IN Magazine: May/June 2021

CELEBRATING CANADA’S LGBTQ2

LIFESTYLE

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DEVERY JACOBS ON QUEER INDIGENOUS REPRESENTATION THE WHERE’S WALDO OF ASIAN LGBTQ REPRESENTATION

DRAG RACE ’S BRITISH INVASION! AMERICA, UK HUN? 1

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Stay tuned to EbonyPride.CA for more information.

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YOU WRITE YOUR OWN STORY

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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 Luis Augusto Nobre, Adriana Ermter, Bianca Guzzo, Courtney Hardwick, Karen Kwan, Paul Langill, Keith McCrady, Rowan O’Brien, Ivan Otis, Sikha Panigrahi, Kristina Ruddick, Doug Wallace, Casey Williams, Jaime Woo, Adam Zivo DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AND SPONSORSHIPS Bradley Blaylock CONTROLLER Jackie Zhao

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ON THE COVER: DEVERY JACOBS BY KRISTINA RUDDICK

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CONTENTS Issue 100 May / June 2021

100 ISSUE!

INFRONT 06 | FLUID FRAGRANCE Perfume is rediscovering its gender-neutral roots 08 | SOUS LA FACE SKIN RESTORATION STUDIO OPENS IN TORONTO The owner and founder shares the benefits of a unique anti-aging massage 09 | JUICY FRUIT: CAN YOU GET TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING? Is it possible to eat too much fruit?

10 | THE ADVENTURE OF HONOURING THE PRIDE LEGACY Canada helps newcomers to live in a safer place, but it’s still far from being a paradise because of the systemic barriers 12 | PICKUP TECH Contrary to their ruffian aura, today’s pickup trucks employ advanced tech 13 | METROLINX’S JOURNEY TOWARDS INCLUSIVITY How a Canadian organization is celebrating – and promoting – diversity and inclusion 14 | EARLY TRIALS SHOW PROMISING DEVELOPMENT FOR HIV VACCINE Though they’ve shown success, these HIV vaccine trials are still in the very early stages 15 | RISING LIKE A PHOENIX IN BRITISH COLUMBIA This drug and alcohol recovery and education program helps participants exit the cycle of addictions

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17 | INDIGENOUS PEOPLE HAVE DUG DEEP TO SURVIVE: LET’S CELEBRATE THAT The executive director at 2-Spirited People of the 1st Nations reflects on National Indigenous Peoples Day FEATURES 18 | A FATHER, HIS SON, AND FORGIVENESS Strained relationships between fathers and sons are nothing new. But when it comes to forgiveness, it’s never too late

20 | CELEBRATE QUEER HISTORY BY READING ONE OF CANADA’S FIRST GAY MAGAZINES Those who don’t know their history are doomed to repeat it (plus, hey, it’s an illuminating – and sometimes fun – read) 22 | DRAG RACE’S BRITISH INVASION! AMERICA, UK HUN? Nobody could have anticipated that the interest in Drag Race UK’s second season would overtake the hype of the original RuPaul’s Drag Race 24 | CELEBRATING 100 ISSUES OF IN MAGAZINE We’re celebrating 100 issues of IN! Here, we revisit all of our memorable, groundbreaking – and, in some cases, hilariously dated – covers!

26 | DEVERY JACOBS IS MAKING SURE QUEER, INDIGENOUS STORIES ARE TOLD Meet the actor, filmmaker and activist making a name for herself—and her communities 30 | PRIDE TORONTO PARTNERS WITH ARTISTS FOR PRIDE 2021 The initiative showcases local visual and digital artists this summer

32 | A TIMELINE OF TORONTO PRIDE Know your history, Toronto…or at least the highlights

34 | THE “WHERE’S WALDO” OF ASIAN LGBTQ REPRESENTATION Asian culture is underrepresented on your screens 46 | HOW CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS WARP LGBTQ IDENTITIES Arts funding in particular tends to warp what it means to be LGBTQ+ 48 | GURL, YOU BETTER SPEAK THE QUEENS’ ENGLISH Chloe Davis’s new book is a celebration of the creativity of queer culture 50 | FORTRESS AGAINST THE WORLD As hotels heat up – their welcome mats out, feather dusters flying – an insider inspects the foibles and fortes of selling sleep 54 | FLASHBACK: JUNE 7, 1954 IN LGBTQ HISTORY Alan Turing, mathematician and LGBTQ rights icon, dies FASHION 36 | SUMMER FASHIONISTOS Need a little style inspo after lockdown? Here are a few slick Summer 2021 looks we’re loving

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LOOKING GOOD

Fluid

FRAGRANCE Perfume is rediscovering its gender-neutral roots

By Adriana Ermter

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Brigitte Bardot wore Jicky perfume exclusively. It was her signature scent. Sean Connery’s too (at least, if Hollywood rumours are true). Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Roger Moore and Joan Collins are also said to have favoured the now-iconic Guerlain eau. It’s easy to understand why. Overflowing with sharp vetiver, earthy lavender, sweet bergamot, spicy vanilla and warm amber, the French classic is neither too feminine nor overtly masculine. It is simply wondrous, a sensual and assertive spritz worn by women and men equally – just like it was intended to.

each year, and Jicky remains a staple on retail countertops. Its gender-fluid status is a reminder that unisex perfumes are not a blip on trend’s radar but rather the original construct of perfumery.

According to Mintel, a global market research and intelligence agency, in 2010 gender-neutral scents held only 17 per cent of the fragrance industry worldwide. By 2018, the category had catapulted to 51 per cent of the US$20.75 billion market, and it continues to grow. Beauty industry magazine Cosmetics Business credits millennials and their desire for transparency in beauty and grooming products, combined with their need for universality, for the forward propulsion of gender-fluid eaus. This cultural shift has caught on, with consumers rethinking the way they wear fragrance.

As more men and women spritz outside of the 20th century’s gendersegregated box, Statista, a global provider of market and consumer data, predicts that the global fragrance industry’s current worth of $45.5 billion will explode. And gender-free perfumes will play a large role in that growing revenue.

Reportedly named after perfumer Aimé Guerlain’s schoolgirl crush, Jicky’s label featured just four words: Parfum, Jicky, Guerlain, Paris.

No Pour L’Homme or Pour Femme. Born in 1889 – the year the Eiffel Tower opened, the Canadian Pacific Railway was completed, Blanche Bingley-Hillyard outplayed Lean Rice at Wimbledon and Moulin Rouge launched in Paris – Jicky was free of gender assignment. Back then, fragrance categorization was straightforward, determined by the floral, spicy, herbal, woody, animalic or other notes swirling inside each glass flacon. If you liked what you smelled, you bought the bottle. Jicky was an immediate success. “Unisex scents are becoming more popular because they reflect a major shift in our society,” says Sophie Vann Guillon, CEO of “Lest anyone think that unisex perfumes are a modern invention,” Valmont Cosmetics in Morges, Switzerland. “Gender does not have explains Luca Turin in his book Perfumes The Guide, “[Jicky] the same meaning nor societal understanding as before: look at was worn by both women and men 10 years before an electric social movements, new linguistic codes, fashion trends.… These car, the Jamais Contente, broke the world speed record and hit influences logically impact the world of fragrances, where no gender 100 km per hour.” is interesting but only emotions are the new rule.”

Fast-forward 132 years to an industry that currently pumps out approximately 400 new fragrances for women and men globally 6

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A fragrant ambiguity Using fragrance to tap into our emotions is par for the course. More

LOOKING GOOD

THE BEST OF GENDER-FLUID SCENTS,

BY DECADE than 4,000 years ago the Mesopotamians burned wood and resinbased incense during their religious ceremonies to promote deeper spiritual connections, while 2,000 years later Cleopatra scented her boat’s sails with heavily spiced oils to alert Mark Antony of her presence and to create a romantic vibe. All fragrance continues to evoke these types of feelings. The primary difference with genderfluid scents is that in addition to these emotions, they can also and simultaneously provide a sense of individuality, yet without the tangle of social ideation that dictates women should smell like a floral bouquet or that men are best suited for woody forest scents.

“We don’t follow such rules,” says Vann Guillon. “In my creative process, the quest for harmony is the priority. Contrasting materials such as fruits, flowers, spices, woods…can be assembled and disassembled to offer a specific olfactory experience. Nature is king – we are just chemists trying to find that ideal combination releasing harmony. Men can assume their feminine character, adopting fragrances with rose, for instance. Women, at the same time, can show their empowerment with green fragrances or woody trails.”

Perfumers have been mix-mastering unisex scents for centuries, some lasting for a moment, others for a lifetime. “A perfume is successful when it reaches a timeless balance that seduces one generation after another,” says Vann Guillon. “The materials blended into its composition, a smart design of its bottle and a sharp image that works year after year is the secret.” Here are a handful of our favourites…

1900s: Caron Narcisse Noir: daring and intimate, clean and loud, contradictory notes of soap, musk, rose, spice and wood intermingle.

1910s: Aqua di Parma Colonia: heady blooms mix with herbal, citrus and musk notes for an elegant finish.

1920s: Chanel Cuir de Russie: tobacco, leather, and white and yellow flowers intertwine.

1930s: Jean Patou Le Sien: sporty, fresh and green, like a sharp, crisp spring morning.

This fragrant ambiguity has caught on with perfume houses. Heavy hitters such as Gucci, Dior and Celine are pouring nonconformist scents with names like Reptile and Nightclubbing into bottles in hopes of creating the next CK One circa 1994. Decades-old indie niche brands such as Demeter, Le Labo, Byredo and Diptyque are being lauded for their near exclusivity with gender-free eaus, while newbie labels including Dedcool, Henry Rose and Valmont are carving out their perennial scents with abandon.

1940s: Carven Ma Griffe de Cologne: floaty and warm with breezy green, wood and floral notes, and a touch of spice.

Seemingly overnight, D.S. & Durga’s bold and stormy Vio-Volta, Gucci’s bright and musky Mémoire d’Une Odeur and Tom Ford’s salty and beachy Costa Azzurra Aqua have also furthered the unisex scent movement. Their bottles recently shared the limelight on the pages of Glamour, GQ and Forbes magazines. Even the global industry’s highly coveted and nearly 50-year-old International Fragrance Foundation Awards has added three new award categories to honour universal scents.

1970s: Goya Aqua Mandan: a vibrant, warm and bright spicy orange.

Perfume, it would seem, can now be consumed fairly and equally by all because, like books and music, says Turin, perfume is intended for mass consumption. “There may be periods, genres and composers that you like best, but in the end each perfume is an island,” he adds. “What matters is to get enough feel for the lay of the land to allow your taste GPS to lock in and lead you to the best.”

1950s: Hermès Eau d’Hermès: fresh, aromatic, warm and spicy with undertones of leather.

1960s: Revlon Mood Drops: technically for women, the cloudy, woody, warm and aromatic scent was, at the time, also favoured by men.

1980s: Comptoir Sud Pacifique Eau de Tropiques: a sunshine-filled, warm citrus floral.

1990s: Commes des Garçons Commes des Garçons: honeyed cloves, cinnamon and cardamom mix with flowers and wood.

2000s: Bond No. 9 Eau de New York: dirty, sultry and gritty, notes of musk citrus, wood and flowers swirl as one.

2010s: Creed Royal Oud: stylish, exotic and warm with spiced woody, green and aromatic notes.

2020s: Frederic Malle, Dans Mon Lit: a sleepy, clean and powdered blend of musk and rose water.

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

SOUS LA FACE SKIN RESTORATION STUDIO OPENS IN TORONTO The owner and founder shares the benefits of a unique anti-aging massage

Opening a new business during a worldwide pandemic has its own challenges…but Amanda Jeppesen was up to it. She recently opened Sous La Face Skin Restoration Studio just north of Toronto’s Yorkville neighbourhood, with a mission to restore your skin to its natural youthful state, reviving your microbiome.

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The inspiration for Sous La Face came after three different summers of Jeppesen travelling through Spain, Italy and England. “After travelling through Europe, I stumbled upon a historic-meets-modern form of facial sculpting,” she says. “I was so passionate about this finding and so excited that I decided to bring it to Toronto.”

One of the offerings that Jeppesen is most excited about is Sous La Face’s trademarked Radical Radiance Regime, which came to life for Jeppesen in the beginnings of a midlife crisis that turned into a midlife awakening. The treatment uses micro-electrical currents to stimulate the muscles to help reduce fine lines and wrinkles. “We massage inside the mouth to deeply release the tension held within the face,” she explains. The benefits of the procedure include the release of tension headaches, jaw clenching, neck pain and sleep disturbances, and the removal of toxins and fluids to lift the face and rediscover your cheek bones and jaw line.

The studio is a safe space that also offers other skin rejuvenation The principle? Your face is sculpted from within by fingers that are services that help revive self-confidence, including vaginal and literally plunged into your mouth. It’s an innovative approach that rectum rejuvenation, external tightening of the labia and more. brings an immediate and non-invasive anti-aging response, ideal for those who don’t want to resort to hyaluronic acid injections or Botox. “Starting a new business is an up and down roller coaster like I could have never imagined, and then throw a pandemic on top of To educate herself further on the seemingly magic techniques she that! I could have folded but said fuck it, and decided to go for it,” had seen, Jeppesen headed to Germany and New York to further says Jeppesen. “The pandemic gave me the time to start a quiet educate herself on face sculpting and intrabuccal (inside the cheek) rebellion against the norms of our current beauty industry.” massaging. “The transformation happens beneath the face – sous la face – where we work intensively with the muscles to release tension, increase blood flow, stimulate collagen and engage the For more information on Sous La Face Skin Restoration Studio at lymphatic system,” she explains.

