IN Magazine: March/April 2020 by IN Magazine

CELEBRATING CANADA’S LGBTQ2

LIFESTYLE

MARCH / APRIL 2020

MEET AN 11-YEAR-OLD DRAG QUEEN STEPHEN DUNN DISCUSSES HOW HE HELPED BRING A GAY SYRIAN’S STORY TO LIFE

WAVE THE FLAG! GIVE LESBIANS THE CREDIT THEY DESERVE

APRIL 26 IS LESBIAN VISIBILITY DAY 1

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MARCH / APRIL 2020

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IN MAGAZINE

inmagazine.ca PUBLISHER Patricia Salib GUEST EDITOR Christopher Turner ART DIRECTOR Georges Sarkis COPY EDITOR Ruth Hanley SENIOR WRITER Paul Gallant CONTRIBUTORS Fraser Abe, Bobby Box, Al Donato, Lacey Elizabeth, Ryan Emberley, Adriana Ermter, Bianca Guzzo, Courtney Hardwick, Karen Kwan, Paul Langill, Sean Larkin, Ivan Otis, Michael Pihach, Mitchel Raphael, Jumol Royes, Adam Segal, Kahmeelia Smith, Julia Valente, Doug Wallace, Casey Williams DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AND SPONSORSHIPS Bradley Blaylock VISUAL AND GRAPHIC DESIGN INTERN Logan Joudrey CONTROLLER Jackie Zhao

ADVERTISING & OTHER INQUIRIES (416) 800-4449 ext 100 info@inmagazine.ca

EDITORIAL INQUIRIES (416) 800-4449 ext 201 editor@inmagazine.ca

MARCH / APRIL 2020

On the cover: L ESBIAN COMMUNITY PRIDE FLAG (CREATED AND INTRODUCED ON SOCIAL MEDIA IN 2018)

IN MAGAZINE

CONTENTS

93 Issue 93

March / April 2020

INFRONT

06 | THE NAME GAME With a rise in feel-good, do-good beauty and grooming product monikers, how do you know when to buy, apply and believe?

08 | HANGOVER HELPER You only have yourself to blame for your hungover state. Now, here’s how to fix how awful you’re feeling 09 | LEARN ALL THE WAYS YOUR PHARMACIST CAN HELP YOU They’re there for you in more ways than you think 10 | VINTAGE SUVS COMMAND HIGH PRICES, CELEBRITY ALLURE The Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale 2020 auction in January resulted in US$141 million in total sales 11 | AMPLIFYING THE VOICES OF THE HIV COMMUNITY Casey House’s peer program manager talks about the podcast Positively Speaking 12 | COMMITMENT ISSUES He’s ready to commit…I’m not so sure 13 | PROFILE IN YOUTH: RIVEN THORNE Meet the youth advocate and peer harm reduction worker who’s helping to make the world a better place

Billy Porter is heading to Sesame Street and he’s bringing that iconic Christian Siriano-designed Oscar gown! Though the details haven’t been announced as of press time, the popular children’s program posted photos from the set of the upcoming episode.

15 | ON THE TOWN Scenes from the party circuit

FEATURES 16 | MEET OLIVIA LIMEHART SKY, WINNIPEG’S YOUNGEST DRAG QUEEN Being a great performer runs in both her families 18 | POSITIVELY GLEEFUL Merce, the HIV+ musical comedy series, returns for a second hilarious season 20 | STEPHEN DUNN TALKS ABOUT LITTLE AMERICA’S QUEER REFUGEE EPISODE The Canadian director discusses how he helped bring a gay Syrian’s story to life for Apple’s new TV show 22 | LIL NAS X IS MORE THAN “OLD TOWN ROAD” The artist of last year’s most viral song is paving the way for LGBTQ+ performers in hip-hop 24 | IT’S TIME TO GIVE LESBIANS THE CREDIT THEY DESERVE April 26 is Lesbian Visibility Day 28 | YOU GOTTA HAVE FAITH Sexuality and spirituality don’t have to be mutually exclusive 29 | DADDY’S HOME The rise of the silver-haired gent

30 | A BRIEF HISTORY OF LEATHER AND THE GAYS Give to me your leather, take from me my gays 32 | THE LOST HISTORY OF THE LEATHER HARNESS It has no documented history, so IN spoke with experts and consulted the archives to trace the lineage of one of gay culture’s most popular garments 44 | PAWAN DHALL: A MILLION ACTIVISTS NOW How LGBTQ pioneers kickstarted a movement in India 46 | KEY LIME GUY A road trip down Overseas Highway to Key West nets the freshest fish, naked pool boys, pesky pelicans and sublime sunsets. The pie’s not bad either 50 | FLASHBACK: APRIL 27, 1953 IN LGBTQ HISTORY President Dwight D. Eisenhower issues Executive Order 10450

FASHION 34 | MERIDIAN DRIVE Dreary weather and gloomy skies got you down? Don’t worry…spring is on the way

LOOKING GOOD

The Name Game With a rise in feel-good, do-good beauty and grooming product monikers like “Genius Sleeping Collagen,” “Fresh Balls” and “Swagger, Red Zone,” how do you know when to buy, apply and believe? By Adriana Ermter

“Orgasm.” “Hope in a Jar.” “Beautiful.” “Pore Delete.” “Megababe.” “Better Than Sex.” These are just a sampling of names from the swell of products flooding the marketplace, each one defining a specific product: a blush, night cream, perfume, serum, deodorant, mascara and more. Their promise-filled labels claim to irrevocably improve your sex life, halt the aging process, boost your self-esteem, stroke the ego. Yet promises like this raise the question: when did skin care, cosmetics and fragrance become our bartender, therapist, BFF and emotional support product rolled into one? For Parisian perfume house Guerlain, the answer is 1889. After 61 years and a series of unisex scents, the brand took a more emotional approach to naming its next perfume, “Jicky.” The warm and spicy fusion for women was, if legend is true, the namesake of founder Aimé Guerlain’s prep school crush. For that and for the parfum’s inclusion of synthetic ingredients (a big deal in the 1800’s sea of eau naturelle), “Jicky” was an instant hit. Its success seemingly influenced the luxury brand to use a heartfelt approach when labelling its ensuing 400-plus-and-counting scents, complete with 1908’s “Rue de la Paix” (Road to Peace), 2005’s “Attrape Coeur” (Captured Heart) and 2015’s “Le Plus Beau Jour de ma Vie” (The Best Day of My Life).

MARCH / APRIL 2020

“Products with very specific names succeed with buyers,” affirms Emily Lyons, a Canadian entrepreneur and the CEO and founder of Femme Fatale Media and True Glue Beauty. “They are perceived as being unique and outside of the box, while targeting a certain need or specific problem.” And, boy, do we want their promises to be true. So we buy and try products with the names and claims that appeal to our sense of need, want and, even, what we feel we lack. Gillette “SkinGuard Razor”: who doesn’t need that? Olay Regenerist “Luminous Brightening Cream Cleanser”? Yes, please! David Mallett “No.2 Spray Le Volume”? Your thin hair will thank you. “There is a psychology behind it, and placebo is a very real thing,” adds Lyons. “You convince yourself it’s amazing before you’ve even tried it.” As proof of label persuasion, one Nuxe Rêve de Miel “UltraNourishing Lip Balm” sells every 28 seconds worldwide. A 15-second video featuring Pantene’s Pro V “Rescue Shots” has been viewed nearly 100,000 times on YouTube in less than 11 months. Shiseido’s self-proclaimed hero serum, Ultimune “Power Infusing Concentrate,” is bought every 13 seconds, and Sand & Sky sold 50,000 tubs of “Brilliant Skin” in its first eight weeks. “Who doesn’t want to be radiant, wrinkle-free or whatever else people are looking for,” explains Lauren Wolff, a registered psychotherapist and former beauty and grooming public relations 6

IN MAGAZINE

expert in Toronto. “There’s a sense of belonging to these types of product names. All people are doing it and seeing results, so the thought is, I must be too. Combine that with hope for what the product promises will transpire on your face or hair or otherwise, and you have the ultimate beauty and grooming product.” The right name can also conjure memories or feelings that evoke emotion and become the anchor to help tell your story, says Joanne Bletz, global senior vice president of Calvin Klein fragrances in New York City. “It reflects a certain persona, which allows consumers to identify with it on a more personal level,” she adds. More times than not, these personal stories share elements with the narrative the product is conveying, so purchasing and using it feels like a natural extension of our self – or the self we one day hope to be. Acceptance and cool-girl inclusion has been Benefits Cosmetics’ hook, line and sinker since1975, when the brand was a mere rectangle of counter space called the Face Place. Its solution-oriented, cheeky names, such as “POREfessional” and “They’re Real, Lengthening Mascara,” lean on the power of tongue in cheek to draw in both women and men, to make them laugh and feel confident and comfortable in their own skin. A sense of well-being, balance and gratitude fuel Philosophy’s approach with their aptly named skincare “Ultimate Miracle Worker” and “Time in a Bottle.” Others, like the Bearsville Soap Company, tap into gender ideation through curated packages of handcrafted soaps titled “The Lumberjack” and “The Outdoorsman,” while companies like Billy Jealousy apply resultsbased monikers, such as “Hydroplane Super Slick Shave Cream,” “Hair Raiser Follicle Revitalizer” and “Beard Envy Refining Kit.” “A really catchy name gets the initial interest in the product,” explains Lyons. “With over-saturation in the market, just having a great product isn’t enough. You need to get people to try your product and then, hopefully, word of mouth takes over.” Words like Calvin Klein’s “Obsession,” “Eternity” and “Euphoria” do the trick. They’ve been capturing consumer interest since Brooke Shields wore nothing but her designer jeans and Mark Wahlberg shared his “Good Vibrations” with the Funky Bunch. The emotionbased names have paid off, both for the brand and for customers, with increased consumer loyalty and product longevity – the three fragrances have been staples on retailers’ shelves since their respective launches in 1985, 1988 and 2005. Currently, the all-American brand is hoping for another bestseller, this time imparting inclusivity, self-expression and acceptance through their new CK scent, Everyone.

“Emotive names are meaningful and relatable,” explains Bletz. “They speak directly to consumers and convey a sense of what they might feel when wearing our fragrance. We take this into account when we create our fragrances and their universes, tailoring each one to the emotion we are trying to convey and how consumers will interpret them.”

by a set of transparent, ethical standards sanctioned by companies including the US Food and Drug Administration, the US Federal Trade Commission, Competition Bureau Canada and Health Canada, to name a few. With the efficacy of every pimple buster, fine-line eraser and collagen plumper on the line, formulations must live up to marketing claims or risk being sent back to the laboratory.

The right name can seal the deal When customers don’t connect the dots, however, flat-line sales result along with the discontinuation of said cologne, lipstick or balm. In a whopping US$532 billion industry (which Forbes predicts will grow to US$800 billion by 2025), new bottles and tubes can’t wait for Manny Mua, Robin James (a.k.a. Man for Himself) or Cassandra Bankson to give them a shout-out on Snapchat, TikTok or YouTube. They need to stand out and stand strong in both brick and mortar and on the brand’s social media platforms.

“These ethical standards are real and they’re enforced when making consumer products,” says Wolff. “So when the brands are telling you they’ve created hope in a jar or say this is the only shampoo that works, they genuinely believe their product is the miracle they think it is. It just makes sense they would then name it the way they see it and feel it.” Being emotionally invested in your next hand lotion or face oil is also low-risk behaviour. You can take the product back if it doesn’t work, since most retailers have a return policy. But if it does provide the results you’re seeking by living up to its claims, well, that’s a whole different name game and one that frequently provides all the good feels. And in our current instant gratification climate, this emotional connection is often the only success barometer that matters.

