191,650 readers Frequency: Monthly

Proof of monthly figures are available on request.

Distribution Locations:

Calgary: 160, Edmonton: 120 Other Alberta Cities: 15 Other Provinces: 35 United States: 15

History

Scan for Latest Issue

http://www.gaycalgary.com/i100

Monthly Print Quantity:

Please call us if your establishment would like to become a distribution location.

a g a

m

Magazine Figures

Originally established in January 1992 as Men for Men BBS by MFM Communications.

Name changed to GayCalgary in 1998.

Independent company as of January 2004.

First edition of GayCalgary.com Magazine published November 2003. Name adjusted in November 2006 to GayCalgary and Edmonton Magazine. February 2012 returned to GayCalgary Magazine

Disclaimer and Copyright Opinions expressed in this magazine are specific to the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of GayCalgary staff and contributors.

Those involved in the making of this publication, whether advertisers, contributors, or the subjects of articles or photographs, are not necessarily gay, lesbian, bisexual, or trans. This magazine also includes straight allies and those who are gay friendly.

No part of this publication may be reprinted or modified without the expressed written permission of the editor or publisher.

Copyright 2012. All rights reserved.

GayCalgary is a registered trademark.

MAR 2012 Print Deadlines Ad Booking: Fri, Feb 24th

Submission: Mon, Feb 27th In Circulation: Thu, Mar 1st Please contact us immediately if you think you may have missed the booking or submission deadline. www.gaycalgary.com

Editorial

One Hundred Publisher’s Column

By Rob Diaz-Marino, MSc. When Steve and I were going through the early stages of running GayCalgary.com Magazine, the notion of making it all the way to our 100th edition was daunting to say the least. As a monthly magazine, 100 editions equates to 8 years and 4 months of publishing. So still being around today to reach this milestone is no small achievement.

We can’t say the time went by unnoticed; the years of doing this have definitely worn on us in different ways. A milestone of this magnitude made us seriously think, do we want to keep going with GayCalgary? We gave it hard thought, and even in light of some of the rotten situations we have been faced with, we decided that yes we want to continue.

The other necessary question we considered was whether we have the energy to keep going exactly like we have been, for another 100 issues? For us, the answer was definitely no. So we had some conflicts to reconcile. We needed to consider making changes, in some cases sacrifices, to keep things sustainable for us.

In last month’s column I talked about some of the drawbacks of being so committed to your work, and hinted that we would be announcing changes to our business strategy in this edition – changes that will allow us to move forward without breaking our own backs.

as we did with Edmonton would be even more awkward.

Rather than naming ourselves something ridiculous like “GayCalgary and Edmonton and Lethbridge and Red Deer and Banff and Grande Prairie Magazine”, or changing our branding completely to something else, we decided to return to our company name and trademark in its simplest form (GayCalgary™) tagging on only the product suffix (Magazine).

We are GayCalgary Magazine and www.GayCalgary. com because we operate out of Calgary, and Calgary is our primary market. Our slogan is still “The Voice of Alberta’s LGBT Community” because our scope of coverage and our target audience are still across Alberta. Edmonton is included in that scope along with many other Alberta cities, but is no longer explicitly mentioned in the name of our product. …And Edmonton?

One major alteration that is evident from the cover of this edition is that we have returned to our original name - well nearly, since we have left out the redundant “dot com” that was originally part of our logo. We will be moving forward with this slightly refreshed logo that reads “GayCalgary Magazine”, dropping the awkward “and Edmonton” subtext.

GayCalgary Magazine is what most people have been calling us throughout our whole existence anyway.

I know there are some Edmontonians out there right now giving a cheer because they felt a little insulted that our logo made Edmonton seem secondary to Calgary; though our options were restricted, we can understand that sentiment.

We want GayCalgary Magazine to be flexible in its ability to cover LGBT topics across Alberta, and not appear limited to just Calgary and Edmonton. But to give other cities equal representation in the title of our magazine

For over 5 years, we have been going to great lengths to treat Edmonton as a pillar city of our publication – trying to interface with them seamlessly, as if we were operated as much out of Edmonton as we are out of Calgary. Keeping this up was often exhausting if not impractical, especially as event coverage was concerned.

So we won’t lie. Moving forward, Edmonton is going to see a slight reduction in what we do for the LGBT community in their city. Realistically we can’t make ourselves as available for Edmonton events as we are for Calgary’s, simply for the 6 hour round trip drive. Reducing our commitment to Edmonton and bringing it in line with our commitment to other Alberta cities is one change we are making to work smarter rather than harder.

Edmontonians will be seeing less of us personally because we will be making trips a lot less frequently to their city. We’ll only be coming out to cover a few major annual community events and any others that we have a personal interest in attending.

Otherwise we will be relying on the initiative of event organizers and other individuals to notify us about upcoming events and submit photographs for us to consider for publication. So in most cases, as with other cities, the amount of Edmonton content that we publish will be directly proportional to the amount of input we receive from Edmontonians.

In the past we have relied on local photographers to help us out, in some cases regularly volunteering their time

www.gaycalgary.com

GayCalgary Magazine

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

5

like Jeff Park, Brian Baker, and Karen Hofmann; and in other cases asking us to pay for their professional services like Jackson Photografix. We continue to be willing to pay Edmonton-based photographers and writers to provide Edmonton coverage, and we’re still looking for people to step forward.

Just a note on photo taking: to be considerate of individual privacy concerns we ask that anyone taking photos with the intent of submitting them to us, ensure that they inform everyone in their photographs of this intention, and respect any requests for their photos not to be used.

Furthermore, our sponsorship of Edmonton events will likely be a bit more selective. While endeavoring to support all non-profit groups in Edmonton is a noble idea, realistically there are too many for us to manage all at once.

We need to concentrate on building stronger relations with groups that bring the most mutual benefit and exposure, and leave it up to Edmonton businesses and individuals to get behind the causes that they feel provide critical community support for their city (assuming the two sets are even different).

Finally, we made an executive decision to reduce the Edmonton map in the Directory and Events area. With the changes that have occurred in the Edmonton community since we first started publishing this map, today the majority of the space it occupies is unused.

Online Last Month (1/2)

Other Changes to the Magazine

Rihanna, Talk That Talk Rihanna doesn’t beat around the bush – and that’s not meant to be a dirty-minded pun, though...

We have been experiencing a general trend that our online downloads of the magazine are increasing while our pickups of print copies are proportionally decreasing. As the first Canadian LGBT publication to offer full iPad support through our ISSUU flipbook reader, we expect to see this trend continue.

There is no sense in printing copies in excess of the demand for this format, and for that reason we have decreased our guaranteed monthly print quantities to 7,000 from 8,500.

Further, this reduction saves us a fair bit of money at the printers, enabling us to keep our prices affordable for print advertisers.

Being at the leading edge sometimes means we have to cut our own paths through the jungle, so I feel it necessary to make a brief but important comment about the condition of the publishing industry today: Much like how the Titanic made a grave error judging the size of an iceberg only by what was visible above water, there are many consumers and agencies out there today who continue to judge the value of advertising in a publication purely on the number of print copies they circulate.

This is a problem when it comes to the direction that the publishing industry is heading. While having a print edition rightly brings business clout, online circulation needs to be taken into consideration and given proper value too. Until

Book Marks 96 Hours

96 Hours, by Georgia Beers. Bywater Books, 224 pages, $14.95 paper. The plot is standard stuff. Erica is an emotionally... http://www.gaycalgary.com/a2685

Creep of the Week: David Usher Marriage between same-sex couples has, to say the least, become a complicated social issue. Mind you, it shouldn’t be... http://www.gaycalgary.com/a2687

Deep Inside Hollywood Is a major network ready for Sarah Silverman?

Did you ever watch The Sarah Silverman Program? That thing was so gay it wound up on Logo after Comedy Central... http://www.gaycalgary.com/a2691

Hear Me Out

Rihanna, Mary J. Blige

http://www.gaycalgary.com/a2692

The OutField

The Year of the Gay

In schools, in the military – and especially in sports – 2011 was The Year of the Gay. High school, college, even professional... http://www.gaycalgary.com/a2694

Creep of the Week: Rick Perry You don’t have to be a political scientist to recognize that Texas Governor Rick Perry is an ignorant prick. But I’ve got to... http://www.gaycalgary.com/a2688

Thinking Out Loud: Holiday Outing

MTV Real World’s Ruthie talks with Abby Dees about surviving your family holidays.

If you ever watched MTV’s Real World: Hawaii, then you know the out and fabulous Ruthie Alcaide. Ruthie is a poster child for the idea that being... http://www.gaycalgary.com/a2695

Hear Me Out: Special LIVE Edition Adele, Beyoncé, Tegan & Sara

Adele, Adele Live at the Royal Albert Hall (CD/DVD/Blu-ray) Adele sings sad love songs, but when she speaks? The British... http://www.gaycalgary.com/a2693

Book Marks 98 Wounds

98 Wounds, by Justin Chin. Manic D Press, 122 pages, $14.95 paper. Fierce.

Funny. Filthy. Chin’s fiction debut... http://www.gaycalgary.com/a2686

6

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

www.gaycalgary.com

Online Last Month (2/2) Creep of the Week: Chuck Norris It’s no secret that Chuck Norris is a physical force to be reckoned with. So if you’re gay, stay out of his way. Because he doesn’t like you very much... http://www.gaycalgary.com/a2689

Creep of the Week: Gov. Rick Snyder Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder gave the middle finger to gays and lesbians in the state when he signed a bill on Dec. 22 that yanks domestic partner benefits... http://www.gaycalgary.com/a2690

Love and Intrigue the Canadian Way A 19th Century Tale is Revived at Pumphouse with Inspiration from Dan Savage

“What happens when the boys at St. Mark’s and the girls of St. Anne’s join up to present a classic French tale...?” Joe Slabe, artistic... http://www.gaycalgary.com/a2696

CAST OF STARTREK: THE NEXT GEN will come together for a special reunion at the Calgary Expo IT WAS 25 YEARS AGO that Star Trek: The Next Generation ® revived...

this happens, advertisers will continue to be lead on board with sinking ships – media that are going extinct because they fail (or refuse) to innovate.

We’ve witnessed it ourselves when submitting our magazine details to large and respected media registries that don’t allow us to factor in our online readership, even though these statistics are just as provable and perhaps more accurate indicators of readership than the print statistics that they require. This is just not acceptable in today’s world.

That off my chest, you’ll also notice some minor rearrangements of our regular features. Most noticeably, the Find Out section has been shifted closer to the back of the magazine to be adjacent to the Classified ads and cartoons.

The GayCalgary.com Website This is one way that we are returning to our roots.

GayCalgary started out solely as a website, and as we have been concentrating on maintaining the print branch of our business we haven’t been able to make much progress with our web side of things.

We are changing that by making our website and online edition of our magazine the primary focus again, with the print magazine being supplementary to it. Our website provides valuable services for LGBT businesses and community groups across Alberta, many of them complimentary.

We want to continue improving the accessibility of what we currently offer, while developing useful new interactive features. By doing this, we drive more traffic to our website and more readers to our publication, benefiting the advertisers that sustain us.

Continued on Page 48 

http://www.gaycalgary.com/n446

Jake Andrews Uncensored: Andrew Christian’s Sexy New Model Andrew Christian’s newest model is Adult Star Jack Andrews. Below we have included the behind the scenes YouTube (Censored Version) and below that... http://www.gaycalgary.com/n445

KYLIE MINOGUE IS MARKING 25 YEARS IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY WITH A YEAR OF CELEBRATIONS K25 BEGINS TOMORROW WITH A SPECIAL GIFT TO FANS ON KYLIE.COM Can you believe it has been a quarter of a century since Locomotion... http://www.gaycalgary.com/n444

IT’s Back!! Fake BBB Complaint Email makes Rounds in 2012 It’s back! An email scam using Better Business Bureau’s name and ‘Start With Trust’ tagline is flooding inboxes in Calgary this week. Emails purport... http://www.gaycalgary.com/n443

BEHIND GREGG HOMME’S PHOTOSHOOT THE EYE CANDY SELECTION The power of seduction of the Montreal’s men strikes again: the GREGG HOMME’s fans recently discovered the new model Nick Gross and many comments... http://www.gaycalgary.com/n442

And more... www.gaycalgary.com

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

7

Back to the Races

RuPaul and her queens return for season 4

 RuPaul, photo by Mathu Andersen

By Jason Clevett I was in San Diego in a restaurant back in January 2011 enjoying some food and drinks, when the season premier of season 3 of RuPaul’s Drag Race came on the big screens. The bar was packed, and drag queens hosted and gave away prizes during the show. More than just a TV show, RuPaul’s Drag Race has become a community event.

“I have to tell you I am most proud of that, to have a portal for these young kids to become famous and make money and for bars to celebrate drag. The show was born of our love of drag and the need to show people the art of it. I grew up with it and for a good time there it wasn’t celebrated, it was the ugly stepchild of the gay movement,” RuPaul told us. “To have these things happening on the night that it airs is just brilliant for me. I love that it is creating revenue and awareness, but on a deeper level I love that drag exemplifies what we are doing on this planet. We are actually, for lack of a better word, god in drag pretending to be human beings. That is part of the reason why for years people wanted nothing to do with drag because it shines a light on the fact that we are all playing a charade.”

GayCalgary Magazine caught up with RuPaul on the phone to get back up to speed on all things drag. RuPaul’s Drag Race airs Monday nights at 9pm Eastern/Pacific, and the show has also lead to two spinoffs: Untucked, a behind the scenes look inside the interior illusions lounge and goings on, and RuPaul’s Drag U which features women getting a

8

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

drag makeover. Ru says she isn’t surprised that things have exploded from the show.

“I have to admit yes. I am actually surprised that this hasn’t happened before. …Drag really breaks the fourth wall; if this life we are living is a play that we are all playing roles, drag breaks the fourth wall and says, Madam you know you are not who you are pretending to be. I am surprised more people don’t embrace drag but I know why, because it tells on the ego. If you are in drag around a baby in a stroller, babies are so enthralled with the colour and shiny things, the shapes and forms of drag. We are innately attracted to dressing up and colour.”

Fans get invested into the queens on the show. Who can forget Ongina’s emotional breakdown as she revealed she was HIV positive in season 1, or laughing at the celebrity impersonations in the “snatch game.” Everyone has their favorite moments and react in different ways. When Raja was crowned champion in Season 3 my reaction was “What?!

No!!” based on her attitude and behind the scenes treatment of others.

“Every year people are very emotionally invested and some are very upset with me. Some live and love the winner and others like you are like no no no! There are a lot of reasons for why the winner is chosen. A lot of the behind the scenes stuff, like in the interior illusions lounge, I don’t see until I watch it on TV. I am surprised sometimes by some of their behavior as you. It is solely based on how they work the challenges out and what ends up on stage, and my expertise of who has what it takes to take it to that next level. We are www.gaycalgary.com

looking for superstars,” Season 4’s cast may be Ru explained, adding that the craziest yet: unique she is often surprised looks from The Princess when she watches the and Sharon Needles to show. “When I see the classic beauty like Kenya girls they are always like, Michaels and Leshauwn Hey Ru!!! Hiii! When I see Beyond to comedic the dark side of the moon performers like Jiggly in the interior illusions Caliente. It shows the lounge it is like, Whoah, variety in the community.

I didn’t know you had all “I don’t know how of that! There was one much we are representing point in last season when the gay community; we Alexis Mataeo and Yara are representing the Sofia both almost left the different genres of drag. show. I didn’t know that We are introducing happened. Watching Yara drag to people who have be her own saboteur, never heard of it or seen I saw it onstage when it. Each time we put she collapsed and just together a cast it has to couldn’t go any further. represent many different But on the actual body factions. In the case of of the show I could see this current season it is her own inner saboteur a little edgier then we’ve working on her earlier in done before. The kids the show and doubting this season are kind of herself. It was a very fearless in a way that painful study in the they are not concerned human psyche. That is with looking girly-girl but what makes the show with making a statement. so wildly incredible to We are going to get a watch, is that this is all lot of Gaga influenced about the human spirit performers in attitude and its need to shine and towards show business have colour and love and – a sort of fearlessness. beauty. That is ultimately They are crunchier and what keeps audiences more ‘monstery’ and coming back.” not afraid to be ‘not so It is fun to also see who pretty’, but still pretty will appear as judges on amazing.” the show. On a recent Season 4 kicked off tour stop in Calgary, with the “RuPocalypse” Henry Rollins talked featuring zombies and a  RuPaul, photo by Mathu Andersen about his experience post-apocalyptic runway judging the show and look. The challenges are how he found himself unique, nervy, and take a attracted to one of the queens. This season has a list that lot of talent. Behind them lay lessons not only in being the includes the likes of Elvira, Pamela Anderson, Jennifer Love next drag superstar, but in a lot of ways, life.

Hewitt, Kelly Osbourn, and Dan Savage.

“The challenges always start with what is underneath the “The judges as with all people in show business understand hood psychologically. Every single thing the girls have done that we are all drag queens – once you get onstage you are on our show I have had to do in my career to make it work. one character and offstage another person, the one who Beneath it all we are looking to create situations where a wipes the babies nappies and gets the dry cleaning. The psychological process happens and see who these people are judges get to share their experience and expertise in the art and what they are working with. At my house I have a lot of of duality. I have known Henry Rollins for many years and he games nights and new people come. One of the reasons I love is one thing onstage in Black Flag and offstage a lovely, lovely to play charades is because on the spot, with a timer going, a human being. Talk about duality and knowing how to judge person has to make the choice whether or not they are going what it takes to have a career where you are one thing on and to make a fool of themselves and win at this game, or hide something else off stage. By the way I am sure the queen he in their insecurities and let the time go by. We are creating was talking about was me!” situations on the show which challenge each performer to With the show’s success they get thousands of video really go for it or not. In this world if you are going to be applications. Few actually make the cut for consideration. here you have got to be willing to make a fucking fool out of yourself to get what you want done.”

“It is very easy. Everyone who has a wig and a pair of high heeled shows thinks they can be on the show. The truth is we are looking for showgirls who have already proven themselves in clubs with the ability to become producers, artists, visionaries, marketing people, designers, because if RuPaul’s Drag Race you are a showgirl you have to be all of those things. That Monday Nights on OUTtv really narrows it down. Once we get a good 20 people which is very easy to do, then it becomes about what the ensemble will look like as a whole. There are times when we have had http://www.gaycalgary.com/a2698 someone who didn’t work in the ensemble and we brought View Bonus Pics/Videos • Share with a Friend • Post Comments [them] back the next season.” www.gaycalgary.com

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

9

Event

Living Positive brings Jeffery Straker to Edmonton By the Board and Staff of Living Positive Living Positive (LP) has been around for a very long time. It has had a long history within the LGBT community; both members and supporters have come from within it. Living Positive has faced internal and external challenges during the past decade. The darkest hours left LP with no ongoing support from ACCH (Alberta Community Council on HIV/AIDS). With casino revenues being the only ongoing source of funding, the fiscal constraints required downsizing to a size that could be accommodated within a sub-let space. LP partnered with Planned Parenthood Edmonton, now called OPTIONS, who provide a new space to offer its key service and focus on rebuilding. But the struggle was not yet over for LP, as it was still unable to engage its members and supporters to rebuild.

OPTIONS took a non-intervention approach in attempts to support the re-generation process. This meant it would advise and support but not intervene in the organization’s decision making processes. When LP was stricken from Alberta Registries Corporate Registry for failing to report, Larry Brockman, Executive Director of Options Sexual Health Association, stepped in to the Position of President to provide direction and stability for Living Positive. Although Larry sees his involvement as temporary, he is committed to seeing Living Positive through, in his words, a rebirthing process.

Living Positive’s mandate and mission has always been - and continues to be - to provide support, education, and outreach to HIV positive people through and by HIV positive peers. For over two years, Curtis Branston filled the roles of program coordinator, educator, peer support and outreach person, until a few years ago when he left Edmonton to pursue other endeavours. Unable to fill his role but being committed to Living Positive, Curtis stepped into the role of Vice President of the Living Positive board. It is Curtis’ goal as an active member of the board to revive the former newsletter of Living Positive, to help build the membership, to continue as a HIV positive educator and to offer valuable support and insight to the current LP staff and volunteers.

Maggie McGinn was a former Executive Director for Living Positive, who has and is still committed to the rebirthing process of Living Positive. She now sits on the board of the organization while pursuing educational goals to further her career. The newest member to the Living Positive board is long-time HIV activist within the Native communities, Ken Ward. Ken has joined the board on the condition that he is actively involved in the rebirthing process, that he be able to continue to make a difference and continue to be a voice in the HIV positive community as well as for Native people.

Early last year Living Positive put out a call for a program coordinator, which was answered by Jordan Tarini. Jordan worked hard in a lot of areas, most notable was his involvement in the Scotiabank AIDS walk with HIV Edmonton, where Living Positive became the top noncorporate fund raiser for Edmonton. Jordan also created the current Living Positive Facebook page, which has over 300 members and still continues to grow every week. It has been Living Positive’s biggest way of communicating as of late. Due to personal circumstances, Jordan chose to leave Living Positive, causing a vacancy that has only recently been filled.

Carl Scott joined Living Positive as the Program Coordinator with a lot of vision, passion, and energy. His focus and mandate is to build an HIV positive peer support network and community with a speakers bureau and support and outreach groups and teams, all to evolve as needed and as LP is able to support. Carl has continued the work started by Jordan and is building on it and creating new vision and direction for Living Positive. Identifying as an Aboriginal Canadian and as a gay man, Carl hopes to reach out to these two populations, but also seeks to create and maintain support for all positive people in Edmonton, as is needed, or as peers are able to offer. Currently Living Positive is working

10

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

 Jeffery Straker to create a membership as well as volunteer base to be able to handle demand. Living Positive is working to maintain stability and consistency through offering regular office hours throughout the week. Phone calls are also forwarded whenever possible, after hours, so that Living Positive is accessible when needed. If you have questions, concerns, want to volunteer, or join Living Positive, please call Carl the Program Coordinator. His office is located at Options and he can be reached by phone at 780-423-3737 (ext. 209). Ask for either Carl or Living Positive.

Living Positive has survived this long due to the commitment of many people past and present, and it will continue as long as there are committed members. HIV and AIDS is still a global concern and there are many people living with HIV/AIDS in Edmonton who need to work together to support one another. Working together is necessary to achieve the eradication of stigma and discrimination, and to prevent the spread of HIV through awareness and positive prevention. Living Positive is a place of hope and support for HIV positive people and PLWA (People Living With AIDS).

Living Positive #50, 9912 - 106 Street Monday to Friday, 1:30pm to 4:30pm Carl Scott: 780-423-3737 (ext. 209) http://www.gaycalgary.com/a2699

View Bonus Pics/Videos • Share with a Friend • Post Comments www.gaycalgary.com

January 19, 2012

Dear Steve and Rob, GayCalgary and Edmonton Magazine 2136 – 17th Avenue SW Calgary, AB T2T 0G3

Wow, 8 years later and here you are! I do recall when you started this magazine those many years ago, you set out to make it a community magazine that would talk about the happenings in Calgary, and later you included Edmonton too.

