IN Magazine: November/December 2021

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NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2021

BROOKE LYNN HYTES REALLY IS THE QUEEN OF THE NORTH! CANADA IS NOT DOING ENOUGH TO SUPPORT GAY MEN’S MENTAL HEALTH JORDAN TANNAHILL TALKS ABOUT HIS NEW BOOK THE LISTENERS 1

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inmagazine.ca PUBLISHER Patricia Salib GUEST EDITOR Christopher Turner ART DIRECTOR Georges Sarkis COPY EDITOR Ruth Hanley SENIOR COLUMNISTS Paul Gallant, Jumol Royes CONTRIBUTORS Carl Abad, Alex Abramovich, Eluvier Acosta, Aleksandar Antonijevic, Phil Bessimer, Jesse Boland, Tyler Chick, William Cooke, Aram Eginliyan, Walid El Cairo, Adriana Ermter, Laura Grant, Thomas Iglesias Trombetta, Gelareh Kamazani, Kirsten Klotz, Emilia Kuczma-Porębska, Karen Kwan, Paul Langill, Janine Maral, Ivan Otis, Alan Ovalles, Sikha Panigrahi, Viktor Peters, Brian Phillips, Devon Rogers, Peter Tamlin, Doug Wallace, Amber Watkins, Casey Williams, Jaime Woo, Adam Zivo DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AND SPONSORSHIPS Bradley Blaylock CONTROLLER Jackie Zhao

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ON THE COVER: BROOKE LYNN HYTES PHOTOGRAPHER: PETER TAMLIN FASHION STYLIST: AMBER WATKINS HAIR: KIRSTEN KLOTZ MAKEUP: VIKTOR PETERS FASHION ASSISTANT: ARAM EGINLIYAN

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103

Canada’s Drag Race and Brooke Lynn Hytes are back for Season 2 (Photo by: Aleksandar Antonijevic)

Issue 103 November / December 2021 INFRONT

06 | SELF-CARE, DO CARE How skincare products and rituals can provide you with the daily reprieve you need

08 | THE GM TECH CENTER CRADLES THE BRAND’S ELECTRIC FUTURE Eero Saarinen’s mid-century design is pushing to bring new electric vehicles to market faster

09 | MEETING NEEDS AND CREATING CHANGE A conversation with Asian Community AIDS Services and ViiV Healthcare on treatment access and innovation 10 | LEARN HOW TO SAY NO No. Non. Nein. No matter what the language, knowing how to say no is one of the most valuable life skills you can learn 11 | REFLECTIONS ON TRANSGENDER AWARENESS WEEK This year between November 13–19, we join together to recognize Trans Awareness Week

16 | A CELEBRATION OF QUEER INTIMACY AND POWER Photographer Eluvier Acosta and Freddie have joined forces to create impactful images highlighting our human need for connection 18 | GOLD RUSH Reno Gold shares stories of his fast and furious life

20 | JAIME ZEVALLOS STARS IN A CONTROVERSIAL TALE OF FORBIDDEN GAY LOVE We talk with the actor about his new film, A Boy Like That 22 | PASSION PROJECT Fashion model Marvin Cortes brings the heat to the holidays

48 | CAREFREE IN QUITO The capital of Ecuador teems with urban adventure – gold leaf, gargoyles, gourmet guinea pigs and all 52 | FLASHBACK: NOVEMBER 1, 2010 IN LGBTQ+ HISTORY Angela James is inducted into the Hockey Hall Of Fame FASHION 28 | THE GIRL WITH THE P TATTOO From Paul to Perla…

32 | LAKESIDE LOOKS Cool fashions and party wear worn on a breezy winter day at Toronto’s Cherry Beach offer up a little inspiration to ring in the New Year

24 | BROOKE LYNN HYTES REALLY IS THE QUEEN OF THE NORTH! The beloved queen spills the tea on her reign as Canada’s biggest drag superstar

FEATURES

42 | SMALL TOWN, BIG PRIDE Reflecting on Pride celebrations outside of the big city

12 | PEOPLE LIKE ME Seeing myself reflected in the lived experiences of my queer Black fam was a healing gift I didn’t realize I needed

44 | CANADA IS NOT DOING ENOUGH TO SUPPORT GAY MEN’S MENTAL HEALTH There’s a mental health crisis within the gay community

14 | MAKING SENSE OF HIMBOS The allure of the elusive himbo

46 | JORDAN TANNAHILL TALKS ABOUT HIS NEW BOOK THE LISTENERS…AND ABOUT HIS SEX LIFE Author’s second fiction novel tells a story of love and loneliness

THIS ISSUE OF IN MAGAZINE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY

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How skincare products and rituals can provide you with the daily reprieve you need

By Adriana Ermter

Photo by: Gaelle Marcel/Unsplash

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2021

LOOKING GOOD

SELF-CARE, DO CARE

Think about these expressions for a minute. “She worried herself sick.” “My anxiety is in overdrive.” “You’re probably stressed out.”

“It feels like an uphill battle.” “She was burning the midnight oil.”

“He can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

think you are, yet do nothing to stop you from continually trying to defy this reality. It’s human nature to push beyond the limits.

We want to be our best. Sometimes, we even try to keep up with and surpass the proverbial Joneses.

Chances are you’ve said at least one, thought about another and probably lived out a third. Emotional and physical reactions to stress confirm that you’re not the Black Widow or Spider-Man you

The imbalance dilemma Proof of this mentality is the escalating trend to present a seemingly wrinkle-free life in tiny squares on Instagram. So is our newfound

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“There’s a quote by the Roman poet Ovid – ‘The man who has experienced shipwreck shudders even at a calm sea’ – that really speaks to our stress and anxiety,” affirms Claire Silvester, a registered psychotherapist at Therapy & Tea in Toronto. “Our body’s reaction to [all types of] mental challenges can produce feelings of stress or anxiety…and by thinking fearful thoughts, our body reacts in anticipation.”

These reactions are the body’s way of throwing a temper tantrum, although the shouting voices and pounding fists are replaced by blue-coloured bags under our eyes; a deep set of 11s creased between our brows; and dry, scaly patches on our cheeks and more.

One of the simplest and quickest ways to calm these emotions is to make time for a mental and physical reset by tapping into what the beauty and grooming industries call emotional skin care.

Emotional skin care 101 An easy DIY way to realign your body and mind connection, emotional skin care is the practice of creating self-care beauty and grooming habits, and using beneficial skincare products. You don’t need to dedicate hours each day to achieve this: carving out time for practices like baths, facials and a cleansing and moisturizing routine, while supplementing each of these with products fuelled with relaxing and soothing ingredients, is a sure path to rejuvenation.

“Everyone’s body has an alarm system to the reactions of anxiety, and the skin is just one of the parts of the body that can become a physical symptom,” explains Silvester. “The right side of the brain specializes in feelings and sensations, so when you are stressed out, it wants to repair itself and the physical manifestations caused by stress.”

Engaging self-care through skincare Reaching for beauty and grooming products such as calming face creams, detoxifying Epsom bath salts and mood-enhancing essential oils every single day is a great place to start. Using feel-good products on a regular basis creates ritualistic behaviour, which then turns into mindful habits – when you hone in on the sensations you’re experiencing in the present moment – that can make the difference from one day to the next, as the benefits can be felt emotionally and seen on your skin.

According to a 2019 research article published in Frontiers in Psychology, self-care rituals can reduce and even stop worry and stress, as they can help your brain release negative thoughts and patterns. “We see increasing research that talks about the mind and body as being one, and this concept has gained traction over the last 50 years,” says Silvester. So while the action of moisturizing or bathing may sound frivolous, in actuality it is creating necessary “you-time,” and when done repeatedly, the routine actions send an unspoken signal to your brain that you are taking care of yourself.

The smell good, feel good effect In her new book Detox Nourish Activate: Plant and Vibrational Medicine for Energy, Mood and Love, author Adora Winquist recommends incorporating skin and bath products infused with essential oils into our self-care practices. The different scents stimulate our olfactory system (the part of the brain that is connected to smell), and can provide respiratory, decongestant and psychological benefits. With each breath we take, the oils’ molecules trigger the brain, causing it to respond and have a positive impact on our emotions, heart rate, breathing, stress, hormone balance and more. “Essential oils are plant medicines that interact in very complex ways with our human cells,” explains Winquist in her book. “Alchemy is when there is a transformation, including physical, mental and emotional shifts. When inhaled, essential oils can stimulate the limbic system, a part of the brain that influences emotions and behaviours.”

" SELF-CARE RITUALS CAN HELP YOUR BRAIN RELEASE NEGATIVE THOUGHTS AND PATTERNS " Essential oils can also have a big impact on our skin. Lavender and camomile calm and soothe skin irritations and acne spots in addition to our feelings. They also work relaxation wonders when added to a bath. Bergamot, lemon, orange and other citruses brighten our skin and minimize pores, along with invigorating the senses, reducing stress and producing happy feelings. Rose hydrates and smooths the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, as well as emitting a sense of peaceful bliss. Eucalyptus, spearmint and mint simultaneously cool and refresh the skin, and reduce headaches, joint pain and respiratory congestion. Patchouli and rosemary relieve dry skin and eliminate excess facial oil respectively, while lessening depression, anxiety and tension. Ylang-ylang and geranium balance fluctuating skin conditions and promote harmony, self-esteem and confidence.

Infused into face creams, bath salts, bubbles and more, and used ritualistically for enhanced self-care, these ingredients have the ability to heal and balance both our skin and our minds. “There is great synergy in these practices that serve as a catalyst for anyone on their journey of transformation to greater abundance in life, the abundance of joy, vibrancy, love and prosperity which correlate to overall well-being,” says Winquist.

When you’re engaged in mindful activities, such as taking a hot bath and washing, toning and moisturizing your face, you’re giving yourself the space to get out of your head and focus on what you’re doing. That’s when the stress and anxiety begin to melt away. “Mindfulness practice continues to be a key to brain and body health,” says Silvester. “Anything that constitutes healthy self-care can buffer against some of the worry and feeling of being overwhelmed. Aromatherapy, skin care and investing in ourselves are not just lovely experiences; they are vital in times when we are weary with worry. Preventative in nature, regular self-care can act as a long-term strategy for stress reduction. Distract your mind from worrying through skincare rituals, deeply relaxing soaks and having positive daily habits.”

ADRIANA ERMTER is a Toronto-based, lifestyle-magazine pro who has travelled the globe writing about must-spritz fragrances, child poverty, beauty and grooming.

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LOOKING GOOD

thinking (courtesy of COVID-19) that unless we are accessible 24/7 on Zoom, FaceTime and Teams, we risk losing our jobs and/or our connection with friends and family. According to a 2018 study by Everyday Health, 57 per cent of the US population claims to feel paralyzed by stress, with 47 per cent admitting to taking this stress out on themselves. The pressure is real and has manifested on many of our faces, most commonly as acne spots, skin irritations, and increased fine lines and wrinkles.