“Having a relatable and possibly even an aspirational label can be appealing to someone who is having difficulty making a choice,” affirms Wolff. “There’s so much to choose from, how do you know what you want? Well, when the name of the product answers the question for you, it makes decision-making easy and helps validate the consumer, making them feel good about their choice.” “In our swipe right, swipe left culture, the only sure thing we have is our emotional investment in ourselves and, as an extension of Brand newbs with to-the-point names like This Works, Nécessaire that, the products we use to help define who we are,” says Wolff. and First Aid Beauty are taking Shakespeare’s “What’s in a name?” “So if we can find hope in a face cream, well, then we’re going to question literally, hopeful their transparency will earn immediate pay attention to that. It’s our ego’s defence mechanism, and there’s consumer trust. In actuality, though, all beauty and grooming nothing wrong with wanting to believe.” products, regardless of what they’re called, are held to and measured ADRIANA ERMTER is a Toronto-based, lifestyle-magazine pro who has travelled the globe writing about must-spritz fragrances, child poverty, beauty and grooming.

HEALTH & WELLNESS

HANGOVER HELPER

You only have yourself to blame for your hungover state. Now, here’s how to fix how awful you’re feeling By Karen Kwan

MARCH / APRIL 2020

You wake up in the morning and instantly regret how much you drank last night. Your entire body aches, your head is throbbing, you feel bloated and thirsty, you have no energy and you’re more than a little nauseous. Never mind the dangers of binge drinking (that’s a whole other topic for another time). Right now, your priority is how to start feeling like a human being again. There are a lot of remedies you hear about – here’s the lowdown.

Have a bowl of chicken soup Chicken soup is not just for the common cold. “It’s the cure for everything, including hangovers!” says Jaelin. What your body needs in this hungover state is fluids and sodium, so chicken soup (or any broth-based soup) is a fantastic meal option.

Skip the hair of the dog Going for the hair of the dog – that is, drinking alcohol to alleviate the symptoms of a hangover by raising your blood alcohol levels – won’t help your state. You’re simply prolonging the time you experience those hangover symptoms.

Eat some citrus fruit Alcohol is a diuretic, meaning you’ll deplete your body of vitamins and minerals while you’re out imbibing. So if you know you’re going out and will be drinking heavily, it’s a good idea to stock up your fridge ahead of time with citrus fruits, such as oranges, clementines and grapefruit. Why? “The vitamin C antioxidants help with the free radical damage from alcohol,” says Jaelin.

That greasy breakfast won’t help either After a night of drinking, many people trudge out to eat breakfast at a greasy spoon. But having a greasy meal such as fast food might actually help more if you have it before you go drinking. Nutritionist Michelle Jaelin explains that the fat will coat your stomach, slowing down the absorption of alcohol, which translates to lowering your risk of hangover symptoms.

Go bananas A banana isn’t just a great snack to enjoy after running a marathon and crossing the finish line – it’s also a good choice when you’re hungover. “Bananas are high in potassium, and the sugar will also help bring up your blood sugar levels. You often feel ‘down’ when you’ve had a lot to drink because of low blood sugar levels,” explains Jaelin.

Drink tomato juice You hear a lot about chugging Gatorade, but a much healthier option is tomato juice. “You need fluid to rehydrate. Tomato juice is high in sodium and potassium, so it will help replenish your electrolytes,” says Jaelin, who works as a registered dietitian and nutrition communication consultant through her Hamilton-based business Nutrition Artist.

Replace that pint/wine/martini glass with a teacup The day after a hangover is a great time to drink some tea. Jaelin recommends ginger tea (for its anti-nausea benefits) and lemon (for its vitamin C – see above). And feel free to put a little bit of honey in your tea, she adds; the glucose will raise your blood sugar.

IN MAGAZINE

KAREN KWAN is a freelance health, travel and lifestyle writer based in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter at @healthswellness and on Instagram at @healthandswellness.

They’re there for you in more ways than you think By Courtney Hardwick

Doctors’ appointments are notorious for being inconvenient, timeconsuming and all-around inefficient. While they can’t always be avoided, you do have options that don’t involve taking time off work to sit in a waiting room. Pharmacists, like the ones at Rexall, are one of the most accessible healthcare service providers available, but there is a lack of awareness about what they can do beyond just filling prescriptions. In addition to dispensing medication and providing information on prescriptions, your pharmacist is also qualified – and happy – to help you with your health goals. While their scope of practice varies by province, some of the services your Rexall pharmacist can provide include: Writing, renewing and adapting prescriptions You know you need to visit the pharmacy when you need a prescription filled, but did you know that your pharmacist can do more than simply hand over the right medication? Regulations vary by province so you should talk to your local Rexall pharmacist to get the details, but here are a few prescription-specific services your pharmacist may be able to offer: •

A uthority to prescribe medications for minor ailments (Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick)

• • • •

Independent prescribing authority (Alberta only) Adapt previous prescriptions that were written by a doctor (most provinces) Help you stop smoking with counselling and prescription medication (all provinces except BC) Extend and renew existing prescriptions if you’re unable to meet with your healthcare provider

If you have any concerns about your current medications, your Rexall pharmacist can help you learn more about your options and advise you on whether you should make the time to talk to your doctor. The pharmacist will gather all relevant information from you to assess the appropriate next steps (if an intervention is necessary, for example), and review options with you so you can make an informed choice. Medical device training Whether you need an inhaler, blood glucose meter, epinephrine auto-injector or a variety of other medical devices, pharmacists can provide training on how to use it properly. They’ll also give you tips for making sure your device is functioning as it should and when to replace it, and they can answer any questions you have along the way. Administer travel and routine vaccines All Rexall pharmacists take part in a certification process that includes injection training, live workshops, first aid and CPR training. Under provincial legislation, pharmacists can administer certain vaccines such as the flu shot and the shingles vaccine to adults and children over a certain age.

Headed overseas? Pharmacists can provide travel advice for low-risk areas and recommend the right vaccines for particular destinations. They can also administer most travel vaccines on the spot.* Point-of-care testing For a bacterial infection like strep throat, the faster you start taking antibiotics, the faster you’ll start to feel better. While walk-in clinics or making a doctor’s appointment are an option, in BC and Alberta your Rexall pharmacist can provide point-of-care testing for strep throat. If you test positive, your pharmacist can then prescribe or recommend an appropriate antibiotic and/or symptom control medication for you to feel better sooner (Alberta only). Your Rexall pharmacist can also help guide you through performing and understanding the A1C test to capture your average blood sugar levels over a three-month interval (most provinces except Manitoba and Saskatchewan). This convenient test can save you a trip to the doctor’s office and diagnostic lab, and will help you fully understand the ups and downs of your blood sugar levels so you can make informed decisions about your diabetes management plan. Medication counselling and management Given that pharmacists take more pharmacology and pharmacotherapeutic classes than any other healthcare professional, it makes sense to go to them for advice on anything from the best over-the-counter medications and natural supplements to alternatives to current medications. Rexall pharmacists have a wide variety of medication management tools available and they’re happy to recommend options that will work for you. To support you in taking your medications as prescribed by your primary care provider, they can offer: Auto Refill: When you sign up for Auto Refill, your Rexall pharmacist will automatically remember to refill your prescriptions so you don’t have to. If you are taking multiple medications, the pharmacist can sync them together, so they are refilled at the same time. • Med Organizer: Your Rexall pharmacist can provide you with your medications in individualized, seven-day blister packs, which conveniently sort your medications by date and time to be taken. This helps to take the guesswork out of knowing how and when to take your medications each day. • Med Review: A one-on-one sit-down with your Rexall pharmacist to review your medications and health goals. • R exall Reminder: Sign up for Rexall Reminder and get a notification via text message, email or phone call as soon as your prescription is ready for pickup. •

If you have questions, stop by your local Rexall to talk to your pharmacist about how they can help support you and your health goals. * Valid prescription may be required.

Brought to you by

COURTNEY HARDWICK is a Toronto-based freelance writer. Her work has appeared online at AmongMen, Complex Canada, Elle Canada and TheBolde.

HEALTH & WELLNESS

Getting To Know All The Ways Your Pharmacist Can Help You

WHEELS

VINTAGE SUVS COMMAND HIGH PRICES, CELEBRITY ALLURE

The Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale 2020 auction in January resulted in US$141 million in total sales By Casey Williams

Every generation has its vintage car addiction. For the World War II generation, it was pre-war classics. Their Baby Boomer children collected 1960s muscle cars. Now their kids, raised in all-capable wagons, are bidding up prices of early SUVs. The recent Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale, Arizona, put a spotlight on some celebrity favourites from the 1960s-1990s. 1960s: Ford Bronco Perhaps spurred by the Mustang’s success, Ford debuted the first Bronco in 1966 for drivers seeking adventure. Misers took theirs with 105 horsepower six-cylinder engines, but fly boys chose the 200 horsepower V8. Stylists kept it simple with flat glass, simple metal bumpers, and a removable roof for sunny days. This 1977 example of the Bronco’s first generation was owned by American Idol’s Simon Cowell. It cuts a swath painted monochrome black and raised for off-roading. It sold for US$86,900.

1970s: Chevrolet Blazer To compete with Ford, Chevrolet introduced the Blazer on its full-size truck frame in 1969. It was offered with two straight-six engines and two V8s, the best with 255 horsepower. Part-time four-wheel drive earned it accolades when roads turned to mush. Like the Bronco, it bolted a removable roof over the rear section, but was otherwise aligned with GM’s full-size trucks. Barrett-Jackson sold a resto-mod 1972 Blazer with metallic green paint and cream leather interior, built by Dave Kindig of Motor Trend TV’s Bitchin’ Rides, for US$120,000. 1980s: Jeep Grand Wagoneer Designed by the Brooks Stevens firm to compete with station wagons from General Motors and Ford, the Grand Wagoneer bested competitors with a robust four-wheel drive system that could take it almost anywhere while making them darlings of the glitterati at chalets and ski lodges. By the 1980s, the Grand Wagoneer was an anachronism in technology and style, but enticed fans with leather-lined interiors and wood grain bodysides. It even starred in 1988’s Funny Farm alongside Chevy Chase. An exquisite example was auctioned for US$110,000. 1990s: Ford Bronco Eddie Bauer The Ford Bronco regained its mojo when A.C. Cowlings ushered O.J. Simpson down L.A. freeways in a bright white one while 95 million viewers followed the chase via copter-cam. Perhaps the late Paul Walker, star of The Fast and The Furious, watched because he owned a 1995 Bronco with floor-mounted cellphone. Unlike Walker’s BMWs and Porsches, his four-wheel drive Bronco was powered by a five-litre V8 delivering 205 horsepower. Walker’s mostly stock 1995 Eddie Bauer edition brought US$73,700 at Barrett-Jackson.

MARCH / APRIL 2020

Forever: Lamborghini LM002 Dubbed the “Rambo Lambo” in honor of Sylvester Stallone, it was hand-built in Italy from 1986 to 1993. A leather interior, power windows, air conditioning and roof-mounted audio were haute couture. Only 328 lucky buyers enjoyed its 444 horsepower V12 engine that took it 0-100 km/h in 7.8 seconds on the way to a 210 km/h top speed. Reflecting its military origins, it could run with its tires virtually flat, and deflected assaults with a tubular frame and riveted aluminum body. Expect to pay the price of a Cadillac Escalade for one today.

CASEY WILLIAMS is a contributing writer for Gaywheels.com. He contributes to the New York-based LGBT magazine Metrosource and the Chicago IN MAGAZINE Tribune. He and his husband live in Indianapolis, where Williams contributes videos and reviews to wfyi.org, the area’s PBS/NPR station.