182 Davenport Rd. in Toronto, visit souslaface.com.

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HEALTH & WELLNESS

JUICY FRUIT: CAN YOU GET TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING? Is it possible to eat too much fruit?

By Karen Kwan

Every morning as I throw a pile of fruit into my blender, or eat peach after peach in the summer, I have this nagging thought: is it possible to eat too much fruit, even though fruit is bursting with vitamin and minerals and antioxidants?

the size of your fist. “It’s not a huge concern to me unless you are eating more than 10 servings of fruit per day and are noticing frequent trips to the bathroom – more than three bowel movements a day.”

After all, research studies have shown numerous health benefits of a diet high in fruit. It’s been linked to lowering blood pressure, reducing risk of heart disease and diabetes, and decreasing inflammation. It’s also been found to prevent certain types of cancer; a research study published in the Journal of Epidemiology in 2017, conducted with a large population group in Japan, revealed a low incidence of cancer among people who ate or drank citrus juice several times a week compared to those who consumed them two times a week or less.

There are also the natural sugars in fruit to be considered. So how to make your fruit snack better for you? “For balanced blood sugars, pair it with protein, such as a small handful of nuts or three to four cubes of cheese,” recommends Jaelin. And keep an eye on your overall calorie intake; if you’re eating a decent diet of three meals a day, two to three snacks per day would be ideal.

But then, on the other hand, remember that Steve Jobs was known to be a fruitarian, and following that same strict diet landed Ashton Kutcher in the hospital in incredible pain with pancreatic problems.

The same goes for your all-fruit smoothies – balance what you put in them. “A smoothie should be balanced with different foods and supplements for different nutrients,” says Jaelin.

She suggests adding ingredients such as leafy greens, silken tofu and Greek yogurt.

Keep in mind, too, that as with everything in life, variety is best.

To start, there are a lot of health benefits when it comes to So even though it’s tempting to eat pint after pint of strawberries most fruit. They’re high in vitamins and minerals, plus fibre in the summer and go to town on a box of clementines in the when you eat whole fruit, notes Hamilton-based registered winter, indulge in what’s in season, of course, but mix it up. dietitian Michelle Jaelin. “And most people don’t eat enough “Eating a variety of different fruit gives you an abundance of fruit or fibre,” she adds. Too much fibre in your diet, though, nutrients, minerals and fibre for your gut health,” says Jaelin. and you may find yourself making more trips to the washroom.

Take note of how many servings of fruit you are eating. One Ultimately, though, look more to the number of fruit servings serving of fruit is about a half cup, or one medium fruit – about you’re having a day: five to eight servings is ideal.

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

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

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PRIDE AT WORK

THE ADVENTURE OF HONOURING THE

PRIDE LEGACY

Canada helps newcomers to live in a safer place, but it’s still far from being a paradise because of the systemic barriers

By Luis Augusto Nobre

One thing that I have learned in life is that I cannot speak for everybody. All of us are on our own journeys to know who we are and to leave our legacy for future generations. Maybe some of us don’t consider what our communities will be like for those who live after us, but others want to continue improving our society, as did those who came before and left the world a better place for us. Many of the civil rights advances that we enjoy today came from those people. I do my best to be in the second group, and I’m still learning what I can do better for those who haven’t yet been born.

Although I’ve walked in different paths and directions for the past years, something inside me says that I’m just at the beginning of my journey. All the new learnings show me that, but they also indicate that the start point is far away. It’s funny because I remember when I had the call to go on my own adventure, like Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit, when he left the shire and ended up fighting against the evil to protect his beloved ones.

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I’m from Brazil, a country that is known for its multicultural population and for all the celebrations. We are considered happy, full of life and very welcoming to the different. However, that is only half true. Unfortunately, the country is one of the most complex for LGBTQ+ people. Although we are at the same legal level for sexual orientation laws as Canada, many European countries and New Zealand, Brazil is one of the leading countries for homophobia and transphobia.

Considering all the reported murders of trans people since 2008, Brazil has 41.5 per cent of the violence cases worldwide.

The trick part is that we are also the country with the highest percentage of trans pornography consumption.

As someone who grew up seeing the stereotypes for LGBTQ+ people and being aware of LGBTQ phobia, I struggled to

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understand who I was. I was influenced by others to see Pride parades only as big parties, and I continued to live afraid of people knowing about my authentic self. Although my professional career was developing in corporate social responsibility, community engagement and human rights, I had issues to include myself in the world I was helping to create. Trying to be invisible and to avoid the focus on my personal life wasn’t the right solution.

Everything changed when I had the opportunity to come to Toronto, one of the most friendly cities in the world for the LGBTQ+ population. That visit blew my mind because I saw that I could live the life I wanted and be truly happy.

I came to Toronto as an international student years ago, and was mesmerized by seeing LGBTQ+ people living their lives publicly. Considering the reality I lived in at home in Brazil, it was fantastic to witness queer people holding hands with their partners, people proudly showing their gender identities and gender expressions, not hiding their lives. I interpreted that as they were marching their own Pride parades, carrying their rainbow flags, and creating spaces for others like me.

The trip was a few weeks before the Toronto Pride parade, so I could live and embrace that feeling of being part of something bigger. The taste for more became so strong that one of my journey paths brought me to live here some years later.

After moving to Canada, I decided to embrace that sense of community and belonging to help others overcome their fears and be their authentic selves. Worldwide, Canada is considered one of the “paradise lands” for LGBTQ people.

More than 70 countries still criminalize people for their sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression – and a few of them punish people with the death penalty. As Canada seems to be very progressive and inclusive, immigrants come

PRIDE AT WORK

for better living conditions and refugees seek asylum here because newcomers believe that this land flows with milk and honey. However, the reality has a bitter taste: many LGBTQ+ newcomers will face challenges related to employment, housing and other systemic barriers.

Although Canada has advanced in LGBTQ+ inclusion, and is considered one of the best places in the world for LGBTQ+ people, there are several needs to transform this country into a true paradise. Conversation therapy is real, despite recent efforts from government sectors and civil society to ban it. Trans people continue to face underemployment and transphobia in workplaces and the hiring process, not to mention housing, (mental) health and legal issues. BIPOC, immigrants and refugees are marginalized many times because of their intersectionality. Biphobia is strong, and bisexual women earn less than straight or lesbian women. Those are just some examples of what still happens in Canada.

I have experienced some of those issues, and I have heard many other cases from friends and colleagues. Two of those experiences have inspired me to pursue my community engagement. In September 2019, a religious group and some white supremacists tried to march through the Village on a rainy Saturday. I joined several members of the LGBTQ2+ communities in Toronto to protect our neighbourhood, with support from The 519. Hundreds of us appeared to protect our space, and we conquered, with the efforts and lives of many LGBTQ2+ activists. We spent the whole day protecting our communities from intolerance, and I remember being so emotional because I felt embraced by the different communities under the acronym umbrella. For the first time in my life, I felt a sense of belonging and I was making history honouring those who have been fighting for our rights to live in peace.

Maybe it was my first battle like a hobbit, fighting for the well-being and future of our Middle-earth. That day was more special than any Pride parade, and I could give back to our communities when I helped to protect the legacy of those who had come before.

The other case that I mentioned was heartbreaking. Even with my own intersectionality and experiences of prejudice in Canada and Brazil, I’ve never faced any challenges related to housing. I went to a teach-in session about trans inclusion, and one trans person was talking about how hard it is for them to rent a place because landlords don’t want to lease their units when they know it is for a trans person. I was aware that trans people have been living with underemployment, earning low salaries and being harassed, but I witnessed that day how they have been denied access to some basic rights.

And I have learned a lot more! There are several studies about the health status of trans people, who have health issues because they don’t have safe access to public washrooms, for example. These people are the same ones who have been fighting for our rights for decades, and we should do more as members of the big acronym umbrella.

It is why we must recover the legacy of those who came before and acknowledge the importance of their dedication and work when we celebrate Pride. We should create more opportunities for lesbian, bisexual, trans, queer and twospirit people, who continue facing systemic barriers despite the improvements all of us are experiencing nowadays. It’s why it is so important to celebrate Pride inviting everyone to dance, as Vernā Myers once said about inclusion. And we should dance without judgments, so we can be our authentic selves and feel the sense of belonging among ourselves in our own communities.

As I mentioned here, I’m still in the beginning stages of my journey and learning with anyone who surrounds me.

From Indigenous people, the lesson is the importance of communications and the impact of our decisions, considering the past and future generations. From community leaders, it’s to have more commitment to support and protect those people in need. From queer and trans peers, it’s to never give up and be strong while we dance and celebrate the pains and pleasures of being who we are because we live Pride all year long.

LUIS AUGUSTO NOBRE is the marketing and communications coordinator of Pride at Work Canada/Fierté au travail Canada, a leading national non-profit organization that promotes workplace inclusion on the grounds of gender expression, gender identity and sexual orientation. For more information, visit prideatwork.ca.

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WHEELS

PICKUP TECH Contrary to their ruffian aura, today’s pickup trucks employ advanced tech

By Casey Williams

When you think about the most dazzling high-tech autos, your brain probably conjures up images of hyper-fast sports cars, expensive German sedans, or electric cars from a certain California-based automaker. Hard-working, high-hiking pickup trucks are probably not in your dream book…but these pack mules employ the most advanced technology on the road today. These trucks are more efficient than their predecessors and offer advanced technology way beyond their ruffian aura.

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Consider the new Ford F-150 Hybrid, which offers frugal fuel economy but also enhanced power for towing heavy loads. Trailer backing guides appear on its wide tablet-style touchscreen that rivals Tesla, but that’s not its real talent. Having a big battery pack on-board enables an integrated power generator that can electrify backyard improvement projects, campsites and tailgating parties through outlets in the bedside. Designers even tailored the tailgate as a worktable with places to clamp down projects. Try that in your Prius.

Just like luxury sedans, trucks use air suspension systems to cosset passengers in sublime comfort, but in trucks these systems are also useful for more practical reasons, like the ability to raise up for extreme off-roading or for kneeling to disembark passengers and slip under trailer hitches. Air suspensions are available on full-size pickups from Chevrolet, GMC and Ram, but they will also underpin imminent electrics from Hummer and Rivian.

Automated driving systems are also prominent in pickup trucks.

One of the first vehicles on which GM deployed its Super Cruise hands-off driving system was the truck-based Cadillac Escalade.

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Expect the system to be added to the Hummer this year and the GMC Sierra during the 2022 model year. The system can be used on over 300,000 kilometres of compatible roads in the US and Canada. Tesla’s new Cybertruck is expected to employ the automaker’s Autopilot system.

Beyond quiet efficiency, electric powertrains add talents to make trucks better. Ford’s workstation is only a start. Rivian’s R1T electric pickup takes advantage of its low flat floor to offer a pull-out grille that’s stored in a cavern between the bed and cabin. Owners can camp off-grid for days while barely affecting driving range of up to 640 kilometres. Four electric motors allow the truck to turn in all directions without effort.

Although the GMC Hummer won’t have a built-in stove, it is the ultimate pickup technology showcase. Beyond an air suspension and Super Cruise, it employs electronic four-wheel steering that can turn front and rear wheels in opposite directions to shorten turning on trails and parking garages. It can also move wheels in the same direction to “crab crawl” near sideways. Removable roof panels and underbody cameras to keep an eye on what’s going on underneath the vehicle on trails add to its all-terrain proficiency.

Sales begin later this year.

Pickups have long been beasts of burden (and play), employing automotive technology to make their work easier. The latest can run without gasoline, leap over off-road obstacles, power a campsite and even cook dinner. They are certainly not the stark rudimentary beasts many imagine, and will only advance through the coming EV (electric vehicle) Age.

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

PRIDE

METROLINX’S JOURNEY TOWARDS INCLUSIVITY

How a Canadian organization is celebrating – and promoting – diversity and inclusion

An inclusive workplace is one that actively fosters an environment where people are encouraged to bring their unique perspectives, feel safe to contribute, and are appreciated for all aspects of their diversity. From internal operations to the way a company engages with its community, there are many ways an organization can work to become more inclusive – and it’s always an ongoing journey.

Metrolinx began its journey towards diversity and inclusion back in 2012, with its first participation in the Toronto Pride Parade.

Since then, the provincial transit agency has launched a number of initiatives as part of its commitment to improving its organizational culture for the LGBTQ+ community.