WHEELS

The GM Tech Center Cradles The Brand’s Electric Future Eero Saarinen’s mid-century design is pushing to bring new electric vehicles to market faster

By Casey Williams

Finnish-born Eero Saarinen (1910–1961) was a master of modern design and architecture, creating the iconic Womb and Tulip chairs for Knoll as well as buildings like New York’s JFK TWA Terminal, the St. Louis Gateway Arch and the Washington Dulles airport terminal. Saarinen’s greatest accomplishment, however, is a living, working automotive monument to the modern age that he created for General Motor’s first design chief, Harley Earl.

Modernist wonder Constructed from 1949 to 1955, the General Motors Technology Center in Warren, Michigan, is perhaps the greatest collection of modernist architecture in the world. Facilities for design and engineering are laid in a planned arrangement with a rectangular lake, fountains and stainless steel water tower as focal points.

Glazed bricks reflect autumn colours and each lobby has its own unique stairway, usually of suspended terrazzo slabs. Windows use seals based on windshield gaskets. It’s like a real-world version of Disney’s Tomorrowland. I visited 10 years ago – an incredible experience.

Saarinen’s attention to detail included furniture and the colour of machines. The lobby – including the famous suspended staircase, Mies van der Rohe couches and white fibreglass “teacup” reception desk – remains unchanged. Even the 20-ft. bronze sculpture by French artist Antoine Pevsner still sits outside.

While less glamorous, much of GM’s advanced engineering occurs on-site, too. New buildings continue to be built, but fit into Saarinen’s original plan.

Architectural significance It’s difficult to imagine The Tech Center is 70 years old, even if it is listed on the (US) National Register of Historic Places and was designated Most Outstanding Architectural Achievements of its Era by the American Institute of Architects. Buildings are more congruous with tomorrow’s self-driving wonders than the tailfinned behemoths that once fronted them. It’s where GM created the future during the middle of the last century, and where it will debut all of the amazing models that shall define this one.

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2021

The sanctuary of the Tech Center is its silver Design Dome, where stylists review upcoming products with top executives. The ’55 Chevy Nomad, ’59 Cadillac Eldorado, ’63 Corvette and all-electric semi-autonomous 2023 Cadillac Lyriq crossover were all shown here. To display vehicles in natural light, an outside patio is large enough to contain a division’s entire product line, with showpieces rotating on turntables built into the pavers.

Automotive atelier Across the patio is the Design Center, where stylists find inspiration in their surroundings. It is easy to imagine Harley Earl holding court in the terrazzo-floored lobby or Bill Mitchell (Earl’s successor as design chief) reviewing Corvettes from his “bat cave” office. Today, designers can view proposed models on a wall of screens during video conferences with studios across the globe.

Individual studios were created with luminous ceilings to eliminate shadows and reflections. A special colour and trim room has a skylight so designers can view materials and colours in natural light. Flexible walls allow the building to easily adapt to new requirements. If you could pry off the roof and look inside, you’d see GM’s transition to electric vehicles taking shape.

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To learn more, read Where Today Meets Tomorrow: Eero Saarinen and the General Motors Technical Center (2019) by Susan Skarsgard.

CASEY WILLIAMS is a contributing writer for Gaywheels.com. He contributes to the New York-based LGBT magazine Metrosource and the

INChicago 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

MEETING NEEDS AND CREATING CHANGE A conversation with Asian Community AIDS Services and ViiV Healthcare on treatment access and innovation

Asian Community AIDS Services (ACAS) is a charitable, non-profit, community-based organization located in Toronto. The organization provides safer-sex education and services to the East and Southeast Asian communities and support services to persons living with HIV/ AIDS and members of the LGBTQ communities. ViiV Healthcare is the only pharmaceutical company solely focused on combating, preventing and ultimately curing HIV and AIDS to make sure no one living with HIV and AIDS is left behind.

other treatments that are right for them. The right to information is a fundamental right PLHIV have to receive optimal care.

POON: By providing HIV-related educational workshops and HIV treatment updates to clients on a continuous basis, HCPs can [help] PLHIV to seek proper information and advocate for them to seek proper treatment information. Moreover, between HCPs and PLHIV, they need to find a way to build a trusting relationship in order for them to create a honest and healthy communication between them.

We sat down with Marvelous Muchenje, at ViiV, and Kenneth Poon, at ACAS, to discuss treatment access, innovation and more.

How is the community responding to gaps that exist in the healthcare system to ensure that all PLHIV are accessing and continuing treatment?

MUCHENJE: Access to treatment is a part of the solution, and we must continue to work in partnership with the HIV community to fight stigma and discrimination that hold PLHIV back from realizing their full potential. Every day we see countless examples from across Canada of AIDS-serving organizations stepping up to meet unmet needs when it comes to treatment uptake, housing, food security and other contributing factors.

POON: Our PLHIV are facing many language barriers, [as well as] internal and external stigma. We use our peer coaches to empower them for one-on-one counselling and accompany them to appointments, and support them when they need translation services. Many clients are vulnerable in a sense under the social determinants of health. We provide financial assistance, prepare meals for those in need, [offer] capacity and skill building, and engage clients to attend educational workshops and social activities.

We constantly encourage clients to stay in retention of care. Also, at ACAS a strong belief in a proactive holistic approach engages clients to take charge of their own self-care, such as providing massage, nutrition counselling and acupuncture treatment on a regular basis.

What are some of the barriers that exist for people living with HIV (PLHIV) in Canada, in accessing treatment?

MARVELOUS MUCHENJE: HIV cannot become the “forgotten pandemic” – there’s too much at stake. There are still far too many people living with HIV who are not getting the right treatment today because of stigma, misinformation and financial barriers.

We need more honest conversations and more innovation in this space to make HIV a smaller part of people’s lives.

KENNETH POON: For the East and South East Asian community, language barriers, cultural safety and how to navigate the healthcare system are some of the many hurdles for our PLHIV. Especially, the COVID-19 pandemic overshadows the challenges in the HIV community.

What does the treatment landscape look like for PLHIV in 2021?

MUCHENJE: The fact is, 1.7 million new HIV infections are still recorded each year, so we need to recognize that innovation in HIV prevention is critical to ending the epidemic. The easier we can make it for people who live with HIV, the better. There have been some incredible breakthroughs to date, but I am sure that better, simpler treatment is always possible and always important.

POON: HIV medication is constantly evolving, from multiple pills to one pill with three drugs to one pill daily, two drugs is already a great breakthrough. Now we’re talking about injectable drugs once every two months, which is an additional benefit for PLHIV who are facing some challenges in medication adherence or who require a lot of travel in their personal lives. The injectable drug provides a convenient way for PLHIV when it comes to their medication intake.

What role do healthcare providers play in ensuring PLHIV are able to access the right treatment for their unique needs?

MUCHENJE: Data from the ground-breaking Positive Perspectives Wave 2 report shows that those who were informed about Undetectable = Untransmittable (U=U) by their healthcare providers [HCPs] self-reported fewer health problems. Engaging in discussion with HCPs is essential because it allows PLHIV to be informed about

How is ViiV supporting PLHIV and the HIV community in securing better treatment?

MUCHENJE: Every day ViiV pushes further, not only in finding a cure, but also in empowering more communities through our Community Education and Services Grants to positively impact transmission rates and the stigma that far too many face. Around the world, 38 million PLHIV require innovative medicines, which is why everything we do is underpinned by cutting-edge science.

POON: For the last 10 years, ViiV has been a generous sponsor to ACAS. ViiV supports our HIV-related educational workshops where we invite culturally appropriate presenters. They also support HIV prevention through their community educational grant by having our forum on Sex Love Asian Men and Pillow Talk for Women, which both aim to bring the community together sharing their knowledge and perspectives on HIV prevention, STI, U=U and gender identity.

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HEALTH & WELLNESS

Learn How To Say No No. Non. Nein. No matter what the language, knowing how to say no is one of the most valuable life skills you can learn

By Karen Kwan

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2021

With the holidays here, everyone’s focus is turning towards merry times. But we all know that this season is also ripe with stress and anxiety, and much of that can come from all of the obligations we feel we have to meet during this busy time (probably even busier this year, to make up for last year’s social desert). That may mean juggling a family dinner on this side of the family, and running to that brunch with friends, and watering your neighbour’s plants while also hosting that cocktail party everyone missed so much that you feel pressured to host it again this year. This overloaded schedule makes the holidays a great time to learn how to say no, because there are so many opportunities to put it into practice, and so that you can save your sanity.

Why is knowing how to say no an important life skill? “Maybe you want to meet the love of your life, or you want to travel. Whatever that dream or vision of yours is, when your time and energy is going in sporadic directions because someone wants to talk on the phone with you and someone else has asked you to watch their pet, it’s challenging,” says Bryn Bamber, a core energetics practitioner based in Toronto. “While it’s not necessarily bad to say yes to these things, [if you take on too much] you won’t have enough energy left over for that vision you have for yourself,” she explains.

Keep in mind, too, that you don’t have to have a grandiose vision.

“Your vision might be just to be healthy and at peace,” says Bamber.

“And when you learn how to say no, you’re protecting that vision of yours.”

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One reason many of us have a hard time saying no? Bamber points to the environments we grew up in (that could be everything from your family dynamic to the school system). “We learned that when you’re a people pleaser, your needs are mostly met. Also, perhaps as a kid, we set healthy boundaries, and that only got us into trouble,” she adds.

Just do it When turning people down, Bamber says it’s about being firm but gracious. Resist the urge to launch into a rambling explanation as to why you’re saying no. Also, she suggests working up to “bigger” no’s. Start with, say, returning a dish that wasn’t prepared as you ordered to the restaurant kitchen. Remember that being firm and direct is not synonymous with being rude; use tact and be respectful.

If it helps, you can even rehearse at home, as Nate did on Ted Lasso when he wanted to score the table by the window.

Another strategy that may make it easier to say no: offer an alternative. Bamber says this is a great tactic that will seem to soften your refusal. “If your mother is always showing up out of the blue and wanting to visit when it’s a bad time, for example, let her know you’re busy, but suggest she come over Tuesday at four o’oclock instead,” she says.

While it may stress you out at first to say no, be comforted by the fact that it’s like a muscle, and the more you exercise your right to say no, the stronger you’ll become at it and the easier it’ll get.

KAREN KWAN is a freelance health, travel and lifestyle writer based in Toronto.

Follow her on Twitter at @healthswellness and on Instagram at @healthandswellness.

Brought to you by

This year between November 13–19, we join together to recognize Transgender Awareness Week

By Dr. Alex Abramovich

I came out as trans 11 years ago while I was a PhD student working at a busy downtown hospital. I was interviewing a young trans person experiencing homelessness who turned to me midway through our interview and said, “You’re trans, right? What do you do when people stare at you on the subway?”

I had indeed been struggling with strangers staring at me in public, being asked, “Are you a boy or a girl?” and being chased out of nearly every public bathroom I went into. Regardless, I knew I had to be honest with myself and finally come out. How could I possibly devote my life’s work to issues regarding 2SLGBTQ+ youth health and homelessness, and interview countless youth about their lives and coming out experiences, while not being my authentic self?

I will always be grateful to the young person who, unintentionally, pushed me out of the closet and encouraged me to come out.