COMMUNITY

POSITIVELY

SPEAKING

AMPLIFYING THE VOICES OF THE HIV COMMUNITY Casey House’s peer program manager talks about the podcast Positively Speaking

In December, Toronto’s Casey House launched Positively Speaking, a new podcast dedicated to sharing diverse and compelling stories that help give a voice to people living with HIV. We recently sat down with Andre Ceranto, peer program manager at Casey House and one of the hosts of the podcast, to talk about the six-episode first season and the range of topics covered. How does Casey House support the HIV community? Casey House is Ontario’s HIV/AIDS hospital. It opened in Toronto in 1988 and has evolved from Canada’s first stand-alone treatment facility for people living with HIV and AIDS into a hospital with primarily outpatient programming. As an HIV specialty hospital, we have an innovative and multidisciplinary approach to health and well-being. Casey House has always led the way in offering innovative and exciting programming to support the HIV community. How does Positively Speaking fit into that programming? It gives voice to people living with HIV and AIDS by sharing their diverse and compelling stories. The podcast is a creative, accessible medium for clients to tell stories, build skills and validate their experiences while challenging stigma through the power of narrative. How did Positively Speaking come about? What was the inspiration for this podcast? It was a staff-led initiative to engage clients and peers and bring more awareness to the realities of life with HIV/AIDS. It was inspired by Ear Hustle, which shares the experience of San Quentin prison through the voices of those incarcerated.

What has the feedback from the community been about Positively Speaking? What’s in store for the future of the program? Everyone has been extremely positive about the podcast, and the listener numbers keep rising. I think people are surprised at the professional production, thanks to the RTA School of Media at Ryerson University, and my colleague, social worker Liz Creal, is getting compliments on her hosting skill. We are already at work on Season 2. The episodes in the second season will be issues-focused and will dive more deeply into each topic. Where does this initiative fit within Casey House’s overarching strategy to provide peer-to-peer support? Casey House launched an innovative peer program to complement the work of the interdisciplinary healthcare team and further support those living with HIV/AIDS. We are committed to involving peers with the grateful support of ViiV Healthcare’s community grants program, and continue to expand our peer programming with projects like Positively Speaking. It is important to provide different opportunities for meaningful engagement that meet the interest and comfort level of the participants. Beyond your avid listeners, what is the impact of a program like this? In addition to being committed to providing judgment-free health care, Casey House is passionate about amplifying our clients’ voices. We do this by advocating for individual clients, by increasing awareness of HIV and its complexities with our #smashstigma awareness campaign, and now with the podcast. Listen to Positively Speaking at caseyhouse.com or wherever you find podcasts, and then subscribe.

What are some of the topics the podcast speaks to? Why is it important to bring these themes and voices to the forefront? Clients participated both as part of an advisory group and as storytellers, sharing their experience living with HIV/AIDS. An even wider group determined topics for the six-episode first season through collaborative brainstorming sessions to identify possible themes. Each episode examines a different aspect of life with HIV as experienced by clients: HIV and long-term survivors, relationships, mental health, housing, isolation and living positively. We hope the conversations both inspire and provoke.

Andre Ceranto and co-host Liz Creal, a Casey House social worker

RELATIONSHIP ADVICE

Commitment Issues He’s ready to commit…I’m not so sure By Adam Segal

Dear Adam, I have been seeing the same guy for about two years, but something is holding me back from committing more fully and moving in together. I’ve been sort of keeping him in the boyfriend zone. I can tell that he is ready for us to get more serious – and most of me wants the same, but another part of me keeps pulling back. We have such an incredible connection. I feel guilty to admit that his financial situation is part of what makes me nervous – and I can’t imagine talking to him about it without coming off like a jerk. We are both in our 40s but are at different career stages. In his 30s he changed course, started a new career path and is slowly gaining traction. Our salaries are drastically different and he has no savings whatsoever. By no means do I need a rich man to shack up with, but I fear how our lives might be limited by his finances or that I could be put in a position where I am carrying too much of the financial weight and begin to resent him. To his credit, he sticks to his budget and never expects me to pay his way. I’m not sure if I’m truly at risk by getting in deeper with him, or just spooked by a nightmare fantasy in my head. How can I make sense of this? — Terrence Dear Terrence, It makes sense that you don’t want to risk hurting your guy by addressing the financial disparity between you, but by not sharing your concerns you’re likely setting the stage for resentment to grow and conflict surfacing down the line. Money (along with sex) is one of the toughest topics for a couple to discuss freely and with authenticity. As a result, these subjects are often completely avoided or get raised recklessly in reactive or tense moments – all of which only reinforces a pattern of avoidance. To make this situation work, you’ll have to crank up the money talk so that the topic itself loses some intensity. While he hasn’t quite established the same economic stability that you have, your boyfriend has demonstrated a healthy relationship with money and an investment in his own career. Your worries seem rooted in a sort of “what if?” thinking rather than being grounded in your lived experience. You could certainly opt out of this relationship to avoid possible economic pitfalls, but would you

rather see if the two of you could address these matters head-on before calling it a day? If you want to stay on this relationship ride, a good framework for a couple with differing finances is to live within your shared means. This would mean finding some middle ground where you both benefit from your greater financial resources, but also respect his situation enough so that he isn’t over-extending. Simply put – you could chip in to upgrade to a nicer hotel room on your next vacation, but also embrace more home-cooked meals so that your man isn’t breaking the bank trying to match your lifestyle. As for the possibility of harbouring resentment, on some level you have to see that as a choice and not a given. You are an adult, and if you decide to partner up you’ll have to promise yourself, and him, that you won’t hold his chequing account balance against him or invest much energy into wishing things were different.

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ADAM SEGAL, writer and therapist, works in private practice in downtown Toronto. Ask him your relationship or mental-health questions at @relationship@inmagazine.

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PROFILE

Profile In Youth: Riven Thorne Meet the youth advocate and peer harm reduction worker who’s helping to make the world a better place By Jumol Royes

There are many young people working hard to make a difference in their communities, but oftentimes they don’t receive the recognition they rightly deserve. We’re here to change that. The second in our series of youth profiles shines a spotlight on Riven Thorne. Thorne is a Toronto-based transgender student, youth advocate and peer harm reduction worker who works with drug and safer sex education for youth and mental health service providers. They are committed to cultivating more compassionate and inclusive communities and advancing issues around equity and social justice. What do you want people to know about your lived reality as a transgender person of colour? I want people to understand that while these labels don’t construct the entirety of who I am, they are labels that I (and others who may have similar experiences) am not given the liberty of existing outside of in society right now. I want people to understand that one person can never represent an entire community, and to be allied to marginalized communities is to not expect us, as individuals, to represent a collective. People with intersecting socially marginalized identities are so often reduced to these identities and nothing else; this is a weight that’s always on our shoulders. It’s important to know that sometimes, the best support we can be given is to be allowed to live outside of our marginalized experiences. To be allowed to live outside the reality of oppression is extremely rare in this society where I (and others with similar experiences)

am forced to think about how my identity impacts my day-to-day survival and quality of life. As a peer harm reduction worker, you have conversations with young people about drugs and safer sex. What’s their main issue of concern? For the youth I talk to and work with, the main issue right now is accessing accurate information. It’s my experience that with so many fear tactics having come out of government and school programs, youth just don’t trust those sources for their drug and safer sex information anymore, which makes sense, but the alternatives aren’t always better. It’s easy to find information online that’s inaccurate – sometimes dangerously so – surrounding subjects like drug use. We’ve been focusing more content lately on helping young people identify accurate online sources (e.g., how to find out where a study comes from, who may have paid for it, and why that background may change the amount of trust we put in the information). Young people want to be as safe as they can be, even in their explorative experiences with things that are generally seen as risky, like drugs and sex. Giving them the facts, which are inherently neutral, is how we empower them to make the best decisions for themselves. What’s your advice for youth who want to be advocates and allies for change? Share your opinions! I didn’t understand that my opinions were radical until I shared them and was connected to other advocates with similar ways of thinking. I was able to find people I could safely socialize with once I started being open about my identity and my views, a safe group I’d never had before. Most importantly, I was able to understand my worldview as a work in progress once I started sharing with others who had different opinions, or more well-thought-out opinions than mine. Commitment to growth is imperative to advocacy and ally work, and being able to share your thoughts, hear a valid critique, and form a new thought based on that critique is a harder-than-it-seems first step to this type of work. Name one thing we can all choose to do today to make the world a better place. Express love to your community actively, whatever that looks like for you. Tell your best friend how much they mean to you and how valuable they are in your life. Tell your family members that you are grateful for them. We live in a society where love is being treated more and more as capital; instead, express your love for free, no strings attached. Follow Riven Thorne on their personal Instagram account @stonefruitbaby. Peace Tea proudly supports inclusivity, diversity & love

JUMOL ROYES is a Toronto-based storyteller and communications strategist with a keen interest in personal development and transformation and a love of all things Real Housewives. Follow him on Twitter at @Jumol.

“

SICKENING (sick·en·ing)

Something that is fabulous, over the top, ﬁerce, the “T”, eating it, ﬂawless, frightening, nervous talent, etc.

MARCH / APRIL 2020

Girl, have you seen Mint Media’s last campaign? It was as sickening as Rosalía’s Grammy performance!

LGBTQ2+ MARKETING

mintmediagroup.ca 14

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ON THE TOWN

SCENES FROM THE PARTY CIRCUIT By Michael Pihach

2 3

Bloor Street Entertains at the Four Seasons Hotel 1: Alex Filiatrault, Mary Jean Tully, 2: Chris Tyrell, Aisha Fairclough, Jill Andrew, Jim Searle, 3: Jeanne Beker, 4: Peter Salituro, Armando Mendonca, Sevi Anagnostis, Ken. Interior Design Show 2020 (IDS20) Opening Party - photos courtesy of IDS & Ryan Emberley 5: Christopher Wadsworth, Davida Houston, 6: Kyle Hewey, Sophie Quick, Shawn Rusich, 7: Glen Baxter, DJ Fernandez. Dahnce Kahmp at Buddies In Bad Times (held the second Saturday of each month) - photos by Mitchel Raphael (mitchelraphael.com) 8: DJ Sumation, 9: Brandan Dietrich, 10: Peter Kelly, Farley Tran, Mars Alexander, Rolyn Chambers, 11: Joshua Clarke, 12: Jade.

DRAG

MEET

Olivia Limehart Sky WINNIPEG’S YOUNGEST DRAG QUEEN Being a great performer runs in both her families By Al Donato

If watching Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors death-dropping is on your bucket list, you should start following Olivia Limehart Sky. At just 11 years old, the Winnipeg youth is already a rising star in her city’s vibrant drag scene. She confesses that she’s usually nervous before performing, but that fades away when it’s time to shine. “Once I’m on stage, it feels super awesome. I’m more confident in drag,” Olivia says.

Even with all the love, it’s not always easy; Olivia’s age limits her from the bars and nightclubs most queens flock to. But being 11 means she can connect to fellow youth in meaningful ways. She’s read aloud to a packed library for drag queen storytime and has taught Winnipeg kids how to paint their faces at a drag 101 workshop, co-hosted by Guncle Smokey, a.k.a. her mom’s own drag persona – Issa joined in on the fun after dipping a toe at a fundraiser for the queer-positive drop-in centre Sunshine House last July, and hasn’t looked back since.