Dear Steve and Rob:

Both of you raced from one event to another to make sure that you got coverage for the community to see what was going on. Earlier on you did this all on FOOT. Talk about Community spirit!

Congratulations on your 8th Anniversary and also on the celebration of your 100th edition!

The Edmonton Pride Festival has been proud to work together with GayCalgary and Edmonton Magazine as a sponsor of the Festival. We appreciate your support and your assistance in promoting our event and also the community year after year -- it certainly shows in your unlimited coverage of the numerous events held in Edmonton and around the province.

From the inception of GayCalgary and Edmonton Magazine one thing you have always made sure of was that you included all Community organizations and the ISCCASA has been there with you from day one.

On Behalf on the College of Monarch of the ISCCA and the 35th Imperial House, TMISM Emperor 35 Chris Tron and Empress 35 Makayla Quinn St Asia, TMISH Imperial Crown Prince and Princess Royale 33 Bull Dozer Bishop-Towers and Ruby Harte Bishop-Towers, TMISG Imperial Grand Duke and Duchess 23 Darktier Knight and Lucy Fur along with this years Entertain of the Year HISM Empress 32 Nina Tron Sanoir we would like to congratulate GayCalgary and Edmonton Magazine on the 100th issue of your magazine.

We wish you continued success and all the best!

Colleen Sutherland and Warren Becker, Co-Chairs Edmonton Pride Festival Society

We wish you many more successful years of publication!

Signed, President of the Board 2011 – 2012 Decade Emperor 26 of Calgary Emperor 35 ½ of Calgary Emperor 21 ½ of Regina Saskatchewan Dion Boink Bishop-Towers Sanior Aka Dion Belanger

www.gaycalgary.com

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

11

Interview

 Focus Features

The Power of Pariah

Star and out director talk coming-of-age film – and how other LGBT teens can relate

By Chris Azzopardi Just a girl looking for her place in the world isn’t an alltoo-uncommon tale. But Alike is black. And gay.

It’s a minority double whammy that singles out the Brooklyn teen from the rest of the world, so she seeks acceptance in gay bars – and, because she’s not definite in her identity, doesn’t find it. Alike (pronounced “ah-leekay”) is the epitome of a Pariah, the name of out director Dee Rees’ personal – and very powerful – indie film. A hit on the festival circuit, Rees’ real-life-inspired story finds the universal thread in navigating Alike’s journey to selfactualization and the power of loving yourself first.

Rees and Adepero Oduye, who plays Alike, spoke recently about their advice to LGBT teens, getting into character at a lesbian bar and the reason “My Neck, My Back (Lick It)” was perfectly inappropriate for the film.

GC: How would you break down Pariah and the character of Alike?

Dee Rees: It’s just, of course, a story about identity.

Alike’s a woman who knows she loves women, and is sure

12

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

in that, but her struggle is how to be. Her struggle is a more nuanced struggle of gender identity within the queer community. She’s not the same person that (her friend) Laura is, neither is she this pink princess that her mother wants her to be. She falls somewhere in between. Finding the courage to carve out that space is her journey. It’s a story that people will be able to relate to.

Adepero Oduye: It’s a very specific story, but it’s so universal. You don’t have to be young, black or gay to get something from this film, and, since Sundance, that’s what we’ve been seeing from these screenings and Q&As. For people who are either black or gay, I think they’re excited to see themselves reflected up on the screen. That’s always powerful and exciting.

GC: What’s your advice to young people who, like Alike, are struggling with their sexuality?

DR: That it’s OK to be yourself; that people can change.

When I went through my coming out process, even though I was an adult – I was paying my own bills, I was independent – but my parents weren’t accepting, and we had a tough time for a couple of years. I never thought they would turn around, but they saw this film and said they loved me and that they were proud of me.

So people can actually change, and in the interim, find other people who love you. During that time is when I found the closest friends in my life now. Maybe I wouldn’t have been open to those friendships if I hadn’t been going through such a tough time. It was an experience that transformed me.

www.gaycalgary.com

AO: Yeah, the process of accepting and loving yourself is the most important thing. If you can do that and find people who support that, it’s amazing what will happen when you get to a place where you truly do love and accept yourself. People will turn around and things – they might be challenging and the road might be a bit rocky – but they will get better.

GC: Dee, the hardest part of coming out for you was finding acceptance within the gay community. You struggled with finding your place, right?

DR: Yeah, when I first came out it was weird. I would go to the clubs and have on a turtle neck and jeans, and I felt like I wasn’t hard enough to be butch, and then I wasn’t soft enough to be femme. So I’d go and felt ignored – and like I needed to identify a certain way. Other women I met who were like me were different on the gender identity spectrum, too.

I think the community is more open to this idea that we don’t have to check a box, we don’t have to create these binary roles from hetero culture, and so that for me was an opening experience. I’ve met a lot of women along the way who feel free to express themselves however is authentic for them, and that’s what I had to discover and what Alike, in this movie, comes to discover.

GC: So you don’t believe in labels, and neither does Alike.

DR: No, no. This film is about not checking a box and not having a label. To the extent that someone identifies and feels a certain way, absolutely feel free to call yourself whatever is true for you, but it’s also OK not to.

GC: How did Dee’s coming out experience inform your character, Adepero?

AO: We just talked. She made it very clear that anything I had on my mind I could ask her. I asked a whole bunch of questions and she was very awesome at answering and talking about things that, I don’t know, might not have been super comfortable (both laugh). But I never got that sense, because I just kept on asking! Doing that developed this relationship based on trust, which allowed me to go to places that aren’t necessarily the most comfortable as an actor and just as a person.

GC: What question made you most uncomfortable, Dee? DR: (Both laugh) I don’t remember. Oh god. I think, you know, we talked about Alike’s level of sexual experience and that Alike is a virgin and how she might be feeling and I don’t know – there was nothing that was totally uncomfortable. I mean, as an actress I’m asking her to do something that’s very uncomfortable. It’s probably more uncomfortable to do

Continued on Page 47

www.gaycalgary.com

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

13

Joan Rivers Takes Off the Face

Legendary comedian on her ‘other’ self, gay crushes and going lesbian again with Babs

 Joan Rivers, photo by Charles William Bush

By Chris Azzopardi Joan Rivers has never been one to question her actions.

But today, she’s doing just that: “I’m listening to Katy Perry and I don’t know why.”

Besides being a firework herself, Rivers has little in common with the ubiquitous pop tart. There’s this, though: They’ve both kissed a girl and – as the legendary queen of snark (and facial reconfigurations) admits in our recent chat – liked it. So much, in fact, that she’d be up for some more lez loving. But for now Rivers is focused on promoting her wacky reality show, Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best?, now in its second season on WE tv.

In our interview, Rivers dished on the new installment (what if her daughter Melissa actually were a gay man?), how her humor’s always been “gay,” and her face – before she redid it.

GC: I’m a big fan – but I’m sure every gay man tells you that.

JR: No, no. No gay men tell me that.

GC: I don’t believe you.

JR: Well, every now and again.

GC: You know, I’m glad this isn’t a face-to-face interview because,

since you’re a member of the Fashion Police, you wouldn’t approve of my outfit today.

JR: You wouldn’t approve of what I’m wearing right now, either! I’m

wearing a stolen hotel bathrobe. One of those white bathrobes that say, “Don’t take these.” Somewhere along the line I did.

GC: Do you always take things from hotels?

JR: Yes. Always those little shampoos, little soaps, all those cute little

things. Sewing kits – you can’t get enough of those! (Laughs)

GC: Which celebrity needs a little more gay fashion influence, and a

little less?

JR: Oh, I don’t know. Every week it changes so much and Melissa (Rivers), the exec producer, throws a hundred pictures on the table and you start from scratch again, so it’s always changing.

14

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

GC: You’ve been doing press interviews for a long time. You must get the same questions. What are you sick of talking about?

JR: No, you get different questions because they come from different people. It’s like an audience: always different every night. That sounds funny, but it’s true.

GC: What are we in for with the second season of Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best?

JR: There’s an uber-WASP friend of ours who turns Jewish; Melissa breaking up with the boyfriend; taking (my grandson) Cooper to New York, and he gets lost. All of which is true. Things happen that are just fabulous. If you liked the first season of Joan Knows Best?, you’re going to love the second season.

GC: You get more plastic surgery during the first episode, Skintervention. And Melissa does not approve.

JR: No, she totally doesn’t. But you know, it’s a business where we all have to look good. You look at anybody – I mean, Jane Fonda running around with a whole new face and body and pretending she’s done that through eating apples? You wanna go, “Oh stop it!”

GC: You didn’t get that face from eating apples?

JR: I got this face from eating artichokes and apples and having a

great diet. Yeah, right. All the above – plus a great doctor!

GC: And the freebies you take from hotels.

JR: That helps, too. That makes you happy.

GC: What do you think you’d look like without plastic surgery?

JR: I imagine I’d look a lot like my sister, and that worries me –

because she looks good! (Laughs)

GC: You’ve wasted all that money, Joan.

JR: It could well be. I could have myself really nice outfits.

GC: What don’t they tell you about plastic surgery?

JR: Oh, I don’t know. I don’t listen. I have a friend who wanted to know

everything the doctor was going to do. I don’t want to know. He doesn’t

www.gaycalgary.com

ask me how I write jokes and I don’t ask him how he operates. The less I know, the better.

the wrong business. Go work at Kmart and no one will care and you can have the most private life of anyone in the world.

GC: Right. That’s with a lot of things. Like Katy Perry.

GC: In the ’80s you became the permanent guest host on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.

Why don’t we have a woman hosting a late-night talk show on a major network currently?

JR: I’m trying like hell. She’s

very pretty but I don’t get the music.

GC: You’re not in a teenage

dream?

JR: Because there just isn’t anyone good enough. Somebody that was great would be on. I don’t know what that means, but that’s what it means.

JR: No, not in a teenage dream.

(Laughs) GC: What do you listen to?

JR: I hate to tell you: show

tunes. You could sing it and I could tell you where it’s from. Yeah, show tunes my whole life. My housekeeper goes, “Ew, here comes the score of Bells Are Ringing. Err!”

GC: How about Kathy Griffin or Chelsea Handler?

JR: Chelsea: I’ve never seen so I have nothing to say about her. Never watched the show but once and I thought, “This sucks.”

And I don’t know if Kathy would want to do it, or even has the right equipment for it. It’s a very different hat to put on.

GC: Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best? is in its second season and – JR: It’s done. Thank god! But things never stop happening, that’s the trouble.

GC: With you they don’t, because you’re a workaholic.

GC: So you’re saying it has nothing to do with gender but rather talent?

JR: Yeah, you’re right. I just went down to Williamsburg, Va. with Judge Judy and I thought, “Where are the cameras?” It might be in the third season. Things are always happening.

JR: It’s the talent. That’s why I think Jimmy Fallon is genius. He’s got what Carson had. He’s a fan, he lets his people be funny; he doesn’t compete with his guests, and he just sits back and lets the guest do it. He’s amazing.

GC: You recently joked about wishing you could replace Melissa with a gay son. How would the reality show be different if that were true?

GC: What DeGeneres?

We’d have a whole episode devoted to Judy Garland. There’d be nothing to discuss here.

GC: But the most lesbian in the world?

exciting

JR: Oh, that’s right. I forgot about that. One of the funniest episodes of her sitcom was when she announced it by mistake over the microphone.

GC: Maybe even a whole season.

JR: A whole season on, “Was

Judy happy?”

GC: What does Joan know best?

JR: Being a good grandma.

GC: When I saw your 2010 documentary, A Piece of Work, I was really surprised by how much of a softie you can be.

(Cooper) will appreciate me after I’m dead a lot more. Right now I’m grandma, but later on when he’s in college with his friends, he’ll get how fun grandma was. She was… not cool – that’s the wrong word – but she was crazy.

JR: Everybody is. You show so many different things on stage. My act is one kind of talk. In real life, I can be something else. We’re all so different in different ways.

GC: Is anything off limits when the cameras are rolling?

GC: So what’s Joan like offcamera?

JR: No. If you’re going to do a

JR: I like to cry a lot.

GC: What makes you cry?

JR: What doesn’t? Christmas

reality show, you have to show your real reality, otherwise it’s gonna be stupid. And they know, people are not that – well, I shouldn’t say that, because look at the Kardashians.

So people are not, usually, that stupid.

carols make me cry.

GC: In Driftwood, you played Barbra Streisand’s – JR: Lesbian lover!

GC: Would you go lesbian

GC: Anyone you won’t make fun

of?

www.gaycalgary.com

Ellen

JR: Ellen is the most boring white woman in the world.

JR: Well, it’d be a lot of different.

JR: No. If you’re in the public eye, you’re in the public eye. And you have no right to say “I’m off limits.” Nonsense. Then you’re in

about

again?  Joan Rivers, photo by Charles William Bush

JR: If Babs is available. She was an amazing kisser! We still both

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

15

laugh because that was our first scene – for both of us. She was still in high school.

GC: You were aware of your gay following early on, while performing at clubs in Greenwich Village. Why did you connect with gay people so instantly?

JR: I didn’t purposefully connect with them. It was always there. I worked all through college decorating Lord & Taylor windows, and all the window display men were gay. We loved each other.

I think my humor has always been a gay kind of humor. Gay humor is the smartest humor in the world. And gay audiences make a show. If I look out in an audience and there are six gay men in the front row, I know we’re going to have fun tonight.

GC: You used to get a lot of flack for some of your jokes – especially ones about AIDS. Is it easier to joke about taboo topics like that now?

JR: Oh, of course. But that’s the way you get people to pay attention.

You know, I did the first AIDS benefit when it was still called “gay pneumonia.” We were in such danger that we had men on stage carrying guns because we got death threats.

GC: You ruffled some feathers recently when you told the Advocate that gay actors should stay in the closet because they were committing career suicide.

JR: You are. If I knew Tom Cruise was gay when I was a 7-year-old girl, that would’ve been it. I would’ve put my fantasies on somebody else.

GC: Tom Cruise is gay?

JR: Oh, I don’t think so. Do you?

GC: You tell me. You’re the celeb guru.

JR: I don’t know. You hear so many rumors circulating. But I think in

certain professions you can’t come out and be America’s romantic idol.

Ricky Martin was brilliant in how he handled his career.

GC: But with the social climate changing, do you still believe that to be true?

JR: You’re not talking about that. You’re talking about somebody that young girls are going to pay money to see and fantasize about. I think it’s a very difficult position for somebody to be put in. It’s unfortunate, but it’s life.

When I was a child, I was madly in love with an actor named Van Johnson – mad about him, had his picture up. In third grade I did a whole notebook on Van Johnson. Then I grew up, he was still adorable but he was gay and he was wearing mascara and I thought to myself, “If I had known then, I wouldn’t have loved Van Johnson. I would’ve fallen for John Wayne.”

So I think it’s a very difficult choice for an actor to make if he’s going to make his living as a romantic lead for young girls to adore. Or women.

Well, men like to challenge women. Men love to challenge a lesbian: “Oh, I could turn her around.” That’s a good challenge for a man.

GC: As someone who’s had a gay following for years, what do you think of people claiming that Lady Gaga and Kathy Griffin pander to gay audiences and aren’t actually genuine?

JR: I don’t know and I don’t care. How about that? Couldn’t care less. I worry about myself. I love my gay audiences. They’ve been with me forever, they’ll stay with me forever, and I’m very happy. It’s that simple.

http://www.gaycalgary.com/a2701

View Bonus Pics/Videos • Share with a Friend • Post Comments 16

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

www.gaycalgary.com

Event

Rebranding, Fundraising, and Celebrating AIDS Calgary Takes Steps towards a Greater Future

By Dallas Barnes AIDS Calgary is in the process of taking a crucial step towards showing its patrons and partners what services they provide and how they evolved since their inception in 1983. By rebranding themselves in time for their estimated rebrand launch at the AGM in June, AIDS Calgary is hoping that the name will reflect the current status of its services and to appeal to everyone connected to them.

On their website they state, “We can’t ignore the fact that HIV/AIDS exists, and that there is still no cure for this disease. But there are many things we can do to prevent its spread and make life better for those who are infected and affected. At AIDS Calgary we promote the healthy choices people can make to reduce their risk of getting or spreading HIV/AIDS. We provide information and resources on practicing safer sex, wearing condoms and avoiding behaviors or situations that could put you at risk. We also work to reduce the harmful effects of HIV and AIDS by providing programs and services that help people living with HIV/AIDS make healthy choices and enjoy a better quality of life. We act as their advocates in promoting awareness of HIV issues and battling misunderstandings and prejudice.

Through partnerships with others in the community, we strive to develop a caring and compassionate society.”

AIDS Calgary has been the leader in advocacy, education, and support to those living with HIV and AIDS in the Calgary region. With this responsibility they have also taken on the responsibility of supporting all individuals involved with people with AIDS/HIV and also have evolved to include support for individuals facing all sorts of issues related to both physical and mental health.

Roseline Carter, Team Leader of Prevention and Engagement took some time to discuss the rebranding with GayCalgary Magazine. “Our geographical location has expanded and the name AIDS Calgary no longer fits, first and foremost.” The area represented by the organization now includes Bow Valley and Medicine Hat. “AIDS Calgary was incepted in 1983, and the soul focus was on AIDS and HIV as it was such a prevalent issue at the time. As time went on, and the disease evolved into one of the many components that the organization was beginning to deal with,” states Carter. “We are focusing on all of our client’s issues, and what they are facing.”

Not only are people with HIV/AIDS dealing every day with medication and other factors, they are also dealing with many stigmas in the public sphere related to religion, culture, income, sexual orientation, etc. There is also a high risk of abuse. This leads to a slower reception of medical help, according to the AIDS Calgary website.

AIDS Calgary has expanded to include both the Medicine Hat and Bow Valley areas, as well as maintaining other branches such as SHIFT (for sex trade workers), Calgary Cares Centre, Outreach Programs such as HEAT, and the African Communities Project.

The Medicine Hat Cares Centre, like that of Calgary Cares, is a centre for all sorts of needs. There is a Drop-In Centre, Counselling Centre, a Needle Exchange program as well as www.gaycalgary.com

Outreach and referrals and advocacy. The Bow Valley Cares Centre, located in Banff, offers prevention information and referrals, free condoms for men and women, workshops and outreach.

AIDS Calgary is looking for some help in its rebranding process and would love to hear from clients, partners, and community partners about their thoughts on the transition.

There is currently a survey on the AIDS Calgary website that asks the public questions that will be useful to the organization. The survey runs until the end of February, and serves an integral role in AIDS Calgary’s mandate.

“We would like to take a look at the third-party run survey to guide our decision making process and enhance our visibility,” says Carter. “We will use this information and the focus groups that we are planning to create to determine where we need to be.”

AIDS Calgary has another first coming up in February, hosting its first annual Mardi Gras event named Le Carnaval Rouge, on February 25th at the Metropolitan Centre in Downtown Calgary. “Our ultimate goal is to raise awareness of our organization and issues,” says Carter. “We would also like you to have fun.”

The evening has a ton of things to make it a success.

There will be musical talent from well known Canadian Saxophonist Pat Belliveau as he gives you a taste of the New Orleans musicality while you eat some amazing Cajun food.

In the Carnaval spirit, there will be a place for you to hear your fortune. Erin Taylor will amaze you with her tarot card readings and her fortune telling.

And, nothing says Mardi Gras like a little fire breathing and fire eating, as well as some scandalous dancing and contortionism. Arcfire Entertainment, a troupe of professional fire and circus performers, will not disappoint as they tempt fate in order to please a crowd.

Topping off the evening is the talent of The Rhinestone Affair and Visa Loo. The Rhinestone Affair, a Calgary Burlesque troupe is bound to offer a little va-va-voom to your evening. Visha Loo...well if you have never seen her, you must. She is an entertainer like none other. She will fascinate you with her contortionism, fetish model prowess, and performance.

Mardi Gras 2012: La Carnaval Rouge Presented by AIDS Calgary February 25th @ 7pm The Metropolitan Centre

http://www.gaycalgary.com/a2702

View Bonus Pics/Videos • Share with a Friend • Post Comments

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

17

HOW TO BE AN

ALLY

Making a Better Workplace for LGBT Workers

By Evan Kayne While technology changes at a breakneck speed, societal changes can take years. So while the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and trans-identified people in Canada - for the most part - have all the rights of their straight neighbours, it is only a recent change to which our society is still adjusting. For LGBT folk, many will be open at home but closeted at their place of employment because of this uncertainty.

For this reason, Pride at Work Canada was founded in 2008 by a group of dedicated individuals who sought to improve the climate of inclusiveness for LGBT employees in the workplace. Their mission is to put the case for LGBT diversity and inclusion on the mainstream business agenda by winning the support of corporate partners, who currently include Telus, RBC, Scotiabank group, Bell Canada, Ernst & Young LLP, Xerox, and IBM among others.

Calvin Campbell, Director (Calgary Lead) for Pride at Work Canada, told me because equal rights are still a novel concept, having an advocacy group for working LGBT folk is a smart idea. “It’s easy to get complacent, having all the 18

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

legal protections we have, when discrimination will still take place in the workplace...there’s degrees of it that we’ll find in the workplace and everywhere.”

Pride at Work Canada was inspired by a similar group in the United States (Out and Equal). However, while Out and Equal may be pushing for rights in the States, here in Canada where equal rights are enshrined in law, Pride at Work decided to focus on motivating businesses and organizations to create a workplace culture that recognizes LGBT employees as an important part of a diverse workforce.

Even with equal rights for LGBT citizens, a need still exists to work towards creating a positive workspace, Calvin tells me. “Especially in Alberta, it seems people don’t always feel comfortable being out in the workplace.” Often people feel if they do come out it will limit their career options.

Pride at Work Canada is working on changing this attitude.

“We want them [LGBT employees] to come out and bring their whole selves to work because that’s when they’re most productive”.

Thankfully, for the most part it’s not that companies are homophobic or discriminatory. Unfortunately, what is happening is sometimes that potential allies of LGBT employees are nervous when it comes to speaking up.

“They’re worried they might offend someone or say the wrong thing and that prevents them from being involved.”

This is why Pride at Work Canada recently launched their Ally Campaign.

The campaign, which includes distribution of posters and post cards, is a very simple yet effective way to assist allies. The posters list several points a potential ally can www.gaycalgary.com

Toronto, and also asked major oil companies to participate.

“It seems like everyone...is realizing that Alberta is a big growth place, and we want the best talent. For a corporation, that means understanding they need the best talent from ...every community,” Calvin said.

I was surprised about the participation of energy companies, because as I told Calvin, on the whole they have been a bit shy in the past when it came to associating with the LGBT community. Calvin told me they are starting to come on-board. At the Pro-Pride event in September, they had Shell, Husky, Enbridge, Imperial, and Trans-Canada show up – among others. Some of them are even starting to build LGBT resource groups in their organizations.

Pride at Work Canada isn’t just another networking club; after attending one of their meetings it is clear they are dedicated to furthering a conversation we, as a society, are having on LGBT rights. By telling others of their challenges, successes, and best practices, the corporate supporters and members are helping to build a more open, welcoming work environment for all of us.