However, there was nothing easy about my coming out or about the years that followed. Transphobic language and discrimination was very much engrained into the culture of most institutional settings, and in many ways it still is. As an openly trans man with a strong personal connection to the work I do, I am often asked offensive questions and expected to educate people about anything transrelated. Some people still do not see beyond my trans identity, and instead see that as the defining factor of my existence. For example, some refer to me as “the trans scientist,” rather than focusing on my areas of expertise or accomplishments.

trans women, who experience disproportionate rates of violence, poverty and homelessness. They are stigmatized, silenced and made to be invisible in every possible way.

Transphobia has serious consequences on the lives of trans people.

Transphobia is dangerous, toxic, violent; it leads to suicide, and is literally killing trans people daily.

The fight for trans rights is far from over. We all need to stand up against violence and discrimination towards trans people, so that all trans people can safely go to work and school, and access public bathrooms, hospitals and healthcare facilities, without having to fear for their lives. Trans people deserve these basic rights, just like anyone else. Trans youth deserve to grow up in a world where it is not a “revolutionary act” to just be themselves.

I hope for a future where trans youth grow up not having to worry about whether they will be kicked out of the house or lose all of their friends and family for living authentically. I also hope for a future where we no longer need to gather on November 20, because trans lives are valued.

These examples illustrate the importance of devoting certain days or weeks to trans education and public awareness.

Transgender Awareness Week, which is observed annually during the second week of November (this year from November 13–19), is meant to help educate and raise public awareness of the barriers and challenges that trans people often face in society. It is also meant to encourage the public to help end transphobic stigma and discrimination.

Following Transgender Awareness Week every year, we commemorate the lives of trans people around the globe who were killed because of transphobic hatred and violence. On November 20, the International Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR), we publicly mourn and honour transgender people whose lives were taken simply for living authentically. TDOR also raises public awareness of the violent reality that so many of us continue to face on a daily basis here in Ontario, across Canada, and around the globe.

Every year the list of names of trans people murdered across the world grows. Trans women or transfeminine people account for the vast majority of those murdered, especially Indigenous and Black

DR. ALEX ABRAMOVICH is a scientist at the Institute for Mental Health Policy Research, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), and an assistant professor at the University of Toronto. He is an award-winning, internationally recognized leader in the area of 2SLGBTQ+ health and homelessness.

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OPINION

Reflections On Transgender Awareness Week

PERSPECTIVE

PEOPLE LIKE ME Seeing myself reflected in the lived experiences of my queer Black fam was a healing gift I didn’t realize I needed

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2021

By Jumol Royes

There are those rare occasions when the stars align and you find yourself in the right place, at the right time, with the right people.

That’s precisely what happened when I was asked to participate in Bigger Than We 2, an intergenerational celebration for Black queer and trans folks that took place in Toronto this past September.

I was pleasantly surprised to receive an invitation to be a part of the event from my friend David, an educator, community worker and 12

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writer, and one of the members of the Bigger Than We Collective, an ad-hoc group of Black queer, trans artists and community activists.

But my initial enthusiasm was soon tempered by thoughts of selfdoubt. My identity as a gay Black man has been unduly influenced by the white, cis, gay male gaze. Would my version of Blackness be embraced? Would my expression of gayness sit well with the group? Did I really have something to contribute?

PERSPECTIVE

All of these fears were put to rest during our first in-person rehearsal on a Saturday afternoon.

When Donald regaled us with his stories and his particular way of making a point, I couldn’t help but fondly remember my Jamaican uncles. They always knew how to command an audience and make It was facilitated by David and Sedina, a powerhouse performer, an impression, just like Donald did when he performed his piece, producer and creator, with support from Omi, the back of house “I Pledge,” with the perfect balance of levity and gravitas. coordinator. I sat outside in a circle with my peers – queer Black people like me – as we shared, learned from and listened to each I’m grateful to Isaac for introducing me to the concept of Emotional other, and an outline for a collective ritual/opening ceremony for Emancipation Circles or EECs, “evidence-informed, culturally the upcoming celebration began to take shape. grounded, and community-defined self-help support groups designed to help heal, and end, the trauma caused by the root cause I immediately felt at home and completely comfortable in my own of anti-Black racism: the centuries-old lie of white superiority and skin. I saw myself, and my story, reflected in everyone else’s lived Black inferiority.” experiences, and each of them left their unique imprint on my spirit.

Kimalee brought a graceful and gracious presence to the group. She The first person I met when I arrived at the rehearsal space at requested that we each bring an element from nature – representing Wychwood Barns was Gloria, a seasoned storyteller with a vibrant earth, air, fire or water – to use during the nature ceremony. I brought personality who was vocal about encouraging the next generation mint leaves from my mom’s backyard garden to symbolize spiritual of queer Black leaders to pick up the torch and run with it. She refreshment, wisdom and virtue. shared a personal reflection, “I Am From,” that honoured her roots and reminded us all that we need to know where we come from in One of the most powerful moments of our collective ritual was the order to know where we’re going. When she dropped it like it’s ancestral ceremony led by Samson. We learned the South African hot on the dance floor at the event that Sunday, Queen Bey herself way of venerating and communicating with amaDlozi (Ancestors) would have bowed down and been impressed. through the ritual of ukuphahla. Samson shared his thoughts about the experience on his Instagram page not long after the event: I also met Courage, who taught us the signs for Black, queer, trans and proud. They looked forward to a day when they wouldn’t “…The truth is that we aren’t alone. Our Ancestors are always present, be the only queer Black person in the room making use of ASL ready, and waiting for us to welcome them into our lives. They are interpretation services, and showed us that more work needs to calling us home to our traditions, our teachings, our spiritualities, be done to reduce barriers to participation for deaf queer people. our cultures and ourselves. The choice is ours whether we answer the call or not.”

Rochelle and I connected right off the bat. We both shared original poems we had composed, and discovered a mutual admiration for As someone who experiences social anxiety, but also desires to the old-school practice of carrying around a notebook so we could create and maintain close social connections with those around put pen to paper, should inspiration strike. him, I’m proud that I answered the call and was able to show up for myself, and my community.

The group decided to gather outside rather than rehearse indoors, since it was such a balmy, sunny day. On the walk to our meeting It was a meaningful opportunity to pay tribute to those who have place on a mound behind the building, we crossed paths with a passed on, share personal stories and reflections, and celebrate man playing with a child who asked us to make space for them as through spoken word, song, dance and other expressions of we passed by. Micha, one of the more playful people in our small gratitude and joy. tribe that day, responded, “How does one ‘make space’?” It’s a profound question that I’m still pondering today.

Seeing myself reflected in the lived experiences of my queer Black fam was a healing gift I didn’t realize I needed. At the end of the day, I sat on the mound next to Y, a talented and versatile musician who everyone deserves to feel seen, heard and understood, and know got us all moving by showing us a few merengue dance steps as part that they matter. It’s a gift that’s bigger than me, bigger than we. of an icebreaker exercise. Their rhythmic drumming would later form the heartbeat of our collective ritual, preceding processions It’s a gift I wish for all of us. and telegraphing moments of transition.

JUMOL ROYES is a Toronto-area storyteller, communications strategist and glass-half-full kinda guy. He writes about compassion, community, identity and belonging. His guilty pleasure is watching the Real Housewives. Follow him on Twitter at @Jumol and on Instagram at @jumolroyes.

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SEX

Making Sense Of Himbos

The allure of the elusive himbo

By Jesse Boland

Because no one will break your bed quite like a guy who doesn’t understand BEDMAS. It might feel shameful to admit, but there really is something about a man whose glistening muscles are as smooth as his brain. In truth, men more typically than not fall under the two categories of mansplainers and manspreaders, and we must decide which one we find less insufferable. We tell ourselves how desirable it is to date a man with intellect, yet constantly find ourselves trapped in a draining hour-long lecture from them about how reading A Thousand Plateaus during their first semester at grad school gave them the tools to understand the real meanings within the music of J Cole.

Instead, there can be something so enticing about a man who says he won’t send a face pic because he’s discreet, despite having a visible tattoo of his last name on his arm.

Indeed, it is often love at first spelling mistake when chatting with an alluring himbo.

What is a himbo, you might ask? Well, a himbo is simply if a bimbo was a him – and if you’re a man who couldn’t figure that one out, then this article is likely about you (DM me when you’re done reading this, big guy). To qualify to be a himbo, however, you must possess the essential three attributes: buns of steel, a heart of gold, and a head full of air. To help break it down even further, here are some terms for men who possess only two thirds of the needed requirements to qualify for himboification: • A man who is muscular and dumb yet is not kind or sweet is a Meathead (think the men of Jersey Shore or Moose from Archie comics).

• A man who is dumb and sweet yet is not conventionally physically fit is a Goofball (Homer of The Simpsons, Shaggy from Scooby Doo, Greg in Succession).

• And, finally, a man who is fit and sweet yet is not dumb is a Hunk ([FILE NOT FOUND] – this is a myth created to lionize men; stop lying to yourselves).

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2021

The archetype of a himbo is actually far more common than we often consider (Joey in Friends, Kelso in That ’70s Show, Schmitt in New Girl, Jason in True Blood, the literal existence of Noah Centineo). That raises the question of why we as a society, and not just those of us who are attracted to men, feel so engrossed around this intellectually alternative specimen of the human race.

The appeal of a himbo in Western media comes from the presentation of idealized masculinity being rendered as a weaker and even submissive position of power. The archetype of a himbo is in itself a comedic trope created to satirize the personified idealization of masculinity for the sake of amusement. The himbo is in fact often seen even in film and television shows that cater to straight male audiences (Mac in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The Deep of The Boys), as they serve to soothe the ego of less conventionally macho male viewers. For men who find themselves humbled by depictions of buff, macho, sexually charged men in media, the degradation of these alpha males into clueless buffoons helps conciliate the male viewer into feeling more secure with his own masculinity. What the himbo accomplishes through this medium is reassuring men that while the himbo may present as more conventionally attractive than them, his brawn still fails to compete with their brains, thus rendering the everyday-man the true victor.

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SEX

" this new understanding of masculinity may challenge the expectations placed upon men to be seen as desirable and respectable "

An often-overlooked yet essential attribute of a himbo is an earnest sweetness within; this differentiates them from regular men, who often project their insecurity over their lack of intelligence into furious violence through their threateningly powerful bodies. A himbo is a kind-hearted gentleman who will hold a door open for you even if it takes him a couple of tries because he keeps pulling on a door that clearly says PUSH. Much like humpback whales – the himbos of the sea – these gentle giants do not feel the need to assert the powers of their physique through aggressive behaviour as they do not feel threatened, but rather find their joy in doing jump-squats and eating massive amounts of shrimp in single mouthfuls.

The allure of a himbo for women and queer men comes not only from the safety conferred from their lack of physical aggression, but also from the absence of danger that comes in the form of psychological violence from more lethally intelligent men.

Every day, men are slowly becoming more and more educated in the craft of emotional abuse towards their romantic partners via the means of calculated manipulation. (Ever had a guy tell you that he couldn’t be gaslighting you because he wrote an essay about gaslighting for his gender studies course?) While partners of any gender may be abusive, the malevolence of this uniquely male violence stems from an uneven power dynamic wherein men may use their position of power in a manner even more pernicious than merely physical abuse.