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A sashaying descendant of the House of Sky (helmed by revered Olivia’s community work has made her someone LGBTQ2S+ kids drag mother Prairie Sky), Olivia has range for days; you’re just admire, especially those who wish they could express themselves as likely to hear her getting cheers for a feisty Lizzo lip-sync as authentically. you are to hear whoops of laughter over her comedic schtick as a man-eating plant. Same goes for her style. She’ll have her signature “I really want to do what you’re doing, but my parents wouldn’t well-arched bold brows and big eyelashes for many appearances, allow me to do this,” one told Olivia after her workshop. but the junior entertainer’s stockpile of eyeshadow palettes, wigs and on-theme outfits lends her a scene credibility lacking in many Sentiments like these make what Olivia does out of drag impressive, queens twice her age. too. Ron co-founded a GSA at his school with two of his friends. All are welcome to their weekly rainbow lunch club meeting, Ron Kixen, a.k.a. Olivia, has made major headway since he fell whether they’re questioning, openly LGBTQ+, closeted or an ally. in love with drag a year ago. Seeing Kim Chi and other Season 8 contestants in an episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race led him to voice That inclusivity was extended to Ron by drag elders; now it is interest in the craft to his mother, Anishinaabe comedian Issa Kixen. something he’s extending to fellow students, and it’s also the heart A two-spirit performer themself and with plenty of connections to of the advice he gives kids curious about getting into drag. local drag, Issa was fully on-board with the idea. “Find people who can help you,” Olivia advises. “When Ron was younger, he was very shy and reserved. When he said he wanted to try drag, I was like, ‘Yes, I will do everything Issa echoes those words of wisdom to parents of queer kids who in my power to support that,’” Issa says. want to explore gender presentation. Olivia’s received support from another family, too; Issa notes that “Even if it’s scary, even if you think your child might be ostracized, many drag performers, especially Indigenous drag queens like there’s so much love within the queer community. You will be their drag mother, as well as Vida Lamour DeCosmo and Club embraced,” they say. 200 regular Anita Stallion, have taken Olivia under their wing. Dubbing themselves Olivia’s aunties and sisters, they help Olivia Winnipeg residents are lucky to see Olivia’s drag journey unfold, hone her art and engage in the age-old drag tradition of lending but there’s a chance other Canadians will be able to watch her wigs when needed. death-drop in person: she’s hopeful that someday she and her mom will do a Canada-wide tour of Pride celebrations across the country. “There’s similarities in both cultures I really dig,” Issa says. “As an Indigenous person and somebody who goes by the clan system, I would compare it to that. It’s very matriarchal.” 16

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AL DONATO is a queer non-binary journalist. Born and raised in Toronto, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re currently an associate editor at HuffPost Canada. They adore bubble tea, anti-oppression, their nanayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cooking and queer dance nights.

TELEVISION

POSITIVELY GLEEFUL Merce, the HIV+ musical comedy series, returns for a second hilarious season By Sean Larkin

Charles Sanchez keeps a framed Wheaties box featuring Greg Louganis in a Speedo above his desk. It includes an autograph by the Olympian that reads, “Charles, believe in yourself! Greg Louganis.” “Believing in yourself sounds cheesy, but it’s a must as a creative artist,” Sanchez reflects.

with potty mouth humor. Most notably, although its main character is HIV-positive, he is not depicted as sad, sick or dying. In fact, Merce sings, dances and laughs his way through a candy-coloured, musical comedy life.

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“I’m a person living with HIV,” Charles Sanchez reveals. “I wanted to show a character who was living with HIV and wasn’t an evil He should know. It took courage for him to create Merce, a musical pariah out to infect the world and didn’t have a sad cloud hanging comedy series that he not only stars in, but also writes and produces. over him. That’s certainly not been my experience.” He recalls being told over and over again that it couldn’t be done, but he knew he had to because the world needed a show like Merce. He explains that as he and his creative partner, Tyne Firmin, developed the idea for Merce, they quickly decided to go completely opposite Merce is about a middle-aged, super-gay, HIV-positive dude living of what viewers would expect. Make it a comedy! Make it a musical! in New York City, surrounded by a crazy cast of friends and family. Make it totally silly and fun! Maybe that way, they could change It’s Glee meets Pee Wee’s Playhouse with a little side eye, filled peoples’ minds about what someone living with HIV looks like.

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We spoke with Charles Sanchez about the groundbreaking series, now in its second season.

Cook din-din, watch some telly, take my meds, crash out. I may masturbate somewhere in there, if I get the itch. Pretty normal, I think.

First of all, congrats on the second season of Merce! That’s a huge deal. How does it feel? Thank you so much! I’m fraught with feelings – pride, excitement, happiness, but also relief! My producing partner, Tyne Firmin, and I have been working on this season for over three years, and for a while it felt like we’d never be done. Mostly, though, I think I feel like OhMyGodLookWhatWeDid!

Are you single? Well, yes, Yenta, I’m single and dating. I’ve met a few cute guys in the past coupla weeks, but nobody that’s rocked me to my core.

I have to say, your show is refreshing because Merce is very different from the typical queer characters we see on TV. One of the things I’m proudest of is that Merce, as a character, is unapologetically gay. He’s unashamed and authentically fabulous, and has no filter when it comes to that. I think we need more examples of characters who are proud of their queer identities, wherever they land on the queer or gender human spectrum. Just like seeing people of various ethnicities in media, people need characters who teach them that it’s okay to be who they are in all their glory. In that way, I strive to be more like Merce. What’s been your favourite episode? That’s hard to say! I guess if you had a glitter bomb over my head and I had to answer, it would have to be the scenes with Sam Given as Cousin Todd. We have great comedy chemistry, and he is so much fun to play with! He is an amazingly funny man. The scene in Episode 6 where we do a Steel Magnolias parody (“Metal Hydrangeas”) is so freaking gay and hilarious, it might be my fave. Are you blessed with a bunch of zany, colourful characters in your real life? Somewhat! My family, both biological and logical, is very funny. We all use comedy to get through life’s day-to-day. I mean, if it’s not funny, then what’s the point? As someone living with HIV, how would you describe a typical day in your life? I get up, go to the bathroom, make coffee. Do a little meditation, check Facebook, go to the gym, do some writing, call my mom.

Then we have to get some serious questions. Shoot. How does your Grindr/Scruff/Chappy profile read? Different apps demand different profiles. Some are more leather and lace; some are more pearls and cardigans. What are you looking for in a guy? Suffice to say that I like tall guys, my age-ish, and employed is good. And you must have a sense of humour. That is a must. I enjoy a good romp, but love is the goal. I really want a relationship with a terrific fella, one who is honest and fun and wants a life together. There’s a line from The Music Man, “I would like him to be more interested in me than he is in himself, and more interested in us than in me.” Geez, does that sound like a Hallmark movie or what? It sounds wonderful! One thing I loved about Season 2 was that Merce finds love! Why was that important? I thought it was really important to show that people with HIV have hot sex lives and people who fall in love with them. I also wanted to show a serodiscordant relationship (where one person has HIV and the other does not) where the issue or fear of HIV transmission isn’t even discussed. It’s a subtle way to show that if a person living with HIV (in this case, Merce) is on successful treatment, he or she can’t transmit the virus. Undetectable equals untransmittable! Amen to that. Living with the virus, or any challenge really, is all a matter of attitude. And glitter. Glitter always helps. For more information on Merce, visit www.mercetheseries.com.

SEAN LARKIN is an entertainment writer for several online publications including Blasting News and Buzz Music. He graduated from Fordham University and is currently pursuing a Masters in Communication at Hunter College in NYC. He understands that he is far too old to be a fan of Shawn Mendes, but he simply cannot help himself.

INTERVIEW

STEPHEN DUNN TALKS ABOUT LITTLE AMERICA’S QUEER REFUGEE EPISODE The Canadian director discusses how he helped bring a gay Syrian’s story to life for Apple’s new TV show

By Christopher Turner

In January, Apple released its highly anticipated original series Little America, the first scripted series on Apple TV+’s 2020 slate, which counts The Big Sick writers Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon among its executive producers. Inspired by the true stories originally featured in Epic Magazine, Little America goes beyond the headlines with eight relatable, emotional journeys about the experience of immigrating and living in the United States of America. To say the series has been a success and a launching pad for conversations on America’s messy immigration system is an understatement, which is why it’s not surprising that Apple has already committed to a second season. Every episode is an excellent half-hour of television exploring immigrant stories of overcoming or confronting insurmountable hardships. One of the most powerful stories is the final episode of Season 1, “The Son,” which tells the story of a gay man named Rafiq (Haaz Sleiman) who lives in the Syrian village of Qardha, and is forced to flee Syria amid his family’s disapproval.

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In the episode, Rafiq’s father Bassam (Igal Naor) catches him kissing another man in an alley and scalds the flesh of Rafiq’s arm – something that Bassam explains is an act of mercy. Rafiq flees to Damascus, where he befriends Zain (Adam Ali), a flamboyant young gay man who loves Kelly Clarkson. Zain helps Rafiq accept himself and ultimately advises him to seek asylum in America, but before Rafiq can take that advice, his brother tracks him down and in a homophobic rage smashes up the restaurant that Rafiq and Zain work at. “The Son,” like the other installments of Little America, is based on a true story: in this instance, of Shadi Ismail, a gay man who fled Syria due to persecution, going first to Jordan and ultimately finding asylum in Boise, Idaho. His journey was adapted from Epic Magazine by Canadian-born writer Stephen Dunn (whose brilliant feature film debut Closet Monster in 2015 made international headlines) and Iraqi-born Amrou Al-Kadhi, a non-binary writer and drag performer. Dunn also directed the episode. IN recently had the chance to sit down with Dunn to talk about the episode and how it came together, plus queer storytelling, Kelly Clarkson…and the upcoming Queer As Folk reboot! 20

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Tell us how the project came about. I was working with Lee Eisenberg on Queer As Folk when he told me he wanted to do a queer episode of Little America. He shared the true story of Shadi Ismail, which I thought was so beautiful. I instantly thought about my good friend and co-writer Amrou Al-Kadhi. I shared the story with Amrou; we had very similar connections to the material, and very organically launched into writing the episode. How did the two of you work together in writing the script? Funny enough, it was a very international affair! Amrou is based in the UK and I wrote entirely out of Canada. We would collaborate virtually and send drafts back and forth. Did you connect with the real “Rafiq”/Shadi during the process? We were given Shadi’s article recounting his experience immigrating from Syria to the US and conducted some interviews [with him] through the magazine, but we never actually met him in person until the Little America premiere in Los Angeles. That being said, Amrou and I had a very personal connection to the material, and there’s a little bit of our experiences in there as well. How did your own experiences influence “The Son?” Although we come from very different cultural backgrounds, Amrou and I approached this episode organically, based on our own experiences as queer folks who have been forced to rebuild our lives due to rejection by our families. Although this episode is very unique to the queer Arab experience, there is something so universal and human about Shadi’s story that is relatable no matter your background. What was the biggest surprise to you in researching Syrian culture and immigration in general? The biggest surprise for me came when Amrou explained the potential reason behind Shadi’s father burning him as punishment for being gay. I think it’s very easy for a lot of Western folk to hear this story and write it off as a barbaric act of violence without fully understanding the cultural implications. Amrou explained to me that in Islam you’re taught that being gay means that you will go to hell – not only you, but it also damns your mother. The act of burning comes from a place of fear and protection to illustrate that this is what hell could feel like, but for all eternity.

Top: Stephen Dunn on the set of Little America. Bottom: Haaz Sleiman in the Little America episode “The Son,” Kamiran Aldeo and Adam Ali in the same episode.