Pride at Work http://www.prideatwork.ca

http://www.gaycalgary.com/a2703

View Bonus Pics/Videos • Share with a Friend • Post Comments

understand and then put into action. The posters also send a clear message that this workplace is striving towards respecting diversity.

The benefits? “When there’s a lot more people who are open about diversity and inclusiveness and equity for everyone...and just having a strong community whether it be in the workplace or your own personal community in the city, then the people who are truly more bigoted and intolerant and prejudiced, they’re not going to be as quick to open their mouths.”

As well, although Pride at Work Canada has been in existence for several years, Calgary has recently become the focus for LGBT Rights and workplace diversity, Calvin mentioned. One of the things that came up when the group reviewed their efforts was their successes in cities like Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver; with Calgary being identified as an area where work needed to be done.

One of the steps they took was to push the presence of Pride at Work Canada at the Calgary Pride festival this past September. They had some of their executives fly out from www.gaycalgary.com

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

19

Editorial

 Jason Clevett (Centre) with Nickleback

100 issues, Thousands of Dreams

By Jason Clevett I still remember my first conversation with Steve Polyak, publisher of then GayCalgary.com Magazine. I had been asked to do some writing for another project that ended up dying on the vine pretty quickly, and in that conversation Steve mentioned that he had just launched a new magazine. My first byline was in issue #2 – stories on Crown’s for Kids and a profile on Boyztown.

Ninety-nine issues later others have taken over the community event coverage while I’ve focused on Arts and Entertainment. I am one of the few that has been a part of this magazine since (almost) day one. Although it has changed format and look, grown to include other cities, and been through ups and downs, at it has stayed the same in the respect that two guys named Steve and Rob have worked tirelessly to provide something for the LGBT community.

It wasn’t until August 2005 that we snared our first celebrity interview – a cover feature on Bif Naked. It speaks to how respected this magazine and its readership have become, that we now feature celebrities on the cover so consistently. We’ve

 Jason with Jann Arden

 Dallas Green

attended three Juno Awards and been praised for articles on artists like Dallas Green, Howie Dorough, and Jann Arden.

I never in a million years thought that I would pick up the phone to hear Dolly Parton’s drawl on the other end, or speak to members of bands that I grew up listening to like The Tea Party, Our Lady Peace and The Barenaked Ladies.

I do hope that some of our articles on newer talents like Jeffrey Straker, Serena Ryder or Laurell resulted in our readers giving them a listen. For every Madonna or Gaga there are 100 artists trying to break out and I am ecstatic that we’ve been able to help you discover them. I’ve reviewed hundreds of concerts and theatre productions in Calgary and have enjoyed bringing Calgary’s Arts and Entertainment scene to you.

Human beings are dreamers. Some of us dream of pulling off a spectacular drag look or a performance that brings the house down. We dream of being actors, singers, parents, business owners. Non-profits dream of successful events that allow them to continue the incredible work that they do. In Alberta, GayCalgary has been an integral part of that dream for so many people. There are many times that I have had to pinch myself because of an interview or something else happening that came about from working for this magazine.

For over 8 years we’ve worked hard to bring these dreams to you. I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have loved doing it. From the bottom of my heart, thank you each and every one of you for reading my articles and supporting the magazine and its advertisers.

Most importantly thank you Steve and Rob. You’ve given me and others so much, and continue to do so. I look forward to what the future brings, and the next 100 editions.

http://www.gaycalgary.com/a2704

View Bonus Pics/Videos • Share with a Friend • Post Comments

20

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

www.gaycalgary.com

February 1st, 2012

Rob & Steve,

Congratulations on reaching your 100 issue milestone with GayCalgary and Edmonton Magazine. We know that the growth and strength of our community is largely dependent on having strong members, such as yourselves in it, and recognize the contribution you make to organizations like ours every year.

Thank you for providing us with a local voice and source for GLBT news and information. Here’s to many more years of success with GayCalgary and Edmonton Magazine.

All the best,

Pride Calgary Planning Committee

www.gaycalgary.com

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

21

 Photos by Alex Bailey

The Iron Ladies

Out filmmaker directs Meryl Streep, who talks gay icon status – of both herself and Margaret Thatcher  Meryl Streep, photo by The Weinstein Co.

By Chris Azzopardi Nothing can stand in the way of the almighty Meryl Streep – except on this particular afternoon. At a New York City hotel, in front of a room full of journalists from mainstream press, she braces herself for what could be the ultimate career challenge. The mission? Answer a “gay” question.

With mock surprise, Streep dramatically throws her arms up and whips back in her chair, pretending it’s something she – Oscar winner, recent Kennedy Center honoree, the “devil” herself – isn’t sure she can pull off.

“OK,” she says, sarcastically, “let me get ready. All right, go.”

And so we do, citing mentions of the fierce Margaret Thatcher, whom Streep doesn’t just play but becomes in The Iron Lady, as a gay icon. So, is she?

Streep deliberates, working out the answer in her head before she lets go of it: “You know, I… I don’t know. I just recently found out that I am a gay icon. It’s flattering, of course,” she says, noting the all-male tribute Streep Tease in West Hollywood (of which she says, “I haven’t gotten the nerve to go”). “But I think (Margaret) stirs very strong feelings even today, 20 years after leaving power. And she remains divisive. The film will enter a landscape of a world where she continues to cause controversy. I can’t answer the question about whether she’s a gay icon. That’s a difficult one for me.”

22

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

Look at that: something Meryl Streep can’t do. The recent Golden Globe winner for Best Actress in a Drama, for Iron Lady, is supposed to be the Queen of Can, the thespian superwoman who can effortlessly slip into character: head-turner in Death Becomes Her, doubtful nun, Julia Child (she’s so remarkable, in fact, that she can work those chameleon skills within just one movie, as she did with 2003’s Angels in America).

She’s such a persona-transcendent pro that when she’s sitting right in front of you, you’re asking yourself: Is that really Meryl Streep? At this point, even Meryl Streep doesn’t look like Meryl Streep. Heck, after being so outside herself, does Meryl Streep even know Meryl Streep?

She’s the rare actress who never plays herself in a movie. Iron Lady, then, is a made-for-Meryl movie, from the prosthetics that afford an uncanny transformation into Britain’s first female prime minister to the heart that she finds among all that, well, iron.

“The biggest challenge for me was accomplishing the long lines of thought that she would launch into without taking a breath,” Streep recalls. “Even with all the drama school that I’ve had, I had a lot of trouble managing that. Just the galvanizing energy and the drive and the capacity to follow through with a conviction all the way through to the end of your breath until you can’t go any further,” she says, breathlessly in character, “and not to let anybody interrupt!

“It was masterful the way she could manage these interviews.” She lets out a hearty laugh. “I’m taking notes on that.”

Thatcher was a strident figure of polarizing effect, a lovedand-hated political icon admired not necessarily for her ideas but for the way she was able to execute them – in the face of class and gender prejudice.

“The array of obstacles that stood before her in England at that time were enormous,” Streep notes, “and I think she did a service for our team (women) by getting there – even though you might not agree with the politics. Her determination, her stamina, her courage to take it on. Anybody that stands up and is willing to be a leader, who is as prepared as she was and as smart as she was, is admirable on a certain level, because you really sacrifice a great deal. All of our public figures do.”

The film spans three days in Thatcher’s post prime, well into her 80s, after dementia wipes out her memories and she tries to capture whichever ones she has left. For as politicalminded as she was, the film isn’t very political at all. And it wasn’t meant to be.

“All of us understood what we were wanting from this piece,” Streep says. “It was not going to be chronicling Margaret www.gaycalgary.com

Thatcher’s political life; it “I loved working with would be a particular look her… the first time,” the back through her own actress razzes. “We had eyes at selected memories shorthand (on Iron Lady), – not in chronological and we had to – because we order, but in a jumble had $14 million to shoot a of memory, regret, glory movie that takes place over days. It would all be a part the course of six decades. of a reckoning.”

And that’s basically no money. That’s less than a The film is facing intense 10th of what Hugo cost.” scrutiny for breezing past the political turmoil that She hands it to Lloyd Thatcher stirred and, for strongly conveying her instead, focusing on her vision prior to shooting, personal life. “We have which allowed Streep come under criticism for a sense of security in portraying someone who knowing just how to find is frail and in delicate Thatcher’s mind, body and health,” Streep admits. spirit.

“Some people have said “I’m playing a Margaret it’s shameful to portray Thatcher no one has this part of a life, but if seen or really knows, and you think that debility, we can’t know – it’s an delicacy and dementia are imagined journey that we shameful, if you think that were taking – so I felt a lot the ebbing end of life is of freedom. I did,” Streep something that should be says. “I felt completely free, shut away – if you think and that’s a testament to that people need to be the director.” defended from that, from But it wasn’t all Lloyd. those images – then yes, Though she’s never met it is a shameful thing. But Margaret Thatcher, Streep I don’t think that. We are wore the prime minister’s naturally interested in our many hats, learning leaders, and we tell stories that the woman wasn’t a about ourselves through slacker and that her father the stories of important saw Thatcher as the man of people.” the house. “He discovered, Out director Phyllida of his two daughters, one Lloyd elaborates: “We was uncommonly bright thought of the film as and uncommonly curious, something of a King Lear and maybe this could be for girls, a Shakespearean his boy,” she says. “That’s story – not a political what I think. She fulfills a story. So, in that sense, promise, and he infused in we spoke to a number her the courage to get up of Margaret Thatcher’s and out. She had a lot of closest associates, who promise, and she wanted described her story in to live up to it.”

Shakespearean and When did Streep realize operatic terms. I’d worked the same for herself? in opera a lot and to me, “I never really decided. this did have some of the I’m still ambivalent.” She elements of a tragic opera. laughs at the notion. “But The movie is a combination no, being an actor lets of the political world and me be a million different pure imagination. It’s two things, so I don’t have to very distinctive worlds.” decide.”

This isn’t the first time Streep and Lloyd have bridged two worlds.

2008’s Mamma Mia! united the actress’ singing and dancing, with Lloyd directing.

“I think it’s always easier the second time  Photos by The Weinstein Co. and Alex Bailey working together,” the filmmaker admits. “In fact, you should start with the second time.”

Looking at her, pretending to be offended, Streep laughs: http://www.gaycalgary.com/a2705 “What do you mean?”

View Bonus Pics/Videos • Share with a Friend • Post Comments

www.gaycalgary.com

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

23

Editorial

Schools and LGBT Youth – Making It Better

By Evan Kayne The editors of GayCalgary Magazine and I have been watching the increasing awareness of the impact bullying has on LGBT youth. We’ve seen Dan Savage’s “It Gets Better” campaign grow beyond what we would have expected. We’ve seen other campaigns and discussions evolve out of it, and we are heartened by the increase in awareness and by the fact many institutions and governments are now putting mechanisms and procedures in place to stop or sharply reduce harassment of LGBT youth.

The Calgary Board of Education (CBE) oversees 200 schools and 100,000 plus students. Diane Roulson, Manager, Diversity, Learning Services and Nancy Lukey, System Principal, Learning Services agreed to discuss with us what they are doing to make schools better for diversity, for respect, and for the individual.

Admittedly, with the sheer number of students, you can’t create procedures to fit every situation, as Nancy tells us.

“It’s hard to isolate because our resources are about the safety and well being of all students, regardless of the issue that a student might come forward with. We would hope that our schools are safe and caring places for everyone.

And part of our responsibilities…no matter what age we’re at, is that our students have a relationship with adults in that building, where, should any issue arise, they are comfortable, they have a couple of people they could go and talk to.”

Having said that, she did tell me there are some formal positions like mentors and guidance councillors available to help students. “It really is about having a caring adult in a building where kids can go and discuss issues that they are struggling with,” be it bullying, cultural issues, sexuality, abuse or any other issues where an adult’s help and advice is required.

That being said, there are specific ways schools deal with LGBT youth issues. “We recognize that this is a particularly vulnerable group,” Diane states. Beyond the aforementioned support networks, one of the things they have noticed is youth often create their own support network, “so some of our schools...have a gay/straight alliance. Basically that’s a student-run, but teacher-sponsored or teacher-supported group. The purpose for it would be to create a safe, caring, and respectful little community for sexual gender minorities and their allies.”

Other schools may provide the support in a different way – they may have links with various community organizations which visit the school frequently so the student can then be linked directly with this community support.

Furthermore, within their “Communication and Life Management” (CALM) classes, LGBT topics are discussed, and many teachers will often invite a guest speaker in to discuss particular subject matter. The guest speakers will often bring in resources from their support group, or let the kids know about other community support networks, (e.g.

Calgary Outlink, MYN, and Mosaic).

Unfortunately, there are some limitations: specifically, Bill 44. Quoting directly from the Calgary Board of Education’s website: On September 1, 2010, Section 11.1 the Alberta Human Rights Act came into force. The section requires Calgary Board of Education to notify parents where “courses of study, educational programs or instructional materials, or 24

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

instruction or exercises include subject matter that deals primarily and explicitly with religion, human sexuality, or sexual orientation.” On written request from a parent or guardian, a teacher is required to exclude a student from a teaching situation that deals primarily and explicitly with one of these topics. It is important to note that Section 11.1 of the Alberta Human Rights Act does not apply to incidental or indirect references to religion, human sexuality or sexual orientation.

What this means for LGBT issues is that, when a CALM class has a speaker or discusses this subject matter, parental permission is required. Consequently, some parents have the right to ask that their child not be part of the discussion. “However...our former minister of Education was very clear that GSAs do not fall under Bill 44.” Basically, extra-curricular activities and groups are exempted from the aforementioned regulations.

What’s even more interesting is the current Education Minister (Thomas Lukaszuk) has explicitly spoken up on the issue of bullying LGBT youth, and how respecting diversity is important for everyone. His videos challenged everyone – school boards, youth, parents, teachers, government, and school districts to make it better now. In these videos, they made a point of showing LGBT youth and posters of Gay/ Straight alliances in schools as an effort to put it above the radar. “I think he set a really strong example for us in this province.”

For LGBT youth, they may not want to come forward to teachers/mentors/councillors to discuss any questions they have regarding their sexuality – as they may be afraid this information will get back to their parents. In a counselling situation, if a student shares that they are beginning to question gender identity issues, I was assured it is kept between the student and the adult at the school. There is a duty to inform in situations where the student is using drugs, alcohol or doing anything which endangers their life or the lives of others, but “if it’s not a safety issue, then that’s not something we would need to disclose.”

Regarding issues of sexuality, while a teacher may suspect the child is experiencing some questions surrounding their sexuality, they must wait for the student to approach the issue – they aren’t permitted to imply or lead the student.

Nancy affirmed this process, and added that there are ways to let the student know a conversation on sexual orientation can be opened with a teacher/mentor at the school. There are Safe Spaces posters available from the Alberta Teachers Association. These posters indicate that a classroom or an office is a spot where human rights are respected and LGBTQ students, teachers, family, friends and allies are welcome and supported. “If you’re hanging a Safe Space poster in your classroom, it would indicate you are open to a conversation.”

One tricky scenario that we discussed was where bullying can arise from family members or parents. Again, Nancy and Diane were careful on this subject, telling me what CBE is allowed to do “...depends on the nature and intensity of the bullying that the child has disclosed to us... if in our assessment it’s bordering on emotional abuse, then we would report that to Child Family Services. We are obligated...if there is an indication that this child is being emotionally abused for any reason, then we are obligated to make that information available to Child Family Services.”

This includes emotional, physical and sexual abuse, of course.

www.gaycalgary.com

This is regardless of any religious or cultural views the family may have on the topic. Now to be clear, a discussion has to be held between the child and the teacher/counsellor at the school, at which point those adults can then decide to notify the authorities depending on the case, who will then further investigate. It’s not a black and white area, it is imperfect, however there exists a possible rescue for the child Adolescents have another recourse available to them through the Children’s Advocate program. An adult or teacher can’t contact the Advocate, but “a student can phone the Children’s Advocate if they are feeling their rights are not being protected in whatever environment they’re in.” The Advocate has a number of services available for children, including free legal services.

Finally, to reassure me further, Diane and Nancy told me the CBE continues to look at themselves on an organizational level and their responsiveness as a system when it comes to diversity and inclusion. They’re aware there is greater visibility and awareness happening now with sexual and gender minorities and they want to build on that. They’re working with other school boards to formulate their best practices; they’re examining what current research is out there and generally not standing still on this issue.

What is encouraging to me, as someone who grew up in a system where there was no support, is that this issue is now being discussed, and the level of support for LGBT youth is growing. I hope it will prevent any more incidences of bullying, or suicides due to bullying. I have heard from several teachers and their partners about suicides that have happened here in Calgary and they, if not ALL OF US wish we could have helped the ones that are gone. It’s not enough just to tell the kids “It gets better” - it’s up to all of us to make it better.

www.gaycalgary.com

Resources Calgary Board of Education http://www.cbe.ab.ca Calgary Board of Education takes action on protection of sexual minorities http://www.gaycalgary.com/u401 Minister of Education Thomas Lukaszuk videos “Diversity in Alberta Schools”: http://www.gaycalgary.com/u408 “Make It Better”: http://www.gaycalgary.com/u415 Alberta Teachers Safe spaces http://www.gaycalgary.com/u422 Children’s Advocate http://www.gaycalgary.com/u429 Report – Every Class in Every School http://www.gaycalgary.com/u436

http://www.gaycalgary.com/a2706

View Bonus Pics/Videos • Share with a Friend • Post Comments

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

25

Trans-Identity

2011: The Year for Trans Canadians

By Mercedes Allen The Harper Conservatives recently made a revision to the Aeronautics Act which potentially affects many trans (and cis / non-trans) Canadians... and could even ban some from air travel. From the revised law: Sec 5.2(1) An air carrier shall not transport a passenger if • (a) the passenger presents a piece of photo identification and does not resemble the photograph; • (b) the passenger does not appear to be the age indicated by the date of birth on the identification he or she presents; • (c) the passenger does not appear to be of the gender indicated on the identification he or she presents; or • (d) the passenger presents more than one form of identification and there is a major discrepancy between those forms of identification.

(2) Despite paragraph (1)(a), an air carrier may transport a passenger who presents a piece of photo identification but does not resemble the photograph if • (a) the passenger’s appearance changed for medical reasons after the photograph was taken and the passenger presents the air carrier with a document signed by a health care professional and attesting to that fact; or • (b) the passengers’s face is bandaged for medical reasons and the passenger presents the air carrier with a document signed by a health care professional and attesting to that fact.

5.3 (1) If there is a major discrepancy between the name on the identification presented by a passenger and the name on the passenger’s boarding pass, an air carrier shall compare the name, date of birth and gender on the identification with those of persons specified to the air carrier by the Minister under paragraph 4.81(1)(b) of the Act. (2) If the name, date of birth and gender on the identification are the same as those of a person specified to the air carrier, the air carrier shall immediately so inform the Minister.

Of particular concern is Sec 5.2(1)(c). This regulatory change went into effect as early as last summer, and so far, it doesn’t appear that there have been any reports of transsexual or transgender people being refused passage on an airline because of this change. It’s premature to call this a ban. However, with the way the legislation is worded, it could easily become one.

Especially because by the letter of the law, if an airline allows a person to board whose appearance “does not appear to be of the gender indicated on the identification he or she presents,” they could be in violation of federal law.

26

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

Regarding transsexuals, most Canadian provinces require evidence of genital reconstruction surgery (GRS) before allowing the change of gender markers on foundational documents (all of them, when it comes to birth certificates), and some provinces do not fund this surgery. There is a limited use passport option available which may help.

There is a medical exemption which could provide an allowance for specifically transsexual individuals (although it unclearly refers to the photo requirement, rather than the gender marker requirement), though not all transsexual men and women are medically able or willing to undergo a major invasive surgery - others may forget, be unaware of the requirement or be unable to afford to pay the fee for a sufficient doctor’s letter (my doctor would charge $100 for such a letter under his current fee structure). Additionally, requiring a medical document is a reversal of onus in which trans people are expected to prove that they’re not terrorists in ways that other travelers don’t.

There are also transgender-identified and other gender nonconforming people to consider. Bearing in mind that the gender marker is being measured against a subjective assessment of a person’s gender, lookism has potentially entered the equation.

Scan-or-search procedures could also unfairly single out visibly intersexed people, who haven’t previously needed a medical letter for anything.

Trans people understand the necessity of air travel security and screening. But why a gender marker comparison must be a requirement in addition to all other screening criteria (i.e. photograph comparisons) in order to determine an individual’s identity remains unknown.

Canada’s Parliament passed human rights legislation to include transsexual and transgender Canadians, but it died at the election call [1], before the bill could be given Royal Assent by the Senate. An identical bill has been reintroduced into Parliament and could be coming up for Second Reading in 1-2 months (people have been indicating support to their Member of Parliament [2], right?). This change comes as trans issues are becoming better known to the federal government and in mainstream society.

The nation has been under pressure from the U.S. government to tighten screening and restrictions on Canadian travelers, including the introduction of full-body scanners, which also single out transsexual and transgender people for special scrutiny. In September 2003, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued the first of several warnings [3] that potential Al Qaeda terrorists might be changing tactics to

www.gaycalgary.com

avoid scrutiny, such as departing from airports in Canada and Mexico, or dressing as women.

Some have speculated that the stress on appearance was also intended to target women who wear the niqab and hijab [4], making such an assessment impossible, and potentially also banning Muslim women who adhere to this tradition from boarding a plane. Traditional coverings of this sort have already been flashpoints of controversy regarding citizenship ceremonies [5] and court testimonies [6]. Although one of the motivations for these bans is supposed to be the status of women, punitive legislation targeting full face and body coverings have a horrible tendency to target women [7], rather than provide any viable solutions informed by them.

Anyone wishing to do so is welcome to contact the Minister.

Copy to your Member of Parliament as well, and remember to keep it civil but clear that the amended wording of the Aeronautics Act is a serious concern. Letter mail tends to be more effective, where possible.

Hon. Denis Lebel, Minister of Transport E-mail: denis.lebel@parl.gc.ca P: 613-996-6236 F: 613-996-6252 Mailing Address (postage free) : Hon. Denis Lebel, Chambre des communes/House of Commons, Ottawa ON K1A 0A6 Transport Canada Email: Questions@tc.gc.ca P: 613-990-2309 Toll Free: 1-866-995-9737 TTY: 1-888-675-6863 Fax: 613-954-4731 Mailing Address: Transport Canada, 330 rue Sparks Street, Ottawa, ON, K1A 0N5 References: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6)

http://www.gaycalgary.com/u352 http://www.gaycalgary.com/u359 http://www.gaycalgary.com/u366 http://www.gaycalgary.com/u373 http://www.gaycalgary.com/u380 http://www.gaycalgary.com/u387

7) http://www.gaycalgary.com/u394

http://www.gaycalgary.com/a2707

View Bonus Pics/Videos • Share with a Friend • Post Comments

www.gaycalgary.com

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

27

Sports

The OutField

Jim Provenzano explores sports, sex and paraplegia

By Dan Woog It may not be the traditional format for a winning novel: cross-country running. Lacrosse. Wheelchair basketball.

Gay romance.

But Jim Provenzano’s Every Time I Think of You works.