What many women may find reassuring about the company of a man who is their intellectual inferior is a sense of safety. Women are constantly taught to protect themselves from men who seek to take advantage of them – whether physically, financially or socially – as a means of controlling them. When a woman is romantically involved with a man she knows to be far less intelligent than her, it is but one added preventive measure to protect herself in case he attempts to harm her. What himbos provide these women is not simply their kind-hearted affability – as just about every woman has at some point been duped by a “nice guy” before – but a vulnerability that women may weaponize against them for their own safety. The sad truth is that while not all men are dumb, all men are terrifying.

To wrap this up (because I know reading is hard and I don’t want my future husband getting a headache), himbos provide everyone – whether they be women, queer men or straight men – with a sense of reassurance. They show us that a man does not need to incessantly prove that he is the smartest in the room to be respected, that physical strength does not need to be used for aggressive violence when it can be better used moving couches or chopping wood, and that not every seemingly too nice guy has a secret agenda…because sometimes they don’t even know how to use an agenda!

While we shouldn’t get carried away and believe that coming up with a cute term for a sweet yet dumb hot guy equates to some sort of feminist reclamation against the sexist term bimbo, this newfound understanding of masculinity may challenge the expectations placed upon men to be seen as desirable and respectable. While we might need their help opening jars and they might need our help opening a PDF file, together we may one day open the door to a brighter future… …even if it take a couple of tries because this door says PULL, babe.

JESSE BOLAND is that gay kid in class who your English teacher always believed in. He’s a graduate of English at Ryerson University with a passion for giving a voice to people who don’t have data on their phones and who chases his dreams by foot because he never got his driver’s licence.

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A Celebration Of Queer Intimacy And Power Photographer Eluvier Acosta and Freddie have joined forces to create impactful images highlighting our human need for connection

By Thomas Iglesias Trombetta

Not by coincidence, journeying deeper into our queerness is often met with a deep sense of inadequacy about our bodies. Am I too feminine? Should my butt look like that? Why do I only come across representations of gay men who are athletic, cisgender, masculine, and mostly white-looking? Media, ads and even queer spaces themselves often perpetuate limiting ideas about what we can look like. Perhaps the perception of sexual taste as purely individual leaves our bodies binary-bound, restricted by socially constructed ideas of desirability that favour the same old flavours, at the expense of visibility for all.

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2021

Gender and sexuality are as complex as each body they inhabit. It is, then, our responsibility to celebrate these multitudes, instead of uniform depictions of ourselves. I work at Freddie, a virtual service that is making HIV PrEP accessible and inclusive through virtual care. Photographer Eluvier Acosta and I wanted to actively challenge these monolithic expressions by promoting awareness of HIV PrEP. So together we created a series of images with the objective of portraying queer and trans communities in ways that commemorate different bodies, genders and expressions.

A queer immigrant himself, Acosta is drawn to expressing his subjects in romantic ways that highlight beauty and sentimentalism.

With a passion to steer away from traditional commercial images, Acosta wants to show a version of people that has not been seen before, even by the models themselves. For his campaign with Freddie, the photographer wanted to represent diverse ways to love, and to be in relationships often considered ‘inappropriate’ in mainstream marketing.

Acosta describes the task of celebrating a multitude of bodies: “It was beautiful teamwork; the way in which the project was done was very honest, and I think the images bring that. The different bodies shown make me feel connected and represented. There’s a part of many people that speaks to me. There’s a lot of stigma about PrEP, and even more around HIV, but it’s important that this campaign opens the doors to a wider group of people who may not have access to this information. Many may feel uncomfortable with these images, and that is fine by me.”

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DIRECTION: Thomas Iglesias Trombetta PHOTOGRAPHER: Eluvier Acosta PHOTO ASSISTANT: Walid El Cairo LIGHTING TECH: Devon Rogers WARDROBE STYLIST: Carl Abad CLOTHING: Maison Simons & Benjamin Toner MAKEUP & HAIR LEAD: Emilia Kuczma-Porębska MAKEUP: Laura Grant MODELS (top row, from left): Justin Aucoin, Kanwar Sandhu, Adania Reyes; (bottom row, from left): Mona Moore, Lilly Nguyen, Rhyum Rose, Thomas Iglesias Trombetta STUDIO: Mas Studios Intl

PHOTOS

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INTERVIEW

GOLD RUSH Reno Gold shares stories of his fast and furious life

By Phil Bessimer

Social media star Reno Gold is an internet phenomenon who currently pulls in $100,000 a month through his OnlyFans page. But it wasn’t all fun and games getting to that level, and the 25-yearold shares some stories with fans via his YouTube channel. “I’m sharing my stories to give people a realistic look into the average life of a full-time sex worker,” he explains. “I tell it how it was, but through a comedic lens. The stories are just way too entertaining for me to keep to myself.”

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2021

Gold was raised in a happy Christian home with two parents and two older sisters in sunny Nevada. Due to a learning disability, he was held back in school and put into special education classes.

However, he excelled in sports, especially gymnastics, becoming a national champion in tumbling.

He launched his career in the sex industry while still a senior in high school. “I started dancing at local strip clubs,” he reveals, “and quickly found my way to escorting. A stripper is barely scraping by if he’s not escorting.”

According to Gold, some of the strip clubs he performed in were little more than makeshift brothels where guys advertised their wares to potential johns. “I would strip at night and do calls during the day,” he says. “It got to a point where I was basically living in hotel rooms. I was making an insane amount of money, but at the end of the day I was lonely and several times, I found myself in dangerously compromising situations.”

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Gold feels no shame in sharing his experiences – in a way, he believes it to be therapeutic. “Sharing my true experiences and laughing at them with my viewers feels good,” he says. “I hope these videos help people who have been through similar circumstances realize they’re not alone and that a little bit of dark humour can turn any situation bright.”

For young people who may be thinking about getting into sex work, he hopes they will watch his videos to make sure the business is something they can handle before jumping into it blindly, as he did.

Aside from the obvious safety dangers, Gold says the biggest hazard that male sex workers face is losing themselves to the glamour of escorting. Because, yes, it can be glamorous. “I have travelled to exotic locations, eaten in the fanciest restaurants, made more money than most doctors, and snorted more blow than Scarface,” he laughs. “It is a very fast-paced life where the money and the sex are flowing! It’s easy to get addicted to it where the only thing that matters is chasing the next big money grab.”

Luckily for Gold, he found his real fortune online. “OnlyFans is safer, more convenient, and has allowed me the opportunity to settle down and live a more balanced life,” he reflects.

A day in the life A typical day for Gold consists of waking up, hitting the gym, and then working all day creating and distributing content.

INTERVIEW

Maintaining a successful online page isn’t easy. Gold works feverishly on new content every day to satisfy his thousands of subscribers from around the world. As a one-man operation, he scouts and books locations for his scenes, develops engaging new storylines, arranges wardrobe and toys, and coordinates with photographers for still shot images. “It’s about quantity and quality,” he says.

He posts a professional-quality nude picture every day, a 15- to 20-minute solo scene every week, and two duo scenes a month.

I will slowly phase out of the scenes and start directing scenes of other performers full-time.”

While he says he will never escort again, he admits it was an interesting time in his life and, in the end, he realizes that sex workers are no different from everyone else. “In business, everyone whores themselves out in some sense.”

He also has to market his OnlyFans page. He promotes his personality with PG-rated content on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, often sharing his likes, dislikes, hopes and dreams. It’s another reason he decided to share his personal escorting stories. “I needed something new to talk about,” he admits.

Gold acknowledges that one of his biggest fears is getting older in the sex industry. He is doing everything he can to set himself up for the future. “I’m investing in real estate and renting my properties out,” he says. So far, he has purchased 11 homes, all in cash. “I have enough properties under my belt that I could live very comfortably just off them.”

To learn more about Reno Gold, visit https://www.getsl.ink/renogoldvip.

He plans on remaining in the sex industry for a long time. In fact, he will soon launch his own adult film studio, RenoGold .com, where he will direct scenes of other male models, as well as scenes featuring himself. “I hope that over time, as I get older,

PHIL BESSIMER was born in Seattle, raised in Pennsylvania, and now resides in California.

His work has appeared in numerous places in print and online including AXS, Examiner, and more. He is a single parent to three cats, and has also worked as an actor, singer and teacher.

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FILM

Jaime Zevallos Stars in Controversial Tale of Forbidden GAY Love We talk with the actor about his new film, A Boy Like That

By William Cooke

A Boy Like That tells the story of Harold, a middle-aged acting coach who travels to New York and finds himself obsessing over Felix, a precocious teenage boy who reminds him of a love he once had that he fears he will never be able to obtain again.

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2021

Felix, on the other hand, is desperate for love and acceptance. He feels he has been abandoned by his mother, and longs so deeply for nurturing that he is willing to cling to any older figure who offers comfort.

Written and directed by Daniel Armando, A Boy Like That explores the taboo relationship between Harold and Felix as it becomes a twisted, entangled web of chaos. Jaime Zevallos, best known from Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger, stars as Harold. He spoke with us from the set of a new movie he was filming in Los Angeles.

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FILM

What encouraged you to take on the role of Harold?

Meeting with the director, Daniel Armando, and hearing his passion for this story really made an impact on how I viewed Harold. I knew right away that I wanted to tackle this complex role.

Should viewers look beyond the fact that Harold falls in love with a 17-year-old boy?

Yes. It is questionable whether or not Harold really falls for the boy. The story we’re telling in A Boy Like That is very rich and should go past what is black or white. There are a lot of grey areas. This film is a twist on Lolita, the classic film that explored a love between an adult man and a much younger woman.

It’s also reminiscent of Mariel Hemingway in Woody Allen’s Manhattan. She played Tracy, a 17-year-old high school student dating Woody Allen’s 42-year-old Isaac Davis.

Mariel Hemingway was fantastic in Manhattan. She earned a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nomination for her performance! I think the difference is really the tone of A Boy Like That. This film really looks into the world of the psychological mind space of two human beings. It also falls into a drama thriller with a lot of complexities.

How was it to work with newcomer Andres Chaves, who plays Felix?

Andres is amazing. He comes from the stage, and I could really feel his discipline and professionalism. Since I’m older than he is, it was fun to build that real chemistry on camera with someone who is very raw.

We had met once or twice before the shoot and we just went for it. He brought such life into Felix.

What should fans ultimately take away from A Boy Like That?

I think that we are in a space where audiences are longing for more than superhero movies. A Boy Like That tells the story of people living in a world of loneliness and despair. I won’t get into the film’s messages as art is subjective, but there are themes in this film that many will be able to relate to. Ultimately, this is not a popcorn movie, but audiences will be entertained and will find themselves on the edge of their seats.

You can stream A Boy Like That on Here-TV, the world’s largest LGBTQ library featuring hundreds of hours of award-winning movies, series, documentaries and short films. For more information, visit heretv.com/a-boy-like-that.

WILLIAM COOKE is a former contributing columnist for Flame Magazine. He lives in New Orleans with his husband and their three cats, and teaches English at Nunez College.