Al-Kadhi recently said on Twitter that “The Son” has been banned in 11 countries. Can I grab your thoughts on that? Does it push or discourage you from telling more stories like this? It’s upsetting that this episode cannot be viewed everywhere Apple TV+ is available. We’re working hard to make it available where we can. We expected pushback and challenges in getting this story out there, and I feel like the global response is a sign of its cultural importance right now. I feel that some of these regions where “The Son” is currently not available are some of the places that need this episode the most. This has only made us more impassioned to make sure it reaches these communities. I think everyone should be able to have access to this episode.

These stories centre around immigration in the US…. Do you think they will resonate differently with a Canadian audience? The exciting thing about Little America is that it offers a glimpse into the lives of people from completely different cultures and personal situations. For some audiences, it might be their first exposure to an undocumented immigrant or an Indian family running a motel in Utah, but when it comes down to it, as Kumail [co-executive producer Kumail Nanjiani] said beautifully, this series tells stories that feature immigrants; it’s not an immigrant story. It doesn’t matter if you’re in America or Canada or South Africa, each human story is universally relatable, and I think that’s the entire purpose of this show.

You were also behind the lens for “The Son.” What challenges did you have in switching from co-writer to director? With most projects I’ve directed, I’ve also been a writer. While it was familiar territory, it never makes it any easier. This was also my first TV opportunity. Working on a show that was shot over eight days in Montreal – but set in Syria, Jordan and Boise, Idaho – was a big challenge. Thankfully I had an amazing cast, crew and team of consultants who helped create this world with authenticity.

And, finally...as a fan of the original UK and US versions of Queer as Folk, I have to ask about the reboot. Is there anything you can tell us? Unfortunately, my lips are sealed right now, but it is going very well and we’re very happy to be developing it on NBC/Universal’s new streamer, Peacock. I mean, come on, can you imagine Queer As Folk on a network with a more apropos name? This was a very influential show for me growing up, so I hope we’re able to do the same for the next generation.

Favourite Kelly Clarkson song? “Break Away,” hands down, but especially when it’s lip synced by Chi Chi DeVayne.

Every episode of Little America is now streaming on Apple TV+.

CHRISTOPHER TURNER acted as guest editor for this issue of IN Magazine. He is a Toronto-based writer, editor and lifelong fashionisto with a passion for pop culture and sneakers. Follow him on social media at @Turnstylin.

MUSIC

Lil Nas X Is More Than “Old Town Road”

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The artist of last year’s most viral song is paving the way for LGBTQ+ performers in hip-hop

The one song everybody knew the words to in 2019 was “Old Town In just a few years, he would find his own music becoming popular Road” by new artist Lil Nas X. The song went viral, and exploded on the internet, thanks to the social media platform TikTok. on both radio and online platforms. It became so successful, multiple remixes were released with other recording artists spanning multiple “Old Town Road,” which was released at the end of 2018, started genres. North West even directed and produced her own music video to gain popularity during the first half of 2019 – and as it got even for the song starring her mom, Kim Kardashian West. It felt like more attention online, it started to steamroll through to mainstream the whole world was singing along to “Old Town Road,” but we music charts. The song was so popular, it was re-released a number didn’t know much about the person behind the viral hit. So, let’s roll. of times with various collaborators such as Diplo, Mason Ramsey (the Walmart yodelling kid), a member of the K-pop band BTS The 20-year-old performer of the song, Lil Nas X, was born Montero and, most famously, the version with Billy Ray Cyrus, which is Lamar Hill in a small city outside of Atlanta, Ga. Following his still played regularly on mainstream radio stations. As the song parents’ divorce, he headed to the place where most preteens in continued to reach new heights, it was clear that Lil Nas X had the 2010s found themselves: online. At a time when meme culture finally gotten the viral recognition he had always wanted. was beginning to boom, and there were actual people making actual money posting videos of their daily lives on YouTube, the Whether you’ve heard it a few times, or more times than you would possibilities to go viral were endless. like to admit, there is something undeniably special, and different, about “Old Town Road” compared to anything we’ve ever heard Hill’s original plan of succeeding was to become a popular internet before. Its mixture of hop-hop and country music has launched Lil personality, often appearing in various comedy videos on Facebook. Nas X into the mainstream music scene with a sound and aesthetic He told Rolling Stone he was regularly posting on various social that is purely his own. media platforms in the hope that something he made would go viral. Not reaching the level of hype he was hoping for, he then launched On the last day of June 2019 – after “Old Town Road” had gone a Nicki Minaj fan account on Twitter, which became wildly popular. platinum, and was the song stuck in everybody’s head whether they 22

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liked it or not – Hill came out as gay in a post on Twitter, shortly after coming out to his own family. Once again, the internet erupted for Lil Nas X, and an icon was born. To have somebody so young be openly gay in the hip-hop scene was a really big deal, and he had no plans on apologizing for it. With every performance and awards show, Lil Nas X serves us something truly unique. And while more androgynous looks are currently having a trending moment on red carpets, Lil Nas X has been blending traditional country accessories with neon colours, bondage pieces and futuristic materials. He has created a “cowboy from the future” look that is uniquely his own. While Lil Nas X has been celebrated for his authenticity, he has also been met with, and continues to deal with, a lot of homophobia from within the hip-hop community – most recently, being attacked for his neon pink Versace cowboy outfit at the 2020 Grammy Awards. Rapper Pastor Troy went on a rant in an Instagram caption he posted of a photo of Lil Nas X at the Grammys, stating he would most likely never win a Grammy because he doesn’t dress or act like Lil Nas X. He went so far as to drag supreme queen RuPaul into it, saying, “He Making Money!! Rupaul do too, but I ain’t bumping his CD!!! Integrity is Priceless.” This criticism was met with a

lot of backlash, with many people rightfully coming to Lil Nas X’s defence. It also had a lot of people continuing the discussion on homophobia in hip-hop, and how Black men specifically are affected by the societal pressures to act and look a certain way, and how that affects LGBTQ+ people within the Black community. Along with viral success, Lil Nas X has opened the doors for more conversations to be had and progress to be made on what it means to be LGBTQ+ in the hip-hop community. His second single, “Panini,” is an indication that he won’t be sacrificing his personal style to please anybody else. He’s a trendsetter through both his style and his music, which has always been an explosion of electricity, fun and futuristic ideas. It’s certain that Lil Nas X will further push the boundaries and continue to help generate conversations about homophobia and LGBTQ+ people in hip-hop. So, while a song that went viral on a social media app mainly populated by teenagers may have given him a kick-start, it is not what entirely defines him as an artist, or a person. “Old Town Road” was simply a springboard for someone, and something, different that the world needed right now. And we should listen up, because he’s got a lot to say, and this is only the beginning.

BIANCA GUZZO is a writer based out of the GTA. She spends her free time watching Trixie Mattel makeup tutorials, though she has yet to nail the look.

COVER STORY

IT’S TIME TO GIVE LESBIANS THE CREDIT THEY DESERVE April 26 is Lesbian Visibility Day By Courtney Hardwick

Over the past century, the world has been changing – and we owe that change to members of the LGBTQ+ community who have been willing to face widespread systemic and internalized homophobia to fight for hundreds of historical firsts every single year, including the legalization of same-sex marriage. Since the beginning, lesbians have been a huge part of that fight and the progress that has been made. No matter how many more letters are added to the acronym, the L will always be one of the first – and Lesbian Visibility Day was founded on April 26, 2008, to celebrate that. While lesbians are a major part of the LGBTQ+ community as a whole, they also have their own unique struggles and triumphs that deserve to be recognized. This Lesbian Visibility Day, let’s celebrate lesbians in all their forms and take a look back at their important role in history. The connection between feminists and lesbians The modern definition of feminism as a movement that fights for women’s empowerment and equality isn’t exactly how it has always been. In the late 1960s, second-wave radical feminists who called themselves “political lesbians” were more about rejecting men completely. They argued that women should abandon heterosexuality by choice as a way to separate themselves from the sexist patriarchy. This is just one example of the view that sexuality is a choice, which is something the LGBTQ+ community has been fighting against since…well, forever.

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Lesbian feminism, which was most popular from the ’70s to the mid ’80s, went on to suggest that lesbianism was the logical result of feminism. If you were a feminist, then you must hate men and therefore must be a lesbian. These lingering negative connections between feminism and lesbianism are part of the reason some people seem so reluctant to call themselves feminists – and lesbians – today. Thankfully, modern feminism, or fourth-wave feminism, is much more diverse, with intersectionality being one of the main focuses of the movement. Feminism today is designed to be for everyone from the cisgender lesbian to the non-binary pansexual. But there are still pockets of feminists who aren’t as accepting as they could be. As recently as 2008, the term TERF (trans exclusionary radical feminist) was coined. A TERF believes trans women are not women and trans men are just trying to gain coveted male privilege. When TERF is used as an insult, it is usually referring to an old-fashioned lesbian who has hostile views on men and transgender people. That connection

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between the hostile feminist and lesbians may not be accurate in practice most of the time, but it’s an association many young people navigating their sexuality are acutely aware of. With so many stereotypes still lingering between lesbians and radical feminism, younger generations are trying to distance themselves from the word lesbian and move towards a more inclusive and flexible view on sexuality. The queer revolution Representing one of the founding letters of the ubiquitous, everevolving acronym, lesbians have been a constant in the ongoing fight for equality, representation and visibility in the LGBTQ+ community. Along with gay, bisexual and transgender, the word lesbian has a clear definition that elicits a wide range of responses. A lesbian is simply a woman who is attracted to other women – but as the world moves beyond binary labels and towards a more fluid understanding of what sexuality is, fewer and fewer people are choosing to identify as lesbian. The shift can be seen most clearly when comparing across generations. A 2018 study by Ipsos Mori found that young people are more likely to have a “less binary view of sexuality,” which suggests that younger generations do not feel as strong a pressure to use the label “gay” or “straight” and are more comfortable with viewing sexuality as a sliding scale. While this is true for people of all gender identities, the percentage of people who identify as lesbians seems to be dropping the most drastically. Another 2018 survey, this time conducted by Whitman Insight Strategies and BuzzFeed News, found that out of 880 LGBTQ Americans, 46 per cent identified as bisexual while only 16 per cent identified as lesbian. It also found that the majority of selfidentified lesbians (69%) are aged 40 and older. The word lesbian doesn’t seem to resonate with younger generations as much as it used to. But why? Younger generations are skewing more towards the non-binary, with the number of people who identify as ‘queer’ growing steadily. Lesbian is seen as more old-fashioned, and many young people are no longer willing to choose a label they feel limits them. Queer is seen as much more fluid, leaving room for figuring things out along the way. The word lesbian is something they associate with older generations who fought for equality in far different ways than they do. Today, being a proud lesbian doesn’t feel like the rebellion it once did – it just feels outdated.

COVER Despite the trend towards the queer identity, the role of lesbians in the overall progress towards more LGBTQ+ representation can’t be denied and is still just as important as ever. Without people who have unapologetically and publicly identified as lesbians, the shift towards sexuality as a spectrum wouldn’t be possible. Without the binary, there would be no in between.

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Overall, when it comes to the challenges lesbians have faced over the years, being outnumbered by younger generations who identify as queer is the least of their problems. From over-sexualization to erasure Everyone in the LGBTQ+ community knows what it’s like to deal with stereotypes, expectations and assumptions about who they are. Lesbians, as well as bisexual women, in particular are often over-sexualized and put on a pedestal for straight men to fantasize about. Whether it’s in movies, pornography or just day-to-day life, lesbians are often viewed as a novelty, with many men citing a threesome with two women as one of their top fantasies.