Metrolinx established Pride 365, an employee resource group (ERG) aimed at giving all of its LGBTQ+ and allied employees a voice, and to enable open and honest conversation about how the company can better support the LGBTQ+ community. Employees can join this resource group to share experiences, discuss workplace issues and make recommendations, fundraise and work together to create a strong and inclusive environment, both for staff and the customers in regions they serve. In recent years, Metrolinx staff have fundraised for Rainbow Railroad, a Canadian charity that helps LGBTQ+ individuals escape violence and persecution in their home countries by providing safe transportation so these individuals can live in freedom in another country (including in Toronto, where the charity helps fund LGBTQ+ newcomers).

Metrolinx also has a robust Inclusion Strategy, which is supported by education, unconscious bias training (including LGBTQ+ awareness), and clear harassment and discrimination policies.

Metrolinx’s Pride 2021 map This summer, Metrolinx is launching an exciting initiative that will highlight various Pride festivals – big and small – throughout Ontario, showcasing how Metrolinx services can connect us to those Pride festivals (virtually this year, physically for years to come).

Commuters can check out an interactive system map for GO Transit and UP Express that showcases the various Pride festivals taking place in the province. You can find important dates and information as well as the easiest way for you to get there safely (and back) using Metrolinx services.

All companies, large and small, have a responsibility to their employees and their communities to put in the work to not only acknowledge different experiences and points of view, but to celebrate them. Metrolinx has been on an inclusivity journey for the last several years, and it will surely continue to be a fun ride.

For more information on Metrolinx and its Pride 2021 map, visit gotransit.com/pride.

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HEALTH

EARLY TRIALS SHOW PROMISING DEVELOPMENT FOR HIV VACCINE

Though they’ve shown success, these HIV vaccine trials are still in the very early stages A Phase 1 clinical trial testing a novel vaccine approach to “These exciting findings emerge from remarkably creative, prevent HIV has produced promising results. The preliminary innovative science and are a testament to the research team’s data comes from an early-stage clinical trial being conducted talent, dedication and collaborative spirit, and to the generosity

by IAVI and the non-profit research organization Scripps of the trial participants,” says Dr. Mark Feinberg, president Research in La Jolla, California, which develops vaccines and CEO of IAVI. “Given the urgent need for an HIV vaccine and antibodies for HIV and other diseases. to rein in the global epidemic, we think these results will have broad implications for HIV vaccine researchers as they The vaccine under review works by stimulating the production decide which scientific directions to pursue. The collaboration of rare immune cells that generate HIV-resistant antibodies. among individuals and institutions that made this important Such a result was found in 97 per cent of human participants and exceptionally complex clinical trial so successful will administered the vaccine. The trial’s findings were presented be tremendously enabling to accelerate future HIV vaccine at the International AIDS Society HIV Research for Prevention research.” conference in February, but have only recently generated media attention.

The next steps for this potential HIV vaccine, as with all potential new drugs, will be additional clinical trials to determine efficacy and safety.

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“This study demonstrates proof of principle for a new vaccine concept for HIV, a concept that could be applied to other pathogens, as well,” William Schief, a professor and immunologist at Scripps Research and executive director of vaccine design at IAVI’s Neutralizing Antibody Center, said in a statement. “With our many collaborators on the study team, we showed that vaccines can be designed to stimulate rare immune cells with specific properties, and this targeted stimulation can be very efficient in humans. We believe this approach will be key to making an HIV vaccine and possibly important for making vaccines against other pathogens.”

HIV, which affects more than 38 million people globally, is known to be among the most difficult viruses to target with a vaccine, in large part because it constantly evolves into different strains to evade the immune system.

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“ This study demonstrates proof of principle for a new vaccine concept for HIV, a concept that could be applied to other pathogens, as well.”

The study sets the stage for additional clinical trials that will seek to refine and extend the approach – with the long-term goal of creating a safe and effective HIV vaccine. As a next step, IAVI and Scripps Research are partnering with the biotechnology company Moderna to develop and test an mRNA-based vaccine that harnesses the approach to produce the same beneficial immune cells. Using mRNA technology could significantly accelerate the pace of HIV vaccine development.

This drug and alcohol recovery and education program helps participants exit the cycle of addiction

The Phoenix Drug & Alcohol Recovery and Education Society is a not-for-profit based in Surrey, BC, that helps participants exit the cycle of addiction and homelessness. Launched in 1989, the Society has grown from an idea to a multi-faceted, integrated service provider that offers a variety of programs and support services, helping residents and program participants achieve positive outcomes in their lives.

We recently sat down with the organization to find out more about their community-based projects that meet people where they are at.

Your organization experienced a rebirth recently. How did this come about, and why is it important to work with partners in the community?

In April 2020, the Phoenix Society merged with Positive Living Fraser Valley Society based out of Abbotsford. Our respective boards saw that with this collaboration our clients would have the opportunity to enter one of the service locations in Abbotsford or Surrey, and be connected to an extensive continuum of services that would start them on their journey to stabilization, treatment, recovery and wellness, and help lessen the harms caused by substance use or their HIV/HCV (hepatitis C) or other sexually transmitted blood-borne infections (STBBI) diagnosis through peer engagement, harm reduction and outreach.

What is the Abbotsford Community Hub Centre? What kind of impact does it have?

The Abbotsford Community Hub Centre is a community partnership that provides people-centred care in a welcoming environment for those experiencing health and social challenges, due primarily to poverty, homelessness, substance use, mental health issues and addiction. It is a collaboration of stakeholders and community organizations committed to addressing the needs of vulnerable populations in the Fraser East area of British Columbia.

Phoenix’s Positive Living programming operates out of the Hub. While the Hub has been operating for over two years, our Positive Living program has been operating for over 14 years. Our services include primary health care, pharmacy services, specialized STBBI supports and access to on-site medical care, harm reduction supplies and overdose prevention services. A food bank provides nutritional support to those who are HIV+ or living with viral hepatitis, with hampers delivered twice monthly. A long-awaited iOAT (injectable opioid agonist treatment) clinic is now open out of the PARC (Prevention Assessment Referral Drop In Centre).

How has the Phoenix Society’s “MORE Program” helped respond to the unique challenges of COVID-19?

Thanks to incredible support from partners such as ViiV Healthcare, for over five years the Phoenix Society has employed a medical outreach worker whose main role is to identify those needing connections to care within the Fraser East region. This position tracks people’s appointments and meets them at their homes, or

goes into encampments, to provide transportation to medical and other appointments to ensure connections to care are maintained.

When COVID-19 first hit, although we had to adjust services slightly, we were able to continue operation of the MORE program.

We didn’t slow down for any period of time, continuing to meet with clients and offer services.

COVID-19 has created such isolation, as many of the services our clients access outside of the Phoenix Society have shut down. At the start of the pandemic, we observed a spike in mental health challenges with our population. Services many were familiar with and accessing shut down overnight. For many, this increased the sense of stigma and isolation they were already experiencing from their diagnosis.

A lot of your programming is based on patient-led decisionmaking and patient-led care. Why is this important?

We try to approach wellness from an emotional, mental, social and spiritual perspective. By starting with the foundation of communication and empathy, we focus on building core relationships with our clients. Only from here can we start individualized care and treatment plans.

The MORE worker at the Phoenix Society works as a liaison between a team of nurse practitioners, peers, specialists and pharmacists to provide collaborative care. By forging a team using patient-centred care, we are able to coordinate and make services accessible when typically barriers would affect their ability to maintain/adhere to care and drug plans. We provide emotional support to help alleviate anxiety and fear, which we feel is just as important as dealing with the “illness” itself.

What is the link between empowering the community and optimizing treatment for each person?

The link lies in the de-stigmatization of medical conditions like blood-borne illnesses. Well-educated communities that are equipped with knowledge surrounding stigmatized medical conditions will lessen the marginalization of infected individuals. Reduction of stigma leads to an increased willingness among those affected with blood-borne illnesses to seek treatment. We as a community are responsible to be informed and to lessen our own judgments.

Not only will this approach help bring awareness and acceptance to issues such as blood-borne infections, it will lessen the secondary effects of living with such illnesses, including mental health issues, isolation, substance misuse, poverty, food insecurity and precarious housing. The battle is not just a medical one, but also requires a community approach.

You can find out more about Phoenix Society and their sustainable solutions at phoenixsociety.com.

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COMMUNITY

Rising Like A Phoenix In British Columbia

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Brought to you by

OPINION

Indigenous People Have Dug Deep To Survive: Let’s Celebrate That

The executive director at 2-Spirited People of the 1st Nations reflects on National Indigenous Peoples Day

By Keith McCrady

I grew up on a small reservation in northern Ontario. At a young age, I made a plan to finish high school and leave – to get away from the violence and the drug and alcohol addictions surrounding me, and the sexual abuse I experienced. I left right after high school graduation; I left without being taught to be proud of my language, culture, heritage and worldview.

One thing I looked forward to when I started my career was getting a paid day off for National Aboriginal Day (that’s what this celebration was called then). It was always June 21 or, if that landed on a weekend, a day closest to that day.

I worked at an Indigenous-focused childcare centre that was next to a bakery, which was directly across the street from where I lived.

So I went to the bakery often. On one of these days off, I went into the bakery and the owner said, “Oh! Why is the childcare closed?”

I replied, “Because it’s National Aboriginal Day.” And she then said casually, “Oh, you people take our holidays and your holidays and put them all together.” My response was: “You’re welcome to close your business and pay your staff to celebrate.” I stopped going there after that.

A few years later, I was an out and proud gay man. On one National Aboriginal Day celebration, my boyfriend and I walked back to his place with our other gay friends. A group of young guys was coming towards me – suddenly one of them swung a 2x4 and hit me in the face, saying, “Native faggot!” They broke my glasses and there was blood everywhere. I chased them into a backyard, and attacked the guy who had hit me, holding him on the ground.

My friends called the police; it was at least 30 minutes before they showed up. They arrested him and departed, leaving me to attend to my extremely bloody face and broken nose by myself.

I am not reminiscing about these incidents because I’m a negative person, but to share the experiences of racism and homophobia I had to experience on those two specific days. But there are 363 other days in the year with even more graphic and violent memories of racism – pick one and I can tell you more stories. Yet I am just one First Nations man (this is how I identify now). I share this knowing that far too many of my First Nation, Métis and Inuit brothers and sisters have these types of violent and racist experiences daily.

Today, I’m fortunate enough to be executive director of 2-Spirited People of the 1st Nations, where I get to walk beside my community and strive for a goal where 2-Spirit People reclaim our place in the circle. But how do I do that in a system that wasn’t set

up for Indigenous people to succeed (and not even allowed to define their own success)? It’s a system that was solely created for white supremacy to thrive. A system that promotes and idly stands by and allows Indigenous people to be overrepresented and negatively impacted in inadequate housing, child welfare involvement, unemployment, HIV and AIDS, incarceration, suicide, lack of literacy and education, lack of access to recreation, human trafficking, poverty, food insecurity and all social determinants of health, even COVID-19. A system that has a past of the ’60s scoop, residential schools, the Indian Act, and now Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women, Girls and 2-Spirit People. A system where children like Colten Boushie, Chantel Moore, Tina Fontaine and many more are murdered by the exact system that claims to be there to protect them. A system where Indigenous people have been denied drinkable water for over 25 years. A system that proudly celebrates National Indigenous Peoples Day despite all of this.

This is a system that we all – each and every one of us – actively accept, promote, tolerate and endorse when we don’t take accountability. We have to start over. So, on National Indigenous Peoples Day (although “National First Nations, Métis and Inuit Day” would be more accurate now), what can we do? We can still celebrate, but do so recognizing the resilience and sheer survival tactics Indigenous people have had to muster to be here.

What can you do? Change the way you want to “help” Indigenous people, and instead walk beside them on their journeys. Demand policies and legislation to reflect the needs of Indigenous people.

Share resources, money, space, workforce and information. Step down from your positions of authority – better yet, dismantle the hierarchy of control and see each other on a circle, with no one better or more important than the other. Understand what selfdetermination is, and honour Truth and Reconciliation. Mentor, recruit, hire and retain Indigenous people in your workspaces. Put in the work of getting to know Indigenous communities and people, and understand what they want and need; listen to as many stories as you can. Take accountability for your privilege and the inequities.

Vote differently – vote for those forgotten and left behind, and not your own benefit. And, yes, give land back.

Oh, btw, that young boy who hit me in the face with the 2x4 and broke my glasses and nose? He was sentenced to paying $500 for my glasses, and nothing else. I never did get my 500 bucks and I left my nose broken to remind myself whenever I look in the mirror how much work we have to do. I am strong enough to do that work – are you?

KEITH MCCRADY, a proud father of four, grew up in the community of Biinjitiwaabik Zaaging Anishinaabek, relocated to the GTA over 13 years ago and now calls Scarborough home. As the executive director of 2 Spirited People of the 1st Nations, Keith’s goal is to walk alongside the 2SLGBTQ communities and provide education and support to members of the 2- Spirit Community and reclaim our place in the Circle.

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PERSPECTIVE

Strained relationships between fathers and sons are nothing new. But when it comes to forgiveness, it’s never too late…

By Jumol Royes Photo: Kaysha via Unsplash

If you were to ask me what virtue I value most in myself and other people, my answer would be: compassion.

I consider myself to be an HSP, or “highly sensitive person.” From as early on as I can remember, I have always felt more strongly than other people tend to, and have been deeply affected by other people’s emotional states and energetic vibrations. Any time I encounter a person in pain, I feel compelled to do something to help alleviate their suffering. Compassion is my calling card and my modus operandi.