The author – whose previous books focus on wrestling, AIDS and the lust-filled world of bicycle messengers – has crafted a novel about young adults that may not make the list of most librarians’ recommended “young adult novels.” There’s a bit too much sex – gay sex – in this one for some educators’ tastes.

And it’s graphic.

Yet Every Time does what good literature should. It opens readers’ eyes, minds and hearts to corners of the world they may never have realized existed. Confession: Although I am a high school soccer coach, I’d never thought about the impact a devastating sports accident could have on an athlete. Especially one who was in a torrid, but meaningful, gay relationship.

The story is set in Pennsylvania, in 1978. Reid Conniff is a high school student serious about running, academics and masturbating in the woods. One wintry afternoon, near his favorite tree, he comes across (in every sense of the term) Everett Forester, a privileged, lacrosse-playing boarding school boy.

As is true in most adolescents’ lives (and every novel), stuff happens. There is sexual exploration (Everett has had a lot more experience than Reid), the resultant embarrassment of getting caught, and the arc of both lovers trying to be at the same place at the same time (emotionally as well as physically).

There is not, however, a lot of angst about being gay.

Provenzano set this story – and PINS, his wrestling book – in what he calls “a bubble of time.” Stonewall had already jumpstarted the gay rights movement, but AIDS had not yet reared its ugly head. The author calls those years “a halcyon moment, when for a teenager it was not horrible to be gay.”

In fact, both Reid and Everett’s parents are relatively accepting about their sons’ sexuality. It doesn’t hurt that Provenzano has created what he calls “two smart, well-educated and self-aware” protagonists – boys for whom acting on their urges brings more joy than fear.

What Provenzano did not set out to create, he says, is a novel about disability. Though PINS – written in 1999 – includes a debilitating neck injury that nearly kills the main character, Everett’s paralysis (he’s clobbered by a lacrosse stick) is less metaphoric, more an opportunity to explore the effect of disability on two growing boys who just happen to be gay.

“I took two corny genres – coming out and bildungsroman (coming of age) – and at one point, I just realized the disability was going to happen,” Provenzano explains of the writing process. “Sometimes your characters’ paths don’t go where you expect.”

Once he saw the path his book was taking, Provenzano did a prodigious amount of research. He studied spinal cord injuries, the growth of wheelchair sports, and the ins and outs of paraplegic sex.

In the back of his mind, always, was the story of Ed Gallagher.

In 1985 Gallagher – a 27-year-old former University of Pittsburgh football player – tried to commit suicide by throwing himself off a dam. That was better, he thought, than to die “a fag with AIDS.” (He was not, despite his fears, HIV positive.)

While Gallagher did not succeed in killing himself, he was paralyzed for life.

In 1994 he wrote a semi-autobiographical book, Johnny in the Spot. When Provenzano was writing a sports column 28

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

 Jim Provenzano

(the predecessor to “The OutField”), he had what he calls “an awkward conversation” with Gallagher.

“I read his book, and hated it. The dual narrative format was very difficult to follow,” Provenzano recalls. “But I admired him greatly. He was an inspiration to me. I wanted to write a romance Ed would have appreciated.”

Gallagher was outspoken about the physical needs of paraplegics, and Provenzano addressed the topic head-on too.

“They’re 18,” he says of his characters. “I didn’t want to dodge the fact that they want to have sex – and they do. But I really wanted to get the facts right. It couldn’t be just nudge-nudgewink-wink.”

The first reviews are strong. Author Andrew W. M. Beierle called it “a rare combination of delicacy and power (that) rekindled faded memories of the intensity of youthful desire.”

Ray Aguilera, former editor of Bent Voices, a magazine for disabled gay men, lauded Provenzano for “daring to show that disability and sexuality aren’t mutually exclusive, and that crips can be just as good in bed (or elsewhere) as their nondisabled counterparts.”

It’s not easy to write a novel about sports, gay teenagers and sex in (and out of) wheelchairs. Jim Provenzano has done it, with grace and power. All readers – disabled or not – can stand and applaud.

Dan Woog is a journalist, educator, soccer coach, gay activist, and author of the “Jocks” series of books on gay male athletes. Visit his website at http://www.danwoog.com.

http://www.gaycalgary.com/a2708

View Bonus Pics/Videos • Share with a Friend • Post Comments www.gaycalgary.com

Music Review

Hear Me Out

Kathleen Edwards, Joyful Noise

By Chris Azzopardi

Voyageur

By: Kathleen Edwards My Rating:  Her songs have generally been outside herself, but Kathleen Edwards isn’t writing about other people anymore.

She’s writing about herself. Voyageur is the Canadian alt-folkie’s most personal work, a 10-song musical catharsis after the tumultuous end of a five-year marriage. For all the doubt, soul-searching and heart-shattering sadness, though, it’s off to a surprisingly carefree start: “I’m moving to America,” she asserts – following it with the punch line: “It’s an empty threat.” Her wingman/new boyfriend, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, adds just enough of his trademark softrock euphoria to shake up Edwards’ girl-with-guitar sound.

Plainspoken and brutally honest, the words, however, are all Edwards – regrettably recalling her wedding day (dire “Pink Champagne”), seeking solace (sprawling beauty “A Soft Place to Land”) and rebounding on the redemptive rocker “Change the Sheets.” Her fragile drawl whirls into a mesmerizing dream that’s really more of a nightmare on the hauntingly solemn “House Full of Empty Rooms,” a standout so in touch with its feelings of uncertainty and isolation that it could’ve only been written in the midst of her own hell. She picks herself back up on ’90s-esque “Sidecar,” a buzzy breather that’s uniquely hopeful and upbeat. Simple and direct, working in context of the rest of the downer album with that ditty, is all Edwards needs to be. That straightforward voice, in every sense, is what makes Voyageur an insightful and fulfilling journey.

Joyful Noise soundtrack My Rating:  God and Glee walk into a recording studio and… no, it’s not a joke. It’s Joyful Noise, the churchy musical that’s about as campy as pitching a tent. Speaking of tents, it stars Dolly Parton, a good enough reason to invest in this gospel lovers’ gay dream come true. The other? Queen Latifah, turning a soulful, if short, take on “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” during the otherwise hilariously cornball mash-up “Higher Medley” that also replaces Usher’s sexisms with call-outs to the www.gaycalgary.com

Father. Together, the divas vocally throw down on the uplifting love-is-all “Not Enough,” a choir-lifted whopper that wouldn’t sound out of place in a Sister Act movie. To cover its bases, like the country crowd that Parton pulls, the legend does “From Here to the Moon and Back,” a strippeddown orchestral charmer, with Kris Kristofferson. It’s a fine song that’s basically a more subdued “I Will Always Love You.” On “In Love,” Kirk Franklin preaches to the choir, literally, and Latifah’s “Fix Me Jesus” is one of her most understated performances ever. The rest just feels like Glee in God’s house: bombast nearly butchers the end of “Maybe I’m Amazed” and Nickelodeon star Keke Palmer does a decent but forgettable job with her Disney-fed rendition of “Man in the Mirror.” The music from Joyful Noise isn’t nearly as sinfully bad as the movie is said to be. What does that mean? You can listen and not go to confession the next day.

Also Out Feel the Sound By: Imperial Teen Such a breezy listen that it goes down too easy, the 16-yearold cult foursome – two of which are queer – pull together hum-worthy hooks on their first album in five years. Like Scissor Sisters for rock radio, the co-ed collective from San Francisco leans on chompy guitar riffs and enough melodic sing-alongs to write a book on the science of sound (see: 1999’s “Yoo Hoo,” used in Jawbreaker). Giddiness rides out “Runaway,” a mindless piece of illuminated pop; the rest follows similarly and sounds like more beguiling versions of songs by the Shins. The refrain during the last tune, a musically transcendental highlight, sums up the album best: “It’s overtaking, it’s overtaking us.”

The Lion’s Roar By: First Aid Kit Deep-rooted Americana from the depths of… Sweden?

Besides a Stockholm nod, there’s nary a hint that this sibling act are from Robyn soil, especially when Johanna and Klara’s sophomore CD is back-roads folk with an affinity for the genre’s legends. Proof: “Emmylou,” a hat-tip to traditional tropes that also features an adorable refrain.

And then there are those voices, instruments that recall the greats in how enchantingly throwback they are. “To a Poet” works into a mesmerizing chorus that’s pure country heartbreak, harmonized beautifully in a high-sung lament.

Handclaps and horns round out this gem of an album on the boisterous hootenanny “King of the World” – and if anyone rules the world this year, let’s hope it’s First Aid Kit.

http://www.gaycalgary.com/a2709

View Bonus Pics/Videos • Share with a Friend • Post Comments

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

29

Gossip

 Hugh Jackman, photo by DreamWorks

Deep Inside Hollywood Houdini is happening with Hugh

By Romeo San Vicente Hugh Jackman can’t stay away from Broadway. The part-time Real Steel/Wolverine tough guy is, apparently, incapable of curing his songand-dance lust. So now that The Boy From Oz is a distant memory and he’s finished up with Hugh Jackman: Back on Broadway, he needs a new reason to belt out the big numbers for matinee audiences. Enter Houdini, in the works for a couple years now with Jackman in mind for the lead and, at one point, set to feature music from Danny Elfman.

Jackman is still the man in the title role but now the score will come from Stephen Schwartz (Wicked), the script from Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network) and Jack O’Brien (Hairspray) will direct. And rather than a straightforward biography approach, Houdini will tell the story of a conflict the legendary magician encountered in the form of a trio of women known as “Spirtualists.” The women had convinced scores of followers, including editors at Scientific American and The New York Times, that they could communicate with the dead. Houdini, on the other hand, was less than convinced. If audiences believe – and they probably will – this could be the big hit of the 2013 season. Start planning your New York visits now.

Franco’s gay streak continues James Franco is no stranger to playing gay. On screen he’s been James Dean, Allen Ginsberg, Hart Crane, Harvey Milk’s boyfriend Scott Smith and an ambiguous stoner in the comedy Pineapple Express. So here he goes again, this time tackling the role of legendary contemporary artist Robert Mapplethorpe for an upcoming biopic. The controversial artist, who died of AIDS in 1989 and whose frankly homoerotic photographs caused a firestorm of censorship efforts among cultural conservatives in the late 1980s, is almost tailor-made for a big screen story. And given the artist’s huge personality and bravado, the actor who plays him should be equally unafraid, which makes it a perfect fit for Franco. The upcoming film, among the first to receive grants through Tribeca Film Institute’s “All Access Program” and directed by documentarian Ondi Timoner, will be produced by Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s Eliza Dushku and her brother Nate Dushku, who was, at one time, expected to play Mapplethorpe. More news to come as production rolls on.

30

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

Directors In Flux: Peirce Talks Carrie, Van Sant Replaces Damon Post-Columbine, it’s been impossible to get a high school outcastgets-revenge movie anywhere near a studio’s production slate. But then there’s Carrie, a project that’s almost magically exempt from any discussion of media blame when real kids go on real life murderous rampages. Based on the modern horror classic written by Stephen King, the original film starring young Sissy Spacek was a deep dive into a terrifying world of religious mania, telekinesis and involuntary manslaughter (lots and lots of it). Naturally, a remake is in the works and Boys Don’t Cry director Kimberly Peirce is in talks to take the helm.

Hope she gets it; she’d be a great fit. Meanwhile, on the boys side of Hollywood, Gus Van Sant looks to be stepping into Matt Damon’s shoes as he takes over an untitled production that Damon was scheduled to direct. Co-starring with John Krasinski is still on tap for Damon, who also co-wrote the script – one that people who’ve read it are calling “Capra-esque” – in which the two actors play rival corporate executives whose values and greed are called into question. And Van Sant was the first and only director Damon called to take over, a no-brainer since the pair have worked together off and on ever since Good Will Hunting.

2012 takes on new meaning for 2012 director Gay director Roland Emmerich’s end-of-the-world thriller 2012 ended with humanity’s final survivors fleeing for safety in giant arks, so it’s not like he’s ever at a loss for outlandish outcomes, but which candidate will be safely ensconced in the White House – not just in real life, but in make-believe TV-land, too – when the director’s new 2012 Presidential campaign-themed TV series wraps up its first story arc?

That’s the first question you might ask about this pilot, picked up by ABC, which focuses on a young astrophysics student (why not?) whose destiny becomes linked with the election. The next question might be what it’s going to be called, because there’s no title just yet. And that’s just the start. Who’s going to star? How fast can they get it moving and on the air? And most importantly, what’s going to happen to the story after the January 2013 inauguration? Stay tuned as this game of TV dice-rolling shakes out.

Romeo San Vicente plans to vote early and often.

http://www.gaycalgary.com/a2710

View Bonus Pics/Videos • Share with a Friend • Post Comments www.gaycalgary.com

Lifestyle

Cocktail Chatter The Kir Royale

By Ed Sikov Dan and I got married on Saturday. This news may be surprising, given my little peccadillo with Jack Fogg and the uproar when my stunned partner – now husband – found out.

But it led to the talk we should have had years ago, a discussion too personal even for me to write about. Let’s just say that we came to an understanding, then made up, then out, and finally came in a very different sense of the word.

We’re beyond being best friends. My faults still register with Dan, but there’s a trace of a smile on his face when I tell the same jokes I always tell. And I’m proud of being married to the world’s greatest klutz. (Life with Dan: bang, crash, “shit!”) We’re genuinely intertwined in ways we weren’t four years ago, when I….

Well, the fact is that I have Parkinson’s disease. I haven’t mentioned it before because it hasn’t been part of any of the stories I’ve told. It’s no fun, but I live with it, and if you saw me you’d never guess I had it unless you happened to catch me doing the last three reps of a weightlifting set. That’s when I tremor.

Dan has been there for me throughout the whole bad trip, and I’ve been there for him, too. (The six months leading to his promotion to V.P. at CogniTech was practically as traumatic as my PD.) So when New York granted gay people marriage equality, we went for it. The scene: the beach house. The characters: our friends Gary and Heath, Dan and me. The state legislature was taking its time. I checked the news just after 11 p.m.

“It passed!” I yelled. We toasted with what was left of the dinner wine. Then: Me: “We gettin’ married?”

Dan: “Yeah.”

Me: “When?”

Dan: “December.”

We’re clearly not into the top-of-the-Empire State Building stuff.

So we got married. There were eight guests, including the judge who married us, who happened to be Dan’s father.

We got the private dining room of a terrific restaurant in our neighborhood. The ceremony was one minute long. We said we loved each other, and Dan’s father said, “I now pronounce you married.” Then lunch.

We left immediately for the beach, arriving rather late.

I brought a rack of lamb to grill, some vegetables and two cupcakes. But yechhh: the only champagne in the refrigerator was bad not very good. (We keep some in there all the time – like Mary Richards and her can of artichoke hearts – “just in case”.)

“I hate that swill,” Dan said. “There’s no need to fear,” I replied.

“Underdog is here!’”

We had Creme de Cassis, a blackcurrant liqueur. Undrinkably sweet on its own, it’s the perfect solution to bad mediocre champagne. I grilled the rack of lamb, roasted some fingerling potatoes and sauteed Brussels sprouts in butter. We drank two bottles of bad bad champagne transformed into Kir Royales.

The rest of the night I’ll leave to your imagination.

The Kir Royale 1 bottle of bad champagne

Imitation of Life: ‘The Faux de Vie’ From the mailbag comes this gem-like nugget: “You’re a really great writer, Ed. You’re also a mess.” I say: True on both counts! I don’t think I’m bragging when I agree with the first part. I’m sure most of you have something you know you’re good at, whether it’s managing staff, making ceramic bowls, salesmanship or cooking. It’s good for your state of mind; it builds confidence to have confidence. As for the second point, I acknowledge that, too. I used to be more of a mess than I am now, but I’m still neurotic. Hey, I’m a gay Jew from a cruddy little town in western Pennsylvania. I got called vicious names every damned day until I escaped to college. What do you expect?

The message writer was referring to a specific column – the “Yankee Mint Julep” one, in which I respond to Kyle and Robbie’s acoustically vibrant and (to me) demoralizing sex romp upstairs at the beach house by swigging from a magnum of Jack Daniels. It was a pretty good column, I think, but the response brought up a fact I’ve not made a point of stating directly. As I near the end of my second season as “Cocktail Chatter” columnist, it’s time to set the record straight (so to speak): Except for the recipes, “Cocktail Chatter” is pure fiction. I make this stuff up, people. There is no Kyle, no Robbie, no Craig, no Jack Fogg…. There’s sort of a Dan, but that’s not his real name, and he doesn’t work for a pharmaceutical company. Some of the characters were originally based on people I know, and some are purely my own creation. But their origins are irrelevant because they all grew into different, fully formed (albeit fictional) people the more I wrote about them. These nonexistent folks don’t let me put words in their mouth they don’t think they’d really say. It’s like I’m channeling them, and when I add a word they don’t like they make me delete it. A novelist friend of mine was not at all surprised when I mentioned this bizarre situation to him. He can’t force his characters to do or say what he wants them to do or say either. They, too, have their own voices and personalities, and he can’t control them either.

In that spirit, or perhaps in those spirits – or maybe even in the spirit of those spirits who drink spirits – I created an original cocktail: “The Faux de Vie.” As you may know, Eau de Vie is a clear, double-distilled brandy that has the flavor of the fruit from which it is distilled. Varieties include pear, raspberry, plum and peach. Eau de Vie translates as Water of Life, but a fine Eau de Vie is pricier than even the most expensive bottled water. It can run you $120 or more.

So forget the real stuff and make yourself a Faux de Vie! Get yourself a copy of the extraordinarily gorgeous and superbly entertaining Imitation of Life, the 1959 tearjerker directed by the great Douglas Sirk and starring the inimitable Lana Turner, and you’ve got yourself a perfectly “faux” evening.

The Faux de Vie 1 jigger Absolut vodka A couple drops of the liqueur of your choice Get a small glass and carefully pour just a few drops of Chambord, Cointreau, or any fruit liqueur into it. Add vodka. Sip. Don’t overwhelm the vodka with liqueur; the drink should have just a hint of fruit to it.

If you’re not able to try these recipes at home, then ask your favourite bartender to make them for you!

Crème de Cassis

http://www.gaycalgary.com/a2711

Add a few drops of Crème de Cassis to each glass, then fill with champagne. Use cheap champagne. Don’t ruin a good bottle of bubbly by adding anything at all.

www.gaycalgary.com

View Bonus Pics/Videos • Share with a Friend • Post Comments

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

31

PUMPS UP THE JAM America’s Six Inch Obsession

By Todd Hamilton On any given night at Mr. Black in Los Angeles, ten or more men can be seen traversing the dance floor in a pair of pumps. No, they aren’t drag queens. They’re gay men sporting the latest trend to hit the states: men - otherwise dressed in men’s clothing - in heels.

They’re not cheap heels either.

Gay men love their labels and many are happily shelling out $3,000 and more for the sexiest from Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, and yes, Louboutin.

In a way, the men are repeating history.

Until Napoleon banned them, high heels were considered a sign of nobility in France; Louis XVI donned five-inch red-accented heels depicting wartime battle scenes.

There’s even a new anthem for the movement. Emii’s “Stilettos” stomps over Jennifer Lopez’s ode to Louboutin with a shoeobsessed high-kicker that adds fist pumps to the foot pump.

32

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

GC: Can you understand why one might be obsessed with Stilettos?

E: I can definitely understand. I mean, have you seen my closet?

GC: Are you surprised by the success of your new song?

E: I’m excited about it. The song is about celebrating the little things in life that make us feel sexy and empowered. It encourages us to walk the walk, strut our stuff, and be thankful and proud of whatever we are rocking.

GC: What’s your take on the trend of men in heels?

E: I remember being a kid, watching a video of Prince rocking a hot pair of heels. It didn’t seem crazy to me then, and it doesn’t seem crazy to me now. Men are just as entitled to fashionable forms of expression as women are. The more stilettos the better!

GC: Does wearing heels make one feel more powerful?

www.gaycalgary.com

E: Definitely! It is an empowering feeling to walk like a diva six inches above every one else in the room. Maybe it’s the height, maybe it’s the fashion statement, maybe it’s simply magic. Whatever it is, it works!

GC: Are wearing stilettos a form of drag?

E: No. Shoes are only an accessory to the outfit. Even if they are the showstopper of what you’re wearing, and they should be, they don’t define the outfit. Being a drag queen involves more than heels.

GC: Women wearing men’s clothing is normal. Is it time we consider men in women’s clothing as normal?

E: Absolutely! It’s time to do away with all double standard standards. It’s fashion, people. Chill out and let us go crazy.

GC: Would you ever let your man step out in pumps?

E: If stilettos are good enough for Prince, they sure as hell are good enough for my man.

GC: What is your message to men who want to wear Stilettos?

E: Wear them and love them! It is your right to express yourself.

GC: Are you loving that your song has become the anthem for men in heels?

E: Oh yes, I love it! I hope the song helps to inspire everyone to feel free to express themselves and kick all double standards to the curb. In heels, of course.

Emii http://emii.net http://www.gaycalgary.com/a2712

View Bonus Pics/Videos • Share with a Friend • Post Comments

www.gaycalgary.com

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

33

Politics

Equal Marriage Equal Divorce

By Stephen Lock During the heady days of striving for equal marriage to be made legal in Canada, I remember some discussion at Board level at Egale Canada, and with Canadians for Equal Marriage, that not only will we need to enshrine the right to marry for GLBTQ folk, but the right to divorce as well. Clearly, similar discussions were never held in cabinet up on Parliament Hill.

Now we have a situation where a lesbian couple married, legally they believed, in Canada in 2005 now wish to legally divorce. While they were prepared to return to Canada from their respective domiciles in Florida and Europe to do so, they were informed that because they have not fulfilled the one year residency requirement, and their own jurisdictions do not recognize the marriage as valid, they were not, in fact, actually ‘legally married’ at all!

One of the concerns I expressed back then, but realized there was probably not much one could do about it, was the number of individuals coming from outside Canada for the express purpose of getting married. I couldn’t articulate the concern, apart from a vague discomfort “Getting Married In Canada” was being treated like some sort of trip to DisneyWorld and being made an Honourary Mouseketeer, but I was uncomfortable with it and somewhat concerned what might happen if, after the first flush of excitement faded, these people woke up one morning and went “oops... don’t want to be married after all!”. Naturally, one assumed as adults, individuals wouldn’t enter into such a commitment lightly and would understand what we were saying all along; marriage is marriage.

In fairness, such individuals would naturally assume all the i’s had been dotted and all the t’s crossed. I guess we missed some stuff that, in retrospect, would appear obvious.

Like having the right to divorce enshrined right alongside the right to marry.

Predictably, once this omission came to light, the Harper government came under attack.

Paul Dewar, a candidate for the leadership of the New Democrat Party following Jack Layton’s death, has accused the Harper government of attempting to “roll back” equal marriage in Canada and “betraying the trust of thousands of same-sex couples who came to Canada looking for equality” after the government intervened in a divorce case of two non-Canadian women who married in Canada, saying the Canadian marriage was never valid because their home countries do not recognize same-sex marriage. According to Dewar’s website, the government move effectively rules thousands of Canadian marriages null and void. It also sets a precedent that if a home state does not permit a marriage, Canada will not recognize the marriage either.