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INTERVIEW

PASSION PROJECT Fashion model Marvin Cortes brings the heat to the holidays

By Phil Bessimer Photo by Tyler Chick

Marvin Cortes made history as the first male contestant to place as runner-up on cycle 20 of Tyra Banks’ wildly popular reality modelling competition America’s Next Top Model in 2013. He later went on to publish his own book, Don’t Waste Your Looks on Likes.

This past summer, Cortes took to social media to share that he is a proud member of the LGBTQ community. “I want to let you know that I’m coming out as openly bisexual,” said the 28-year-old in a heartfelt, 11-minute video he posted to Instagram TV. “I’ve never been happier, and I look forward to living more of an authentic life and sharing that with you.”

He is inviting all the world to join his journey of newfound sexual freedom in his latest passion project, an OnlyFans page. We spoke with Marvin Cortes at his home in Los Angeles.

Hi, Marvin! How has life been since you came out as bisexual?

It has been unexpectedly positive and filled with love from both my fans and my loved ones. I used to have anxiety about living as an openly bisexual guy, but it has been very relaxing and reassuring to finally be able to live in my true skin.

You have mentioned previously that your family was having a hard time finding acceptance.

They’re making progress. My brothers have been extremely supportive, in their own way, and my parents and I are talking more and more often. I haven’t seen them in person since coming out, but we are able to FaceTime and talk on the phone. We talk mostly about things besides my sexuality, though, which is nice.

Who is having the hardest time?

My uncle has been the most vocal about his unacceptance. It’s odd, because he really hasn’t been a part of my life since childhood. His opinion matters little to me.

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2021

What do you want your family and all of your fans to know about bisexuality?

Bisexuality, at least for me, is about recognizing the beauty and the sexy in both male and female. It is rooted in love. The most difficult part of being bisexual is seeing great potential partners on both sides.

Does it upset you that some people still believe bisexuality is simply a road to homosexuality?

Not really. As I’ve gotten older and matured, I’ve come to realize that other people’s opinions don’t affect me so much. At the end of the day, it’s about walking in my own truth and appreciating the person I see in the mirror. When coming out as bi, my biggest concern was that I might lose my ability to connect with women because of the stigma I worried women had about bi men. So far, it hasn’t been the case, which has been a pleasant surprise.

Let’s talk about your OnlyFans page. Does your family know about it?

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My brothers know I have an OnlyFans page. They think it’s amazing that I’m able to make money by posting pictures and videos online.

As for the rest of the family, I don’t know for sure; I would imagine they all know about it. If they have watched what’s on the page, that would be a different story. (Laughing) I don’t think my family has any interest in seeing the kind of content I post on there!

What exactly happens on the page?

I share a lot of myself. A lot…including the sexual experiences I enjoy in my personal life. Some of my content is amateur and some is professionally produced. I give fans a real unfiltered peek at what my sex life is like, and I think from all the feedback I get, people appreciate it. I don’t hold back in my content because I feel like OnlyFans is the one platform not to hold back on.

What are fans asking you for?

They ask for all types of things, from vanilla to kinkier content. I can’t get too specific because I wouldn’t want a fan to think our relationship isn’t private. Basically, everyone has their own interests on OnlyFans. Different things do it for them. I never judge what someone wants to see from me, though there are some things I prefer to film in my own time to figure out how I want it to be captured.

Is there a difference between stars on OnlyFans and porn stars?

An adult star gets a percentage or a one-time fee for doing a video.

They usually don’t make any additional compensation even though they are the product being sold. OnlyFans cuts out the middleman and allows talent the ability to be in full control and to reap nearly all of the benefits. OnlyFans creators can also be as explicit as they want to be.

Does your family need to worry that their boy may be lured into adult film?

I seriously doubt they worry about me at all, so I don’t think so.

Will you see your family for the holidays?

I always look forward to seeing my family during the holidays. I’m excited to spend time with them and enjoy the quality time together.

Have you begun your holiday shopping?

I usually wait to start my shopping until after Thanksgiving. I have so many people to shop for, but my mom tops the lists for being the amazing mother that she is. My dad never wears or uses any of the gifts I get him (laughs).

What is your holiday wish this year?

For the world to get back to some kind of normal. I don’t think I’m alone in that wish. It seems like we’re heading in the right direction.

Will anyone be unwrapping you?

I hope so! I am seeing people, but no one exclusively at the moment.

I certainly would like to be unwrapped this holiday, though! Whether it’s by a guy or girl, I’m not really sure yet.

INTERVIEW

You can follow Marvin Cortes at onlyfans.com/marvincortes.

PHIL BESSIMER was born in Seattle, raised in Pennsylvania, and now resides in California. His work has appeared in numerous places in print and online including AXS, Examiner and more. He is a single parent to three cats, and has also worked as an actor, singer and teacher.

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COVER

BROOKE LYNN HYTES REALLY IS THE QUEEN OF THE NORTH! The beloved queen spills the tea on her reign as Canada’s biggest drag superstar

By Christopher Turner

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2021

Brooke Lynn Hytes is back for Season 2 of Canada’s Drag Race (Photo by: Aleksandar Antonijevic)

with Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo (an all-male drag ballet company). Of course, Drag Race was a game changer and ultimately led to her history-making gig presiding over the RuPaul’s Drag Race spin-off Canada’s Drag Race in 2020. Today she holds the distinction of being the first and only alum from the cultural phenomenon to hold down a fixed gig as a panellist on any of the series’ international editions.

But, as the ever-expanding mainstream drag industry has continued to rapidly evolve, so has Brooke Lynn. These days she’s living in Los Angeles, but she’s clearly determined to continue taking the Canadian queer stage by storm. Later this year, she will host 1 Queen 5 Queers, an update of MTV’s hit show 1 Girl 5 Gays, which will bring together a group of diverse LGBTQ voices to speak openly and honestly through fast-paced, no-holds-barred conversations.

We spoke with Brooke Lynn Hytes just before Season 2 of Canada’s Drag Race premiered on October 14. Here’s what she had to say about life, her music endeavours, where she finds her inspiration, the pandemic, hosting 1 Queen 5 Queers, and, of course, all things Drag Race…including All Stars.

Brooke Lynn Hytes captured an entire country’s attention when she strutted into Season 11 of RuPaul’s Drag Race as the first Canadian contestant to appear on the hit drag competition series.

The Toronto native (known as Brock Edward Hayhoe out of drag) may not have snatched the Drag Race crown back in 2019 when she finished as the first runner-up of the season, but it’s pretty safe to say she came out a winner, cementing herself as an iconic runway queen (with a ton of costumes inspired by her home and native land) and lip-sync assassin.

A graduate of Canada’s National Ballet School, Brooke Lynn rose to the top of Toronto’s drag scene in the mid-2000s; her name, a play on “Brooklyn Heights,” was given to her by her drag mother, Farra N. Hyte. She won multiple pageants, including Miss Continental (the largest female-impersonator pageant in the US) in 2014, and in 2008, she travelled worldwide performing as a principal ballerina 24

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Hi, Brooke Lynn! Let’s kick things off and chat about Canada’s Drag Race. It’s back! What should fans expect from Season 2?

Definitely an elevation; the production and the lighting, for sure!

Much better lighting this year. And I think the queens are just incredible. Honestly, right out of the gate with the first episode, I couldn’t even believe the level of drag they were bringing to the competition. There are lots of twists and turns and surprises, but I think everyone’s going to be very pleasantly surprised with Season 2.

And you filmed the entire season during the pandemic.… How was that experience?

Not an experience I would like to have again. It was fine, though.

I mean, thank God, everyone took it very seriously and we had our lovely COVID officers on set, making sure everything was safe and wonderful. We’re all very appreciative of them for the hard work they had to do. Which was really a horrible job – telling people to wear masks, pulling people apart and all that kind of stuff. But it was good. I mean, we made it happen. Everyone came together and we were able to make a great season.

Were there any guest judges that you were super excited to meet or work with?

I was super excited that Gigi Gorgeous was coming up and was

PHOTOGRAPHER: Peter Tamlin FASHION STYLIST: Amber Watkins HAIR: Kirsten Klotz MAKEUP: Viktor Peters FASHION ASSISTANT: Aram Eginliyan 25

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I wanted to see lots of different forms of queerness represented in this show. I wanted to create a safe space for any kind of queer person to come on, to talk about queer shit and just have the platform, because I think that’s something that’s really missing in the media and entertainment today.

Has it surprised you how much the show has caught on outside of Canada?

Yeah, a little bit. I mean, you never know with these things how it’s going to go and how much people are going to enjoy it, but I think Drag Race in itself is such a phenomenon. It also just speaks to the amazing talent we have in Canada, that they’re able to connect with people all over the world.

Did you watch the original 1 Girl 5 Gays series?

I did, yes.

Thinking about the international editions of Drag Race…which country do you think really needs to launch next?

Antarctica! I want to see a Drag Race: Antarctica – I’m sure it’s coming. A country that I would like to see launch next is France.

There are amazing drag queens in France who I follow on Instagram that I would love to see on TV. You served so many incredible looks during Season 1 – and, obviously, outside of the show as well. I’m wondering, where do you draw inspiration from for your looks?

Oh, I honestly just peruse through Instagram, red carpets and all of that stuff. I send my designers about a zillion different screen shots of things I’m inspired by and looks I want to kind of recreate and make my own. So, honestly, social media is where I got all my inspo.

Would you ever return to the Drag Race stage south of the border for All Stars?

I don’t know. I get asked that question a lot and I don’t think it makes sense right now being as I’m a judge. I think it would be a little odd if I returned as a contestant, and I also feel like I’ve kind of moved beyond that a little bit. So yeah, I don’t know. I have no plans to at the moment.

You released your debut single, “Queen of the North” featuring (What’s my name!?) Priyanka earlier this year. Is there more music on the way?

Oh, maybe! I don’t know, music’s not something I’m super focused on. I might do one single a year, if I feel like it, but safe to say I’m sure I will do something.

So many of the queens have gone the music route following their appearance on Drag Race.… Who do you think has really done an amazing job with it?

Honestly, Priyanka has really knocked it out of the park for me.

Drag queen music, I find, can be very hit or miss, but I think her songs are so catchy. And the visuals that she paired them with have just been so incredible and well thought out. I think she’s really done an incredible job.

Let’s talk about 1 Queen 5 Queers. Tell us about it.

Yeah, I’m so excited about this project! So 1 Queen 5 Queers is a reboot of 1 Girl 5 Gays, which was an MTV Canada cult classic series from back in the early 2010s. I loved the show and I know so many other people did too, and I wanted to bring it back with more inclusivity and diversity. Representation in the queer community has been, rightfully, a huge conversation in the last little while and

Obviously a lot has changed in the past year. Let’s talk about the drag scene now and how it has had to quickly adapt and change.

Yes, I mean, there have been lots of online performances. I think this past year was just a testament to how adaptable drag queens are. I mean, the minute everything shut down, we saw online performances popping up and people organizing Twitch parties or whatever they are. You saw how drag queens navigated these different ways to make money and make art, which I think was incredible. Thankfully, we’re seemingly heading back into a world where we can perform live again. So for myself, I hope that the online is kind of a thing of the past because it’s just not the same as doing it in person – we as entertainers feed off the audience’s energy and love so much that it’s really hard to do that when you’re in your living room with your cats watching you perform.