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When I was about four years old, I fell off my bicycle while learning how to ride – a common rite of passage for most kids. I was out riding with my dad and my sister on a path just behind the condo building where I grew up. It was my first time riding my bike without the training wheels on, and I fell hard and hurt myself (all these years later, I still have a faint hint of a scar on my knee to show for it). Writhing on the ground in pain, I cried out for help.

As I lay there on the pavement with tears streaming down my face, my dad – who was usually very stern and harsh in his parenting approach – yelled at me to get up and get back on the bike. When I didn’t respond the way he wanted me to, he swooped me up in one arm, took the bike in the other and carried us both back home, where my mom dressed the wound and calmed me down.

up and eat dinner. He did as he was told and no one bothered him that night, not even my uncle. My grandmother spared him that day by showing him compassion…and he was grateful.

The experience obviously had a big impact on my dad, because he still remembers it to this day and, on that day last summer, he was able to recount it to me in vivid detail. In all my thirty-something years of life, it was the most complete recollection of his upbringing he’d ever shared with me.

After he finished telling me his story, my dad apologized and asked for my forgiveness for not leading with compassion as his first reaction when I fell off my bike all those years ago, and for all the moments thereafter when he had reacted with anger instead of empathy. He understands now what a mistake that was, and is able to see that compassion is what I’ve always needed most, especially from him.

To say I was flabbergasted by this revelation would be an understatement: it was the first time my dad had ever offered up such a sincere apology or sought my forgiveness, and I was completely caught off guard. It took a moment to let it all sink in.

My dad reminded me of this seemingly insignificant episode one day last summer while we were out running errands, and he followed it up with a story from his own childhood.

When I finally spoke, I told him that I accepted and appreciated his apology. He’s my dad and I love him, faults and all. I also reassured him that as parents, and people, we do the very best we can with the tools we have in our toolbox until we know better… and then, hopefully, we do better.

My dad had been born in Jamaica, and he spent the early part of his life living with my grandmother, my great-grandmother, my grand-aunt, my uncle and some of my cousins. Jamaicans live by the motto: “It takes a village to raise a child.” One day, when he was around six or seven years old, my dad went out to play with some kids in the neighbourhood, and he stayed out until well past dinnertime without checking in or letting anyone at home know where he was.

I’m not exactly sure what prompted my dad to be so vulnerable with me that day, something that was completely out of character for him (if I’m being brutally honest, I have to admit vulnerability is often a struggle for me too, so I guess that particular apple doesn’t fall far from the tree). Perhaps he had time to think during the months spent in COVID lockdown, or maybe my mom nudged him to make more of an effort to connect with me. I’m guessing it was a mixture of the two.

They searched for him everywhere, but couldn’t find him. When he finally decided to make his way back home, he hid in the small crawlspace beneath the house because he was afraid of getting in trouble with my uncle, who was his eldest brother and a strict disciplinarian. When my uncle returned home from work that evening and found out my dad was missing, he was furious and determined to unleash his own form of punishment on him.

Thankfully for my dad, my grandmother intervened and told my uncle and everyone else in the house to go about their business; she would take care of the situation herself.

Whatever the reason, it was an intimate moment between the two of us that cracked open the door to creating a positive shift in our relationship. It also made me pause and reflect on how compassionate I am in my reactions to him today as an adult son.

I’ve always wished that my dad would acknowledge how tough he was on me when I was growing up, and yearned for him to show me that he was capable of a little kindness and tenderness.

I had pretty much given up hope of that ever happening. After all, people are who they are, right?

She instinctively knew that my dad was hiding underneath the house, so she went outside and called for him to come in, wash 18

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It took my dad being vulnerable with me one day last summer to remind me that people can grow, evolve and change, and that when it comes to forgiveness, it’s never too late.

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.

PERSPECTIVE

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HISTORY

Celebrate Queer History

By Reading One of Canada’s First Gay Magazines Those who don’t know their history are doomed to repeat it (plus, hey, it’s an illuminating – and sometimes fun – read)

By Rowan O’Brien

I can still picture the queer studies class where I first heard about The Body Politic, a Canadian monthly LGBTQ magazine that was published from 1971 to 1987. The queer and bespectacled professor stood at the front of an elegant room in a manor owned by the university, reading from an article in the magazine. Although this course was cut short by one of York University’s many infamous strikes, the name of the publication anchored itself in my brain.

As a queer “zillennial,” I was aware of The Body Politic’s legacy through my forays into queer Canadian history, but was worried I might never get to read the magazine for myself.

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The pandemic was in full swing when I graduated in September, granting me the opportunity to finally read for pleasure and dive into queer history. This desire to connect with queerness was exacerbated by the loss of in-person queer space and the amount of ahistorical information being weaponized in online queer spaces on sites like Twitter and TikTok. Underneath these surface feelings of frustration was a more tangible sense of duty to and admiration of my queer elders. After all, The Body Politic forged a symbiotic relationship with queer Canadian history, where the magazine would report on queer events, thereby influencing the community and resulting in more queer action to report on.

You might wonder what caught my interest about a magazine that ceased publication more than 30 years ago. But it was more than just historical interest: it is important for young queer people to read these magazines because, as they say, those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it, and it appears we get trapped in that cycle far too often. The Body Politic is an incredible piece of queer history, and a huge contributor to the progress we’ve made so far – and haven’t made – in Canada.

I began my research with a detailed timeline of The Body Politic’s life as compiled by Thom Bryce McQuinn for Body Politic, a play 20

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produced by Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in 2016. I learned that the journey began when another publication, Guerilla, made changes to an article written by Jearld Moldenhauer about the We Demand rally at Parliament Hill. This displeased Moldenhauer, so he went to a Toronto Gay Action meeting and pitched the idea of creating a publication made by and for gay people that could report on queer issues without censorship or dilution. A few weeks later, on October 28, 1971, the first issue of The Body Politic was published, with the contributors working for free and even splitting the $255 necessary to print 5,000 copies, which would then be sold for 25 cents each.

This collective ran The Body Politic together, with the members voting on the content of each issue. The paper steadily grew and became one of the greatest dispensaries of queer information in the country, but it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. In 1977, an article titled “Men Loving Boys Loving Men” by Gerald Hannon landed The Body Politic in hot water, which was already boiling given the sexual assault and murder of 12-year-old Emanuel Jaques by a group of men four months earlier. This led to a police raid at The Body Politic office and the seizure of 12 boxes of material, including subscription lists. This action by the police was widely protested by many, including by Harvey Milk, who held a solidarity rally in San Francisco, according to Donald W. McLeod’s annotated chronology of gay liberation in Canada.

Because of this article, The Body Politic and three of its members were charged for “possession of obscene material for distribution” and “use of the mails for the purpose of transmitting ‘indecent, immoral, or scurrilous material.” The trial started on January 2, 1979, the beginning of a three-year legal battle, including one appeal and two acquittals, until they were finally found not guilty in April 1982. Unfortunately, the seized materials were not returned until April 1985, eight years after the initial raid. During this time, The

The Body Politic connected queer Canadians and served as a platform for marginalized voices that was missing from mainstream media.

It was especially praised for its coverage of Toronto’s bathhouse raids and the global AIDS epidemic. In 1973, the collective created Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives to preserve queer history, and incorporated as Pink Triangle Press in 1975. The Body Politic was resilient, never allowing a bully to strike them down and get away with it. When the Toronto Star refused to run an advertisement for the publication, they took the issue to the Ontario Press Council and won a ruling that the Star’s actions had been discriminatory. In 1982, Toronto City Councillor Joe Piccininni tried – and failed – to get The Body Politic banned from the press gallery.

Unfortunately, The Body Politic printed its last issue on December 16, 1986. It was survived by Pink Triangle Press’s newer queer tabloid, Xtra, which would start to print more political content after the death of its parent publication.

How to find back issues Learning about the history of The Body Politic only fed my desire to read the words of publication firsthand. I had heard that the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives (now Arquives) had physical copies, but the ongoing pandemic killed the possibility of a research excursion. After a quick exploration of the Arquives website, however, I was able to find PDFs of all 135 issues of The Body Politic by searching “setName:”The Body Politic fonds”” in their Digital Collections. Later, I would also discover that the Canadian Museum for Human Rights had uploaded all the issues of The Body Politic to Archive.org as PDFs, though they are available to download in many different forms such as ePubs or Kindle files.

Every issue has a community page, which in the era before Facebook groups allowed queer people to see where they could connect with other members of the community. By the eighth issue, the magazine was printing classified ads that read very similarly to the Tinder and Grindr bios of today. If you’re a creative, I know you will find some inspiration for your next collage or poem in these pages rich with colourful text and old-school “memes.” Leafing through all 135 issues can seem like a daunting task at first, so I recommend using the online index (https://www.uwo.ca/pridelib/bodypolitic/bpindex/ indexmainpg.htm) of the articles in The Body Politic provided by the University of Waterloo on their website.

I love Archive.org because it allows you to search the entire collection for keywords, so if you want to read about the bisexuals of times past, for example, all you have to do is search “bisexual” in the text contents. However, be warned that because language and presumptions regarding gender and sexuality are always evolving, some items might have outdated terminology or ideas that make them difficult to read.

It is somehow both validating and frustrating to see the issues we’re dealing with today – whether from society or within the community itself – reflected in these pages. In the article “Out of the Closet & Out in the Cold” from the 110th issue, Danny Cockerline discusses femmephobia, racism and misogyny in regards to gay bar door policies. A quote from this article, which I think is equally important today, reads, “Invisibility is the inevitable result of any move to sanitize the image of gay people in order to make us palatable to straight society. The strategy of ‘good’ gays policing ‘bad’ gays must be seen for what it is: a recipe for self-oppression that offers all of us – the ‘respectable’ and the ‘dirty and perverse’ alike – the quickest route to the closet.”

When reflecting on our past journey, it is important to recognize where we can improve in order to achieve liberation for all.

These magazines give “queer temporality” a whole new meaning, Unfortunately, the publication itself was not free from the oppressive acting as a time machine for modern-day queer readers. As a York behaviours described above. Most members of the collective were alum, one of the first items that caught my eye was an advertisement white men, and that didn’t leave a lot of room for diverse voices in for the “York University Homophile Assoc. Dance” in the first the decision-making processes. The paper was very male-oriented, issue, followed by an article in the second issue about a new “York especially in the earlier years, and a paper by David S. Churchill, Homophile Studies Course” at the university. There’s an endless “Personal Ad Politics: Race, Sexuality and Power at The Body amount of content to explore, but you might be particularly interested Politic,” discusses the racism not only in the content of the paper, in reading a first-person account of Toronto’s bathhouse raids in a but within the collective as well.

Hannon article titled “Taking It to the Streets,” from the 71st issue.

McQuinn’s timeline also draws our attention to an article in the Reading these magazines is a great opportunity for the younger 77th issue by Bill Lewis and Randy Coates titled “Moral Lessons; generation of queer people to learn more about their history, as Fatal Cancer” about how the rare Kaposi’s cancer had suddenly well as the perfect vehicle for older queer people to take a drive been found in a number of gay men, which we can now recognize down memory lane. Learning from both our past mistakes and past as the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. successes can provide an excellent road map for the future of the queer community as we strive towards equity and liberation. In these If you’re looking for articles that are more light-hearted or uplifting, times in particular, it is easy to feel alone, but reading the words of you can check out the 10th issue, which describes one of the first queer people from 40 years ago is a great reminder that there are Canadian festivals organized around gay pride in “1973’s Gay Pride others like you everywhere, even if you can’t meet them in person.

Week: A National Event,” which also serves as a reminder that pride has always been political. The 78th issue has a small article called “Dykes Against the Right” by Anna Marushka, which recounts a demonstration that would evolve into the annual Dyke March. If you want a good laugh, find “Hetero Hanky Code” by John Allec To view the full catalogue of The Body Politic, you simply have to a.k.a. Prof J Allec in the 94th issue, or “The Night Before Kitsch- go to https://collections.arquives.ca/ or https://archive.org/details/ Mas” by Vinn Wilfred in the 133rd issue. canadianmuseumforhumanrights. Enjoy!

ROWAN O’BRIEN is a queer writer and filmmaker based in Toronto who loves ranting about LGBTQ+ representation in media while creating their own queer stories. Their queer coming-of-age short film CRUSHED played at the Toronto Youth Shorts festival, and their next short film, City Limits, will be released this year.

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HISTORY

Body Politic was also charged with publishing obscene materials when they ran an article about fisting in 1982 by Angus MacKenzie, titled “Lust with a Very Proper Stranger.”

TELEVISION

Drag Race ’s British Invasion!

America, UK Hun?

Nobody could have anticipated that the interest in Drag Race UK’s second season would overtake the hype of the original RuPaul’s Drag Race. But as the two shows aired simultaneously, fans found themselves gravitating to the British series instead. Why is that?