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Negative experiences with dating men is also jokingly referenced as a reason to “go lesbian,” and many people automatically think that a woman who’s experimenting with other women or even coming out as gay is just going through a phase. There’s still way too much unsolicited and ignorant advice telling them that if they could just “find the right guy,” they’d be right back to being heterosexual again. Although it’s common for people to doubt any LGBTQ+ person and their experiences, the idea that being gay is “just a phase” is much more prevalent for lesbian and bisexual women than it is for gay men. While Pride events and representation of all kinds is essential to give people who identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community the opportunity to celebrate who they are, Lesbian Visibility Day gives lesbians the spotlight. We shouldn’t assume their experiences are the same as gay men or bisexual women, or even the same as each other. By acknowledging the wide range of diversity within the lesbian community, we can break down some of the harmful stereotypes and give younger generations the confidence to feel comfortable coming out.

Fighting for lesbian representation in the media Members of the LGBTQ+ community who are in the public eye and who have not only come out but are also willing to speak openly about their experiences are a huge part of the progress that has been made. When Ellen DeGeneres proudly proclaimed “Yep, I’m Gay” on the cover of Time magazine and her character came out on Ellen, that helped pave the way for more storylines featuring lesbian characters on shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The L Word, Glee, Orange is the New Black and more. GLAAD does a deep dive into LGBTQ+ representation in the media every year, because visibility is important to the next generation of young people trying to figure out who they are. When people who are still figuring it all out see gay role models and openly lesbian characters in TV and movies, and see how they fit into the LGBTQ+ community, it helps show them what is possible and gives them the strength to be open about who they are, too. From sports to entertainment, there have been plenty of lesbian firsts in the past few decades. Lena Waithe was not only the first

lesbian but the first Black lesbian to win an Emmy, for the episode of Master of None she wrote and starred in. Kate McKinnon is the first out lesbian Saturday Night Live cast member. San Francisco 49ers coach Katie Sowers is both the first openly LGBTQ+ coach in the NFL and, by extension, the first to participate in a Super Bowl. Lesbian Visibility Day is about more than celebrities setting good examples. It’s also about the everyday people living their lives the way they want to live them: out of the closet. Through the not-always-positive connotations of the word lesbian and its rocky history, and the discrimination even within the LGBTQ+ community, lesbians have come a long way. They understand adversity and what it’s like to have to fight to simply be who they are. Lesbians of the past and present are role models to the next generation of LGBTQ+ people, whether they choose to identify as lesbian, queer, gay, or any other letter on the spectrum. Without lesbians, the acronym wouldn’t be what it is today, and neither would the world.

COURTNEY HARDWICK is a Toronto-based freelance writer. Her work has appeared online at AmongMen, Complex Canada, Elle Canada and TheBolde.

You Gotta Have

OPINION

FAITH Sexuality and spirituality don’t have to be mutually exclusive

MARCH / APRIL 2020

By Jumol Royes

Certain topics, like politics and personal finances, are considered too taboo to talk about. Religion is often included on that list. Candid conversations about the intersection of spirituality and sexuality are few and far between.

A few years ago, I heard about a gay-friendly group called All Inclusive Ministries (www.allinclusiveministries.org), or AIM for short, that operated out of a Catholic parish in Toronto – and like doubting Thomas, I thought to myself: this I have to see to believe.

I was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church and, looking back, my upbringing was the quintessential Catholic experience. I attended a semi-private, all-boys Catholic choir school in downtown Toronto founded on the motto: He who sings, prays twice. Trust me when I say, that’s a lot of praying. As part of the choir, I sang at Sunday (or Saturday evening) Mass each week right through elementary and high school. Not only was I a choirboy, I was also an altar server who assisted the priest during the service. It’s fair to say my Catholic faith was a cornerstone throughout the early part of my life and a real source of comfort.

AIM celebrates Mass every fourth Saturday of the month at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish (within walking distance of Toronto’s gay village), followed by a post-Mass reception where people can socialize and get to know each other better. When I attended one of their monthly gatherings, what I found was a “welcoming, safe and affirming Catholic community that serves as a bridge between the Church and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, as well as their families and friends.” Aside from the monthly Mass and social, AIM, founded in 2012, also organizes other events throughout the year, such as a book club and LGBT film nights.

But when I graduated from the choir school and came out to myself, and the world, as gay, something shifted. The same Church that had once wrapped me in its warm embrace and provided me with a sense of solace now seemed to turn its back and reject me because of who I was and whom I loved. In my most vulnerable moments struggling to come to terms with my sexuality, the Church no longer felt like a safe haven I could call home. I experienced a crisis of faith that left me questioning: can I be Catholic and gay?

I wish this group had existed when I first started out on my journey to reconcile my sexuality with my spiritual life, but it exists now and I’m grateful for the role it’s played in helping me reclaim my faith. Speaking in a YouTube video about his book Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter Into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity, Father James Martin SJ, an American Jesuit priest and New York Times bestselling author, shares his vision for the future:

Unfortunately, my story isn’t all that unique. The Catholic Church has a painful history of not being a welcoming place for members “I hope…LGBT Catholics struggling with their relationship with of our community. Certain Bible verses – I won’t quote them here, God or with the Church will find some guidance; that Church leaders but they’re easy enough to find if you search for them – have been will be encouraged to welcome them more fully; and that all of used for centuries as a cudgel to beat down on LGBTQ2+ people us will discover the value of respect, compassion and sensitivity and judge same-sex relations as sinful. When same-sex marriage in reaching out to one another, especially to our LGBT brothers, was being debated in Canada back in the early 2000s, the Catholic sisters and siblings.” Church openly opposed legalization and encouraged politicians to stand by their personal convictions and vote against it (thankfully, Father Martin believes, as I do, that “we are all on the bridge the Civil Marriage Act passed in 2005, making same-sex marriage together…and ultimately, on the other side of the bridge for each legal across the country). And as recently as 2018, the LGBT group is welcome, community and love. ” acronym was dropped from an official document addressing ways When it seems all hope is lost, just remember: you gotta have FAITH. to welcome more youth into the Church. So the situation can oftentimes seem bleak – but sometimes, it’s a matter of planting a seed, nurturing it, and giving it the space it needs to grow.

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SLANG

DADDY’S HOME “Every guy’s crazy ’bout a sharp dressed man” By Fraser Abe

Father’s Day may be June 21 this year, but Daddy’s Day? That’s year-round, baby. The rise of the daddy has been meteoric over the past 10 years – from the early 2000s twink (Toronto-area gays of a certain age might fondly remember 5ive, the gay bar that hosted many a twink night in the early ’aughts) to now, where national attention around daddies has hit a fever pitch. The daddy is usually considered a man with salt-and-pepper hair who’s in decent shape (or at least sporting the now infamous “dad bod” – a term made famous by Clemson University student Mackenzie Pearson in 2015), a bit older or at least able to take care of you – monetarily or…otherwise. Of course, older guys tend to be the most iconic daddies: think of famous gays like Anderson Cooper, Tom Ford and Andy Cohen. But you don’t have to be older to be a daddy – for kids who grew up watching Zac Efron play perpetually boyish characters, seeing his new look of bleached blond hair and rippling muscles in films like Baywatch and The Beach Bum was all they needed to sigh, “Daddy.” Efron is the ripe old age of 32. In 2016, a new term for daddy was born: Zaddy. It originates from Ty Dolla $ign’s song of the same name. A zaddy is similar to a daddy, but where a daddy can wear un-ironic Costco-bought New Balances and jeans with a cellphone holster, the zaddy is impeccably dressed. To paraphrase ZZ Top: “Every guy’s crazy ’bout a sharp dressed man.” Just as one seemingly needed be older to be a daddy, the term zaddy is similarly ageless. Zayn Malik, of One Direction and solo fame, is considered a zaddy by his many fans. Malik is even younger than Efron – he’s only 27 years old. Daddies are all over the news. W Magazine published a comprehensive guide to the fashion daddy. Esquire has a compendium of daddy culture. SNL has featured multiple sketches with the term: in particular a Matt Damon-hosted episode where he plays host of the Westminster Daddy Show, which defines daddies as “men over

the age of 46 with a little salt and pepper at the temples, some play money to throw around, and a smug, knowing smile that says, ‘I do sex good,’” and a Harry Styles-hosted episode where he plays a social media manager who accidentally comments “Wreck me daddy” on a picture of Nick Jonas. (That last sketch was written by Bowen Yang and Julio Torres – who. by the way, you should seek more of, but can see on SNL and in an HBO special called My Favorite Shapes, respectively). The term daddy can also be thought of as a placeholder. The Cut, in their take on the term, say it’s “become a root word, that can be enhanced with an adjective, sort of like queen. (Sweater queen, circuit queen, size queen).” There are plenty of daddies out there now, all in various states of undress on Instagram in categories like burgeoning horticulturist plant daddies, up-and-coming self-care guru yoga daddies, and outdoorsy, Runyon Canyon on a Saturday hiking daddies. Arguably the most famous kind of daddy is the sugar daddy, an older man who buys goods and services for their sugar babies in exchange for their own goods and services. The term is much older than you might think, stretching back almost 100 years to the 1927 Laurel and Hardy film Sugar Daddies, in which an oil tycoon wakes up after a bender, married and with a money-hungry daughter-in-law. Back in this century, the most iconic use of the term – at least to many LGBTs – is Shangela’s “sugar daddy” speech on the RuPaul’s Drag Race after-show Untucked. Long story short: Shangela doesn’t need a sugar daddy because she is… what? Sickening! There are plenty of sugar daddies out there – this is, after all, one of the longest economic expansion in history. We’ll see how many of these sugar daddies survive the recession. To our nation’s daddies: we salute you. And we promise, we didn’t touch the thermostat!

FRASER ABE is a Toronto-based writer. His work has been published in Toronto Life, The Globe and Mail, Sharp Magazine, NOW Magazine and more. When he’s not busy writing, he’s shrieking Gia Gunn quotes at his boyfriend, Colin..

LEATHER

A BRIEF HISTORY

Of Leather And The Gays Give to me your leather, take from me my gays By Fraser Abe

Cubs, pups, otters, silver foxes and bears, oh my. The gay ecosystem has a rich taxonomy of subcultures that all somewhat stem from one Adam(4Adam)’s rib – the leather community. It’s been around since the 1940s, when the notion of otters and the like were just a twink-le (get it?) in some queen’s eye. We’re here to break down the history of leather for you, going all the way back to the greatest generation. It’s generally assumed that leather culture got its start in the 1940s, as an offshoot to post-World War II motorcycle clubs that began popping up around the same time. Gays had flocked in droves to large cities following Blue Discharges from the army, a way of removing homosexuals from service, as dishonourably discharging and imprisoning gays became impractical with the huge number of recruits during WWII. It led to large groups of homosexuals in cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago.