Which queens do you look up to as role models, and why?

Oh, gosh, there are so many! Bianca Del Rio is a huge role model for me because she’s kind of the Queen of Queens. She’s somebody who was on the show and just really made an empire for herself out of it. She’s a really smart businessperson and she’s a great friend as well. I know she would cringe if she saw this but she’s a really good, helpful person and a real friend, which I love. Ru Paul also, obviously! What Ru’s created is incredible. He’s created this empire and industry. He’s the reason that drag is now kind of seen as a legitimate art form and a career where you can make actual money.

What is your advice to aspiring drag queens?

I would say, ‘Watch, listen and learn.’ You can learn a lot from watching people, seeing what they do – what they do that you like and also what you don’t like. Also, finding out what makes you, you – and then learning how to kind of capitalize on that. There are so many drag queens nowadays that it’s important to find the thing that really sets you apart from the pack. Besides that, always remember the importance of professionalism. Showing up on time and being easy to work with goes a very long way.

What is drag all about for you at its core? What does it mean to you?

It’s self-expression. At its core, that’s what it means to me: selfexpression, showcasing a different part of you.

If you weren’t doing drag right now, what would you be doing?

Oh my God! Prostitution? I have no idea! I’d probably still be a dancer or something. I literally think about that all the time – I have no idea.

So what do you have planned for the future? What’s next for Brooke Lynn Hytes?

I would love to keep producing shows and making money. Honestly, just as long as I’m making money, I don’t really care what I’m doing, so who knows? I’ll say yes to everything.

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.

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able to be on the show. She is an icon and a good friend of mine.

And she was a great judge. There were some judges I didn’t really know a lot about that I ended up falling in love with, like Emma Hunter, for example. She was so funny, gave such good critique and feedback, and we just had the best time.

FASHION

The Girl With The P Tattoo From Paul to Perla…

STYLING AND CREATIVE DIRECTION: Aram Eginliyan PHOTOGRAPHER: Janine Maral HAIR: Alan Ovalles MODEL AND MAKEUP: Perla

One simply cannot mention fashion, drag and Canada in the same sentence without talking about Perla. As she likes to say it, that’s Pearl with an A at the end instead of the middle. To this Calgaryborn and now Toronto-based rising star, fashion goes deeper than a few runway references and a passion for fashion.

Paul, formerly known by his full name Paul Conrad Schneider through his fashionable social media pages, has always been an appreciator of the fashion world. But it wasn’t until watching Season 9 of RuPaul’s Drag Race and falling in love with Sasha Velour that the world started seeing a lot less of the fashionable Paul posting his drool-worthy outfit inspiration online and started seeing a lot more of the gorgeous garments of Perla.

But whether it’s in drag as Perla or out of drag as Paul, one thing is for certain: they don’t play around when it comes to their drive for, and knowledge and love of, fashion. This all stems from the love of suiting that started from Paul and has without a doubt trickled into the fashionable stylings you see on Perla today. After all, how many other pieces of clothing can you wear besides a two-piece suit that can make anyone, no matter their gender, feel as fierce?

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Now, their love of fashion doesn’t only start and end with a love for suiting. Four years and a gorgeous closet filled with custom creations from fellow Calgary creative Benjamin Toner have evolved this once very fashionable lad into the diva who is the future of not only what Canadian drag has to offer, but what Canadian fashion has in store – especially when it comes to hair-flipping her way through Toronto’s Gay Village.

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Perla/Paul Half n’ Half Look BLAZER COAT: Andrew Szewczyk SHOES: L’intervalle

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Perla Green Suit Look SUIT: Jafine BOOTS: L’intervalle Perla Blue Suit Look SUIT: Jafine SHOES: L’intervalle Paul Tattoo Suit Look SUIT: Gorm BOOTS: L’intervalle Paul Black Suit Look SUIT: Andrew Szewczyk SHOES: L’intervalle

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Perla/Paul Half n’ Half Look BLAZER COAT: Andrew Szewczyk SHOES: L’intervalle

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FASHION

Lakeside Looks Cool fashions and party wear worn on a breezy winter day at Toronto’s Cherry Beach offer up a little inspiration to ring in the New Year

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2021

PHOTOGRAPHER: Ivan Otis CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Paul Langill WARDROBE STYLING AND MAKEUP: Gelareh Kamazani WARDROBE STYLING ON-SET ASSISTANT: Sikha Panigrahi HAIR STYLIST: Brian Phillips, for World Salon with World Hair.Skin products MODELS: Liza (Dulcedo Models), Darius (Dulcedo Models), Samantha Grant (B&M Models), Cameron Beck (Plutino Models) STUDIO SERVICES: Studio311.CA

ALL CLOTHING: Mayer Official 32

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FASHION NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2021

JACKET: Vintage Coat Kensington Market GENDERLESS SWEATER: House of Dwir SCARF: Hudson’s Bay PANTS: Hip and Bone BOOTS: Dr. Martens 34

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BIKER JACKET: Vintage Coat Kensington Market SKIRT: House of Dwir BODY SUIT: Body Glove LEATHER JACKET: Xian Clothing PANTS: Guess 35

FASHION NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2021

VEGAN LEATHER SLEEVELESS VEST: Candace Daniela

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FASHION

LONG SLEEVE SWEATER: H&M FISHNET HOODIE: Xian Clothing DRAWSTRING PANTS: Hip and Bone

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VEGAN LEATHER AND FUN FUR LONG SLEEVELESS VEST: Candace Daniela JEANS: Guess BOOTS: Zara

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FASHION

BODY SUIT: Sekse BLAZER: Max Mara

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FASHION NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2021

BIKER JACKET: Vintage Coat Kensington Market SKIRT: House of Dwir

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FASHION

SEQUENCE SWEATER: Mayer Official

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PRIDE

Small Town,

Big Pride Reflecting on Pride celebrations outside of the big city

By Jaime Woo

In times like these, sometimes the tonic you need is a seven-foot drag performer in a sequined nun’s outfit, lip-synching to a dance mix medley of songs from the film Sister Act. Drag has been a saving grace for me during the pandemic – a wonderful reminder of the power and whimsicality of queer liberation – and I’d travelled an hour and a half from Toronto to attend drag brunch in St. Catharines.

The trek was further than I normally would have considered, but the host for the brunch was one of my favourite restaurants, Dispatch, and I’m not one to turn down the chance to put delicious things in my mouth. As the drag hostesses Macy Manolo and Claudia Silva camped and vamped it up and down St. Paul St., I reflected on how little I’d thought of Pride celebrations in smaller towns.

Of course, a city of 140,000 perhaps can’t be defined as a small town. Not compared to the ones featured in a new documentary, Small Town Pride, directed by Chelle Turingan and Riley Sparks.

The film, the first feature-length documentary from Xtra, travels between three small towns in Alberta, Nova Scotia and the Northwest Territories over the summer of 2019, sharing the triumphs and setbacks of the people planning Pride celebrations there.

The documentary is careful not to villainize nor stereotype small towns, as the adult organizers genuinely love and choose to live in them. The people in the film have their own reasons for moving to or staying in Taber, Alberta (population: 8,711), or Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia (population: 491), or Norman Wells, Northwest Territories (population: 800). They marvel how, at once, things seem to have changed so much for queer rights, and yet some things remain the same.

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That’s not to say that things are perfect. As Ava Pope, a high school student in Norman Wells, notes, being out can be tricky, since once you tell one person, it can spread “like wildfire” in a small town until everyone knows. And bringing change can be hard, as people believe “everything here is good, and we don’t need to change anything, no matter what.”

High school is difficult already with its hierarchical structure and limited mobility, but it’s even tougher when there is literally only one school. Students try to make the gender and sexuality alliance,

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PRIDE

or GSA, a safe space, when in the moment it can feel like there are so few options. “One of our biggest focuses in our GSA is being there for people who feel like they don’t have anyone there for them,” says Pope in the film. “It’s not like you can have friends from another school or go somewhere else. This is it.”

During the film, I lean in closer as Dora Grandjambe, a teacher at the school, speaks, crediting the young people as the beating heart of the organizing. She acts as a safe harbour for the students, and relates it to her own experience as a residential school survivor.

“All of those years, we didn’t have anybody,” she says. “We all had to act the same, but today, young people…they believe in including everybody.”

Change is a recurring theme of the film, and it’s something we in the queer community believe in, and strive for. The film’s origins are also rooted in the power of change. Chelle, writing in Xtra, tells the story of the spark of inspiration: “My partner grew up as a closeted queer teenager in the 1990s, in a small town nestled in the Ottawa Valley. This was before GSAs existed in high schools or the internet and social media made it easier for us to connect with each other. In 2018, her hometown of Smiths Falls celebrated its very first Smiths Falls Pride. The event moved her to tears, and she said to me, ‘I never thought I’d see this happen in my hometown.’”

That same feeling is echoed by the queer residents of Taber, in Alberta, who struggle to have city council allow them to raise the rainbow flag. In 2018, the first time the flag was raised, it got stolen.

A second attempt saw the flag incinerated. Part of me thinks how the actions of a few vandals can create such a massive feeling of unsafety in people, but I realize it’s also how afterwards so few townspeople seemed to care about the homophobic actions.

The film interviews the mayor, who hasn’t shown up for any Pride celebrations because of existing commitments, which immediately sparked echoes of why one-time Toronto mayor Rob Ford also chose to skip out on participating in Pride. It’s frustrating, but it also draws pity out of me. Maybe because I’m getting older myself, I don’t see them as authority figures or community leaders, but as scared human beings, who’ve discovered the limit of the worlds they want to know.

I get the sense that, for some people, life is safest within very closely drawn lines, and anything outside of that is too weird, too destabilizing – and that makes a town small, no matter the size of the population or the length of its perimeter.

What’s magical is when those things that seem foreign turn out not to be scary, when difference is a thing worth celebrating, such as when in 2020 Taber’s mayor sent a message on Facebook during its virtual Pride celebration. People can change.

Thinking of small towns, I drift to one of the most famous fictional small towns in Canada: Schitt’s Creek. At the 2018 Vulture Festival in Los Angeles, Dan Levy explained that there wouldn’t be storylines of homophobia in Schitt’s Creek simply because he has “no patience for homophobia.” Instead, he said: “We show love and tolerance.

If you put something like that out of the equation, you’re saying that doesn’t exist and shouldn’t exist.”

Showing a hopeful world like that changed viewers, who began to question their own worldviews. “The letters we’ve been receiving are from people who realized their beliefs were biased or homophobic or bigoted, and we created a space where love and acceptance is paramount,” Levy said. “We’ve watched the growth and comfort of people who outwardly live their lives and aren’t being feared of being targeted. And it has a ripple effect into people’s homes.”

The pandemic showed us that we are more interconnected than we could imagine. And, through the power of the internet, you can watch Schitt’s Creek nearly anywhere, in towns big and small. I hope with time these small town Prides bring their participants a level of safety and opportunity and sense of feeling seen. I think about how those of us with established Prides can better support others, especially as a reminder for how important these gatherings can be.