By Bianca Guzzo

When the second season of the United Kingdom’s own Drag Race dropped two weeks after the 13th season of RuPaul’s Drag Race began at the beginning of January, fans were just happy to have two new episodes of the iconic drag show to watch weekly. Nobody could have anticipated that the popularity of the British version of the show would blow up, almost eclipsing its American older sister on social media as the competition drew to a close. While there are obvious differences that had fans divided, what was it that made so many fans gravitate to the British series over the American one?

Under normal circumstances, these two series would have aired by themselves, six months apart. But due to filming delays thanks to Covid-19, we were treated to two versions of Drag Race running simultaneously. On one hand, the double-dipping of new episodes every week was nothing to complain about…especially during the collective winter of our discontent. Some fans argued that Drag Race UK reigned superior to the original series, while others chose to stand by the original – and other fans, and queens from seasons present and past, said we should just be happy we have more episodes to watch each week.

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But as any Drag Race fan knows, we tend to be a judgmental bunch. So comparisons between the queens, the challenges and the overall productions were bound to come up. We’re not new to this, after all. We’ve witnessed countless other variations of the show: Drag Race Thailand and Drag Race Canada both featured elements that differed from the original series, to appeal to their respective local audiences. So differences between the series from country to country are inevitable.

After the success of the UK’s own spinoff (which is currently the only other spinoff RuPaul hosts) in 2019, expectations for its second season were high, and it did not disappoint. By contrast, the 13th season of the American series – which premiered two weeks before the British one – had a slow start which included two weeks of premieres and a weeks-long wait before the first queen was sent home. The first few episodes had no sense of urgency, and the show – which was actually starting to feel like RuPaul’s Best Friend Race – started to lose momentum. While more episodes of our favourite televised drag queen competitions are never something to be upset over, it’s safe to say viewers were starting to get a little bored with the slow and steady pace of the American show this year. On the other hand, the British version of the show hooked fans from the first episode, and only gained momentum and more fans as the weeks progressed. Drag Race UK was serving us with something week after week that the American version just wasn’t. The humour in the United Kingdom is very different than in America.

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While the style of drag queens differs a little between the countries, it didn’t even really have anything to do with the queens themselves.

All of them, from both series, were fantastic, and gave us incredible performances and looks week after week…though a popular critique among fans online was that queens from recent seasons of the American series produce themselves to the point of presenting like a heavily branded caricature of themselves.

Others were frustrated that the editing made it obvious which queens would likely be in the top, and thus any interest in tuning in every week to see how they got to the finale was lost. We’re 13 seasons into the original series. We know what to expect, when certain challenges will happen. Some of us know which queen will be eliminated before a lip sync based simply on which sound effects play when she’s on the screen.

As much as we still all love it, it has become a little predictable.

Drag Race UK kept viewers more on their toes. Sure, the queen who ended up winning was hinted as a possible winner from the first episode, but other queens who started the first week at the bottom rose to the top and became fan favourites up until the finale.

When it comes down to it, RuPaul’s Drag Race tried something different with their premiere process this year and, to be blunt, it flopped. None of this makes the American series unwatchable, but for a lot of people, it’s starting to feel stagnant. Drag Race UK is still in its beginning stages, and it has the energy that the American version used to have. Fans seemed to have been more engaged with the British series over the American one, and it even looks like Ru is having a better time in London than she is in Los Angeles.

The original series is incredible. It’s brought drag out of the clandestine corners of the world, and right into people’s living rooms. It’s made some of its queens household names. There will always be a lot to be celebrate when it comes to the original series, but that doesn’t mean it can’t have its own renaissance.

Many fans on the show’s subreddit forum constantly express how much they would prefer a live version of the grand finale episode, as opposed to the pre-taped version we get every season. Once you learn that they film three to four alternate coronations of the winner, the finale does lose a little of its magic. Knowing that three different endings were filmed makes the one we actually see feel disingenuous – and we shouldn’t have to see the actual winner react in real time via a video on Instagram.

In March of this year, rumours on various social media platforms started circulating that producers of the American show were planning

TELEVISION The cast of the second season of Drag Race UK

to shake up the series for the next season. It’s unknown if this is due to fan reaction to the current series. Many of the (still unverified) rumours being circulated mentioned one option being considered by the producers was a live finale, as well as the possibility that fans would potentially vote for the winner. Including fans in some of the decision making would be an interesting way to keep people engaged, although I’m not sure RuPaul would give up total authority on the final decision…so I wouldn’t advise holding your breath for that. But having fans vote for an eliminated queen to return at some point in the competition seems like a more plausible option.

Though each version of Drag Race differs from country to country, whenever there is a large group of drag queens in a room, one thing we can always count on is drama. Every single version of the competition delivers unlimited amounts to us season after season.

Fans of Drag Race UK will be happy to know we’re getting another season of it later this year. Only time will tell if the original series chooses to refresh their production, and they haven’t yet given fans any hints as to what they might do to switch things up. But Drag Race is still Drag Race, and as long as queens are starting their engines, and lip syncing for their lives, fans will be watching.

The cast of the 13th season of RuPaul’s Drag Race

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

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ISSUE S 100 OF IN MAGAZINE We’re celebrating 100 issues of IN! Here, we revisit all of our memorable, groundbreaking – and, in some cases, hilariously dated – covers!

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MAKING SURE QUEER, INDIGENOUS STORIES ARE TOLD Devery Jacobs – actor, lmmaker and activist – is making a name for herself, and for her communities

By Courtney Hardwick

MAY / JUNE 2021

As an actor and creative in the entertainment industry, Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs knows what it’s like to be the only Indigenous person – and often the only minority – in the room. But she didn’t always feel that way. Born and raised in the Kanien’kehá:ka Mohawk Territory in Quebec, Jacobs was used to being surrounded by her culture and a family that celebrated that.

“Growing up in my community, I was surrounded by people like myself. I always saw myself reflected back at me, so I never felt like I needed to represent anything other than me just being me,” says Jacobs. “But when I stepped into the film industry, all of a sudden I felt this weight of having to represent an entire race of people while just being one person trying to make a living as an actor.” Some of that pressure comes from the lack of Indigenous representation in the industry and as Jacobs builds her career, she is committed to changing that.

Although she loved film and had a passion for acting at a young age, Jacobs didn’t feel like she could be successful in an industry that would only consider her for roles that were “ethnically ambiguous.” As an Anglophone living in Quebec, Jacobs found that acting opportunities were limited, so she followed a different passion and went to school to become a counsellor.

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She was working at the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal when she was cast in her first leading role in a feature film, Rhymes for Young Ghouls. The film was her first chance to work with an Indigenous writer and director to tell a story that reflected her own lived experiences, and it changed how she thought about her potential in the industry. She recalls: “That was the first role where I was able to see that I can do this: not only do I have the talent, but my experience is worthwhile to be a leading character in a feature film.”

The film was a critical success and Jacobs herself received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Despite that, she soon discovered that roles for Indigenous women were few and far between, and the ones that did exist were often whitewashed. Although recent years have seen a push for diversity on screen, Jacobs still experiences first-hand how projects that focus on Indigenous stories are treated. “Though there is this push for diversity and stories from people of different backgrounds, they’re typically projects that are funded at lower rates. And when filmmakers go to funding bodies for TV and are told, ‘Oh, this would be better suited for APTN [Aboriginal Peoples Television Network],’ that tells us that our stories aren’t worthy of being universal. So there’s still a long way to go.”

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Photo by Kristina Ruddick

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Jacobs gets an overall vibe that the push for diversity and inclusion is being treated as a fad and that a lot of the time BIPOC actors are hired to “check diversity boxes.” She believes one way to fix that is to give Indigenous creators more opportunities to tell stories from the ground up. “It’s important for Indigenous people to be included in the telling of our own stories, because it brings authenticity and lets us show the many different ways there are to be Indigenous,” says Jacobs. “So often we’ve only seen tragic Indigenous stories on screen – but what about funny stories, love stories, or dramatic stories not based in tragedy? Those should be brought to the screen and celebrated too.”

As an Indigenous actress, Jacobs has experienced being pigeonholed and stereotyped. She recalls one casting director referring to her as Pocahontas and the way it made her feel. “I think there’s such ignorance around the topic and that’s one of the reasons why what I’m doing today is so important,” she says. “People’s only depiction of Indigenous women is Pocahontas when that’s actually a false story. The real story of Pocahontas was that she was a pre-pubescent girl who was abused and married off way too young. It’s actually not a compliment at all [to be called Pocahontas]. It’s a harmful stereotype which sexualizes Indigenous women. If we’re given the opportunity to tell our own stories, we’ll be able to show the number of different ways it means to be an Indigenous woman other than Pocahontas.”

“Seek More,” a new campaign from MADE | NOUS (which celebrates the works of Canadian creators in film, TV, video games and digital entertainment), is designed to encourage Canadians to make a point of seeking out creators and content from a wide array of racial backgrounds and lived experiences, reflecting the vast and varied storytellers in our country. Jacobs is serving as an ambassador for the campaign, sharing her perspective of what representation means both in front of and behind the camera. The more demand there is for diverse content, the more opportunity there will be for Indigenous creatives to tell their stories and share everything they have to offer.

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It’s important to Jacobs that she use her platform to push for Indigenous representation not only on screen but behind the camera as well. She’s a filmmaker herself: she has written and directed three award-winning short films and is currently in development on her first feature-length film, This Place. Her goal is to tell diverse, authentic stories, and the best way to do that is to go directly to the source. “If you look back through history, Indigenous people have either been not represented at all or mis-represented since the birth of film, and what Indigenous people are asking is to be included in the telling of our own stories.”

queer, and discovering what that means for her has been a process.

“I was kind of operating in the world with blinders on and when I came into my queerness, there was a sense of an inferiority complex because I hadn’t had the lived experience that [others] have had so I felt like I wasn’t entitled to a place in the queer community.

It was and still is a journey to stand in my place and understand that I am a part of the queer community.”

One of Jacobs’ most far-reaching roles to date has been her portrayal of Samantha Black Crow in the second season of American Gods, based on the novel by Neil Gaiman. The character is a young Cherokee artist who identifies as two-spirit. Mohawk culture doesn’t recognize two-spirit the way some other Indigenous cultures do, but as a queer woman of colour, Jacobs took the chance to play a fan-favourite LGBTQ+ character very seriously. In an interview with Collider, Jacobs said, “I think where I felt the most pressure was putting it on myself to not only portray Sam Black Crow from the novel well, and to do the character justice, but also to represent the Native American community, and the queer Native American community, properly.”

“ If you look back through history, Indigenous people have either been not represented at all or mis-represented since the birth of film, and what Indigenous people are asking is to be included in the telling of our own stories.”

Jacobs is acutely aware of her unique position, but at the same time she tries not to be too hard on herself when it comes to being the ‘perfect’ representation of both the Indigenous and the queer communities. “There’s so little Indigenous queer representation, let alone two-spirit, let alone trans, so for me I feel that it’s important to be as gentle with myself as I am with other people,” she wrote for Fashion Magazine. Since there are so many stories to tell, she can’t tell them all, but she believes in doing her part to the best of her abilities.

Jacobs knows that making a real impact in the industry is a process, but it’s not just about right now – it’s about creating a better future for generations to come. “In my culture we believe that what you do now has an impact on the next seven generations, and you’re supposed to make every decision with those next seven generations in mind.”

When she looks to the future, she has high hopes for the potential of Canada’s film and TV industry and what our country has to offer. She cites the popularity of shows like Schitt’s Creek for its impact on the LGBTQ+ community and Kim’s Convenience for its portrayal of Korean Canadians as examples of how authentic, culturally diverse stories can connect us all. She hopes Indigenous stories can be told in a similar way some day – and that she’ll get to be a part of it.

In addition to being Indigenous, Jacobs also identifies as queer, so she understands that there is a wide spectrum of experiences, and using the same stereotypes and tropes over and over isn’t going to cut it. Just as Indigenous characters can represent more than tragedy, queer characters should be more than a coming-out story or the token gay friend of the straight lead character. As both Indigenous and queer, Jacobs has a unique perspective, and she wants to make “I want to see hundreds of different Mohawk stories, hundreds sure she sets the best example possible. of different Cree stories, two-spirit stories, because each of our experiences are so different but they tie together,” says Jacobs. “I also Despite being open about who she is, Jacobs has struggled with want to see our stories blend together. I don’t want to see binaries; finding her place in the LGBTQ+ community. Writing for Fashion I want to see cultures come together and how they intersect. I can Magazine, she explained that as a child, she didn’t realize she was imagine it – we’re almost there, it’s just a matter of opportunity.”

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

COVER

Photo by MADE | NOUS

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PRIDE MONTH

PRIDE TORONTO PARTNERS WITH ARTISTS FOR PRIDE 2021 The initiative showcases local visual and digital artists this summer Pride Toronto has commissioned six artists to create original pieces for the Pride 2021 visual branding campaign efforts. Pieces from the selected artists will be used across a variety of visual branding campaign efforts and social media campaigns this summer.

The assets or series of assets all incorporate themes related to Pride 2021 such as the Pride movement as a protest, the 40 years of Pride Toronto’s history, and our community.

Here’s a bit more on each of the artists who are working with Pride Toronto this summer.