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Meanwhile, a dissatisfaction with the post-WWII white picket fence view of America was building, especially as seen in films like 1953’s The Wild One, starring Marlon Brando as Johnny Strabler, a rebel motorcycle gang leader. Brando’s iconic outfit – a black leather jacket, tilted cap, white T-shirt, jeans and boots – became synonymous with masculine style, later mimicked by James Dean, Elvis Presley and, of course, the leather scene. Gays who viewed themselves as butch and masculine were drawn to the look. Gayfocused motorcycle clubs began appearing in the 1950s, like the LA-based Satyrs Motorcycle Club and Oedipus Motorcycle Club. In the 1950s, censorship laws were strict about male nudity. Bob Mizer created the Athletic Model Guild in 1945 to address those concerns, showing men in various stages of undress under the guise of athletic tips. Within the pages of beefcake magazines like Physique Pictorial, the first glimpses of one of the most famous artists to ever illustrate the leather aesthetic, Tom of Finland, were seen. Those earliest sketches were more chaste compared to his later work, which became much more explicit as the decriminalization of pornography and male nudity set in. By the 1970s, Tom of Finland (full name Touko Valio Laaksonen), a – you guessed it – Finnish artist, was able to quit his job and pursue his homoerotic art full-time. The muscle-bound hunks he featured were heavily influenced by the leather scene (including Brando’s Strabler character), and later became influencers themselves of the leather scene. In an interview with The Guardian, Durk Dehner,

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the custodian of Tom of Finland’s work, said men would replicate the garments in the pictures he drew and send him pictures of themselves. He added, “Then he’d get more ideas – it was evolving.” The first leather bars came shortly after. The first one opened in Chicago in 1958, founded by Chuck Renslow and Dom Orejudos. Business partners and life partners, the two would later go on to found International Mr. Leather, a leather competition in Chicago, and the Chicago White Party. Orejudos, who was also known by the nom de plume Etienne, was another homoerotic artist, who, along with George Quaintance, inspired Tom of Finland’s work. Another leather bar opened on San Francisco’s famous Folsom Street – called The Stud. It, along with Febe’s, opened in 1966 and led an influx of leather bars and gay establishments to the area. There, the leather scene flourished in a time when the only outlet for this penchant was in person. Many a 2000s think piece would opine on the death of the gay bar (was it Grindr and Craigslist that did it? Did we even need gay bars anymore? Was it rent hikes?), and in 2016, the Stud looked like it would face a similar fate. Facing a huge rent increase, the owners planned to shut down. To save this piece of San Francisco gay history, the bar was purchased by a co-operative of local artists who now run it (including Drag Race alum Honey Mahogany). The leather community has sometimes been thought of as a bastion for white cis rich men, a notion that has some roots in truth: early adopters believed that to be truly a part of the community, one had to also have a motorcycle (ideally a Harley Davidson). But the wheels are moving on diversity in the scene. International Mr. Leather, an enormous leather pageant in Chicago (founded by Chuck Renslow and Dom Orejudos in 1979) has been seeing more and more diverse candidates compete and win. In May 2019, Jack Thompson – who wore a leather adorned transgender flag jockstrap – became the first trans person of colour to win the title. The year before, James Lee, a person of colour, won. Both Thompson and Lee were members of Onyx, a leather group for POCs. Lesbians have also long been part of the leather community, even before the 1979 founding of San Francisco-based Dykes on Bikes. There has also been an International Ms. Leather competition in California since 1987.

Leather and BDSM (bondage domination sado-masochism) have often gone hand in hand – just look at Tom of Finland’s later drawings: unapologetic depictions of hardcore kink – but the Folsom Street Fair is the perfect amalgam of the two. Founded in 1984, just down the way from the Stud and Febe’s, it’s a celebration of all things kink and leather. The upcoming Folsom is set to include 250,000 fetish enthusiasts spread over 13 blocks in San Francisco. Folsom also helps shed the view of leather as a white cis male thing: it offers an area called “The Playground,” which is a space that “explicitly centres those at the margins of the leather and kink community and our society at large, providing hot, safer space for

women of every kind and all trans and non-binary folks” and is not open for cis men. Folsom Street Fair has also donated over $7 million since its inception; last year alone it gave back $325,000 to the community. Despite the leather enthusiast’s gruff exterior (the whole bedecked in leather thing doesn’t exactly scream “come hug me!”), it’s a community that is open and welcoming to newcomers, marginalized communities or just the leather curious. Maybe stop into a local store, try on a harness, and see for yourself!

LEATHER

The Lost History Of The Leather Harness It has no documented history, so IN spoke with experts and consulted the archives to trace the lineage of one of gay culture’s most popular garments By Bobby Box

When I burst through the closet doors, my first expensive purchase was a leather harness. I wanted to fit in, and knew the harness was a staple garment for gay men. But how did we get here? How has the leather harness become such a coveted and symbolic garment among gay men? Unfortunately, the harness, like much of leather history, is one of myth and legend, and very little is concretely recorded. “I had someone researching this over a year ago and we weren’t able to find an origin,” Mel Leverich, archivist and collections librarian at the Leather Archives & Museum in Chicago, shares over email. After carefully sifting through the archives, Leverich tells IN that leather harnesses appear in their earliest bar photos, dating back to the mid 1970s, and with increased frequency into the ’80s. In terms of sales, A Taste of Leather in San Francisco is credited as the first “in bar” leather shop, opening in 1967. In Leather Archives’ oldest catalogue for the shop, dating back to 1970, no harnesses appear. However, by 1972, the catalogue features chain harnesses, and by 1976, the catalogue dedicates two full pages of leather strap harnesses, ranging from chest harnesses to abdominal harnesses with dildos. With this information, we can estimate the leather harness originated somewhere between 1972 and 1976.

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“As far as I know, there is no history of harnesses,” Gayle Rubin, a leather historian and anthropology professor, writes me, adding that there were harnesses around the time IML, an annual leatherman contest and conference, began in 1979. This further validates the Leather Archive’s timeline. “You might also look through Tom of Finland’s work and see when he draws harnesses and how he depicts them.” Tom of Finland The leather community first emerged after the Second World War, when servicemen often had difficulty assimilating back into mainstream society. For many, military service allowed them to explore their same-sex desires. So when the war ended, they sought sanctuary in motorcycle clubs where they met others who shared a like-minded disaffection with the conformist culture of postWW2 America. In these spaces, leather clothing was everywhere, signalling a masculinity alluring to gay men who were weary of being depicted as effeminate. This hyper-masculine image was further popularized by artist Touko Valio Laaksonen, better known as Tom of Finland. His

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highly masculinized, homoerotic art went hand in hand with the emergence of the gay leather scene. Among leather enthusiast groups, many credit Tom of Finland for the popularization of the harness. During a Leather Archives & Museum presentation at IML back in the early 2000s, Scott Erickson, founder of The Leather Journal (“the BDSM/Fetish/ Leather community publication of record”), said his understanding was that Tom of Finland couldn’t draw pictures of men having sex due to censorship laws. To get around this, the artist drew men as historical depictions (which were legal in the interest of historical writings) and often depicted gladiators strapped in harnesses. “Gay men just copied what they saw,” Erickson explains to IN. “When someone wears a harness, they are wearing a symbol of censorship.” Of course, this is all speculation because there is no official documented history, but considering the sexual nature of Tom of Finland, one might see a harness in his works and view the garment as symbol of sexual deviance, which it can be. The garment naturally lends itself to BDSM, which centres on order, discipline and control. Instinctually, it has become a plaything for dom/sub play and a device you can pull on, etc., for deeper penetration. Others believe the harness was born from Japanese bondage. In the early 20th century, kabuki theatre introduced bondage-style rope ties into its highly stylized performances, and many of these ties resemble the harnesses worn today. After World War II, fetish magazines in North America featured this style of bondage in illustrations and photos. Some argue it was the servicemen in World War II, who had experimented with or witnessed this form of bondage overseas, who brought the art form to North America. These days, the harness is more popular than ever – even recently having a moment on the red carpet, when Michael B. Jordan wore one to the 2019 SAG Awards – but it has lost its meaning within the community; so too has it lost its history. What we know for certain is the harness has longevity, outliving many other leather items that were customary in leather bars. When speaking about this with people in various leather groups, it becomes clear that the reason why isn’t all that complex. Harnesses are sexy to wear and to look at. They hug our muscles in all the right places. They are great to flag colours if you’re into certain sexual acts. They are all these things, but most of all, they feel personal to each of us, and to the community as a whole.

BOBBY BOX is a prolific freelance journalist in Hamilton, Ont. He currently works as contributing editor at Playboy.com and has had the privilege of speaking with the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most recognized drag queens, including, most recently, Trixie Mattel and Alaska Thunderfuck. While proud of his work, Bobby is not above begging. He asks that you follow him on Twitter at @bobbyboxington. 33

FASHION

Dreary weather and gloomy skies got you down? Don’t worry…spring is on the way

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PHOTOGRAPHER: Ivan Otis CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Paul Langill STYLISTS: Kahmeelia Smith and Lacey Elizabeth GROOMING & MAKEUP: Julia Valente MODELS: Brandon Wong and Ryan Willow

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SHIRT, PANTS AND RAINCOAT: Christopher Bate SHOES: Aldo RING: Topman Â

FASHION MARCH / APRIL 2020

LACE SHIRT, PANTS AND BLAZER: Rhowan James RING: Topman

WATCH: Kenneth Cole

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JACKET AND POCKET SCARF: Leone Napoli LINEN SHIRT: Whitney Linen

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SUITS: Hugo Boss SHOES: Aldo

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FASHION

SUIT AND POCKET SCARF: Leone Napoli LINEN SHIRT: Whitney Linen SHOES: Aldo

FASHION MARCH / APRIL 2020

SUIT AND COTTON SHIRT: Leone Napoli RING: Topman

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TUXEDO COAT AND PANTS: Bustle TOP: Mayer Man GLOVES: Rhowan James

SHIRT AND BLAZER: Hugo Boss DENIM JEANS: Hugo Boss

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SPORT SUIT AND SHIRT: Rhowan James

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FASHION

COAT: Hugo Boss SWEATER: Hugo Boss PANTS: Hugo Boss SCARF: HermÃ¨s SHOES: Aldo RING: Topman

INSIGHT

PAWAN DHALL: A MILLION ACTIVISTS NOW How LGBTQ pioneers kickstarted a movement in India By Paul Gallant

When I arrived in Calcutta in 1995 (it was renamed Kolkata in 2001), I was backpacking around India with an American lesbian who was making a special effort to meet gay and lesbian people there. Emphasis on “effort;” this was pre-mainstream internet in a country that had virtually no “out” queer life, no institutions like bars or community centres or chat lines. My travel companion had obtained (I have no idea how) the mailing address of Counsel Club, a Calcutta support group founded just two years earlier. Through a series of mailed letters, using “general delivery” post while moving from city to city, she had, astonishingly, set up a meeting with the club’s founders. I joined her for the rendezvous at a restaurant on Park Street. My memory was that there were three or four guys (I think the membership at the time was four or five), whom my female companion questioned rigorously about their lives, the organization and how she might meet openly queer women (I don’t think she ever did in India). It was her time, and I was young and shy, so our conflab ended with exchanged addresses, with the club members not even knowing if the quiet Canadian was gay or not. I was, and kept in touch with one of that little group of pioneers, Pawan Dhall, who has been a key force – self-effacing, philosophical and pragmatic – in so much of the progress made since then for queer people in eastern India and beyond.