A few weeks after the drag brunch, I find myself travelling again: this time to Montreal. On the train ride home, I strike up a conversation with a few of the other passengers. I mention this article that I’m writing, and a man a few seats ahead mentions that he grew up with so few opportunities to see how wonderfully diverse the world could be. Now there’s even a rainbow crosswalk in the town he lives in, Prescott. When one of his teenaged daughter’s friends came out, it felt celebratory, happy that she was finding herself.

Not too shabby for a town with a population of 4,222.

JAIME WOO is a writer based in Toronto, focusing on the intersection of technology and culture. He’s best-known for his Lambda Literary-nominated book, Meet Grindr, dissecting how the design of the infamous app influences user behaviour.

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Canada Is Not Doing Enough To Suppor t Gay Me n’s Me nt al Healt h There’s a mental health crisis within the gay community

By Adam Zivo

“reading” people) – but the potential mental health impacts of this have not been studied yet.

Though gay men are now widely accepted by Canadian society, they nonetheless continue to face community-specific challenges that are often ignored. Mental health is one such challenge, as gay men consistently report having poorer mental health than their heterosexual counterparts, including higher rates of mood and anxiety disorders. Unfortunately, public funding for gay health care is scarce, particularly for mental health, and while the investments needed to fix this are relatively modest, there appears to be a lack of political will to make that happen.

How bad is mental health in the gay community? A 2017 study published in the American Journal of Men’s Health notes that gay men are three times more likely to experience depression compared to the general population, and, as a result, are at a much higher risk for suicide. Gay men who consider suicide often do so with a noticeably higher intention to die compared to their heterosexual counterparts.

Poor mental health also fuels substance abuse, which poses unique problems for Canada’s gay community, which is currently experiencing a protracted crystal meth epidemic. This epidemic, which is mirrored in gay communities in the United States and United Kingdom, stems from the popularity of chemsex (mixing sex and meth) and has been quietly poisoning gay spaces for at least a decade, ruining countless lives. Unfortunately, this has not been widely noticed by Canadian policy-makers or covered in non-LGBTQ media outlets.

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As poor mental health is often at the root of addiction issues, the meth epidemic adds another, community-specific dimension of harm to Canada’s gay mental health crisis.

It is unclear why gay men struggle with poor mental health. Some psychologists have argued that, because gay men are prone to having adverse experiences in their childhood, their mental health tends to be hindered early in life, leading to compounding problems in adulthood. Others have explored the impact of “minority stress” – a phenomenon wherein societal homophobia creates small day-today stressors that accumulate over time and amplify other health issues. “Minority stress” has been well-studied but remains poorly understood. Being relatively vague, it is difficult to test empirically.

It is understandable that there is scant research into how toxic elements of gay culture impact mental health. Critically studying gay culture requires a foundation of community knowledge that many researchers do not have, and there is always a risk of pushback from those who perceive criticism of gay culture as inherently homophobic.

Whatever the reasons behind gay men’s poor mental health, one thing is clear: the problem is being inadequately addressed by the Canadian government. While mental health has become a popular topic among Canadian policy-makers, little effort has gone into understanding, let alone tackling, its unique intersections with gay men.

Gay-specific health care is critical Research shows that heterosexual healthcare providers consistently express biases against LGBTQ patients, especially gay men. These healthcare providers also often lack knowledge about the prevailing norms, pressures and experiences that inform gay mental health.

Can a heterosexual health provider fully support a gay man experiencing substance abuse issues or body dysmorphia if they are unaware of how drugs and body aesthetics are understood within the gay community? Sometimes yes, but sometimes no.

Helpfully, Canada’s psychiatric hospitals sometimes offer LGBTQspecific programs. For example, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), a prominent hospital in Toronto, offers LGBTQ-friendly group therapy for substance abuse through its Rainbow Services program. However, programs like these tend to have a narrow scope and so may not be an ideal solution for gay men who are seeking holistic support for mental health. They may also be inaccessible to gay men who are reluctant to seek help from traditional healthcare providers due to anxieties over homophobia.

Canada needs robust, gay-specific mental health programs offered by service providers who are deeply embedded within the gay community. That exists, but services are scarce, underfunded, and concentrated in urban areas to such a degree that rural gay men have little hope of accessing support that is fully responsive to their needs.

Little research has been done to explore how the gay community’s internal dynamics may also exacerbate poor mental health. For example, gay culture tends to place ruthless pressure on men to be aesthetically perfect, predisposing them to eating disorders and body dysmorphia. A 2016 study published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior suggests that body dissatisfaction is discernably higher among gay men and tied to higher rates of depression.

In British Columbia, the sole organization dedicated to LGBTQ mental health is Qmunity, a Vancouver-based non-profit. Qmunity is not a dedicated mental health service provider; it’s a community space that incidentally provides mental health support. The situation is somewhat better in Toronto, with a small handful of options – such as Rainbow Health, AIDS Committee Toronto (ACT), and The 519 (though The 519, like Qmunity, is also primarily a community space that only incidentally provides mental health services).

Some elements of gay culture also celebrate toxic forms of social engagement, prioritizing antagonistic, rather than constructive, approaches to conflict (e.g., celebrating “throwing shade” and

Nationally, LGBTQ organizations such as PFLAG and EGALE provide limited mental health support across Canada, even though these organizations are not primarily healthcare providers. Their

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Overall, these organizations are underfunded and lack the support needed to tackle the gay community’s mental health crisis. They tend to rely on social workers to provide services, rather than psychologists and psychiatrists (though gay men can be referred to the latter). While social workers are integral to community support programs and should not be undervalued, they are generalists who lack the specialized knowledge needed to tackle many mental health issues.

Critical health care is critically underfunded It is hard to get a sense of how much funding flows through gay health care. There is no central database summarizing how much money is invested into that space. One way to make an estimate is to analyze the size of government grants given to Canada’s gay health organizations, and make rough inferences from there.

Generally speaking, the largest of these organizations receive government funding in the low seven figures. In 2018, the AIDS Committee of Toronto (ACT) received $3 million in government grants, accounting for 60 per cent of its total revenue, while in 2020, The 519 received $2 million in government funds (40 per cent of revenue). Programs that target smaller, niche communities tend to receive six-figure grants – for example, Asian Community AIDS Services received $550,000 in grants in 2019, accounting for approximately 85 per cent of total revenue.

Government grants typically constitute a sizeable chunk of gay health organizations’ revenues, meaning that chronic government underinvestment can be expected to meaningfully impact their service capacity.

After reviewing the publicly available financials of all of the gay health organizations I could find in Canada, I came to the estimate that the total amount of funds invested into LGBTQ health, across all levels of government (federal, provincial and municipal), ranges from $25 million to $30 million per year. However, as many of these organizations serve the LGBTQ community as a whole, such that they allocate only part of their funding to gay-specific programming, I estimate that gay-specific community healthcare investments are likely closer to $10 million per year (and could easily be less than that). Of that amount, only a portion is earmarked for mental health.

Now, $10 million may sound like a lot, but it isn’t. Canada spent $260 billion on health care in 2019 and invested $5 billion in mental health in 2017. Given the scale of funding spent on mental health, it is surprising to see less than $10 million allocated to gay health care. Gay men are not a minuscule group, and constitute approximately 1.5 per cent of Canada’s population.

One might speculate that perhaps Canada just doesn’t invest much money into mental health services that are tailored for minority groups – but that doesn’t seem true. In 2019, the federal government invested $50 million across 10 years for Inuit mental health. That’s $5 million per year solely for mental health, in contrast to gay men, who receive $10 million to cover all of their community-specific healthcare needs (despite there being 10 times more gay men in Canada than Inuit people).

This isn’t to say that healthcare funding for Inuit people, or similar groups, should be reduced. The purpose of the comparison is only to point out just how much gay men are being left behind when it comes to investing in community health, and especially mental health.

It would take only a modest sum of money, relative to how much is spent on health care as a whole, to fix Canada’s chronic underinvestment in gay health care. Tackling this problem at the national level would also be doable because, although health care falls under provincial jurisdiction, the federal government’s past investments into Indigenous mental health show that federal action is possible. So if solutions are affordable and feasible, why has there been so little action?

Why are gay men being left behind?

One possible explanation is that Canada just neglects LGBTQ communities as a whole. Canadian political leaders excel at symbolic gestures designed to create the appearance of support, but often fail to follow through with more substantive action.

For example, LGBTQ activists spent years lobbying the federal government for international development funds that could be used to support global LGBTQ rights activism. They finally received funding in 2019, through a $30 million commitment spread across six years. That isn’t actually much money; it represents only 0.2 per cent of Canada’s total international development budget and is only half of what comparable countries, such as the Netherlands, spend on global LGBTQ advocacy. It is also 88 per cent less than what is invested into feminist international development projects (after adjusting for different population sizes).

If Canada underinvests in LGBTQ international development, is it any surprise that it also underinvests in LGBTQ health care?

It is possible that gay men are under-supported because they are no longer believed to be oppressed. Many feel that gay men are now a privileged faction of society, and that they are thus undeserving of special support. This narrative is, unfortunately, often tossed around within parts of the LGBTQ community itself.

But the perception of privilege is inaccurate. Based on the FBI’s 2017 crime data, the majority of victims of anti-LGBTQ hate crimes are gay men, who are five times more likely to experience hate crimes compared to lesbians. On a per capita basis, gay men are as vulnerable, and potentially even more vulnerable, to hate crimes than trans individuals.

However, though statistics show that gay men are still marginalized, that doesn’t change the fact that they’re misperceived as being privileged – and perception matters in the world of policy-making.

Policy-makers like to imagine themselves as being data-driven, but policy development is often pushed by political considerations. The erasure of ongoing gay victimization robs the gay community of the political capital needed to call attention to its woes.

Canada should start taking gay mental health seriously – first, by recognizing that real investments into the LGBTQ community matter more than symbolic gestures, and, second, by recognizing that, when it comes to social exclusion, gay men are not out of the woods yet and need programs that tackle their unique needs.

ADAM ZIVO is IN Magazine’s politics and culture columnist. He is a Toronto-based social entrepreneur, photographer and analyst best known for founding the LoveisLoveisLove campaign.

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programming complements local services in urban areas while providing support options to gay Canadians living outside large metropoles.

INSIGHT

JORDAN TANNAHILL TALKS ABOUT HIS NEW BOOK

THE LISTENERS

...AND ABOUT HIS SEX LIFE Author’s second fiction novel tells a story of love and loneliness

By Paul Gallant

My first in-person brush with Jordan Tannahill was when he and his then-partner ran the scruffy and beloved art space Videofag in Toronto’s scruffy (and mostly beloved) Kensington Market from 2012 to 2016. It was one of those anything-can-happen storefronts where you might enter to find someone lying on the floor as part of a dance piece, someone in short-shorts spinning tunes or someone crafting at a fold-out table.