34

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

It’s not like the possibility of divorce hadn’t already hit the public radar. Back in 2004, when the debate around equal marriage was still raging, a Toronto lesbian couple, known only as M.M. and H.H., filed for divorce. The women married on June 18, 2003, a week after the Ontario Court of Appeal legalized same-sex marriage. They separated five days later.

The couple had been together for almost 10 years. A petition for divorce was filed in Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice in June 2004.

Madam Justice Ruth Mesbur, the presiding judge in this case, approved the couple’s application on September 13, 2004 ruling the definition of spouse in the Divorce Act was unconstitutional. The Act defined “spouse” as “of a man or woman who are married to each other.”

At the time of M.M. vs H.H. equal marriage was not yet enshrined in federal law but courts in three provinces (Ontario, B.C. and Quebec) and the Yukon had ruled lesbians and gay men had the freedom to marry under the Charter of Rights. That caused a rush to the altar by thousands of homosexual couples.

Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin said at that time he would introduce a bill, likely in October 2004, to rectify the legislation and to put it to a free vote in Parliament. However, he warned, it could take up to a year after that for samesex marriage to be legal nationwide. Martin also stated the Divorce Act had to be overhauled to reflect the changes to the Marriage Act. “It may take awhile to resolve the issue,” Nicholas Bala, a professor of family law at Queen’s University, said at the time. “There are many issues at stake here: what happens if a partner dies and what happens if one of the partner’s is from another province where there is no gay marriage. There is nothing to reference.”

Apparently, it never got resolved.

Mind you, at the time, those of us working to bring in equal marriage were busy counteracting the outrageous attacks from the Right. We often felt we were being pulled off course to deal with accusations our ‘true’ agenda was to legalize pedophilia or to create an environment in which marrying ones daughter or son would also be legal. That details such as what would happen should a same-sex marriage, like any marriage, fail never got fully addressed is not surprising since our focus was on the success of the initiative. A few voiced some foresight and talked about ‘what if’ scenarios, but there was so much work to be done, such scenarios were, sad to admit, overlooked or shelved. The view was, we would deal with those issues once equal marriage was made law but for now, the focus was lobbying to have equal marriage legalized. In retrospect, it was a major oversight with serious ramifications for those individuals who trusted us and, quite logically, assumed everything was in place as it should be.

Besides, who thinks of divorce when you are standing before a marriage commissioner preparing to exchange vows of eternal love with the person you fully intend to spend the rest of your life with? Romance and hope tend to wash out practicalities.

Gilles Marchildon, then the Execituve Director of Egale Canada, one of the principle organizations involved in the fight for equal marriage, urged Canadian legislators to move on the divorce issue.

“There’s a legal vacuum in this country,” he said at the time. “The court will need to make a decision based on current law [but] it also has latitude in terms of the statutes involving common-law partnerships.” www.gaycalgary.com

In 1999, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that it was unfair that a Toronto lesbian had no rights to sue a former partner for support. The following year, Ottawa passed Bill C-23, which ruled that same-sex couples were entitled to the same federally legislated benefits, obligations and status as heterosexual common-law couples. Under that law, there was no sharing of property when a common-law relationship ended, with the exception of jointly-owned property. The same rules do not apply, however, to divorcing couples. In the instance a marriage ends, there are certain settlements and property divisions that need to be dealt with legally.

Following the Mesbur ruling, the federal Justice Department conceded that excluding lesbians and gay men from the Divorce Act was unconstitutional.

This all seems relatively clear, as legalities go, but it applies only to residents of Canada. Those coming into Canada to be married from jurisdictions and countries that did not recognize same-sex marriage - and many instances still don’t - seemed to have slipped through the cracks.

It is ridiculous to now tell them, ‘oh, well, since your country doesn’t recognize same-sex marriage, you aren’t actually married.’ Did the thousands who came to Canada to be married only experience some phoney but oh-so-romantic rite? That’s not what they were told then. They were told if you marry in Canada, the marriage is valid and recognized as such in Canada and by other countries that recognize samesex marriage, even if one’s own country doesn’t recognize the validity of the marriage. Does that lack of recognition render the marriage any less valid? The answer back then was no, it is a legal and valid marriage. Now they are being told it isn’t and never was. That cannot be allowed to stand.

If residency stipulations were waived or not required in order to be married in Canada, then residency stipulations for divorce should mirror that. As it stands now, one has to be a resident in Canada for a year in order to divorce in Canada. Of course, safe guards need to be in place to ensure divorce is not being taken lightly or entered into trivially.

But so, too, should marriage have such safe guards in place.

Perhaps some, back in those heady days of early legalization, did in fact get married and didn’t think it through or consider just what it was they were getting into, legally. Legal rights and responsibilities cut both ways, as they should. Just as the state has responsibilities towards the individual in such matters, so too does the individual have responsibilities and amongst those, one would assume, is the understanding ‘getting married’ is not like going out to buy a flat screen TV. However, couples married in Canada essentially entered into a contractual agreement with us. We have an obligation to them to ensure that contract is honoured in all its nuances, including the right to divorce. If, in fact, nonresidents cannot obtain a divorce in the same country in which they married in good faith, then we need to fix that. Now. To leave people in some legal limbo is, quite clearly, just not right.

This is not about ‘revisiting’ the equal marriage debate.

We’ve had that and equal marriage is law. This is about fixing what went wrong. This is about setting things right.

This is about fairness.

January 27, 2012 GayCalgary and Edmonton Magazine 2136 17th Avenue SW Calgary, AB T2T 0G3 Dear Rob and Steve, On behalf of The SHARP Foundation, I wish to congratulate you on your 100th edition of GayCalgary and Edmonton Magazine.

Your support and commitment of SHARP through sponsorship (promoting, attending and photographing events), and even your personal fundraising efforts (Rob makes a great living Christmas tree…) are truly appreciated. Your enthusiasm around A Taste for Life has helped to build this into a marquee event in Calgary.

I remember providing you a tour of Beswick House to show you the facility, but also discuss the impact our work was having on a highly vulnerable and stigmatized part of our community – people living with HIV. That is a tour that continues to be reflected in your business and personal support of The SHARP Foundation and the connections you have provide within the GBLT community that are so important to our work.

Again, on behalf of SHARP’s Board, Staff, and most importantly the Clients we serve, I wish to congratulate you on your 100th edition, and thank you for your ongoing support of our organization.

All the best,

Gerry Hart Board President The SHARP Foundation  

  

January 18, 2011 Dear Steve and Rob: On behalf of Team Edmonton we would like to congratulate you and your contributors on the 100th issue of Gay Calgary and Edmonton Magazine.

Your publication has played a vital role in providing information about GLBTQ sports and recreation opportunities in Alberta and supporting our mandate. Since our inception in 2006 you have worked collaboratively with us and our affiliated activities to provide accurate information and coverage to the community and partners across the province.

We wish you success on your next 100 issues and look forward to seeing your website, social media and print publications continue to expand and develop.

Regards

http://www.gaycalgary.com/a2713

View Bonus Pics/Videos • Share with a Friend • Post Comments

Keith Andony President, Team Edmonton

www.gaycalgary.com

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

35

GayTravel

Ogunquit: Vacationland’s Glorious Little Gay Getaway

 Ogunquit

By GayTravel You have to wonder why New Englanders choose to live much of the year in the cold, snow, ice and darkness. One hypothesis, they live for the summer! There’s nothing quite like that short window of time between spring and fall. For gay and lesbian travelers around the world, Provincetown is paradise found. This small stretch of Cape Cod is the most famous gay getaway destination in the region, but it’s certainly not the only one. Drive just four hours north and you’ll find the crown jewel of LGBT Maine, Ogunquit.

The town has a year-round population of less than two thousand residents, but it’s in the summer and early fall that this quaint, charming beach community comes alive, catering to gay and lesbian travelers. Ogunquit differs from other resort towns in Maine in that most of the restaurants, galleries, hotels and dance clubs … that’s right … dance clubs, are gay-owned and operated.

Whether you live in nearby Portland or Boston, or you’re vacationing, your day starts the same. You lather on the sunscreen, put on your sexiest speedo and strut on down to the beach. The beginning of the beach is where the heteros station themselves, but if you walk less than a half mile beyond that you’ll find family. Cruisy older gents, sexy college studs playing volleyball and ladies frolicking in the waves, that’s the quintessential sunny day on Ogunquit Beach.

Bare in mind, this is New England and the weather can go from sunny and gorgeous to rainy and miserable at any given moment. So if you do have to make a quick exit from the beach, don’t fret, there’s a variety of other ways to occupy yourself.

36

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

If you’re a sucker for art, there are incredible galleries featuring the work of local artists, including The Barn Gallery and Art & Soul Gallery, both located on Shore Road. The great thing about Ogunquit is that most of the shops, museums, hotels and restaurants are located within walking distance to the beach. Trust me, this is a blessing because parking can be a nightmare and if you time your entrance or escape out of town at the wrong time, it could take the better part of an hour to get back to the highway.

A cloudy day is also the perfect time to check out John Lane’s Ogunquit Playhouse. Located just a few miles outside of the center of the action heading back to the highway, this is a great venue to enjoy popular shows like Avenue Q, The Music Man or Chicago.

www.gaycalgary.com

If anything can redeem a lackluster cocktail, it’s a night out on the town. Don’t be fooled by Ogunquit’s size, the clubs are incredibly fun and get packed. Front Porch is a great place to start your evening. It’s a piano bar filled with locals, Bostonians and visitors from points beyond. Even if you aren’t a singer, the mood is infectious, the waiters … adorable and the drinks are potent.

Next, head across the street and pick your poison, you have two options to choose from to prolong your buzz and dance the night away. First is the staple of gay and lesbian Ogunquit, MaineStreet. Dance music, drag shows, pool and sexy bartenders, all the prerequisites are here. There’s also a spacious porch located outside if you want to have an audible conversation with some friends.

Oxygen is close to MaineStreet. It’s that gay bar in town that’s been in business for years but constantly changes ownership. It’s a great place to end your night, whether you’re still in the mood to dance or want to grab a drunken bite at the rooftop café.

Remember ladies and gents, Maine isn’t just lobster and lighthouses! If you’re that gay or lesbian traveler who wants a change from Provincetown, Key West, Fire Island and the other typical LGBT summer haunts, Ogunquit is a refreshing option.

It offers all of the trappings of most other gay resort towns with smaller crowds and lower prices.

http://www.gaycalgary.com/a2714

View Bonus Pics/Videos • Share with a Friend • Post Comments

 Ogunquit-Gazebo

Ogunquit may be a small town, but most of the local businesses thrive on tourist dollars, so there’s no shortage of dining options for gay and lesbian travelers looking for a quick bit or extravagant romantic meal. Angelina’s is a charming restaurant and wine bar if you’re looking for something tres romantique, Cape Neddick Lobster Pound is great if you want to experience local cuisine. Keep in mind, not all of these establishments are created equal. On a recent visit I dined at a restaurant which will remain nameless and had to tell the bartender how to make a Mojito. Something I never would have expected to happen in a town fueled by the gay dollar.

After explaining the recipe, the bartender handed me a glass containing seltzer, rum and mangled brown mint leaves, #fail!

Dear Steve and Rob, On behalf of the Alberta Rockies Gay Rodeo Association we would like to congratulate you on their 100th edition of the GayCalgary and Edmonton Magazine.

You have demonstrated your entrepreneurial spirit and your ability to succeed in a very difficult industry.

Your generous spirit and the donations you make to the Gay Community are second to none as you cover the non-profit associations, businesses, activities, and meaningful issues with clarity and fairness.

ARGRA would like to thank you for all of your help and insight into our organization and especially the Canadian Rockies International Rodeo.

Congratulations Steve and Rob for your 100th edition and for a major milestone.

Board of Directors Alberta Rockies Gay Rodeo Association

www.gaycalgary.com

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

37

Jasper Comes Out To The Whistle Stop

By Carey Rutherford Toto, I don’t think we’re in...waitaminute, we are in Alberta! And there’s now an LGBTQ-friendly pub in Jasper that has already put on their first drag show.

Vanessa Hugie, General Manager of Whistler’s Inn of Jasper, isn’t surprised - it’s her doing!

“Whistler’s Inn is coming up on 20 years (in Jasper), and the Whistle Stop has been part of the hotel since before it had even become Whistler’s Inn. We’ve been building it into the locals’ pub/hangout for the last 15 years, really bringing up the quality of the product and service, building up our clientele, etc.” Coincidentally, 15 years is the same length of time she has been with them.

In 2010, an LGBTQ-centred publication came through her hotel looking for her business, and Vanessa was concerned about “pitching my hotel to the community, because I didn’t know that I could guarantee that we can deliver...on being LGBT friendly just because I said we were.” And she would know, as she’s been active in the Jasper rainbow community, working with HIV West Yellowhead and supporting OUT Jasper.

So when the salesman came back as a consultant, working with organizations like hers that wanted to learn about and promote themselves to this $7-billion Canadian market, she was the perfect person to speak with.

“We took some new pictures of the hotel, did some education with the staff, and talked about the pub. It is a locals hangout, one of the most popular pubs in town; it’s not a nightclub... The bartenders all know you by what you drink, when you walk in they all go hey there, so I was a little concerned because some of the clientele is very much ‘repeat’, some of them are very comfortable because they’ve been coming for so long, and can be very opinionated. I was a little worried that maybe the ambience wouldn’t be right, 38

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

or it wouldn’t be as welcoming and friendly as it maybe should be, if it were changed.”

“But Rod (Zelles, the now consultant) said, if you let people know that they’re welcome, they’ll come.”

“So we held our inaugural event on January 14th, called our ‘Loud and Proud Party’, and we basically turned the Whistle Stop Pub into a dance bar for an evening, complete with disco balls, a lightshow, a dancefloor (and) a drag queen show. It was probably one of the best events that we’ve had in the pub, bar none.”

“It was extremely well attended, by people from out-oftown as well as our locals, and overwhelming [were] the support levels, and the good [feeling] in the room...[it] was phenomenal.” Vanessa was clearly smiling so hard she could hardly get words out.

Vanessa mentions seeing many locals at the party that normally didn’t frequent the Whistle Stop, and she was congratulated many times by clientele who were delighted with the successful welcoming effort.

“It was probably the most amazing feeling I’ve had in a long time!”

She points out that their intention is not to change the pub over into what is traditionally called a ‘gay bar’, but simply to enhance what they already do. Hugie explains, “so one weekend every month will be dedicated to our LGBT customers, combined with promotions through the hotel.

So were there any spoilsports that complained?

“Not directly to me. A couple of my bartenders heard some people cracking some not so appropriate jokes, and they said hey, everybody’s welcome here, and put a halt to it. ...No-one has said they’re going to stop coming (because of the changes), I haven’t heard of anyone being [offended].”

She had been more concerned about the out-of-towners, that she knows less about and who come in on weekends, www.gaycalgary.com

having an unpredictable reaction. “But I don’t think anyone who really has any issues will be put out: we’re not doing anything to make them feel uncomfortable, we’re just doing things to make others feel more comfortable.”

“So in February, in support of Jasper Pride, the February 10-11th weekend, we’ll be hosting a group of local musicians from the LGBT community who’ll be performing at the official Apres-Ski on the 11th.”

“Then on the second weekend in March we’re going to have a Passion Party, and there’s a girl from Edmonton’s clubs who will come out and DJ for us.” Passion Party as in sex toys, if you’re wondering.

For trivia buffs, this is the third year Jasper has had a Pride, and “they decided to go with February, because they wanted to tie it in with winter and skiing, take advantage of marmot Basin and the great conditions that we have in February.”

Vanessa, being hotel manager, a wife and a mother, demonstrates that she also has balls: “I personally would like to challenge Tourism Jasper to follow my lead. I think that they have shied away from looking at the LGBT community specifically, which, in my mind as a business operator, is short-sighted. It’s a $7-billion market, and for a town like Jasper that is resort-based and extremely seasonal, relying on a lot of regional support (like Calgary, Edmonton, and even smaller B.C. communities like Kamloops and Prince George). Without looking at all the markets I think they’re missing out... As of right now, Tourism Jasper has said they’re ‘interested’ in what I’m doing, but they haven’t stepped forward.”

Oooh, looks like the rhinestone-covered gauntlet has been thrown!

Whistler’s Inn / The Whistle Stop 105 Miette Avenue, Jasper http://www.gaycalgary.com/a2715

View Bonus Pics/Videos • Share with a Friend • Post Comments www.gaycalgary.com

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

39

Glenn, Close Up

Albert Nobbs actress talks gender-bending role, her unexpected bisexual turn and the possibility of her going lesbian – in real life  Glenn Close, photos by Patrick Redmond

By Chris Azzopardi Man, Glenn Close feels like a woman, but she sure doesn’t look like one in her new gender-bending movie.

In Albert Nobbs, the actress – known especially to gay audiences for her role in the 1995 film Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story, about a real-life lesbian soldier – drops her voice a few notches, wears a top hat and wraps her torso in a girdle, all to keep her job while living in late-19th-century Ireland.

Recently nominated for an Oscar, the role – originated by Close on stage nearly 30 years ago – also earned her a Golden Globe nomination. Nods also went to costar Janet McTeer for playing Hubert, a cross-dressing lesbian who’s living the life that Albert so desperately wants.

In a recent one-on-one, Close revealed her proudest part of the film, how she thinks Albert identifies sexually and looked back at her unexpected bisexual role on Will & Grace.

GC: How was it getting in touch with your masculine side?

G: (Laughs) It’s funny, because I never think of Albert as a man. I always thought of her, even as Albert, as a woman, kind of wearing a mask. As far as getting in touch with her movement and her voice and all that, I would think back on the reality of what she must have gone through when she first had the idea to disappear as a waiter. The shoes would’ve been too heavy and too big, the pants would’ve been too long. Waiters in Victorian times who were very formal weren’t supposed to look anybody in the eye – they were seen, not heard – and so she couldn’t have chosen a better way to disappear.

40

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

GC: People aren’t sure how to define Albert Nobbs. I’ve heard both transgender and lesbian used to describe her. What do you think?

G: I don’t think she is either, and that’s what fascinates me about this character. She disappeared when she was 14 and she emerges 30 years later. She’s never been in a home, she’s never had any intimate human contact, and she’s never been loved by someone. Everything, in a way, is new and unexplored.

She does not have, when you first see her, a hugely active regretful longing in her life. She counts her money, she wants to be left alone, she wants to have the security of her job so that she won’t end up on the street – and that’s fine with her. She’s lower-class and working, and it’s only when Hubert comes into her life and she’s revealed that – first of all, she fears life as she knows it ending, but when she hears Hubert’s story, naturally, she thinks, “Can I do that?” But she doesn’t have the tools; she just doesn’t. Hubert’s one mistake is that she thinks Albert is much more capable of forging a life, but she just isn’t.

GC: One of the best lines in the film comes from Hubert, who tells Albert that “you can be whoever you are.” That’s such a powerful mantra for all of us, but the gay community can definitely relate. What effect do you hope that line, and this film, has on the LGBT community?

G: I hope that line makes them really happy. You’re absolutely right to pick out that line, because it comes after a scene where Albert, in the dress, realizes that’s not who she is either – and that’s when Hubert says, “Albert, you can be whoever you are.

Look what you’ve done.” It’s a wonderful moment.

www.gaycalgary.com

GC: What about the film, and the role of Albert Nobbs, makes you most proud?

G: Moments in the movie when I think people honestly forget what they’re looking at. It’s not two gay men and one confused other woman; it’s two people in a loving and passionate relationship, being kind to a third person. And gender really, at that point, doesn’t matter. I know that it does matter, but in some ways, if you look at it from some angles, gender should be irrelevant. People should be able to love whoever they have that safety and connection with. That’s a basic human need. And that’s what Albert takes on. What she longs for is that sitting room. Those two chairs in front of the fire represent everything that she wants. And it’s basically a safe place with someone across the room. It’s as simple as that.

GC: The film, though it’s set in a different time period, is still very relevant to how people nowadays are resisting labels and gender identity. People no longer want to be called gay and lesbian. Queer is now being embraced. Do you see parallels between the film’s resistance of labels and the LGBT community?

G: Absolutely. I always have. I think it’s why this simple story is so powerful. What Janet brought to the part of Hubert is absolutely fantastic, because Hubert defies labels. She doesn’t care about labels. She’s happy with being Hubert, and it’s a great thing to see. No big deals made out of it. But here’s somebody who, even though she has to masquerade as a man, is actually who she is. She’s comfortable with that. Like Janet has said, Hubert doesn’t want to be in a dress, but she’ll do it for Albert. But nah, she’s happy if she never gets in a dress.

GC: Let’s talk about all the gay cred you have – and not just with Albert Nobbs. You played a lesbian soldier, and kissed Judy Davis, in Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story. But you also dry humped Debra Messing on Will & Grace.

G: (Laughs) Oh my god, that was so funny!

GC: I didn’t forget about that, Glenn.

G: Too funny. I went out there thinking I was going to be a marriage counselor. They said, “No, no – you’re going to be this bisexual international photographer.” And I go, “Oh, OK!” GC: You know, many consider you a dykon. When did you first feel embraced by the gay community?

G: Oh, that’s so nice. I’m so flattered. Well, you can’t be in my profession and not have wonderful, important gay friends. I guess you can’t be anywhere in life now and not have wonderful, important gay friends. So it’s just a no-brainer.

I started this organization to fight stigma around mental illness, and that’s one kind of frontier – are you saying “queer community” now? What are you saying?

GC: Sure, queer works.

G: You’ve all come a long way as far as rights, and I think mentally ill people, many of them, lead secret lives. I don’t know how I got on that.

GC: With the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” how do you reflect on your role in Serving in Silence and the progress gay people have made in the military?

G: Incredible. I was in touch with Margarethe Cammermeyer when it happened, and we saw it back, what the situation was when we made that movie, and it was amazing. It didn’t ruin her life but it certainly stopped her life on a trajectory that she wanted it to go on – she wanted to be a general and that’s a loss.

She was a great soldier. She was remarkable. So I’m very proud of that. I was honored to try to walk a little bit in her shoes, which was impossible. But I’m very proud.

GC: And that kiss: I remember you saying that for 30 seconds you felt what it was like to be attracted to the same sex.

G: Yeah, absolutely.

GC: If you weren’t an actress, do you think you would’ve ever been inclined to see what that felt like?

G: Oh lord. I don’t know. That’s hard. Obviously it depends on the individual. I can’t answer that. If I wasn’t an actress, I don’t know what kind of life I’d have.

www.gaycalgary.com

http://www.gaycalgary.com/a2716

View Bonus Pics/Videos • Share with a Friend • Post Comments

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

41

“Please don’t throw those tired, old clichés at me,” Madonna playfully insists, nodding her head at me in half-kidding agitation. (Hey, at least it wasn’t hydrangeas.)

Her annoyance is marked with cheekiness – and a smile – that only the First Lady of Pop can pull off, and has for three decades. This is a new chapter in the indelible diva’s run, as she drops her hyped 12th album, MDNA, in March via a three-disc deal with Interscope; plans to launch an extensive world tour; does, perhaps, the gayest Super Bowl halftime ever; and releases her feature-length directorial debut W.E., a pet project that recently won her a Golden Globe for Best Original Song.