Mitch Duncan (he/him) is a multidisciplinary artist born and raised in the east end of Toronto who is currently studying illustration at OCAD University. He loves reading comic books, painting, and walking and riding his bike around the city. He is best known for the posters he makes for anything: parties, drag shows, festivals, comedy shows, music events, etc. Besides making gig posters, he loves to create weird illustrations and paintings, and make zines.

His first completed comic book, entitled The Sculpture Garden, is a queer sci-fi story about self-preservation in an isolating, brutalist cityscape, which he will be self-publishing once the pandemic is over.

Pride TO / EOI Submission

Project: Pride 2021

Brian Jiang (they/them) is a queer non-binary artist and illustrator of Chinese descent based in Toronto. Their practice comprises of illustration, graphic design and fine art. Brian’s multidisciplinary works use both digital and analogue (drawing, painting) media to discuss topics such as identity politics, queerness, communities and communal spaces. Through Brian’s works, they seek to reconcile the complexity of personal identity and establish a connection between the individual, the physical and immaterial worlds. Brian finds inspiration in the formal qualities of folk art, ’60s Japanese graphic design, Surrealism, print ephemera and the natural world.

They’re a 2020 graduate of OCAD University, and hold a Bachelors of Design in Illustration.

Artistic Support Materials - 04

12/03/2021

Pride Toronto 2021 EOI

Image#3 Eggs Paradise

MAY / JUNE 2021

Vivian Rosas (she/her) is a Toronto-based queer, Mestizx/Latinx multidisciplinary illustrator, dancer and muralist. Feminism, empowerment and diversity are recurring themes in her work. Her goal is to create imagery that expresses a sense of inclusiveness for underrepresented communities.

8.

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PRIDE MONTH

Jenelle Lewis (she/her) is a Black and queer freelance illustrator, born and raised in Jane & Finch Toronto. Growing up, Jenelle was inspired by graphic novels’ ability to capture so much motion alongside narrative in a single drawing, and she strives to emulate that in everything she does today. Her style ranges from bouncy hand-drawn typography to graphic design, but her main focus is illustrative, expressive comics and designs, as well as portraiture.

In 2019, Jenelle won a graphic design contest, for Starbucks, against 1,518 stores across Canada, and she has worked for various businesses across Toronto, ensuring that acceptance and community are at the forefront of everything she does. Her goal is to show the world fluid concepts and designs no one has seen before, and she often thinks outside the box to get there.

09. Rewrite the stories

Roza Nozari (she/her) is an illustrator and storyteller based in Tkaronto (Toronto).

She is a tender-hearted queer, Muslim femme with ancestral roots in Iran. Her art practice is deeply informed by her own lived experiences, the communities she belongs to, and the profound critical thought of BIPOC scholars, healers, activists and community/cultural workers. Weaving together words and visuals, she tells stories of personal and collective wounding, of healing, of community, and of radical self-love. Her art is a radical re-imagining of queer and trans-affirming worlds, rooted in justice, in community, and in our collective healing. She strives to create art that feels like love letters to the communities she belongs to – art that says “I see you, I hear you, and I honour you – as you are.”

Website and Social Media Instagram: @YallaRoza Website: www.yallaroza.com

Eric Kostiuk Williams (he/they) is a cartoonist and illustrator based in Toronto. His work explores queer communities, gender expression and urban upheaval. Over the years, Eric has released several comic publications, including Our Wretched Town Hall from Retrofit Comics and Condo Heartbreak Disco from Koyama Press. He is an Eisner, two-time Lambda, and three-time Doug Wright Award nominee. He has also produced nightlife flyers, harm reduction campaigns, murals and music videos, and is currently at work on a new long-form graphic novel.

To check out everything Pride Toronto has happening this year for the 40th anniversary, go to pridetoronto.com.

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A TIMELINE OF

TORONTO PRIDE Know your history, Toronto…or at least the highlights

1971 Toronto’s first “Gay Day Picnic” is held on the beach at Hanlan’s Point on Sunday, August 1. The groundbreaking event was organized by Toronto Gay Action, the Community Homophile Association of Toronto and the University of Toronto Homophile Association, with around 300 people from neighbouring cities as far away as New York City and Detroit attending to show their support.

1972 On July 9, the second annual Gay Day Picnic is held as part of a series of events for the first Gay Pride Week. The week includes a festival, film night, Pride Dance, rally and march to Queen’s Park.

1991 Toronto City Council proclaims Pride Day for the first time, and Councillor Jack Layton reads the proclamation at the opening ceremony. Eggleton refuses to attend.

1992 June Rowlands becomes the first mayor to sign a Pride Day proclamation, though she does not attend the actual parade.

1973 Pride Week is held from August 17-26. The organizers ask Mayor David Crombie to recognize the event, but are turned down.

Permission to march down Yonge Street is also denied.

1995 Barbara Hall becomes the first mayor in Toronto’s history to not only speak on the Pride stages, but also to attend and walk in the parade.

1974 Pride Week is held from August 17-24 and includes another Pride Picnic on Ward’s Island, a theatre night and a church service at Metropolitan Community Church. More than 100 people march from Allan Gardens to Queen’s Park in an effort to pressure provincial legislators to add sexual orientation to the Ontario Human Rights Code.

1996 The first-ever Dyke March is held on Saturday, June 29, and it has a turnout of 5,000 people – police had projected an attendance of 50.

1978 After no organized events were held from 1975 to 1977, GAYDAYS: In Celebration of Lesbians and Gay Men is held from August 24-27. This is the first year that Pride Day is celebrated at Cawthra Park, with ceremonies on the steps of The 519 Community Centre and a beer garden in the park.

1981 After no organized events were held in 1979 and 1980, Lesbian and Gay Pride Day Toronto is legally incorporated and 1,500 people celebrate Pride Day on Sunday, June 28 at Grange Park. Just months earlier, on February 5, Metro Toronto Police had raided various bathhouses as part of “Operation Soap,” arresting 306 men.… In spite of the politically charged atmosphere, Lesbian and Gay Pride Day is billed as a time to relax and celebrate, and as “an afternoon of fun and frolic.”

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Eggleton will become Toronto’s longest-serving mayor (from 1980 to 1991), and through his entire tenure he will refuse to proclaim Lesbian and Gay Pride Day.

1984 After previous Pride events at Grange Park (1981 and 1982) and King’s College Circle (1983), the annual festival makes a move. For the first time, Church Street – the heart of Toronto’s queer village – is closed and people dance in the street.

1985 Mayor Art Eggleton refuses to proclaim Lesbian & Gay Pride Week – the theme of which, ironically, is “Coming Together.”

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1998 After initial reservations, Toronto’s new “mega-mayor” Mel Lastman participates in the annual Pride Parade. He ends up having a fantastic time, riding on a fire truck and getting soaked by revellers with power water guns.

2001 For the first time, the City’s Official Proclamation of Pride Week includes a mention of bisexuals, transsexuals and transgendered persons.

2009 The First Trans March is held after Karah Mathiason organizes the event. It is not recognized by Pride Toronto as an officially programmed event but is supported by the group.

2014 Toronto hosts WorldPride 2014, the first to be held in North America and the largest event of its kind.

2016 Toronto Pride celebrations take over the city when the event becomes one month long. On Sunday, July 3, Black Lives Matter brings the Pride parade to a standstill to force the annual celebration of LGBTQ equality to answer for its “anti-blackness.”

2020 Pride Toronto cancels its full in-person festival weekend, which includes the Pride Parade, the Dyke March and the Trans March, due to the coronavirus pandemic. Virtual events, parties, performances and seminars are held throughout the month instead.

We can’t be together right now, but we are always Forever Proud.

TD is supporting over 100 LGBTQ2+ initiatives this year to help more people feel included and connected — during Pride and all year long.

Together, we can move closer to a more inclusive tomorrow.

Learn more at www.td.com/tdreadycommitment

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“ Where’s Waldo” OF ASIAN LGBTQ REPRESENTATION Asian culture is underrepresented on your screens

By Jaime Woo

MAY / JUNE 2021

During the premiere episode of the second season of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, the contestants were asked to present a look based off their favourite British gay icon. When the two Black contestants, Asttina Mandella and Tayce, both chose Naomi Campbell, regular Drag Race viewers may have prepared themselves for a catfight like when Gia Gunn and Trinity the Tuck battled over playing Caitlin Jenner on their season of All Stars. I held my breath, worried that the show would carelessly exploit the struggles of people of colour for petty drama.

realized the names that came to mind were all American. George Takei, and B.D. Wong, and Margaret Cho, and Bowen Yang – although Bowen did live in Montreal as a child. I spent a few hours of effort, and came up with author Wayson Choy, city councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam and television host Lilly Singh. The list isn’t exhaustive, especially depending on how you define “icon,” but it’s depressingly not far off. (Maybe we can squeeze in Sandra Oh, who is nothing short of iconic as a lesbian in Under the Tuscan Sun. Is Keanu Reeves a gay icon?)

Thankfully, the two British queens instead shared their frustration The reason it’s so shocking is because, until I had enumerated it at how difficult it was to think of any other Black British gay icon this way, I hadn’t realized how little of myself I’d seen on screen. aside from the supermodel, and lamented the lack of visibility Because Canada has worked hard to diversify media representation and representation. It made me wonder how the same assignment – the CBC alone has Schitt’s Creek, Kim’s Convenience, Queens would have played on our homegrown version, Canada’s Drag and Trickster – it’s easy to create a composite of sorts. In a Venn Race. Would the Black contestants all have to choose Jackie Shane diagram, seeing the two outer circles gives an illusion of (or, more (who is American but lived in Toronto long enough for us to claim generously, hope for) something to fill in the overlapping region. her as one of our own) or pay tribute to the late great Michelle Yet spottings of queer people of Asian descent are so rare, I find Ross? It’d be even slimmer pickings for contestants like Kyne, myself leaping out of my seat when I see them, like the climax of Priyanka and Ilona Verley. a round of Where’s Waldo.

I keep a mental list of queer people of Asian descent, as I imagine most people who belong to multiple underrepresented groups do.

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It reminds me of a game I’d often play in my corporate career.

I’d look up the highest-ranking person of colour in the company where I worked, and the highest-ranking person from the LGBTQ

After the shootings in Atlanta, people began campaigning to #StopAAPIHate. It’s well-intentioned, but will hardly move the needle until we reflect on how that hate comes about. Nothing springs to life spontaneously, independent of its environment. Let’s not forget how sex work was a key component to the shootings, and reflect on how limited the portrayals of women of Asian descent are in Western media.

In the gay community, there are many stereotypes around men of Asian descent. The ease with which the community trivializes and erases men of Asian descent is clear to anyone who has used a hookup app. We have to trace these sentiments back to Mickey Rooney’s yellowface as Mr. Yunioshi in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and the character of Long Duk Dong in Sixteen Candles. We have to reflect on the absence of Asian men from formative television shows like Will & Grace, Sex and the City and Queer as Folk.

“ Spottings of queer people of Asian descent are so rare, I find myself leaping out of my seat when I see them, like the climax of a round of Where’s Waldo.”

The few signals being sent can be so subtle that they slip under the radar, but if you’re aware of them, it’s impossible to miss.

For instance, Michael Patrick King’s repeated dubious Asian representation includes having, in Sex and the City, a Pakistani busboy that Samantha could reject in order to feel better about herself, and a scheming Thai housekeeper named solely to allow Carrie Bradshaw to make a Chinese food pun; his first film features a handsome man in heels as a quick, queasy punchline; and his sitcom 2 Broke Girls has an antagonist, Han Lee, who fits the stereotype of being undesirable and calculating. If you never took note of these portrayals, here’s an invitation to take a minute and ask yourself why.

Even on Canada’s Drag Race, not a single person at the judges’ table was of Asian descent. I’m thankful for Sabrina Jalees’s mini-challenge appearance, but doesn’t that say something about the composition of our cultural landscape? (Similarly, the second season of the UK version doesn’t appear to feature a contestant of Asian descent, leaving Sum Ting Wong as the only representation out of 22 queens.) Little was made of how Kyne and Priyanka broke ground, perhaps even making history on Canadian television.

Perhaps paradoxically because Canada is so multicultural, Canadians don’t notice the gaps in representation: they fill in the centre of

the Venn diagram even if it’s not there. It’s clear Priyanka didn’t win to compensate for a dearth of representation, yet her win in this light now feels that much sweeter.

The awareness around anti-Asian violence has brought to the surface a lot of anger, and it can be difficult to know what happens after #StopAAPIHate. I think about the advice of Tibetan lama Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, author of the wonderful In Love With The World, who suggests that within anger and hatred we find love and compassion. What does that look like? To me, it means enlarging the spotlight. It means understanding how the representation of people of Asian descent relates to other underrepresented groups.

It means not just inviting Canadian creators to view the LGBTQ community as including more people of Asian descent, but all of the BIPOC community.

We need more films about Indigenous LGBTQ lives, such as the short film Aviliaq: Entwined, by Inuk filmmaker Alethea Arnaquq-Baril, where two Inuit women in the Arctic try to stay together during the rampant colonialism of the 1950s. Arnaquq-Baril was featured in the moving documentary Two Hard Things, Two Soft Things,

by Mark Kenneth Woods and Michael Yerxa, which explored the impact of colonialism on LGBTQ acceptance in Nunavut, and the quickening change since the territory’s creation. The film’s out Inuit participants Nuka Fennell, Jesse Mike, Kyla Gordon and Kieran B. Drachenberg again likely made history within Canadian media representation.