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Sounds all very low-key guerilla for local scenesters. But Tannahill had made himself known as a force of nature before he was out of his teens, even at his Ottawa high school. He founded his theatre company Suburban Beast at age 20, and theatre remains a big part of his vision: his play about climate change Is My Microphone on?, co-written with Erin Brubacher, was performed at Canadian Stage’s High Park Amphitheatre in September, and his Draw Me Close, which uses VR and animation to explore the relationship between mother and son, is slated for a run this winter at Toronto’s Soulpepper Theatre. But there’s always been something about Tannahill that suggests that his ambitions are too big for a mere stage. His 2018 debut novel Liminal received critical applause and won France’s 2021 Prix des Jeunes Libraires.

“The central conundrum about the hum is whether it’s a single unified global phenomenon that somehow comes from nature, or is it a global problem with the human-built environment like the electrical grid, radiation or is it a series of localized white-noise issues that have been clustered together?” Tannahill said in an interview just after the book made the Giller longlist.

Tannahill plays with the rich ambiguity around the source of “the hum”; the reader is constantly wondering if the book will take a supernatural or sci-fi turn, whether it will remain in realistic mode or reveal itself to be a hallucination or delusion. “When are we willing to depart from reason and embrace something that defies a certain kind of logic but has its own instinctive or poetic logic?

The idea of powerfully profound individual experience speaks to that,” he says. “I think of the early saints who felt they were being spoken to by God – that private gift that only you have access to.

That’s a timeless condition.”

Claire, the lead character and narrator, is a straight woman whose voice is a cross between Tannahill’s own and one of his good friends, “an intelligent and witty woman in her 40s.” A BBC interviewer asked him how comfortable he felt writing in the voice of a woman.

His latest book, The Listeners, which was shortlisted for the 2021 “First and foremost, I feel most comfortable as a gay man writing Scotiabank Giller Prize, demonstrates the breadth of his creative in the voice of another white gay man. Second to that would be vision. The novel is a riveting thriller of sorts, which uses an a white woman. A long-distance third would be writing in the unreliable narrator to get at the themes of truth, faith, paranoia, heterosexual male voice. I definitely feel a close kinship to Claire.” conspiracy theories, the stereotype of female hysteria, mental health, the secular versus the scientific, domestic disgruntlement, erotic Although there is no homosexual hanky-panky in the book (there exploration and technological intrusions on human life. Though he are throwaway lines about RuPaul’s Drag Race and gender pronoun started the book about four years ago, well before the pandemic, it’s usage), Tannahill says queerness suffuses all his writing. “Claire’s like Tannahill stuck his hand into the current zeitgeist and pulled search for the ecstatic and for this pleasure that reorients her entire out the most compelling bits. life, that search resonates strongly in my own life, looking for experiences of the sublime,” he says. “Rave culture, queer culture, The book – about Claire, a suburban teacher and mother who starts sex culture, fetish culture. Sex can be spiritual. It can also be hearing an inexplicable sound that throws her life into disarray and shattering as well. For me, the ‘hum’ is that for Claire.” alienates her from the people closest to her – is a page turner that asks a lot of big questions. Even very basic ones: is the sound a It’s an interesting step to get from a mysterious and haunting curse or a blessing? The Listeners is nominally set in the United auditory experience to sex and sex culture, but one that makes States (there are references to Trump, and people read The New sense for someone who has Tannahill’s ability to zoom out and York Times), but it could be set in any predominantly white suburb see things abstractly. in the English-speaking world. And it draws on real-life reports of people who have heard “the hum” – a low-level droning or In his social media, Tannahill reveals an interest in fetishes like buzzing sound – in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United puppy play, latex and wrestling gear. This summer in Berlin, he got States. Tannahill, who has lived in Europe, mostly London, for a tattoo of two dog-headed figures by Cristo Phe. Phe has drawn the past five years, is aiming for a huge potential readership here. versions of these animal-humans on many of his customers and 46

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the figures seem to signal a kind of counterculture kinship through ink. This interest – dedication, perhaps? – in exploring sex and other things he could do with his body grew for Tannahill as he entered his 30s.

“When I turned 30, I suddenly realized that sex can be so much more expansive. It can be metaphoric and playful and political and spiritual, incorporating fetish, sex work, incorporating all these modalities within my sexual identity I hadn’t realized I had in me before,” he says. “We’re constantly in a state of becoming, of

learning more about our sexual lives and interests. In the last few years, I’ve had a whole new process of reckoning with that. Part of it is confidence. Part of it is mortality as well. I have this body for a limited amount of time. What can I do with it? What kind of pleasure can it give me and what kind of pleasure can it give others?”

These are the questions of a man who will, we must expect, respond to them in artwork. Whether it’s a play, book, film or dance piece, it will be ambitious, compelling and bent on reaching a global audience.

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.

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TRAVEL

Carefree In Quito The capital of Ecuador teems with urban adventure – gold leaf, gargoyles, gourmet guinea pigs and all

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2021

By Doug Wallace

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The whole country is like that really: extremely diverse, with a lot of different communities and cultures. “That mixture makes Ecuador very interesting, as does the diversity in nature, the four eco-systems – the coast, the highlands, the jungle and the Galápagos,” Maria Sol says. Peaceful and relatively smallish, Ecuador can change dramatically, even within a two-hour drive.

I’m wandering through Quito by myself on a self-indulgent weekend, getting to know it after a trip inland to the rainforest, rather than sprinting home right away. The first thing I notice is how few tourist buses there are in what should be a tourist-thick part of town. “Normally, the people who come to Ecuador are a bit more adventurous, more well-travelled, and spend their time in the interior,” Maria Sol says. This suits me fine today.

A wealth of art and history I start my explorations poking about the museums and heritage buildings of Old Town, much of it closed to traffic on the weekends, which the locals love. I begin with trying to zoom in on the gargoyles and other assorted animal statues on the façade of the Basílica del Voto Nacional, the country’s biggest neo-Gothic cathedral, but I have better luck inside shooting the massive stained-glass window in the apse.

Switching plazas to Plaza de la Independencia, a.k.a. Plaza Grande, I take the requisite shots of the Presidential Palace and City Hall, before putting my bald head in the hands of the square’s sole barber, whose staff kindly create photographic proof of my haircut for sharing later on Instagram. Refreshed, I make my way down the street to the 19th-century house-slash-museum of a wealthy old lady, the very religious Doña María Augusta Urrutia. She was known for helping the city’s less fortunate and for collecting a ton of mid-19th and early-20th-century art, much of it by Ecuadorian

Left: Photo by Doug Wallace

artist Victor Mideros. A young history student gives me a private tour in English for free, pointing out beautiful paintings and wonderfully preserved furniture and furnishings – Belgian tiles, hand-painted wallpaper, more stained glass, kitchen gadgets I’ve never seen before.

While I’m in the neighbourhood, I walk the one minute to the Church of the Society of Jesus, an icon of Latin American Baroque architecture, to see what all the gold-leaf fuss is about – and am blinded by the acres of 23-karat gold covering practically everything.

Seriously, you need sunglasses to actually see the elaborate carvings.

I happily pay the $2 entrance fee (the US dollar is the official currency here) and duck back into the day.

The rest of my afternoon is spent on the other side of town at the very moving La Capilla del Hombre, The Chapel of Man, an art museum in the Bellavista neighbourhood that champions the work of Oswaldo Guayasamín, one of Ecuador’s greatest artists.

Influenced by Picasso and the Cubists, he created paintings and sculptures centring on the political oppression and resilience of the Latin American peoples. Guayasamín’s grand home across the road showcases even more of his work.

Where the wild things are At happy hour, I make my way to Calle de la Ronda, a narrow pedestrian street full of little bars and cafés. It’s time for a sit-down and a glass of wine with the cocktail crowd, which gathers here predinner to snack and chat. I people-watch and ready the afternoon’s pictures for posting when I’m reattached to the hotel Wi-Fi. I fall in with a younger crowd another day, hanging out in La Marsical, a neighbourhood of bars and pubs, galleries, bookstores and other cool stuff. The action culminates at La Plaza Foch, a.k.a.

Gringoland, a big square lined with eateries, steps away from the town’s top boutique hotels and decent hostels, and filled with 20-somethings and hip tourists.

I find a good vantage point on the plaza, sheltered from the children peddling candy and cigarettes on the street, and tuck into a nice T-bone with a couple of glasses of wine for just over $20. The

Above: Photo by Wikimedia Commons

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“If the tourist is nice and smiles, he will have a great experience.

If the tourist is grumpy and has a mad face, he will get the same from the local people,” says my tour guide, Maria Sol Aguinaga, telling me straight. She’s setting me up for a walk around her hometown of Quito, which, like most urban centres, is made up of little ’hoods, each with its own essence.

TRAVEL

chimichurri is divine. In fact, everywhere I end up dining in Quito, I find the traditional food both reasonably priced and delicious – fried chicken, grilled fish and churrasco beef, with fried potatoes, flavoured rice and deep-fried plantain. I cautiously challenge my taste buds more than a few times with the street food, picking the stalls that have the biggest crowds around them.

Photo by Wikimedia Commons

Weirdly, I find guinea pig on quite a few fine-dining menus, a traditional food of the Andean peoples that’s trotted out only on special occasions nowadays. Never one to shy away from a good food story I can tell later on, I try it at a restaurant within the National Theatre. Because I had made a reservation, a waiter was watching for me in the square. “Mr. Douglas?” Maybe nobody else makes reservations here, I think, as he ushers me to a window seat amidst an ocean of red velvet curtains (this is the theatre, after all).

I play Name That Tune with myself, devouring sea bass ceviche with roasted corn and plantain chips, picking pop tunes out of the Muzak. Bryan Adams’ “Everything I Do” fills the room as I’m presented with deep-fried guinea pig legs, crispy and dark, maybe a little salty, which I’m OK with. I feel a bit guilty, but, hey, when in Rome….

Photo by Wikimedia Commons

I find more familiar fare (and not quite so morally challenging) the next night at Hacienda Rumiloma. The cab driver curses all the way along the winding gravel laneway up the sides of the Pichincha Volcano. The ranch is now a six-room hotel, yet still filled with old-style stuff – stone fireplaces, ornate sideboards, copper wash basins, wood beams. A patron gets up after dinner to play the grand piano to a mostly empty room and I get a distinct sense of faded antiquity, a romantic clinging to history that I find all over town.

When it’s time to sink into the Quito nightlife, I remember having quizzed Maria Sol on where all the cool kids are hanging these days when they aren’t on Plaza Foch. “Where we go now is fancy,” she says, referring to the upscale neighbourhood of Cumbayá, about 20 minutes from downtown. This is where gourmet restaurants, bars and clubs have popped up to cater to the high-income suburbanites and downtowners looking for a break from their usual karaoke watering holes. “You have restaurants and discos, bars where they play laughing music – music that only people over 30 will remember, mostly love songs. People sing and drink, cry, get drunk and have fun.”

Photo by Doug Wallace

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2021

I brush up on my Bryan Adams on the way over.

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DOUG WALLACE is the editor and publisher of travel resource TravelRight.Today.

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“This is a day I never really thought would ever happen,” James told the Toronto Star at the time. “I look at this as being a great day for female hockey.”

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