And she – sexpot, spiritualist, Material Girl – really only has one word to define herself at the moment: “Busy.” Always unpredictable, she’s not interested in breaking down the details of what’s to come. All she cares to talk about is the film, a semi-biopic on Wallis Simpson (played by Andrea Riseborough) and King Edward VIII dovetailed with a modern-day love story centered on fictionalized damsel-indistress Wally Winthrop (Abbie Cornish).

Seated with Madonna at a Waldorf-Astoria suite in New York City on a December afternoon, one writer tells her he has a question to kick off the interview. “I’m sure you do,” she quips all-knowingly, as if to acknowledge the fact that she’s aware how much gay men go gaga over her.

This is, after all, the room reserved for a small group of gay press, her first stop after a tardy arrival – “It’s all too much. That’s why I’m late! I’m late for everything now.” – and the one her longtime publicist, Liz Rosenberg, insists will put her in a good mood for the rest of the day. Madonna agrees, sighing: “Let’s start with levity.”

Madonna’s in her groove around us. She knows we get  Photos by The Weinstein Co. and Shaun Mader/PatrickMcMullan.com her even when she’s wielding snarky cracks. Ask her if she knows how to do the twist like the characters in her film and

By Chris Azzopardi she responds: “Yes.” Hard pause. “Pretty simple.” Reminisce on With all of Madonna’s metamorphoses throughout her when you last interviewed Madonna and she won’t care. “All balls-out career, slipping in and out of cultural zeitgeists right, let’s get down to business,” she insists, done with small(and accents), the queen chameleon is still the master of talk.

And so we do. Looking stunningly flawless, not at all her reinvention. Just don’t tell her that.

53 years, in a deep blue dress with her now-infamous black

Madonna Expresses Herself

Gay icon relates herself to ‘strong women’ in new film, talks being an outsider and the latest era of her career

42

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

www.gaycalgary.com

M: No. They’re held under a microscope and judged and measured in a different way. That’s just the law of the universe right now.

GC: The film is driven by a contemporary woman’s view of this historical figure. Do you see anything in your story that may, or that you hope one day may, do the same for someone else?

M: The Duchess is really Wally’s spiritual guide, so to speak, and even though she (the Duchess) came from a different era where women didn’t have the same kind of choices and opportunities, we as women still are all raised on this fairytale idea that no matter how many opportunities we have education-wise or job-wise, your knight in shining armor is going to arrive on his beautiful white stallion and sweep you off your feet and take you off into the twilight, and you’re going to live happily ever after.

This is something that we all have to deal with when we grow up. But one person isn’t going to be all of those things to us; ultimately, we have to make our own happiness, and when we can own that and take responsibility for our own happiness, then we can find a mate for ourselves, or companion or significant other or whatever you want to call it. That’s certainly what the Duchess imparts to Wally, and I hope that I can inspire other women to think that way with my own life and behavior.

GC: What’s the thing that surprised you most about Wallis Simpson while doing your research?

M: The discoveries that Wally makes in her journey and her investigations were essentially mine. When I heard about the story – what a magnanimous, generous romantic gesture Edward VIII made toward Wallis Simpson – I thought the same thing that Wally says when she’s looking in the mirror trying on the necklace: “What must it

gloves and a bracelet of four crosses to represent each one of her children, she gives us exactly what we want: Madonna. No pretense. No filter. No warm-and-fuzzy. In the interview, she talks about the challenges of being a strong woman in a man’s world, teaching her children to be unique and how outsiders can relate to her new film.

What similarities do you see between Wallis and Evita?

What they have in common is what many people have in common who are public figures, who become iconic and who have some kind of historical impact, especially women – strong women. People have a tendency to feel intimidated by the strength of these women, and in order to accept – actually, the word “accept” is wrong, because I don’t think they’re actually accepted.

I think in order to deal with them, a lot of people who write history books, and humanity in general, has a tendency to diminish women or undermine their accomplishments or try to portray them as heretical or as someone with an evil possession of some kind of sorcery, or undermine their strength or intelligence, so I think they have those things in common. Now I’m not saying that Eva Peron is without flaws or that Wallis Simpson was this perfect holy human being, but I do think they were both dealt with in a very unfair way in the history books.

GC: Have you felt that way?

M: (Laughs, expecting the question) Well, yeah, sure. Yes, of course. I mean, I don’t think it’s just me. It’s strong women in general.

GC: Why? M: Why? Because… (hesitates) GC: You’re a threat?

M: No. It’s just the nature of the universe. It’s the nature of the world that we live in. We live in a patriarchal society and strong women have to…

GC: Challenge that?

feel to be loved that much?”

As I started to unravel the story and read the letters and go on the journey that I went on to write the script, I realized that, in

www.gaycalgary.com

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

43

fact, it wasn’t this fairytale romance as I had imagined it would be. I found that Wallis Simpson tried to avoid the actual marriage from taking place and how she saw the writing on the wall and how she tried her best to get Edward to see the writing on the wall.

She was very astute in her observations, but obviously she couldn’t talk him into her point of view. He was just cunt-struck, as they say in England. (Laughs at her choice of words) Sorry!

GC: Did you ever think of making the movie without the contrasting modern-day story of someone reflecting on a historical figure?

M: No. I wasn’t interested in making a straightforward biopic. I don’t think it’s possible to tell the story of one person from beginning to end in two hours. I think that’s actually an unfair challenge to give oneself. And also, truth is so subjective and each of us could read the same five books about the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and we would walk away with a different interpretation.

It would impact us in a different way, and so it was important for me to establish that. As much research as I did, and as close as I tried to stay to the truth and as authentic as I wanted to be, it was important that I be clear that it is a point of view. I never intended to just tell the story of Wallis Simpson.

GC: What’s the importance of telling this story from your point of view?

M: Most of the perspective on the story is, “Look what he gave up for her,” and it’s told from the male point of view. I think that when Wally starts to make all these discoveries about the Duchess, she appeals to Mohamed Al Fayed (keeper of the Duke and Duchess’ letters) as an outsider, because he lives as a foreigner and as an outsider in England, not really accepted by society.

Really, in my movie, each character is an outsider.

Wally is living in alienation in the Upper East Side, where she doesn’t fit in; (Wally’s love interest) Evgeni is a Ukrainian immigrant working as a security guard, but he’s really an 44

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

intellectual and an artist and he doesn’t fit in; the Duchess doesn’t really fit into this aristocratic world that she’s found herself in, and Edward doesn’t really fit into the Victorian world that he was raised in. So it’s how all these people who feel like outsiders try to come to terms and find their way in the world.

GC: Is that something you draw from your own experience?

M: Yeah, but I think a lot of people can relate to it. A lot of us feel like we don’t fit into the conventional norm or what society expects from us.

More and more, people are redefining what makes a family, what makes a couple, what makes love, what romance is, what a union is, what soul mates are – all of these things we’re reinventing, because family is what you make it.

It’s funny how things turn out that way. Sometimes your parents aren’t really the people who nurture you. You have other role models in your life that become your mother and your father. It’s unusual when the family you’re born into is actually the people that feel like your family.

GC: Growing up, you rebelled against your upbringing and convention, becoming a major trailblazer. How is it different being a mother with kids who will not have to fight the same battles that you fought?

M: Not that this has anything to do with my film, but it’s an interesting question. I don’t think that I’m a conventional parent. I realize that, to a certain extent, my children are raised with privilege; they have housekeepers, I didn’t. There are a lot of differences. On the other hand, my parents raised me in a very conventional way and I rebelled against it, and now my children come to me and they often want to do things because everybody else does them, and I say to them, “That’s just the worst reason I’ve ever heard for doing something.”

I encourage them to question things. Question their behavior, take responsibility for their behavior, think outside the box. www.gaycalgary.com

And they will have a different set of challenges. They will be compared to me. I will be some kind of a benchmark that they have to live with and deal with, and they are going to have to find their way in the world. We are all born with, and into, our challenges, so I don’t think for a second that life is going to be so simple and easy for them.

GC: Do you feel like all your years of research on Wallis Simpson is over with, or are you still invested in her?

M: I’m done with my deep research, but I still feel a strong connection to her. She’s always going to be a part of me. I am still uncovering little gems about her. People come to me and say, “Oh, look at this little note that we found in this handbag that was auctioned off 20 years ago.” People are still bringing me bits and bobs and memorabilia, so I’m still discovering things about her – and I’m sure I will for the rest of my life.

I was actually going through my papers in my files the other day and found an astrological reading that someone had done for me 30 years ago. I was reading it, and the woman was talking about some aspect of my personality and she quoted Wallis Simpson: “All for love and the world well lost.” I thought, “How weird, she was already a part of my life.” That was a little foreshadowing. That happened 30 years ago, so who knows what’s going to happen 30 years from now.

http://www.gaycalgary.com/a2717

View Bonus Pics/Videos • Share with a Friend • Post Comments

February 2012

A MESSAGE FROM MAYOR NENSHI

On behalf of my City Council colleagues and the citizens of Calgary, I would like to congratulate Gay Calgary and Edmonton magazine on printing its 100th edition.

Our community strives to be a welcoming place for all citizens, and the fact that Gay Calgary and Edmonton magazine has reached this milestone demonstrates that. Calgary’s diversity is one of my favourite things about this city. I wish the publisher and editors many years of success.

Sincerely,

Naheed K. Nenshi MAYOR

www.gaycalgary.com

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

45

Book Review

Book Marks

Jack Holmes & His Friend and Franky Gets Real

By Richard Labonte

Franky Gets Real

By: Mel Bossa Bold Strokes, 236 pages, $16.95 paper.

Five old friends, a long weekend at the lake and 15 years of fear, regret, disappointment and denial – that’s the volatile mix of Bossa’s bravura third novel. Charismatic Wyatt’s marriage is falling apart after an unexpected reminder of youthful sexual pain; law student Holly, the most levelheaded of the lot, is pregnant and blissfully in love with a solid, stolid man; brainy but naive Nevins, swindled by a hooker, is stealing to cover his debts; Wyatt’s baffling younger brother, Alek, is coping with disease; and Franky – who 15 years earlier rebuffed Alek’s gentle, desperate offer of love – is torn between his strained relationship with a woman and his nascent desire for men.

Blending the melodrama of the 1983 movie The Big Chill with the unsettling drunken confessions of a high school reunion, Bossa has crafted a textured novel that captures the drama of complex, realistic characters confronting the secrets and lies that threaten to fracture their friendship – and, in the end, learning to strengthen the ties that bid.

Jack Holmes & His Friend

By: Edmund White Bloomsbury USA, 400 pages, $26 hardcover.

One of the many charms of White’s latest novel is that there is nothing pretentious about it. The writing is sensuous and stylish, the story is sexy and straightforward, the characters are cultured and always ready to cavort sexually – though not with each other. Handsome, wellhung Jack, who escaped his rigid Midwestern upbringing with a porn star name that belies his initial reluctance to live a queer life, falls hard at first sight for Will, the wellbred sophisticate who becomes his colleague at an upscale literary magazine in the late 1960s – but who is, alas, irredeemably straight. Turns out that a promiscuous gay man in pre-AIDS Manhattan and a (for a time) suburban family man can at least be friends.

Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots: Flaming Challenges to Masculinity, Objectification, and the Desire to Conform edited by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore. AK Press, 224 pages, $17.95 paper.

“My business is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable,” it’s said that social activist Mother “Mary” Jones once said (though a polemical 19th-century journalist is often cited as the original source). In this third anthology, after Nobody Passes and That’s Revolting, Bernstein, herself something of an activist and polemicist, honors both of his antecedents.

With a sharp editor’s eye, she has collected 29 visceral essays celebrating defiant nonconformity and subversive flamboyance – writing that afflicts the gay mainstream while comforting the outcast rebels, fierce queens and gender-redefining queers who birthed Queer Lib but are now forsaken by it.

D. Travers Scott dreams of a less fetish-rigid drop-down Internet; CAConrad offers body fascism-defying delight in his fat self; Lewis Wallace recalls youthful trans lust; James Villanueva writes about his spunky presence as a queer Latino in a straight, white cowboy bar. These contributors and their sisters and brothers are flipping their middle finger at both LGBTQ-phobia and the manifest intolerance of mainstream gays for their sort with candid cockiness and glamorous gutsiness.

J. Edgar Hoover & Clyde Tolson: Investigating the Sexual Secrets of America’s Most Famous Men and Women

by Darwin Porter. Blood Moon Productions, 576 pages, $19.95 paper.

Tightly closed closet doors haven’t got a chance when it comes to the fiercely tabloid tendencies of prolific biographer Porter. In earlier books, he has chronicled the same-sex hijinks of the likes of Marlon Brando, Howard Hughes , Katherine Hepburn, Steve McQueen and many more, mining Hollywood lore for the scandalous and the salacious. And though the focus shifts from Los Angeles to Washington, DC, in this explicit depiction of FBI honcho Hoover and Tolson, his BFF (and way more), there’s no shortage of Hollywood cameos – Hoover sent his G-Men minions to ferret out the sexual secrets of the likes of Fred Astaire and Ramon Novarro, even as he and Tolson were frequenting boy bordellos and ogling sex acts in Havana in the 1930s.

In anecdote after anecdote, many sourced in the text (though there is no bibliography of books used as reference), Porter leaves no doubt that the two men were more than bachelor friends; this breathless biography goes way past the innuendo of Clint Eastwood’s film depiction of J. Edgar and Clyde.

Featured Excerpt

We are all failing: the intoxicating visions of gay liberation have given way to an obsession with beauty myth consumer norms, mandatory masculinity, objectification without appreciation and a relentless drive to police the borders. And yet, what might we conjure, create, and cultivate with our dreams that remain. Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots? reinvokes the anger, flamboyance, and subversion once thriving in gay subcultures, in order to imagine something dangerous and lovely: an exploration of the perils of assimilation; a call for accountability; a vision for change. We are ready.

– from Why Are Faggots Afraid of Faggots?, by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore

http://www.gaycalgary.com/a2718

View Bonus Pics/Videos • Share with a Friend • Post Comments 46

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

www.gaycalgary.com

 Interview - From Page 13 it on camera, to really expose herself, so I had no right to be uncomfortable because I’m asking so much more. You can’t ask your actors to open up if you can’t open up with them.

GC: How did you find those feelings of pain and isolation, and that journey to self-acceptance, in the character of Alike?

AO: That process of accepting and loving yourself and not fitting in and just wanting to break away from all the expectations that people put on you, I wanted to clear up all of that and really figure out who I am and what I want to be.

I really just related to all of that. I felt like I didn’t belong, so that’s what I brought to the table.

GC: What was going to a lesbian club for research like?

AO: We just had to show up to this club in character, so me and Pernell (Walker), who plays Laura, met up at this club. Dee was watching us, not interacting with us at all, and just dropped me into this world, specifically Alike’s world. And how uncomfortable! I didn’t fit in, and no one paid attention to me because I wasn’t butch or super femme.

I felt invisible. I felt like I was on the outside looking in. I felt like I was pressing my nose against this bubble.

GC: Tell me, Dee, about the song you chose for that opening scene in the club, Khia’s “My Neck, My Back (Lick It).”

DR: My first time at a lesbian club, when I first came out, I was like, “Oh my god, I’m going to hell.” And so for this film, it was very important that the first song be very provocative.

Just as Alike is pushed into this hypersexual environment, so are we. So she’s uncomfortable, we’re uncomfortable and we’re immersed in her perspective and feelings.

GC: Do you think Alike’s mom, Audrey, is a bully?

DR: Audrey (Kim Wayans) doesn’t intend to be. From her perspective, she’s just trying to do what’s right by her daughter. She’s just misguided. She really wants to connect with Alike and buy her dresses, but there’s this growing distance and she’s not sure how to connect, so she doesn’t mean to be. She’s just a lonely, vulnerable person who wants love, and with everything she does she ends up bringing about the very thing she’s trying to avoid. So she doesn’t mean to bully Alike. She’s trying to love her, and sometimes love can be misguided. People are flawed.

GC: One choice she makes, to separate her from Laura and unite her with a colleague’s daughter, actually works against her. The girl fosters Alike’s sexual becoming.

DR: Yes, I thought it would be ironic. I think that in life we sometimes bring about the very things we try to avoid.

So by steering Alike from Laura, whom she feels is not the kind of friend she wants her daughter to hang out with, and turning her to Bina, she actually brings about Alike’s sexual consummation and the experience she’s been trying to steer her away from. That’s the irony.

GC: Before the feature film, Pariah was a short in 2007.

What initially drew you to Alike?

AO: I just felt it was going to be this really awesome experience, so I wanted to be part of it. I submitted myself to be an extra, not to be the lead, and I got the call from Dee to read for Alike. Call backs and call backs later, I got the role. It was just so exciting to sink my teeth into a character that was very meaty.

GC: You’ve done extra roles before: You were the “Crack Smoker,” as listed on IMDB, in Ryan Gosling’s Half Nelson.

AO: (Laughs) Yeah! That’s not what my role was called when I got it, but I was like, “Oh, they changed it… to ‘Crack Smoker.’ Thanks!”

GC: What’s next for you, Dee? DR: I finished a script called Bolo, set in the South. It’s more a thriller but still a chance to explore interesting characters and worlds. And another spec script called Large Print, about a 50-something interest investor who’s recently divorced and living in another continent and having to

redefine happiness for himself. I just want to tell stories that are meaningful and get people to think about themselves and the world differently.

GC: How about the HBO project with Viola Davis? Can you say anything about that?

DR: I can’t! I’m just excited about it and thrilled to be working with this amazing actress and, again, I think this is going to be another character people are going to be interested in.

GC: Adepero, I imagine this character isn’t going away any time soon. What parts of Alike will stay with you?

AO: Oh, no, no. It will always be an absolute pleasure to be associated with that character. I think it’s Alike’s resilience. She just never gave up; she tries, gets knocked down and tries again. She, at a young age, makes the choice to live the life that she wants to live. That will always stay with me.

www.gaycalgary.com

http://www.gaycalgary.com/a2700

View Bonus Pics/Videos • Share with a Friend • Post Comments

January 31, 2012

Dear GayCalgary and Edmonton Magazine, We at Calgary Outlink are glad to congratulate you on your 100th edition. GayCalgary has consistently provided resources, enjoyment, and information to Alberta’s LGBTTQQI2SAA population. These services have been vital in helping to foster our diverse community.

GayCalgary’s coverage of and presence at community events is invaluable. It provides a platform for discussion, participation, and documentation that is valuable for grass roots organizations such as Calgary Outlink.

At Calgary Outlink we pride ourselves in our commitment to meeting the needs of all in our community, and providing strong resources and referrals to those in need. GayCalgary is a perfect aid in this mission.

We know that GayCalgary and Edmonton Magazine will continue to thrive as a representation of our community, and look forward to the next hundred editions. More importantly, we look forward to continued work in serving Alberta’s LGBTTQQI2SAA population for years to come.

Sincerely,

Britt Aberle & the Board of Directors

For general inquiries: info@CalgaryOuliink.ca For Britt Aberle, Executive Director: Director@CalgaryOutlink.ca

Calgary Outlink Old Y Centre #303, 223 12 Ave SW Calgary, AB T2R 0G9 403.234.8973 www.calgaryoutlink.ca

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

47

 Editorial - From Page 7 Advertisers will need to seriously consider including web advertising as part of their budget with us, if they are not already doing so. We currently receive an average of 5,000 visitors to our website on a daily basis, and existing banner advertisers have seen statistics for exposure and interest that exceed expectations. As our improvements to the website stimulate further growth, this will only get better.

Retro Tweets Rather than taking you down memory lane by republishing old articles in this edition, we will continue our practice of what we call “Retro Tweeting” with renewed vigor. Our website has an archive of every edition since Issue #1 available for download, so we use Twitter and Facebook to send out links to old articles that range from fun to mindblowing when read today.

Visit http://www.gaycalgary.com/twitter to be directed to our Twitter page, or http://www.gaycalgary.com/ facebookfan to be directed to our Facebook fan page, and sign up to also receive updates about the latest magazine, articles, news releases, prize draws, and more.

Our Cover This month we were able to get an interview with perhaps the ultimate gay music icon, and no doubt you have already recognized her on our cover: Madonna. Only a few years ago the thought of interviewing such a big name seemed impossible, but by some stroke of luck and some great timing, she is gracing our 100th cover. It’s surreal!

This Month There are a number of major community events coming up this month that you should be aware of:

48

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

• The Calgary Eagle is holding their 10th Anniversary party on Saturday, February 18th. The Calgary Eagle has been an instrumental business partner for us, and indeed a pillar of Calgary’s LGBT community. We will be joining them to celebrate, and we hope you will too.

• February 10th to 12th are packed with things to do as part of Jasper Pride Weekend. Even if you don’t ski or snowboard, if you’re able to make the trip you’re bound to have an excellent time.

• Team Edmonton is hosting their Annual Mixer on Saturday, February 25th. If you’re in to playing sports, this is a great opportunity to network with other likeminded folks. If you’re not into sports, it’s still a fun night with some great people. See their ad in this edition for more details.

• AIDS Calgary is hosting a special Mardi Gras themed event on Saturday, February 25th: Le Carnaval Rouge. See their ad in this edition for more details.

Final Thoughts on “Turning 100” As founders and owners of GayCalgary Magazine, it’s impossible to point to a product like ours and say, “I did this”. Without the help of writers and contributors, we would have nothing to fill our pages. Without the help of individuals in the community, we and our writers and contributors would still have nothing to fill our pages.

We’d like to personally thank Jason Clevett and Stephen Lock who have been writing for us virtually from the beginning. In addition we’d like to thank numerous others who have shown a strong commitment over the course of years and are still writing or contributing today: Mercedes Allen, Evan Kayne, Dallas Barnes, Janine Eva Trotta, Carey Rutherford, Chris Azzopardi, Dave Brousseau (A Couple of

www.gaycalgary.com

Guys), Joan Hilty (Bitter Girl), Andrew Collins (Travel), Jack Fertig (Astrology), Glen Hansen and Allen Neuwirth (Chelsea Boys), Romeo SanVicente (Deep Inside Hollywood), Ed Sikov (Cocktail Chatter), Richard Labonte (Bookmarks) and Dan Woog (Sports). I’d like to thank the multitude of others not mentioned here for their contributions over the years, and I’d like to remember Nico Hofferd, a contributor who tragically passed away in July of 2007.

GayCalgary Magazine is literally the outcome of thousands and thousands of people. Even if all you did was pose for a photo that made it into print, you still helped us fill our pages and made a positive impact on us. Even if all you did was take one of our magazines from a newsstand or download it from our website, you made a positive impact on us. We are grateful.

In turn, we hope that something we have done or something that you have experienced through us has somehow made a positive impact on you as well.

Congratulations to GayCalgary and Edmonton Magazine on the historic milestone of your 100th Edition.

I would like to thank you for your activism, insight and reporting on many issues affecting our community. I also admire that over the years you continually support the GLBT organizations locally to your Province and give us a unique perspective on community issues.