Their stories matter because they remind us of our common humanity, that we are more alike than not. The documentary ends at a Pride celebration in 2015, where we hear part of a speech from the former Premier of Nunavut, Paul Okalik. He says, “I recall going to school and to university and feeling very alone during discussions on Aboriginal rights, and who was there with me? The gay community was there with me, supporting me all the way. I’ll gladly return that honour to you any day, every day.”

Solidarity is a rising tide.

To properly support one another, we must also learn from one another. One of the most interesting threads from the documentary is the discussion around how to translate the feeling of Pride into Inuit languages, given that pride is not viewed as a desirable trait.

It’s a demonstration of the drive to unite while still respecting one another’s beliefs and values.

The world becomes less scary when we learn more about the people who live in it. The original Drag Race broke ground with Gottmik, a trans man; let’s see Canada’s Drag Race break convention with a drag king. I want a spin-off centring on tech entrepreneur Lawrence Yee from HBO’s Succession. I’m hungry for a world where we get more representation from people like Nyle DiMarco, the openly queer and deaf model. Why don’t we have a screen version of the reimagined Lilies staged at Buddies in Bad Times that was led by a predominantly Indigenous and Black cast?

Doesn’t a world with those things sound more exciting, like a place we can grow and thrive? When I reflect on Rinpoche’s advice, I see where I want to be. I’m still angry about the poor representation of LGBTQ people of Asian descent, but I see now how it can be transformed. Rather than being depressed and diminished by how little there is, I’m emboldened and energized to imagine what must be.

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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community, to get a sense of where the various ceilings might exist.

When it came time to ask who was the highest-ranking person of colour from the LGBTQ community, it was usually me – and I never ranked that high. I played this game because visibility and representation matter: when you are rarely seen, that vacuum is filled by stereotypes, and to not be seen at all is to live as a ghost in the place you call home.

FASHION

Summer Fashionistos Need a little style inspo after lockdown? Here are a few slick Summer 2021 looks we’re loving

MAY / JUNE 2021

PHOTOGRAPHER: Ivan Otis FASHION DIRECTOR: Paul Langill WARDROBE STYLIST: Sikha Panigrahi GROOMING: Paul Langill MODELS: Eloho Orogun (B&M Models), Sean Kemp (Dulcedo Models), Rozano Daniels (Plutino Models) Special thanks to Studio311.ca

COAT: Demaine Tyrone (Toronto Fashion Academy) HAT: Coup De Tete JEANS: H&M BELT AND JEWELLERY: Model’s own 36

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FASHION

COAT AND TOP: House Of Dwir (Toronto Fashion Academy) NECKLACE: H&M DOG TAG: Catharsis Design

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JACKET: Christopher Bates PANTS: Xian (Toronto Fashion Academy) RINGS: Catharsis Design SHOES: Under Armour 38

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FASHION

COAT: Shelli Oh SWIMSUIT: Rhowan James BOOTS: Aldo JEWELLERY: Model’s own SOCKS: Hudson’s Bay 39

FASHION MAY / JUNE 2021

TOP, LEGGINGS AND SHORTS: Rhowan James SHOES: Nike

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JACKET AND TOP: Rhowan James PANTS: H&M RINGS: Catharsis Design

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FASHION MAY / JUNE 2021

JACKET: H&M SHIRT: Shelli Oh PANTS: Austen Dor (Toronto Fashion Academy) SHOES: Reiss SCARF: Echo New York 42

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FASHION

T-SHIRT: Calvin Klein JEANS: Hip & Bone (Toronto Fashion Academy) HAT: Coup De Tete RINGS: Catharsis Design 43

FASHION MAY / JUNE 2021

JACKET: Viapiana Custom Denim SHIRT: Austen Dor (Toronto Fashion Academy) PANTS: H&M RINGS: Catharsis Design 44

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FASHION

JACKET AND PANTS: Xian (Toronto Fashion Academy) SHIRT: Shelli Oh RINGS AND DOG TAG: Catharsis Design NECKLACE: H&M 45

POLITICS & CULTURE

how cultural institutions warp LGBTQ identities Arts funding in particular tends to warp what it means to be LGBTQ+

By Adam Zivo

MAY / JUNE 2021

Ever since cultural institutions started taking equity more seriously, they’ve devoted a great amount of attention to uplifting the voices of LGBTQ artists. Grants are earmarked for queer projects; curators seek out queer voices; preferential treatment is given on the basis of gender and sexuality. For obvious reasons, this has often been a good thing. At the same time, these equity initiatives can distort how LGBTQ people craft their own identity. The push for inclusivity and diversity can, ironically, achieve the opposite effect. This is a particular risk when equity initiatives cultivate a victimhood mindset, subtly coercing LGBTQ people to infantilize themselves as perpetual victims, stultifying their voices by rewarding artists not for their merit, but for their ability to exploit narratives of oppression.

Arts funding warps LGBTQ identities by incentivizing community members to see themselves primarily through the lens of their gender and sexuality. Every time an artist applies for a grant or project and is asked, somewhat obsessively, to tick themselves off on the oppression checklist, it serves as a reminder that this identity is considered essential to who they are. They never get to be just an artist – they are seen, from the outset, as a gay artist making gay art. This kind of identity reduction wouldn’t be such a big deal if there were no stakes involved. However, funding and opportunities are often allocated based on marginalization. That creates a strong financial and professional incentive for artists to play up their own marginalized identities, regardless of how they authentically feel about these identities in their own lives. In this faustian bargain, they are paid to perform victimhood.

Understanding how this works requires a little understanding of the broader context of things. Since the Civil Rights era, many Western institutions have had to reckon with their roles in perpetuating social oppression. Universities have had to introspect on how their systems have excluded the racialized. Legal systems have had to contend with their history of muting women’s voices. Museums have had 46

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to unbury queerness. The examples are limitless – but, regardless of specifics, broadly speaking the effects on these institutions have largely been the same: a profound loss of moral authority and, with it, an enduring sense of illegitimacy.

This loss of moral authority is one of the main reasons why institutions have invested a dizzying amount of work into rectifying past wrongs. It’s good, of course, to correct past injustices and uplift the excluded. Restorative justice is important. Yet, at the same time, this search for moral authority can have unintended consequences.

Chafing under the weight of their pasts, institutions have a strong incentive to infantilize the marginalized rather than empower them.

When institutions are preoccupied with washing away historical guilt, they’re prone to manufacture victims in need of saving – the more pitiful the victim, the easier it is to play the role of the saviour.

The pitifulness of the victim necessitates the enlightened generosity of the former oppressors, and, in this way, institutions ironically continue to monopolize power, because the marginalized, rather than being vested with autonomy and dignity, are instead turned into a community of invalids waiting to be taken care of. It’s not so different from a co-dependent romantic relationship, where one side quietly enjoys playing caretaker and so enables, even encourages, fragility in the other side.

Perhaps this is why arts institutions are so preoccupied with not only reducing LGBTQ people to their orientation and gender, but pressuring them to express themselves in a way that centres on grievance and struggle. The goal for the institutions is not authentic empowerment, but the perpetuation of the victim-patron relationship.

Through amplifying historical injustices, cultural institutions are better able to manage their guilt, developing a system in which they’ve elongated the process of restorative justice so they can better latch onto it. They have the comfort of knowing that they

It should be made clear that centring queerness in one’s life is something that comes naturally to many community members, who don’t mind defining themselves in this way. It can be an organic thing, and in many cases it has its uses. For some, to define oneself according to grievance can feel empowering. However, many LGBTQ people see their queerness as incidental to who they are – just one trait among many – or, if they do centre queerness within their identity, they do so with less fixation on rage. The art world can be uncomfortable for this faction. Their access to the art world requires that they restructure their sense of self. They’re pressured to make themselves artificially queer and artificially angry, to eclipse the fullness of their own humanity so that they can advance their careers. Wanting to see themselves as more than victims, they’re nonetheless forced to perform the theatrics of victimhood at the threat of exclusion.

Not only is the system unfair to these people as individuals, restricting their ability to define their identities in their own terms, but at the macro level it warps LGBTQ culture as a whole by narrowing the spectrum of queer representation, all while burdening the LGBTQ community within an unhealthy persecution complex.

This not only alters the character of LGBTQ culture, but also its quality. In the current art landscape, oppression is a kind of privilege. It is moral and social capital that can be traded in for money and professional opportunity. This isn’t often discussed because conversations about oppression tend to ignore the fact that power is context-sensitive – an identity can be marginalized as a whole, while being an asset within a specific subset of society. It’s good luck to be gay in the arts, to be honest. Hence it’s no surprise that in the culture sector, artists enthusiastically reduce themselves to their identities. So many artist bios are written the same way – parading around queerness like a trophy, showcasing this moral capital in the hope that it will open doors. It’s a little tragic. Past generations fought to give us the freedom to be more than just queer, to be full-fledged individuals, and yet we’ve been bribed into locking ourselves back inside these identities, and, worse yet, have been told that this is somehow liberating.

As is often the case, privilege can lead to laziness and decline.

When artists are generously rewarded for exploiting institutional guilt, rather than relying on artistic merit, the result is often bad art. I’m not going to name names, but there’s no shortage of bad art that is funded specifically because it is queer. It is the kind of art that lacks any sort of individuality and vision, has nothing to say beyond complaining about social grievances, articulated using paint-by-numbers rhetoric and repetitive tropes. So many queer artists sound exactly the same. Sometimes the art world pokes fun at it. There’s a joke within the gay community about a photographer posting a photo series that “interrogates gender” – in the end, it’s just him and a few otter friends coming together for

another thirst trap while wearing nail polish. The crux of the joke is that the appeal to social justice nakedly tries to puff up work that is banal and uninspired.

I am, undoubtedly, a hypocrite for condemning this kind of thing.

As an LGBTQ artist, I’ve made the faustian bargain of inflating my gayness in exchange for money and opportunities. I’ve played that card. It’s frustrating, of course, to prostitute your identity this way, and to know that opportunities are given as an act of generosity rooted in guilt-management, rather than earned through merit. I once stood on a podium, talking about my work to over 10,000 people. Later, I learned that, as I’d suspected, I’d been chosen partially because I was gay. My pride dulled. Was I just a fag in the end, put on a stage to showcase how being a fag didn’t matter anymore? A part of me felt like a circus monkey – but another, more strategic part whispered, “But what would you have preferred – to not be on that stage?”

“ the easiest way to move up in the arts world is to be an angry queer” In a competitive world, you do what you have to do to pay the rent.

The system is inescapable. You can resent it, and that resentment preserves your integrity, marks these compromises as just that: a compromise, externally imposed, unassimilated into one’s own soul.

You’re still you, in the end. Then you look around you, at other artists for whom queerness is everything, who speak a copy-paste vernacular: who are they?

This kind of analysis – the relationship between institutional guilt and the cultivation of victimhood culture – applies to a broad array of contexts. It was, in fact, first pioneered by Black conservative thinkers, who saw the oceans of white guilt in the post-Civil Rights era and wondered who that guilt served. Did white guilt support Black excellence? In their view it didn’t, and instead stultified Black communities, positioning them as eternal victims, stripped of agency, perpetually awaiting the enlightened generosity of white saviours. Rather than succumb to patronization, their preference was for self-reliance, autonomy and individualism – to force open the doors of fortune, rather than be invited in on a leash.

The LGBTQ intelligentsia is much newer than the Black intelligentsia.

Queerness, as an organized canon of theory, has been around for only a few decades, whereas Black-led interrogations of race have been around for centuries. Race theory has had time to flourish into a myriad of traditions, while queer theory is in its adolescence.

Consequently, there is no queer analogue to Black conservative ideas. When it comes to interrogating how, within the LGBTQ community, institutional guilt and victimhood culture go hand in hand, there is a gaping hole.

More recently, Black conservative views seem to be mirrored by some Black artists, who have grown tired of always being asked to be Black artists who create Black art, telling Black stories that inevitably focus on pain rather than excellence. Those particular artists yearn to be seen as individuals. Looking at the LGBTQ art world, drunk with easy funding and obsessively queer, I wonder: when will they yearn for the same?

ADAM ZIVO is a Toronto-based social entrepreneur, photographer and analyst best known for founding the LoveisLoveisLove campaign.

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are helping now – their guilt is assuaged. As a result, the easiest way to move up in the arts world is to be an angry queer – to monologue about how oppressed you are, to highlight the supposed transgressiveness of your existence. In contrast, a kind of queerness that is more forward-thinking and proud, and that refuses the shackles of victimhood culture, would be inconvenient. It would make institutional participation in justice superfluous, implying that, when it comes to making easy amends for past wrongs, the window has closed for them.