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The narrative of Dhall’s new book, Out of Line and Offline: Queer Mobilizations in ’90s Eastern India, starts just before that quirky little meeting, and features interviews with many of the people who played a part in the changes in attitudes – of queer people, straight people, governments, media and other institutions – that have happened over the past 27 years. “These are microhistories that fit into the larger history,” Dhall tells me. “I wanted to do something long-lasting and bring out stories from the past, because for a whole generation of people, queer activism in India began some time after the internet arrived.” At the time we first met, same-sex sexual-romantic relationships – and talk about them – happened behind closed doors or maybe in parks late at night, where a stranger asking, “What time is it?” was the most audacious proposition a gay man might ever hear in public. If the police stumbled into a queer moment, they were likely to threaten blackmail for money or sexual favours. Public 44

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discussion of HIV/AIDS was a non-starter. “There was a real pentup need for people to connect,” says Dhall. Counsel Club started as a support group – and as a side effect, a way to find sexual or romantic partners – but gradually became a lab for more ambitious endeavours. The club’s membership peaked at around 300 dues-paying members, but its activities brushed up against thousands of people. Dhall went on to found Varta Trust, a non-profit that publishes advocacy about gender and sexuality, and was one of the organizers of the 1999 Friendship Walk, which became Kolkata Rainbow Pride Walk, the first-ever such walk in India and Southeast Asia. At the most recent march, last December, hundreds of people participated – and except for maybe 10 of the original participants, “everyone else was a stranger to me,” says Dhall. Cracking open the door Kolkata is the capital of West Bengal and people in that state, Bengalis, often consider themselves more progressive than other Indians – Bengali-language media became more positive about queer issues more readily than Hindi-language media – so advances tended to happen more quickly than in many other Indian cities. Even in the 1990s, there’d be hijras (a distinctly Indian identity loosely analogous to trans) in the city and rural areas who would host open houses where same-sex co-mingling occurred. By the early 2000s, the internet and the liberalization of the Indian economy brought more Western ideas about homosexuality, trans identity and queerness. Conservatives argued that India’s “innocent little culture” was being corrupted by foreign influences, but there was probably an even stronger growing interest in India’s own long history of queerness: same-sex references in the Kamasutra, queer characters in the epics and mythology. The 1996 film Fire, a lesbian-romance tearjerker by Indo-Canadian director Deepa Mehta, also ignited a sometimes-nasty debate that ultimately opened some people’s minds about queerness. Through all this loomed Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. Enacted during British rule of India, the law made all same-sex activity illegal. Seldom used except for police harassment and blackmail, it not only kept people in the closet, but prevented the establishment of LGBT-oriented businesses and organizations. In

2018, the country’s Supreme Court ruled Section 377 unconstitutional “in so far as it criminalizes consensual sexual conduct between adults of the same sex.” It was a tremendous legal victory, but it would be an exaggeration to say that the ruling has transformed Indian society in the past year and a half. The police still blackmail gay men and harass trans people. Out people still lose their jobs. Queer women are still largely invisible. But Dhall says the end of Section 377 has created more opportunities for people to come out at work, to be open about their relationships, to create community and to bring discussion of queer issues to schools and universities. Homophobia from educators and community leaders has come under more scrutiny. In Mumbai and Bengaluru (which people still tend to call Bangalore), entrepreneurs have launched businesses that consider the needs and tastes of LGBT customers. Dhall is less interested in whether Mumbai, Bengaluru, New Delhi or Kolkata might the first to get a rainbow-festooned gay megaclub than whether better health services can now be made available. Same-sex marriage is way down his long list of priorities. Dhall’s day job, when I met him, was as a newspaper editor. And it’s words and ideas he’ll be wielding as weapons as he enters his third decade of activism. “You don’t have the choice to find the energy. You still have to keep your head above water,” he tells me. “I’m more focused on writing now, to preserve the history. Fortunately, I don’t have to worry about a whole lot of things. There are many other people now doing the work.”

PAUL GALLANT is a Toronto-based writer and editor who writes about travel, innovation, city building, social issues (particularly LGBT issues) and business for a variety of national and international publications. He’s done time as lead editor at the loop magazine in Vancouver as well as Xtra and fab in Toronto.

TRAVEL

Key Lime Guy A road trip down Overseas Highway to Key West nets the freshest fish, naked pool boys, pesky pelicans and sublime sunsets. The pie’s not bad either By Doug Wallace

This is the straightest road I’ve been on for a while, and I’m from the Prairies. We’re bombing down Florida Highway #1 heading south. In a few minutes, we’ll be on the famous Overseas Highway of the Florida Keys, the longest overwater road in the world, with 42 bridges, including one that is 11 kilometres long. This road trip is an adventure I’ve been looking forward to ever since watching the chase scene in True Lies, where Jamie Lee Curtis holds on to the helicopter skid for dear life. Handily, little police radar icons start popping up on the map on my phone, keeping us in check. We silently hope the black Mustang convertible doesn’t make us look like shooting ducks to the radar guns. Ta-da! Swiftly, the road opens up to nothing but water, and we are in Key Largo, talking out of the sides of our mouths like Humphrey Bogart. We screech off the road, last-minute-like, pulling into a giant liquor store the size of a supermarket. We really are in film noir drama, I think. It’s hard not to go to the United States these days and not feel you’ve landed inside a TV show. While Hurricane Irma flatted huge swaths of the Keys in 2017, things are mostly back to normal, with just a few properties still pondering their fate. We’re visiting right before peak season, so everything is looking ship-shape, the calm before the tourist storm – more than two million people visit the Keys each year. That’s a lot of Mustangs.

MARCH / APRIL 2020

With driving comes lunch; there are only so many car Doritos I can eat in a day. Our first taste of Keys comfort food sets the tone for the week, as we eat like the locals do, at the iconic roadhouse-style eateries that line the highway, some quirky, some plain – all delicious. At The Fish House, we slide into the start of what becomes a week-long routine, selecting a fish (grouper, yellowtail snapper, mahi mahi, and more), then choosing how we’d like it prepared (grilled, blackened, breaded, pan sautéed, jerk…the list goes on). My partner in crime orders his done Matecumbe-style – topped with tomatoes, shallots, basil, capers and lemon – then relives a Walt Disney movie moment, outlining the plot of Treasure of Matecumbe, oblivious to my eye rolls. The Keys restaurants have menu staples that quickly become a good habit: conch chowder, spicy tuna nachos, lobster done every which way, stone crab claws, crab cakes, fried oysters and, of course, variations on the celebrated Key Lime Pie. Open-air places like Sundowners and Keys Fisheries, the front house for one of the region’s biggest fish exporters, sport large wooden terraces filled with locals and tourists alike, inhaling right-off-the-boat fish along with decent local craft beer. We wander into the outdoor market mix that is Robbie’s Marina in Islamorada to find it filled with visitors who have stopped specif46

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ically to hand-feed the giant tarpon that favour the pier here. We sink into stools on the deck of the adjacent, aptly named Hungry Tarpon restaurant, order Trailer Trash Bloody Marys and fish burgers, then watch as crazy-big pelicans go greedy-gus all over the tourists’ fish buckets. Despite a sign that says The Pelicans Bite, parents let their kids run free. In between mouthfuls of lunch, we laugh as at least two children are bitten and start crying. One pelican even draws blood. The waitress quietly admits to a daily scene of screams during the busy season, people falling in the bay, a fish-feeding frenzy, absolute mayhem. The culinary delights continue at Playa Largo Resort & Spa, the first new-build resort in the Upper Keys in more than 20 years. At the whitewashed Sol by the Sea, a beach-house vibe sets us up for crab fries, curried black grouper, jerk chicken, and warm pineapple bread with molasses butter. It’s at Playa Largo that we experience for the first time a nightly ritual celebrated throughout the Keys: sunset. At what the resort pegs as its daily Eventide, guests gather for shoreline cocktails and music by the fire pits – some right from the pool, some already dressed for dinner, others taking in the scene from kayaks out on the water. The sea really is the draw of the Keys, as there is no escaping it truly – water sports of every nature, snorkelling on the reefs, fishing, tons of paddling, parasailing, sunset cruises and, of course, scuba diving. When we swing into Hawks Cay on Duck Key the next day, the first question is: What’s the difference between a cay and a key? Nothing, as it turns out. You’re even supposed to pronounce them both “key” but a few don’t, I notice. Fresh from a $65 million renovation, Hawks Cay Resort has incredible oceanfront suites, plus several “streets” of villas, some with four bedrooms. The complex is really self-contained, with its own marina and boat excursions, a store, kid’s club, spa, tennis courts and six restaurants. One of those is the stellar Angler and Ale, where I break with the fish tradition and devour a plate of sweet and sticky ribs. I work these off the next morning swimming lengths in the saltwater lagoon, which I have all to myself. Not having to worry about hitting my head at the end like I do at the pool? Priceless. The gay paradise at the end of the road It starts to rain on our approach to the southernmost point in the continental US, the gay mecca that is Key West. But there’s no way we’re putting the top up; we just drive faster. It works! Sort of. This two-by-four-mile island was originally an eclectic haven for Indigenous Americans, Spaniards, freed slaves, sailors and pirates, and eventually welcoming the creatives, the queers and the misfits, including Tennessee Williams and Ernest Hemingway. It’s more

TRAVEL like the Caribbean than the US – the locals sometimes refer to it as Unflorida. Key West was rather dangerous after dark a hundred years ago, and they’re proud of their somewhat bawdy history, playing it up in places like Sloppy Joe’s, Captain Tony’s and the Green Parrot. We find a comfortable, devil-may-care attitude spilling into different parts of the culture. Home base here is Ocean Key Resort, awash in classic Key West style, all turquoise, yellow and lime green, folk art and florals, with rustic-chic trimming. The resort is best known for its sublime, Latin tapas-inspired Hot Tin Roof restaurant and for its extremely long Sunset Pier, now made of concrete after Irma blew away the wooden version. It’s packed at sundown, a parade of colour and cocktails, live band chugging away, people waving to the boats and vice versa.

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I take in the scene from my balcony: two docked cruise ships, sunset-cruising catamarans, a tall ship, several small boats that look like floating tiki bars. Spectators are settling in for the sunset, relaxing in the pool below, on the pier and in adjacent Mallory Square. Buskers, bands, boat stereos and drunk pool buddies drown each other out. A military helicopter flies by. The same type of surreality continues later on at Island House, a notable LGBTQ hotel-slash-haunt. We luck into the fact that they’re having a Wednesday night pool party and that clothing is optional. We maintain an absurd degree of eye contact with the rather international crowd in order to keep from glancing down, while throwing down half-price drinks for a few hours. We’re not sure what parts we’re playing in Blood Lines, but the drama is real. When you go The best time to visit The Florida Keys is between March and May, when the volume of tourists and nightly rates are down. Check out fla-keys.com and visitflorida.com to plan your trip. DOUG WALLACE is the editor and publisher of travel resource TravelRight.Today.

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FLASHBACK

FLASHBACK: April 27, 1953 In LGBTQ History President Dwight D. Eisenhower issues Executive Order 10450

On April 27, 1953, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower – elected in part to “Clean House” after years of Democratic reign – signed an executive order that banned homosexuals from working for the federal government. Crafted at the height of the Cold War, Executive Order 10450 declared that alongside communism, “sexual perversion” by government officials was a threat to national security.

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The new order became the trigger for the Lavender Scare: a massive purge of the federal workforce and the mobilization of more than 1,000 federal agents to interrogate suspects, investigate their pasts and force the outed to resign. In the years that followed, thousands of government employees were investigated and fired for the “crime” of being gay. By its end in the late 1960s, as many as 10,000 gay and lesbian employees had lost their jobs in the civil service. Countless others were interrogated and bullied. In the 1960s, the rigor of homosexual persecution in government waned from its mid-1950s peak, but Eisenhower’s executive order wasn’t overturned until 1995, by Bill Clinton.

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IN Magazine: March/April 2020

Articles inside

FLASHBACK: APRIL 27, 1953 IN

KEY LIME GUY

PAWAN DHALL: A MILLION

A BRIEF HISTORY OF LEATHER

DADDY’S HOME

IT’S TIME TO GIVE LESBIANS

THE LOST HISTORY OF THE

YOU GOTTA HAVE FAITH

LIL NAS X IS MORE THAN “OLD

STEPHEN DUNN TALKS ABOUT

POSITIVELY GLEEFUL

PROFILE IN YOUTH: RIVEN

COMMITMENT ISSUES

THE NAME GAME

VINTAGE SUVS COMMAND

LEARN ALL THE WAYS YOUR

HANGOVER HELPER

MEET OLIVIA LIMEHART SKY

AMPLIFYING THE VOICES OF