Your support and promotion of the Court System in Alberta and across the country is one that I treasure. In Surrey about 10 years ago we needed someone to host our website and you stepped up to the plate and have continued to host the website for the community and court of Surrey, for which I thank you.

Also I would like to congratulate Steve and Rob on being two of the inaugural recipients of the Royal Order of the Maple Leaf, the highest honor that the International Court System can bestow on a Canadian Citizen. Thank you for your continued support of issues that affect all of us, for keeping the pressure on community groups and organizations to present an honest and mature approach and keep them responsible to the communities they purportedly represent.

http://www.gaycalgary.com/a2697

I look forward to a continued dialogue and partnership with GayCalgary and Edmonton Magazine for many years to come.

View Bonus Pics/Videos • Share with a Friend • Post Comments

I remain Martin Rooney Aka Emperor Martin Storm International Court Council Corresponding Secretary & Minister for Canada Heir Apparent to Empress Nicole the Great, Queen Mother 1 of the Americas

www.gaycalgary.com

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

49

Photography Les Girls White Party at Club Sapien - Calgary

Jasper First Monthly Gay Bar Night (photos by Rod Zelles)

50

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

www.gaycalgary.com

Photography F@#ked Up Follies at the Texas Lounge - Calgary

Underwear Party - Calgary Eagle

www.gaycalgary.com

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

51

52

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

www.gaycalgary.com

www.gaycalgary.com

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

53

54

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

www.gaycalgary.com

Directory & Events 24

DOWNTOWN CALGARY

43 41 4

37 9

60

2

34 33

16

35

36

3

5 6

1

N

13

1 2 3 4 5

Calgary Outlink---------- Community Groups Aids Calgary------------- Community Groups Backlot------------------------Bars and Clubs Calgary Eagle Inc.------------Bars and Clubs Texas Lounge-----------------Bars and Clubs

6 Goliath’s--------------------------Bathhouses 9 FAB----------------------------Bars and Clubs 13 Westways Guest House----Accommodations 16 Priape Calgary----------------- Retail Stores 24 Courtney Aarbo-----------------------Services

FIND OUT!

GayCalgary Magazine is the go-to source for information about Alberta LGBT businesses and community groups—the most extensive and accurate resource of its kind! This print supplement contains a subset of active community groups and venues, with premium business listings of paid advertisers. ......... Wheelchair Accessible

Spot something inaccurate or outdated? Want your business or organization listed? We welcome you to contact us!

 403-543-6960  1-888-543-6960

 magazine@gaycalgary.com http://www.gaycalgary.com/CalgaryTravelRSS http://www.gaycalgary.com/EdmontonTravelRSS

Local Bars, Restaurants, and Accommodations info on the go! http://www.gaycalgary.com/Directory

Browse our complete directory of over 600 gay-frieindly listings! www.gaycalgary.com

Twisted Element--------------Bars and Clubs Vertigo Mystery Theatre------------- Theatre One Yellow Rabbit-------------------- Theatre ATP, Alberta Theatre Projects-------- Theatre Pumphouse Theatre----------------- Theatre

CALGARY

LGBT Community Directory

✰....... Find our Magazine Here

33 34 35 36 37

Accommodations 13 Westways Guest House------------------- ✰

 216 - 25th Avenue SW  403-229-1758  1-866-846-7038  westways@shaw.ca  www.gaywestways.com

Bars & Clubs 3 Backlot---------------------------------- ✰  403-265-5211  Open 7 days a week, 2pm-close

 209 - 10th Ave SW

4 Calgary Eagle Inc.---------------------- ✰  424a - 8th Ave SE  403-263-5847  http://www.calgaryeagle.com  Open Wed-Sun, 5pm-close Leather/Denim/Fetish bar.

60 Club Sapien----------------------------- ✰  1140 10th Ave SW  403-457-4464  http://www.clubsapien.ca Dance Club and Restaurant/Lounge.

9 FAB-------------------------------------- ✰

 1742 - 10th Ave SW  403-263-7411  www.fab-bar.com  Closed Mondays.

Bar and restaurant.

5 Texas Lounge------------------------------ ✰

 308 - 17 Ave SW  403-229-0911  www.goliaths.ca  Open 7 days a week, 11am-close

41 43 58 60

La Fleur------------------------- Retail Stores Lisa Heinricks--------- Theatre and Fine Arts Theatre Junction--------------------- Theatre Club Sapien-------------------Bars and Clubs

33 Twisted Element--------------------------- ✰

 1006 - 11th Ave SW  403-802-0230

 www.twistedelement.ca Dance Club and Lounge.

Bathhouses/Saunas 6 Goliaths------------------------------------ ✰

 308 - 17 Ave SW  403-229-0911  www.goliaths.ca  Open 7 days a week, 24 hours a day

Community Groups 2 AIDS Calgary--------------------------  110, 1603 10th Avenue SW  403-508-2500  info@aidscalgary.org  www.aidscalgary.org

✰

Alberta Society for Kink

 403-398-9968  albetasocietyforkink@hotmail.com  http://ca.groups.yahoo.com/ group.albertasocietyforkink

Apollo Calgary - Friends in Sports

 www.apollocalgary.com  www.myapollo.com A volunteer operated, non-profit organization serving primarily members of the LGBT communities but open to all members of all communities. Primary focus is to provide members with well-organized and fun sporting events and other activities.

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

55

Directory & Events Calgary Events Mondays

ASK Meet and Greet----------------  7-9:30pm

 Bonasera (1204 Edmonton Tr. NE)

Saturdays

Lesbian Seniors---------------------------  2pm

Running-----------------------------------  9am

At 4 Calgary Eagle

Coffee------------------------------------ 10am

That’s Entertainment---------------------  9pm

 Kerby Center, Sunshine Room 1133 7th Ave SW

 3rd

Swimming-------------------------------  6-7pm

Inside Out Youth Group---------------- 7-9pm See 1 Calgary Outlink

By Different Strokes

 SAIT Pool (1301 - 16 Ave NW)

Karaoke-------------------------------  Evening

Lesbian Meetup Group-------------  7:30-9pm

Jun

At 60 Club Sapien

At 1 Calgary Outlink

Tuesdays

Fake Mustache Show-----------------  7:30pm

Calgary Networking Club-------------- 5-7pm See 1 Calgary Outlink

 1st

Between Men--------------------------- 7-9pm See 1 Calgary Outlink

 2nd, 4th

Karaoke------------------------------  8pm-1am At 5 Texas Lounge

Fetish Slosh----------------------------  Evening At 3 Backlot

 2nd

Alcoholics Anonymous--------------------  8pm

 Hillhurst United Church (Gym Entrance) 1227 Kensington Close NW

Communion Service-----------------  12:10pm See

By Miscellaneous Youth Network  Quincy’s (609 7th Ave SW)

Knox United Church

 1st  1st

Fake Mustache Show---------------------  9pm

By Miscellaneous Youth Network At 60 Club Sapien

 3rd

Alcoholics Anonymous--------------------  8pm

 Hillhurst United Church (Gym Entrance) 1227 Kensington Close NW

See

Apollo Calgary

By Prime Timers Calgary  Midtown Co-op (1130 - 11th Ave SW)

Curling-------------------------  2:20 & 4:30pm See

Apollo Calgary

Alcoholics Anonymous--------------------  8pm

 Hillhurst United Church (Gym Entrance) 1227 Kensington Close NW

Go-Go Boy Competition--------------  Evening At 60 Club Sapien

Worship Time---------------------------- 10am Deer Park United Church

Worship------------------------------  10:30am See

Leather Night-------------------------  Evening

Sunday Services---------------------  10:45am

At 4 Calgary Eagle

See

Rec Volleyball-----------------------------  7pm

Worship Services------------------------- 11am

Illusions-------------------------------  7-10pm

Int/Comp Volleyball----------- 12:15-1:45pm

Apollo Calgary

See 1 Calgary Outlink

 1st

See See

Scarboro United Church Hillhurst United Church Knox United Church

Apollo Calgary

Women’s Healing Circle--------------  1:30pm

Womynspace---------------------------- 7-9pm

BBQ Social Sundays----------------------  2pm

Free Pool-------------------------------  All Day

New Directions-------------------------- 7-9pm

Church Service----------------------------  4pm

LGBT Coffee Night----------------------------7pm

Heading Out----------------------- 8pm-10pm

Swimming-------------------------------  5-6pm

Mosaic Youth Group--------------------  7-9pm

Alcoholics Anonymous--------------------  8pm

See

AIDS Calgary

At 4 Calgary Eagle with See

Prime Timers Calgary

CAANS

 1st

 Old Y Centre (223 12th Ave SW)

See 1 Calgary Outlink See 1 Calgary Outlink See 1 Calgary Outlink

 2nd  3rd  4th

 Hillhurst United Church (Gym Entrance) 1227 Kensington Close NW

At 4 Calgary Eagle See

Rainbow Community Church

By Different Strokes

 SAIT Pool (1301 - 16 Ave NW)



www.westerncup.com Easter long weekend, 2012.

• Badminton (Absolutely Smashing)

 6020 - 4 Avenue NE  badminton@apollocalgary.com

• Biking

 bike@apollocalgary.com

• Boot Camp

 Platoon FX, 1351 Aviation Park NE  bootcamp@apollocalgary.com

• Bowling (Rainbow Riders League)

 Let’s Bowl (2916 5th Avenue NE)  bowling@apollocalgary.com

• Curling

 North Hill Curling Club (1201 - 2 Street NW)  curling@apollocalgary.com Will return in September 2010. Sign up at myapollo.org to receive updates.

• Golf

 golf@apollocalgary.com

• Lawn Bowling

 lawnbowling@apollocalgary.com

• Outdoor Pursuits

 outdoorpursuits@apollocalgary.com If it’s done outdoors, we do it. Volunteer led events all summer and winter. Hiking, camping, biking, skiing, snow shoeing, etc. Sign up at myapollo.org to get updates on the sport you like. We’re always looking for people to lead events.

56

ISCCA at 33 Twisted Element

Dark Knight Party------------------------  9pm At 4 Calgary Eagle

Saturday, February 11th

Pool Tournament---------------------  7-10pm ARGRA at Club Sapien

80s Dance Party--------------------------  9pm At 4 Calgary Eagle

Pool Tournament---------------------  7-10pm By

ARGRA at Calgary Eagle

10th Anniversary Party-------------------  9pm At 4 Calgary Eagle

Saturday, February 25th

Le Carnaval Rouge-----------------------  7pm By 2 AIDS Calgary The Metropolitan Centre (333 4 Ave SW)

Pool Tournament---------------------  7-10pm By

ARGRA at 4 Calgary Eagle

White Party----------------------------  8pm

By ARGRA  Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Hall 1320 - 5th Ave NW

Cowboy Night-----------------------------  9pm At 4 Calgary Eagle

Jun

Women’s Volleyball----------------  7-8:30pm See

Apollo Calgary

Legend:  = Monthly Reoccurrance,  = Date (Range/Future),  = Sponsored Event

 Calgary Contd.

• Western Cup 30

By

Saturday, February 18th

Sundays See

Friday, February 10th

By

Fridays

See

Wednesdays

Free Pool-------------------------------  All Day

Thursdays

• Running (Calgary Frontrunners)

 YMCA Eau Claire (4th St, 1st Ave SW)  calgaryfrontrunners@shaw.ca East Doors (directly off the Bow river pathway). Distances vary from 8 km - 15 km. Runners from 6 minutes/mile to 9+ minute miles.

• Slow Pitch

 slow.pitch@apollocalgary.com

• Squash

 Mount Royal University Recreation  squash@apollocalgary.com All skill levels welcome.

• Tennis

 tennis@apollocalgary.com

• Volleyball (Beach)

 beachvb@apollocalgary.com

• Volleyball (Int/Comp)

 West Hillhurst Community Center 1940 6th Avenue NW  vb@apollocalgary.com

• Volleyball (Recreational)

 235 - 18 Ave SW  recvb@apollocalgary.com

• Volleyball (Women’s)

 YWCA Calgary (320 - 5th Avenue SE)  vbwomen@apollocalgary.com

• Yoga

 World Tree Studio (812 Edmonton Trail NE)

 Robin: 403-618-9642  yoga@apollocalgary.com $120 (10 sessions); $14 Drop-ins open to all levels. Apollo membership is required.

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

Alberta Rockies Gay Rodeo Association (ARGRA)

 www.argra.org

• Monthly Dances-----------------------------  Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Association 1320 - 5th Avenue NW

Calgary Gay Fathers

 calgaryfathers@hotmail.com  http://www.calgarygayfathers.ca Peer support group for gay, bisexual and questioning fathers. Meeting twice a month.

Calgary Queer Book Club

 Weeds Cafe (1903 20 Ave NW)

Calgary Men’s Chorus

Deer Park United Church/Wholeness Centre

 http://www.calgarymenschorus.org

 77 Deerpoint Road SE  http://www.dpuc.ca

• Rehearsals

 Temple B’Nai Tikvah, 900 - 47 Avenue SW

Calgary Sexual Health Centre---------

 403-278-8263

Different Strokes

✰

 304, 301 14th Street NW  403-283-5580  http://www.calgarysexualhealth.ca A pro-choice organization that believes all people have the right and ability to make their own choices regarding their sexual and reproductive health.

1 Calgary Outlink---------------------------- ✰

 B1, 1528 16th Avenue SW  403-234-8973  info@calgaryoutlink.ca  http://www.calgaryoutlink.com

• Peer Support and Crisis Line

• Calgary Lesbian Ladies Meet up Group • Between Men and Between Men Online • Heading Out • Illusions Calgary • Inside Out • New Directions • Womynspace

 1-877-OUT-IS-OK (1-877-688-4765) Front-line help service for GLBT individuals and their family and friends, or anyone questioning their sexuality.

 http://www.differentstrokescalgary.org

FairyTales Presentation Society

 403-244-1956

 http://www.fairytalesfilmfest.com Alberta Gay & Lesbian Film Festival.

• DVD Resource Library

Over a hundred titles to choose from. Annual membership is $10.

Gay Friends in Calgary

 http://www.gayfriendsincalgary.ca Organizes and hosts social activities catered to the LGBT people and friends.

Girl Friends

 girlfriends@shaw.ca

 members.shaw.ca/girlfriends

Girlsgroove

 http://www.girlsgroove.ca

www.gaycalgary.com

Directory & Events  Calgary Contd.

• Coffee Night

Hillhurst United Church

 2nd Cup, Kensington

 1227 Kensington Close NW  (403) 283-1539  office@hillhurstunited.com  www.hillhurstunited.com

Scarboro United Church

 134 Scarboro Avenue SW  403-244-1161  www.scarborounited.ab.ca An affirming congregation—the full inclusion of LGBT people is essential to our mission and purpose.

HIV Peer Support Group

 403-230-5832  hivpeergroup@yahoo.ca

 http://www.iscca.ca Imperial Sovereign Court of the Chinook Arch. Charity fundraising group..

Knox United Church

 506 - 4th Street SW  403-269-8382  http://www.knoxunited.ab.ca Knox United Church is an all-inclusive church located in downtown Calgary. A variety of facility rentals are also available for meetings, events and concerts.

Lesbian Meetup Group

 http://www.meetup.com/CalgaryLesbian Monthly events planned for Queer women over 18+ such as book clubs, games nights, movie nights, dinners out, and volunteering events.

Miscellaneous Youth Network

 http://www.miscyouth.com

Mystique

• Coffee Night

 Good Earth Cafe (1502 - 11th Street SW)

NETWORKS

 networkscalgary@gmail.com A social, cultural, and service organization for the mature minded and “Plus 40” LGBT individuals seeking to meet others at age-appropriate activities within a positive, safe environment.

Parents for Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG)

 Sean: 403-695-5791  http://www.pflagcanada.ca A registered charitable organization that provides support, education and resources to parents, families and individuals who have questions or concerns about sexual orientation or gender identity.

Positive Space Committee

 4825 Mount Royal Gate SW  403-440-6383  http://www.mtroyal.ca/positivespace Works to raise awareness and challenge the patterns of silence that continue to marginalize LGBTTQ individuals.

Pride Calgary Planning Committee

 403-797-6564

Urban Sex Radio Show

 CJSW 90.9 FM

 http://www.cjsw.com Focus on sexuality; gay bisexual lesbian trans gendered and straight issues here in Calgary and around the web.

 www.pridecalgary.ca

Primetimers Calgary

 primetimerscalgary@gmail.com  http://www.primetimerscalgary.com Designed to foster social interaction for its members through a variety of social, educational and recreational activities. Open to all gay and bisexual men of any age, respects whatever degree of anonymity that each member desires.

Queers on Campus---------------------

 279R Student Union Club Spaces, U of C  403-220-6394  http://www.ucalgary.ca/~glass Formerly GLASS - Gay/Lesbian Association of Students and Staff.

www.gaycalgary.com

✰

Duncan’s Residential Cleaning

34 Vertigo Mystery Theatre------------------  161, 115 - 9 Ave SE  403-221-3708  http://www.vertigomysterytheatre.com

 Jim Duncan: 403-978-6600 Residential cleaning. Free estimates.

Lorne Doucette (CIR Realtors)

 403-461-9195  http://www.lornedoucette.com

Vigor Calgary

 403-255-7004  www.vigorcalgary.ca Violence in Gay Male Relationships (VIGOR) is a committee of professionals dedicated to increasing the awareness of gay men’s domestic violence and the services available to them.

MFM Communications

 403-543-6970  1-877-543-6970  http://www.mfmcommunications.com Web site hosting and development. Computer hardware and software.

MPs Catering

 403-607-8215

SafeWorks

Free and confidential HIV/AIDS and STI testing.

• Calgary Drop-in Centre

Restaurants

 mystiquesocialclub@yahoo.com Mystique is primarily a Lesbian group for women 30 and up but all are welcome.

✰

DevaDave Salon & Boutique

58 Theatre Junction----------------------  Theatre Junction GRAND, 608 1st St. SW  403-205-2922  info@theatrejunction.com  http://www.theatrejunction.com

Unity Bowling

 Let’s Bowl (2916 - 5th Ave NE)  sundayunity@live.com

“Yeah...What She Said!” Radio Show

 The Old Y Centre (223 12th Ave SW) For queer and trans youth and their allies.

✰

 810 Edmonton Trail NE  403-290-1973 Cuts, Colour, Hilights.

 CJSW 90.9 FM

 yeahwhatshesaid@gmail.com

• Mosaic Youth Group

Stagewest-------------------------------

 403-777-9494 trial code 3500  http://www.cruiseline.ca Telephone classifieds and chat - 18+ ONLY.

 1317-1st Street NW

 Club Sapien (609 7th Ave SW) Calgary’s ONLY Drag King Show. Early show 7:30pm, late show 9pm.

✰

Cruiseline

Wild Rose United Church

• Fake Mustache

37 Pumphouse Theatre------------------  2140 Pumphouse Avenue SW  403-263-0079  http://www.pumphousetheatres.ca

Sharp Foundation

 403-272-2912  sharpfoundation@nucleus.com  http://www.thesharpfoundation.com

ISCCA Social Association

24 Courtney Aarbo (Barristers & Solicitors)

 1138 Kensington Road NW  403-571-5120  http://www.courtneyaarbo.ca GLBT legal services.

4 Calgary Eagle Inc.--------------------- See Calgary - Bars and Clubs.

✰

60 Club Sapien----------------------------- ✰  1140 10th Ave SW  403-457-4464  http://www.clubsapien.ca 9 FAB------------------------------------- See Calgary - Bars and Clubs.

✰

• Centre of Hope

 Room 201, 420 - 9th Ave SE  403-410-1180  Mon-Fri: 1pm-5pm

• Sheldon M. Chumir Health Centre

 1213 - 4th Str SW  403-955-6014  Sat-Thu: 4:15pm-7:45pm, Fri: Closed

• Safeworks Van

Halo Steak, Seafood & Wine Bar

 403-850-3755  Sat-Thu: 8pm-12am, Fri: 4pm-12am

 Canyon Meadows Plaza 13226 Macleod Trail SE  403-271-4111  www.halorestaurant.com

Theatre & Fine Arts 36 ATP, Alberta Theatre Projects

 403-294-7402  http://www.ATPlive.com

Retail Stores Adult Depot-----------------------------

✰

 140, 58th Ave SW  403-258-2777 Gay, bi, straight video rentals and sex toys.

41 La Fleur------------------------------------  103 - 100 7th Avenue SW  403-266-1707 Florist and Flower Shop.

The Naked Leaf----------------------------

 305 10th Street NW  http://www.thenakedleaf.ca Organic teas and tea ware.

 Room 117, 423 - 4th Ave SE  403-699-8216  Mon-Fri: 9am-12pm, Sat: 12:15pm-3:15pm

 403-283-3555

16 Priape Calgary------------------------- ✰

 1322 - 17 Ave SW  403-215-1800  http://www.priape.com Clothing and accessories. Adult toys, leather wear, movies and magazines. Gifts.

AXIS Contemporary Art--------------------

 107, 100 - 7 Ave SW  rob@axisart.ca

 403-262-3356  www.axisart.ca

Fairytales

See Calgary - Community Groups.

Jubilations Dinner Theatre

 Bow Trail and 37th St. SW  403-249-7799  www.jubilations.ca

43 Lisa Heinricks (Artist)---------------------  Art Central, 100 7th Ave SW, lower level  http://www.creamydreamy.com 35 One Yellow Rabbit-------------------------  Big Secret Theatre - EPCOR CENTRE  403-299-8888  www.oyr.org

 727 - 42 Avenue SE  403-243-6642  http://www.stagewestcalgary.com

EDMONTON Bars & Clubs 6 Buddy’s Nite Club------------------------- ✰

 11725 Jasper Ave  780-488-6636 14 FLASH-------------------------------------- ✰

 10018 105 Street  780-938-2941  flashnightclub@hotmail.com 5 The Junction---------------------------- ✰

 10242 106th St  780-756-5667  http://www.junctionedmonton.com 12 Woody’s------------------------------------ ✰

 11725 Jasper Ave  780-488-6557

Bathhouses/Saunas 11 Steamworks------------------------------- ✰

 11745 Jasper Ave  780-451-5554  http://www.steamworksedmonton.com

Community Groups Alberta Bears

 www.beefbearbash.com

AltView Foundation

 #44, 48 Brentwood Blvd, Sherwood Park, AB

 403-398-9968  info@altview.ca  www.altview.ca For gender variant and sexual minorities.

Book Worm’s Book Club

 Howard McBride Chapel of Chimes 10179 - 108 Street  bookworm@teamedmonton.ca

Buck Naked Boys Club

 780-471-6993  http://www.bucknakedboys.ca Naturism club for men—being social while everyone is naked, and it does not include sexual activity. Participants do not need to be gay, only male.

Camp fYrefly

 7-104 Dept. of Educational Policy Studies Faculty of Education, University of Alberta Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2G5  http://www.fyrefly.ualberta.ca

Edmonton Pride Festival Society (EPFS)

 http://www.edmontonpride.ca

Services & Products Calgary Civil Marriage Centre

 403-246-4134  ca.ca@shaw.ca Marriage Commissioner for Alberta (aka Justice of the Peace - JP), Marriage Officiant, Commissioner for Oaths.