INSIGHT

GURL, YOU BETTER SPEAK THE QUEENS’ ENGLISH Chloe Davis’s new book is a celebration of the creativity of queer culture

MAY / JUNE 2021

By Paul Gallant

About a decade ago, I received a copy of The Dictionary of familiar (well, not personally) with “lesbian bed death,” but got Homophobia, an English translation of the hefty French reference a chuckle discovering that “five-year tune-up” meant the “rare book written by Louis-Georges Tin. With essays on topics like the urge of a lesbian woman to have a sexual experience with a man.”

Inquisition and Pat Buchanan, it’s a well-done and important book, “Spaghetti” is “someone who identifies as straight until they get but I found it too depressing for anything more than flipping through. intimate with a queer person or person of the same gender,” that is, straight when dry, but not after a few drinks. “Have a seat,” which Chloe O. Davis’s new book, however, is a nonjudgmental celebration Davis traces to the Black gay community and the larger queer of the creativity of queer culture. The Queens’ English: The and trans people of colour community, is defined as “a phrase LGBTQIA+ Dictionary of Lingo and Colloquial Phrases gets at expressing dissatisfaction with a person or action.” It conjures the how giving a name to an identity, desire or behaviour can make it simple image of an authority figure about to give a lecture, but the more real. Something more real can be discussed, and something superlative phrase is, perversely, “have several seats.” that can be discussed can be integrated and accepted into a larger dialogue that has, traditionally, been uneasy with all things queer. Then there are words imported from the health and political sectors, (Here I’m following Davis’s example in the book, using “queer” like the pseudo-medical “conversion therapy,” “endo” for an as a “catchall for people who identify as anything other than endocrinologist that a trans person might visit, and “MSM” and heterosexual and/or cisgender,” though she also uses LGBTQIA+.) “WSW,” respectively “men who have sex with men” and “women who have sex with women.” Healthcare types like “MSM” and Davis has a social mission: to make multifaceted queer communities “WSW” because it disconnects self-identity from behaviour since visible and accessible in a resource that might as easily be used in disease generally doesn’t care how you identify. the classroom as chatted about on bar stools.

The leather and kink community also overflows with neologists: But innovative use of language is also just plain fun, even more so “aftercare” for the “time and compassionate attention given to a if you know the history. If you’ve ever overheard clueless straight partner after sex, scenario role-play, or BDSM activities,” as well teenagers in the mall “throwing shade,” as they imitate dialogue as “daddy dom,” who might be looking for a submission “boy.” from RuPaul’s Drag Race, then you can smile to yourself knowing that “shade” was coined back in the 1980s by New York City Black Other words seem to originate from a conscientious craving for and Latino queens in the ballroom scene. Ballroom culture, with people trying to make themselves visible by creating a label that its arch drag competitions, has not only provided RuPaul with anyone – whether their grandmother or a mainstream news source many of the catchphrases that his empire has popularized (think: – would feel comfortable using. There’s “demisexual” (one of “reading,” “category is…” and “sissy that walk”), but provides the Davis’s personal favourites) for someone who experiences “sexual foundation for many key terms in Davis’s lexicon. attraction only when a strong emotional connection is present.” A “graysexual” is a “sex-positive asexual person who is not sexually “It’s important to document because that’s how we share our history averse but may not have sexual feeling or attraction toward others.” with generations to come,” Davis tells me in a phone interview. “If You can also call a graysexual a “grace” or “gray ace,” and so deduce you don’t document, then you become lost, and sometimes create that “grace” is a fuzzification of “ace,” which is short for asexual. erasure in a community that’s been marginalized.”

Needless to say, there are many, many words for people’s junk and Davis, a dancer and all-around creative type, got the idea for the what’s done with it: backdoor, bussy, schnauzer, jewels, package, book back in 2006 when she was with the Philadelphia Dance PIV, bumper-to-bumper, pegging and “kai kai,” the act of sex Company. Some of her fellow dancers were part of the ballroom between two drag queens. scene and they’d throw around jokes that sounded coded to Davis – she’s a millennial who identifies as a Black bisexual woman. She As well as identifying the community of origin for many words, started collecting those words and others, then began interviewing Davis includes explainers on HIV/AIDS; coming out; the hanky people, gathering expressions from all corners of the queer universe. code (e.g., gray left is bondage top); pronouns; and the differences between gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation.

Going through the dictionary, I notice certain categories of queer When I ask her if there were words she considered including but vocabularies. Many words come from slang, emerging when left out, Davis didn’t give me an example, but told me the draft subcultural groups create an insider’s language, often with humour went through “so many” sensitivity readings. She’s still keeping and a heap of bitchy attitude. There’s “full house” for someone a list of words she finds, and has been researching Polari (a gay with a sexually transmitted disease, or “butchkini” for a bathing British “secret code” language that may have roots back as far as suit a butch lesbian or masculine queer person might wear. I was the 16th century) for a forthcoming UK edition.

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INSIGHT

One of my recent language peeves is “BIPOC” for “Black, Indigenous and People of Colour” – not for the acronym’s meaning, which is useful, but because, for me, words that start with “bi” always nudge my associations straight to bisexuality. (You can’t imagine where “homogenized milk” takes me.) I run this by Davis, but she doesn’t agree. She points out that the “BI” in “BIPOC” has a capital “i,” which differentiates it. Yet she has other issues with the surge in the use of “BIPOC.”

“A lot of times it’s non-Black people or non-people of colour who are using ‘BIPOC.’ Maybe it makes them feel they’re being politically correct about things. But it’s important to acknowledge and focus on the community we’re actually talking about.”

And that’s the beauty of language well used and a book like The Queens’ English. Social tensions often come from vague, unexamined feelings and stereotyped generalizations. The more specific we can be, the better we understand each other. And the better our mutual “There is beauty of intersectionality, and saying ‘people of colour,’ understanding, the more direct the route to meaningful solutions. yes. But I think it’s more important that if we’re talking about a specific group, then we talk about them. If we’re talking about Black So stop clutching your pearls, Judy. Please and thank you. Now people, we say ‘Black people.’ If we’re talking about Asian-American sashay away. Bye, bye, Felicia.

Pacific Islanders, then we say that, we don’t say POC,” says Davis.

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

Fortress Against The World As hotels heat up – their welcome mats out, feather dusters flying – an insider inspects the foibles and fortes of selling sleep

Aria Hotel Budapest

MAY / JUNE 2021

By Doug Wallace

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When I began reviewing Toronto hotels for the London Telegraph newspaper, I had no idea it would turn me into both the worst and best hotel guest ever. I am that person who can walk into a palatial marble bathroom and instantly spot the mould in the sink’s overfill drain via the mirror. I can smell how long it’s been since the drapery was cleaned. I can find that stray string of dental floss on the floor.

I can sense the second I hang up the phone that when my room service order arrives, it won’t be right. I have also managed to make a monster out of my now extremely fussy partner, who often accompanies me on these assignments, unwittingly acting out his own, gayer version of The Princess and the Pea. Through it all, I’ve discovered and dissected the various thresholds people have for things they can’t live without when they’re away – or think they can’t, anyway. And regardless of whether you’re a B&B kind of person or a four-star-minimum devotee, the true value of things that should matter to you is often brushed aside by hospitality marketing teams delivering “meaningful experiences” through the “customer journey.” These things are (more or less in order): cleanliness, a warm welcome, value for your money, a decent food and beverage program, and at least a little bit of style.

Please make it stop Despite their best intentions and ample practice, many hotels just don’t get it right. Most often, it’s the little things that make me the most cross: bad or insufficient lighting, AC power plugs and sockets that I can’t find, miniature soaps that are too hard to unwrap, shit coffeemakers, shower knobs that are too complicated, surface clutter – I mean, where am I supposed to put my stuff if there are plastic promo cards everywhere? I’ve grown accustomed to being disappointed if there’s no fridge, or no fridge space, for me to store the gourmet cheese I just bought or my half-eaten lunch.

There are definitely other trends I would like to see die off in my lifetime. Reduced rates for people who book the no-cancellation option, for example, just comes across as mean to me. Peekaboo

bathrooms might have seemed like a sexy idea in the ’90s, but, really, you don’t need to watch your lover pee. I often go down for a quick disco nap after checking into a hotel, only to be woken up by the front desk phoning to see if everything is okay – I’ve started to unplug the phone because of that. And I often wonder how many maid-hours around the world are wasted each day with housekeeping folding the end of the toilet paper into little points.

Ditto the facial tissue done up in little rosettes. Don’t they know that everyone just throws these things out? Don’t get me started on bed coverlets.

TRAVEL

I don’t remember exactly how it happened, but a few years ago I started sleeping around Toronto. But it’s not what you think: it’s actually work. And then it turned into a hashtag, naturally.

My aforementioned Princess and I also have a theory we call the Dusty Tissue Box Syndrome. It’s when hotels are trying so hard to do everything right, but miss that one eyesore that deflates all their hard work. It’s like when guests to your home can see flaws that you can’t, simply because you’re too used to them. Hotels have so much dust everywhere, it’s no wonder the lights are low. I also hear a lot of what I’d call “eco-claptrap” – hype from hoteliers about how sustainable and eco-friendly everything is, only to find their rooms filled with plastic water bottles.

First impressions are everything with proper hotels, and most of them know this fully. I really pay attention to the front-of-house goings-on, though I pretend not to. And sometimes the fanciest of hotels are the most flustered or have staff who talk like they’re acting in a play. I once walked up to the front desk of a five-star Toronto hotel and was asked: “How was your stay?” Um, I’m checking in, I said.

I sometimes have to laugh at the club level sections of hotels, those designated floors whose guests have an exclusive lounge. These are great for breakfast, because they’re less crowded and more quiet than the main restaurants downstairs. And they’re practically empty during the early afternoon, so they’re great for hanging out in or spreading out to work; the view is always good. But it’s cocktail hour in these lounges that I find fascinating, as I watch wealthy people practically elbow each other in the face filling their little plates with free food. Little greasy puffed pastries and already-cold duck canapes. Maybe jockeying for free food is why rich people are so rich.

Fogo Island Inn

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Gear up for turn-down As we start to come out of our COVID hibernation and hotel stays increase, there are, of course, new methods and procedures to help keep guests comfortable, happy and safe.

Being up front about health and safety precautions has become de rigeur, as hotels make it clear what their cleaning policies are and how they’re dealing with social distancing. Contactless and more flexible check-ins and -outs are here to stay, hopefully, as are grab-and-go meals. I think we will also see hotel rooms getting smarter, wherein your phone controls more in-room doodads in an effort to keep things touchless.

Despite the whirlwind of pandemic recovery, hospitality people generally have a real passion for their work, particularly if the manager is also the owner. It’s fun finding out what that passion is and seeing what really makes a hotel hum – bees on the roof, a cheese cave, snowmobiles for rent, rabbits in the kids’ play area and what have you. Making a connection that you weren’t expecting can really make your stay more enjoyable.

Hotel X Toronto

When a hotel manages to hit all of the right notes, it truly is one of the finer things in life. Good hotels are like your fortress against the world. However temporarily, it is your home and you can do as you please – eat a steak sandwich in bed, drink a glass of bubbly in the bathtub, have a movie marathon, pad around in your fluffy, white robe. Throw in thoughtful amenities, nice soap I wouldn’t splurge on for home, a yoga mat, and I’m yours.

MAY / JUNE 2021

The Warehouse Hotel Singapore

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

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benbenedict.ca | satelliteprojectspace.com

FLASHBACK Alan Turing, Mathematician & LGBTQ Rights Icon, Dies ( June 7, 1954)

British mathematician, logician and cryptographer Alan Turing (June 23, 1912 – June 7, 1954) was responsible for breaking the Nazi Enigma code during World War II, and ultimately his work gave the Allies the edge they needed to win the war in Europe. It also led to the creation of the computer.

It is widely said that Turing took his own life on June 7, 1954, two years after being outed as gay. At the time it was reported that he died from eating an apple laced with cyanide. He was only 41 years old.

MAY / JUNE 2021

Homosexuality was still a crime in Great Britain at the time; when Turing was convicted of gross indecency, he chose

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chemical castration over prison. At the time of his death, the public had no idea what he had contributed to the war effort.

Sixty years later, Queen Elizabeth II officially pardoned Turing.

In recent years academics have said that Turing may not have committed suicide, and questioned the evidence that was presented at the 1954 inquest. Turing may have died from accidentally inhaling the poison he used in amateur experiments.

In June 2021, the Bank of England will commemorate the World War II codebreaker by introducing a new 50-pound polymer note featuring Turing’s image.

BindersOUT is a grassroots, volunteer-run non-profit that provides Trans & Non-Binary folks access to affordable (and safe!) gender-affirming products through our binder exchange program.

All funds – whether donations or PWYC – go back into the program, towards purchasing new binders to distribute throughout the community.

How can you help?

Donate to our GoFundMe for our next purchase of binders!

Donate your previously loved binder!

Share us on your socials!

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HIV changed my life.

I changed my priorities.

I changed my goals.

And I changed to a treatment that works for me.

Stock photo. Posed by model.

MAY / JUNE 2021

With all the HIV treatments available today, is it time to rethink your therapy?

Ask your doctor about your options.

Visit MyHIVTreatmentOptions.ca

Brought to you by one of Canada’s leading research-based pharmaceutical companies.

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Code: NP-CA-HVU-JRNA-200001-E Date: 01-2021