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

57

Directory & Events DOWNTOWN EDMONTON 5

11 6 12

N

4 14

4 Edmonton STD---------- Community Groups 5 The Junction------------------Bars and Clubs

Edmonton Events

6 Buddy’s Nite Club------------Bars and Clubs 11 Steamworks----------------------Bathhouses

Book Club-----------------------------  7:30pm

Mondays

See BookWorm’s Book Club  3rd

Boot Camp------------------------------ 7-8pm

Martial Arts---------------------  7:30-8:30pm

See

Team Edmonton

Team Edmonton

GLBTQ Bowling------------------  1:30-3:30pm GLBTQ Sage Bowling Club

Youth Sports/Recreation-----------------  4pm See

Youth Understanding Youth

Thursdays

Youth Sports/Recreation-----------------  4pm See

Team Edmonton Team Edmonton

Fridays

Men’s Games Nights--------------  7-10:30pm

Wednesdays See

See

See Men’s Games Nights  2nd, Last

Edmonton Illusions-------------------  8:30pm

Monthly Meeting----------------------  2:30pm

By Edmonton Primetimers  2nd  Unitarian Church, 10804 - 119th Street

Bowling-----------------------------------  5pm See

Running------------------------------  10-11am Yoga---------------------------------  2-3:30pm

Jeffery Straker in Concert-------------  7pm

By Living Positive  McDougall United Church (10086 MacDonald Dr)

See

Team Edmonton Team Edmonton

Camp fYrefly

Ballroom Dancing--------------  7:30-8:30pm See

Team Edmonton

Legend:  = Monthly Reoccurrance,  = Date (Range),  = Sponsored Event

Edmonton Prime Timers

 edmontonpt@yahoo.ca  www.primetimersww.org/edmonton Group of older gay men and their admirers who come from diverse backgrounds but have common social interests.

Affiliated with Prime Timers World Wide.

Edmonton Rainbow Business Association

 3379, 11215 Jasper Ave  780-429-5014  http://www.edmontonrba.org Primary focus is the provision of networking opportunities for LGBT owned or operated and LGBT-friendly businesses in the Edmonton region.

Edmonton Illusions Social Club

 5 The Junction  780-387-3343

 groups.yahoo.com/group/edmonton_illusions

HIV Network Of Edmonton Society----

✰

 9702 111 Ave NW 780-488-5742  www.hivedmonton.com Provides healthy sexuality education for Edmonton’s LGBT community and support for those infected or affected

by HIV.

Imperial Sovereign Court of the Wild Rose

 http://www.iscwr.ca

Men’s Games Nights

 Unitarian Church (10804 119th Street)

 780-474-8240  tuff@shaw.ca

Edmonton Vocal Minority

 University of Alberta, basement of SUB  outreach@ualberta.ca  http://www.ualberta.ca/~outreach Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender/transsexual, Queer, Questioning and Straight-but-not-Narrow student group.

GLBTQ Sage Bowling Club

Pride Centre of Edmonton-------------

 sing@evmchoir.com

 tuff@shaw.ca

• Free School

 10608 - 105 Ave  monika\penner@shaw.ca Free School provides workshops on a variety of topics related to local activism.

• Get Tested for STIs

Free STD testing for anyone interested. For more information please contact the Pride Centre.

• GLBT African Group (Drop-In)

Living Positive Society of Alberta

 #50, 9912 - 106 Street 780-423-3737  http://www.facebook.com/LivingPoz Living Positive through Positive Living.

OUTreach

4 Edmonton STD

 11111 Jasper Ave

✰

 10608 - 105 Ave  780-488-3234  admin@pridecentreofedmonton.org  http://www.pridecentreofedmonton.org

 fred@pridecentreofedmonton.org  jeff@pridecentreofedmonton.org Group for ALL gay refugees and their friends and families, from all around the world.

• GLBT Seniors Drop-In

 SAGE building, Classroom B 15 Sir Winstone Churchill Square  tuff@shaw.ca A social and support group for seniors of all genders and sexualities to talk, have tea and offer each other support.

• Men Talking with Pride

 10608 - 105 Ave

 robwells780@hotmail.com A social discussion group for gay, bisexual and transgendered men to discuss current issues and to offer support to each other.

• Men’s HIV Support Group

 10608 - 105 Ave  huges@shaw.ca Support group for people living with HIV/AIDS.

• PFLAG

 10608 - 105 Ave  780-436-1998  edmontonab@pflagcanada.ca Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays: A support group for family members and friends of GLBT people. An excellent resource for people whose family members and friends have just come out.

58

Saturday, March 10th

7th Annual Gala--------------------------  8pm Friday, March 16th

 Edmonton Contd.

 780-474-8240

Annual Mixer------------------  7-11:30pm

By Team Edmonton Sawridge Inn (4235 Gateway Blvd)

By

Youth Sports/Recreation-----------------  4pm Youth Understanding Youth

Team Edmonton

Saturday, February 25th

Sundays See

Youth Understanding Youth

 780-479-2038  www.evmchoir.com

 Unitarian Church (10804 119th Street) See Edmonton Primetimers  2nd

See Buck Naked Boys Club  2nd

At 5 The Junction  2nd See

Monthly Meetings---------------------  2:30pm

Saturdays

Naturalist Gettogether

Intermediate Volleyball--------  7:30-9:30pm

Tuesdays

Martial Arts---------------------  7:30-8:30pm See

See

12 Woody’s-----------------------Bars and Clubs 14 FLASH-------------------------Bars and Clubs

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

• Suit Up and Show Up: AA Big Book Study

 10608 - 105 Ave Discussion and support group for those struggling with an alcohol addiction or seeking support in staying sober.

• TTIQ

 10608 - 105 Ave  admin@pridecentreofedmonton.org TTIQ is mixed gender open support group addressing the needs of transsexual and transgendered individuals.

• Womonspace Board Meeting

 10608 - 105 Ave  wspresident@hotmail.com Womonspace is a Social and Recreational Society in Edmonton run by volunteers. They provide opportunities for lesbians to interact and support each other in a safe environment, and to contribute to the broader community.

• Youth Movie

 10608 - 105 Ave  brendan@pridecentreofedmonton.org Movie chosen by youth (aged 14 – 25), usually with LGBT themes. Popcorn is served.

• YouthSpace

 brendan@pridecentreofedmonton.org A safe and supportive space for GLBTQ youth aged 13–25.

Video games, computers with internet, clothing bank, and more.

Seniors Association of Greater Edmonton

 780-474-8240

 tuff@shaw.ca

Team Edmonton

 president@teamedmonton.ca  http://www.teamedmonton.ca Members are invited to attend and help determine the board for the next term. If you are interested in running for the board or getting involved in some of the committees, please contact us.

www.gaycalgary.com

Directory & Events  Edmonton Contd.

• Badminton (Mixed)

• Swimming (Making Waves)

• Badminton (Women’s)

• Tennis

 St. Thomas Moore School, 9610 165 Street

 coedbadminton@teamedmonton.ca New group seeking male & female players.

 Oliver School, 10227 - 118 Street  780-465-3620

 badminton@teamedmonton.ca Women’s Drop-In Recreational Badminton. $40.00 season or $5.00 per drop in.

 NAIT Pool (11762 - 106 Street)  swimming@teamedmonton.ca  www.makingwavesswimclub.ca

 Kinsmen Sports Centre  Sundays, 12pm-3pm

 tennis@teamedmonton.ca

• Ultimate Frisbee

 Foot Notes Dance Studio, 9708-45 Avenue NW  Cynthia: 780-469-3281

 Sundays Summer Season starts July 12th  ultimatefrisbee@teamedmonton.ca E-mail if interested.

• Blazin’ Bootcamp

• Volleyball, Intermediate

•Ballroom Dancing

 Garneau Elementary School 10925 - 87 Ave  bootcamp@teamedmonton.ca

• Bowling (Northern Titans)

 Ed’s Rec Room (West Edmonton Mall)

 bowling@teamedmonton.ca $15.00 per person.

• Cross Country Skiing

 crosscountry@teamedmonton.ca

• Curling with Pride

 Granite Curling Club, 8620 107 Street NW  curling@teamedmonton.ca

• Cycling (Edmonton Prideriders)

 Various locations in Edmonton  cycling@teamedmonton.ca

• Dragon Boat (Flaming Dragons)

 dragonboat@teamedmonton.ca

• Golf

 golf@teamedmonton.ca

• Gymnastics, Drop-in

 Ortona Gymnastics Club, 8755 - 50 Avenue  gymnastics@teamedmonton.ca Have the whole gym to yourselves and an instructor to help you achieve your individual goals. Cost is $5.00 per session.

• Hockey

 hockey@teamedmonton.ca

• Martial Arts

 15450 - 105 Ave (daycare entrance)  780-328-6414  kungfu@teamedmonton.ca  kickboxing@teamedmonton.ca Drop-ins welcome.

• Outdoor Pursuits

 outdoorpursuits@teamedmonton.ca

• Running (Arctic Frontrunners)

 Emily Murphy Park, west end  running@teamedmonton.ca All genders and levels of runners and walkers are invited to join this free activity.

• Slo Pitch

 Parkallen Field, 111 st and 68 ave  slo-pitch@teamedmonton.ca Season fee is $30.00 per person. $10 discount for players from the 2008 season.

• Snowballs V

 January 27-29, 2012  snowballs@teamedmonton.ca Skiing and Snowboarding Weekend.

• Soccer

 soccer@teamedmonton.ca

• Spin

 MacEwan Centre for Sport and Wellness 109 St. and 104 Ave  Wednesdays, 5:45-6:45pm Season has ended.  spin@teamedmonton.ca 7 classes, $28.00 per registrant.

www.gaycalgary.com

 Amiskiwacy Academy (101 Airport Road)  volleyball@teamedmonton.ca

• Book Club

 Monthly, contact us for exact dates.

Theatre & Fine Arts Exposure Festival

 http://www.exposurefestival.ca Edmonton’s Queer Arts and Culture Festival.

The Roxy Theatre

 10708 124th Street, Edmonton AB  780-453-2440  www.theatrenetwork.ca

BANFF/CANMORE Community Groups

• Volleyball, Recreational

 Mother Teresa School (9008 - 105 Ave)  recvolleyball@teamedmonton.ca

• Women’s Lacrosse

 Sharon: 780-461-0017  Pam: 780-436-7374 Open to women 21+, experienced or not, all are welcome.

Call for info.

• Yoga

Mountain Pride

 members@gaybanff.com  www.gaybanff.com Serving the GLBTQS community in Banff, Canmore, Lake Louise and Area.

LETHBRIDGE

 Lion's Breath Yoga Studio (10350-124 Street)  yoga@teamedmonton.ca

Womonspace

 780-482-1794  womonspace@gmail.com  www.womonspace.ca Women’s social group, but all welcome at events.

Youth Understanding Youth

 780-248-1971  www.yuyedm.ca A support and social group for queer youth 12-25.

• Sports and Recreation

 Brendan: 780-488-3234  brendan@pridecentreofedmonton.org

Restaurants

Community Groups GALA/LA

 403-308-2893  http://www.galalethbridge.ca Gay and Lesbian Alliance of Lethbridge and Area.

• Monthly Dances

 Henotic (402 - 2 Ave S) Bring your membership card and photo ID.

• Monthly Potluck Dinners

 McKillop United Church, 2329 - 15 Ave S GALA/LA will provide the turkey...you bring the rest. Please bring a dish to share that will serve 4-6 people, and your own beverage.

• Support Line

5 The Junction-------------------------------  10242 106th St  780-756-5667

 403-308-2893  Monday OR Wednesday, 7pm-11pm Leave a message any other time.

12 Woody’s------------------------------------ ✰

 11725 Jasper Ave  780-488-6557

• Friday Mixer

Retail Stores Passion Vault

 15239 - 111 Ave  780-930-1169  pvault@telus.net “Edmonton’s Classiest Adult Store”

Products & Services Cruiseline

 780-413-7122 trial code 3500  http://www.cruiseline.ca Telephone classifieds and chat - 18+ ONLY.

Gay & Lesbian Integrity Assoc. (GALIA)

• Movie Night

 Room C610, University of Lethbridge

 Betty, 403-381-5260  bneil@chr.ab.ca  Every second Wednesday, 3:30pm-5pm

Lethbridge HIV Connection

 1206 - 6 Ave S

Robertson-Wesley United Church

 10209 - 123 St. NW  780-482-1587  jravenscroft@rwuc.org  www.rwuc.org  Worship: Sunday mornings at 10:30am People of all sexual orientations welcome. Other LGBT events include a monthly book club and a bi-monthly film night. As a caring spiritual community, we’d love to have you join us!

 galia@uleth.ca

Gay Youth Alliance Group

PFLAG Canada

 1-888-530-6777

 lethbridgeab@pflagcanada.ca  www.pflagcanada.ca

Pride Lethbridge

Community Groups Affirm

 Sunnybrook United Church  403-347-6073  2nd Tuesday of the month, 7pm Composed of LGBTQ people, their friends, family and allies. No religious affiliation necessary. Activities include support, faith and social justice discussions, film nights, and potlucks!

CAANS LGBT Coffee Night

 403-346-8858 (Jenn/Jill)

Central Alberta AIDS Network Society

 4611-50 Avenue, Red Deer, AB  http://www.caans.org The Central Alberta AIDS Network Society is the local charity responsible for HIV prevention and support in Central Alberta.

Western Canadian Pride Campout

 www.eventmasterinc.net

ALBERTA Community Groups Alberta Trans Support/Activities Group

 http://www.albertatrans.org A nexus for transgendered persons, regardless of where they may be on the continuum.

Theatre & Fine Arts Alberta Ballet

 http://www.albertaballet.com Frequent productions in Calgary and Edmonton.

CANADA Community Groups Canadian Rainbow Health Coalition

 The Mix (green water tower) 103 Mayor Magrath Dr S  Every Friday at 10pm

 University of Lethbridge GBLTTQQ club on campus.

RED DEER

 P..O. Box 3043, Saskatoon, SK, S7K 3S9  (306) 955-5135  1-800-955-5129  http://www.rainbowhealth.ca

Egale Canada

 8 Wellington St E, Third Floor Toronto, Ontario, M5E 1C5  1-888-204-7777  www.egale.ca Egale Canada is the national advocacy and lobby organization for gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, transidentified people and our families.

Products & Services Squirt

 http://www.squirt.org Website for dating and hook-ups. 18+ ONLY!

Theatre & Fine Arts Broadway Across Canada

 lethbridgepridefest@gmail.com

 http://www.broadwayacrosscanada.ca

OUTtv

 http://www.outtv.ca GLBT Television Station.

• Soul OUTing

 Second Sunday every month, 7pm An LGBT-focused alternative worship.

• Film Night

 Bi-monthly, contact us for exact dates.

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

59

Classifieds Event

140

Hate Crimes Luncheon Sunday, Feb 26 @ Noon McDougall United Church 10025 101 Street Edmonton Donation for lunch appreciated www.mcdougallunited.com

Must be willing and able to conduct interviews in person or by phone.

Please have a writing sample ready.

Contact Steve at publisher@gaycalgary.com.

Sales Rep Wanted Adult Oriented

210

GayCalgary Magazine is looking for a part time sales rep. Income by commission, sales experience required. Duties include contacting new advertisers and maintaining existing customers. Contact Steve at sales@gaycalgary.com.

Sales/Rentals

305

Male Friends

455

Seeking Companionship Youthful 50 year old gay male, looking for a nice black/hispanic man for fun times. I love to go clubbing, have quiet dinners, very passionate guy here, you be the same. Age is unimportant to me, but looking for guys 35-45 plus, all responses will be answered. Please send email to mrmark12ca@yahoo.ca

Models/Escorts

460

Alberta Escort Listings

Elizabeth’s Antique & Collectible Sale

Beauty & Mayhem Production Agency is are looking for Gay Talent to perform in Adult entertainment Productions. Call Pj @ 403 826 2670 E-mail: pj@beautymayhem.ca www.xxxbmpa.com

Help Wanted

240

Writers and Photographers GayCalgary Magazine is seeking additional freelance writers and photographers from Edmonton, Lethbridge, Red Deer, and Medicine Hat to accept monthly assignments.

Get a life and STOP Cleaning your place. Let Steve do the dirty work for you. Cleaning your home or business.

Prefer regular cleaning schedule.

Flexable rates. getalifecleaner.com | 403-200-7384

Health

550

My CannaMeds Organic medical marihuana products, shipped quickly, discreetly to your door. www.mycm.ca. Your #1 online Compassionate Club.

560

Massage in Edmonton Check out www.Squirt.org for the Hot Escorts in Calgary, Edmonton, and the rest of Alberta.

215

Gay Talent Wanted

517

GET A LIFE...STOP CLEANING!

Massage

View profiles, watch greetings and share chest rashes and genital sores!

PlentyofSyph.com, the hottest place to meet local singles infected with syphilis.

Audition

Cleaning

Rediscover the past. Alberta Aviation Museum, 11410 Kingsway Ave., Edmonton, AB. March 16-17, 2012.

Friday 2-8PM & Saturday 10-4PM. $5.00 Admission.

Personals

400

Labourer 50, searching for relationship in area. Ranch hand heritage. Don’t smoke. Healthy boundaries. Handwritten reply welcomed to Box 1, Kinsella AB, T0B-2N0.

New Improved Features. Free to Post and Browse. Videos, Pics, and Reviews. Join Now! Code: GCEE

Products/Services 500 Fabulous Gay & Lesbian Weddings.

Elopement or Scheduled. 365 days a year Rork Hilford MC. marriagecommissioner@shaw.ca (403)246-4134

Registered Massage Therapist in downtown Edmonton. Relaxation and therapeutic massage. For appointment phone Dwayne at 780483-3190 or 780-918-5856

Adult Depot Large selection of gay DVDs from $9.95, aromas and toys. Open Mon-Fri 12-8pm, Sat 12-6pm, closed Sundays and holidays.

(403) 258 2777

Ads starting at $10/mo. for the first 20 words. Submit yours at http://www.gaycalgary.com/classifieds 60

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

www.gaycalgary.com

APOLLO – FRIENDS IN SPORTS Box 9, 223 – 12 Avenue SW Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2R 0G9 http://www.apollocalgary.com

February 3rd, 2012 Gay Calgary and Edmonton Magazine 2136 – 17th Avenue SW Calgary, Alberta T2T 0G3

Dear Steve and Rob; Apollo – Friends in Sport would like to congratulate GayCalgary & Edmonton Magazine on a significant milestone – reaching your 100th issue! Your magazine has played a very important part in our community by promoting its events and happenings and by partnering with diverse organizations and businesses to realize their goals.

GayCalgary & Edmonton Magazine has been a great partner of Apollo by being the main media sponsor for Apollo’s Western Cup for many years. You have been an important ingredient that has allowed Western Cup to flourish as one of the major events in Calgary’s LGBT community.

We look forward to continuing partnerships and to your continued success.

Best wishes and here’s to the next 100 issues!!

Regards, Craig Lewington President On behalf of Apollo – Friends in Sports

“Apollo provides a positive and fun environment through sport and social activities within our community”

January 25, 2012

Steve Polyak Gay Calgary & Edmonton Magazine 2136 - 17th Avenue SW Calgary, AB T2T 0G3 Dear Mr. Polyak, On behalf of the staff and board of AIDS Calgary Awareness Association, please accept my congratulations on your milestone 100th edition. It is an outstanding accomplishment of which you should be proud.

AIDS Calgary has been honored to have Gay Calgary & Edmonton Magazine as a friend and sponsor at many events. Your yearly presence at the AIDS walk is an annual delight. Your recent support of our gay men’s social marketing campaign survey has been very beneficial to our gay men’s health initiatives. The support of our holiday hamper program has been much appreciated by staff and clients over the years, and we are continually grateful.

We are proud to have a regional LGBTQ publication that supports strong, positive health initiatives and we look forward to a continued working relationship in the future.

Sincerely, Simonne LeBlanc Executive Director AIDS Calgary Awareness Association

110, 1603 10

th

Avenue SW, Calgary, AB, T3C 0J7  P: (403) 508 2500  F: (403) 263 7358  www.AIDSCalgary.org

www.gaycalgary.com

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

61

Q Scopes

Keep your eyes open, Libra!

Venus is entering Aries, good for sports and trashy fun, not so much for emotional and financial investments. But then she aspects Uranus and Jupiter, so be open for some very fun surprises.



ARIES (March 20–April 19): A new you is set to break into

the open. It could be a daring new look or a talent that refuses to be hidden any longer. If you worry about that disrupting your relationships, holding it in will be even worse.



TAURUS (April 20–May 20): Trust those instincts and intuitions. That little voice deep inside has some very important messages, and perhaps some lucrative ones. Friends will disappoint you. They’re only human, but are they really friends?

Keep a shrewd eye on their motives.



GEMINI (May 21–June 20): Showing off your intellectual brilliance can cause more trouble than it solves. If you want to shake things up, you could be very effective, but the only way you can make peace is to stay quiet.

CANCER (June 21–July 22): In the struggle between body



and soul remember the soul is eternal. Attend to material realities. Success could pull you away from home and family, but is that so bad? A little separation there doesn’t need to be a complete break.

LEO (July 23–August 22): Whatever you say could



sound more serious and heartless than you intend. Winning arguments by intimidation will cost you. Gaining allies takes lots of conscious effort and attentive listening. You can change your mind about strategy and details without sacrificing principles.



VIRGO (August 23–September 22): Be very careful of

nervous inflammations, especially as they may impact the bowels.

Cleanliness, relaxation and a healthy sex life are the best care.

Efforts to improve the work process will likely irritate colleagues.

What do they want improved, and how?



LIBRA (September 23–October 22): New efforts to start or refresh a relationship will open surprises that take you in directions you’re not ready for. Being a control queen will backfire horribly. Just roll with it and see where it goes. The adventure will do you good.



SCORPIO (October 23–November 21): Nobody can be

right all the time, but you can always correct your own mistakes.

Did your friends really screw up, or were your expectations unfair? What’s right is always more important than who’s right.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22–December 20): You can’t



hold back your rebellious streak, but if you can channel it creatively it can help boost your standing at work and invigorate your partnership (or chances for one!). Go ahead and take a chance!

CAPRICORN

(December 21–January 19): A little confusion is good for the soul, provoking you to examine yourself deeper and to improve your orientation. Changes at home should feel uncomfortable if they are to provoke real opportunities; and yes, the opportunities are there! Stay focused on the long haul.



AQUARIUS (January 20–February 18): Your dazzling



brilliance may offend some people. Don’t hold back, not much anyway. Just try to be sensitive and ready to apologize where necessary, or just politic. It doesn’t have to be a big deal, but arguing will make it one.

PISCES (February 19–March 19): It’s too easy to say too



much and give away the store. Rather than spouting off, letting people wonder how much you do know makes you look wiser.

Set aside some money for an impulse purchase.

Jack Fertig, a professional astrologer since 1977 teaches at the Online College of Astrology. He can be reached for personal or business consultations at 415-864-8302 or through his website at http://www. starjack.com 62

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

www.gaycalgary.com

www.gaycalgary.com

GayCalgary Magazine #100, February 2012

63