Xtra Ottawa #270

LEATHER PRIDE E

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OTTAWA’S GAY & LESBIAN NEWS #270 AUG 14–SEPT 10, 2014

JAMIE ANDERSON E 16

NEW ORLEANS E

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+ INSIDE!

LOL Pride Jodie McNamara rediscovers her funny bone E12

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Celebrate Pride with

Push It – A Pride Party with VE and ‘mo diggity!

Reading Out Loud!

Aug 20th, 8pm. Free!

Reading Out Loud is a literary event held at Venus Envy every year during Pride! Folks who make stuff happen in Ottawa are asked to read something that is important to their identity, something that makes them feel understood, or just a favorite passage that they’ve read over and over and want to share with other! Stay tuned for info about our readers for this year!

Friday, August 21st, doors at 9:30pm

Indoor, outdoor dance party for all kinds of queers (and friends) at Cafe Nostalgica! dj yalla!yalla! (Ottawa and Toronto) and dj zehra (Toronto) bringing heat to the dancefloor with your favourite throwback hits, sultry r&b grooves, dancehall jams, reggae tracks, hip hop classics, and diaspora/homeland identity crisis mixes! $5-15, sliding scale, all proceeds to the Venus Envy Bursary Fund.

Our annual Pride sale! August 23rd and 24th Tickets available at VE on August 10th.

20% off everything (excluding magazines, zines and art) Cafe Nostalgica is fully accessible.

See your friends, check out the rainbow gear, eat cupcakes 19+ with ID please. and celebrate Pride with Venus Envy!

Pride Sale:

BDSM 201: Edge Play and Power Relationships with Andrea Zanin August 17th, 6:30pm. $25 ($15 sliding scale)

Lessons In Non-Monogamy: What Have We Figured Out So Far? With Andrea Zanin August 18th, 6:30pm. $25 ($15 sliding scale)

Sex Toys for Queers August 19th, 6:30pm. Free for Pride, everyone welcome!

Please register in advance as space is limited. You can register by calling VE at 613 789 4646 or www.venusenvy.ca!

The Naughty Bits Book Club – 100 Crushes by Elisha Lim!

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August 26th, 6:30pm - 8:00pm Venus Envy Ottawa’s very own book club! Join us for a monthly book club while we read our way through our favourite sexy and thought provoking books!

Our monthly book club pick has a 15% discount all month long, whether you attend club or not!

100 Crushes by Elisha Lim 5 years of queer comics!

Butches, sissies, dandies and convent girls: Elisha Lim adores queers in every town and celebrates them with tributes, interviews and memoirs. This is a collection of five years of tender loving comics about an international gender-bending avant garde.

The emotional honesty of the drawings is matched by Lim’s earnestly handwritten text...with a fluency and an immediacy that breaks my heart.

-Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home and Dykes to Watch Out For Elisha Lim is one of the world’s premier queer visual artists. While reading 100 Crushes, prepare for the personal and the political in a charming combination of images and text.

-Rae Spoon, author of First Spring Grass Fire

Paintings by Joelle Circe, all month long!

Joelle’s work can be best defined as contemporary realism, mostly working with oils and soft pastels. Her art is focused on queer lives in general, and women’s lives in particular. Many of her paintings can be described both as lush and provocative. Joelle has shown her work in many places, including the LeslieLohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Are in Soho, NYC, The Rochester, NY Erotic Art Festival, and Gallery 13 in Toronto. This is her second solo show at Venus Envy. http://circesart.com/

226 Bank Street. 613-789-4646. To order: 877-370-9288 or

2 AUG 14–SEPT 10, 2014 XTRA!

OTTAWA’S GAY & LESBIAN NEWS

Roundup

XTRA Published by Pink Triangle Press

OTTAWA’S GAY& LESBIAN NEWS

PUBLISHER & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Brandon Matheson

#270 AUG 14–SEPT 10, 2014

EDITORIAL ASSOCIATE EDITOR Andrew Jacome MOBILE REPORTER Julie Cruikshank COPY EDITOR Lesley Fraser EVENT LISTINGS ottawalistings@dailyxtra.com CONTRIBUTE OR INQUIRE about Xtra’s editorial

content: brandon.matheson@dailyxtra.com EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE

Zara Ansar, Adrienne Ascah, Christian Baines, Natasha Barsotti, Bruce Bishop, Layla Cameron, Krista Comeau, Matthew DiMera, Josh Kemp, April Plett, Phil Villeneuve, Ben Welland, Jeremy Willard ART & PRODUCTION CREATIVE DIRECTOR Lucinda Wallace GRAPHIC DESIGNERS Darryl Mabey, Bryce Stuart, Landon Whittaker

PRIDE INSIDE

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It’s rainbow time Capital Pride adds new programming alongside festival favourites 7 Fetish focus Leather Pride sparks celebrations & memories 8 All aboard Cruise events take Pride to the water 9 All in the family Ten Oaks founders to serve as marshals in parade 10

TO ADVERTISE: matt.oleary@dailyxtra.com 613-301-9910 The publication of an ad in Xtra does not mean that Xtra endorses the advertiser. Storefront features are paid advertising content.

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HST included where applicable. Xtra is free in metropolitan Ottawa; elsewhere, retailers may charge up to $1 to cover transportation costs.

COVER STORY

Editorial Queer: Echoes of hate, and pride

By Matthew DiMera E 4 Feedback E 4 Xcetera E 5

Out in the City New memoir looks at sex through the lens of a disabled person E 15 First-time playwright launches TotoToo season E 15 Life is a highway Jamie Anderson publishes memoir about life on the road E 16 Defeating the demons Fiona Noakes’s latest is an anthem for non-conformists E 17 What’s On E 18 Xposed E 20 MORE AT DAILYXTRA.COM

Daily Xtra Travel Miami Pride machine South Florida’s largest gay festival E 22 New Orleans The South’s most gay-friendly city E 24 Nine great nude beaches in Europe E 25 COVER PHOTO

BY BEN WELLAND

on dailyxtra.com E ACO to bring Totally outRight program to Ottawa E Somerset West hopefuls on bike lanes and youth homelessness

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Comment Echoes of hate, and pride

The outcome that we seek is this — gay and lesbian people daring together to set love free.

Xtra is published by Pink Triangle Press, at 2 Carlton St, Ste 1600, Toronto, M5B 1J3.

#269 JULY 17–AUG 13, 2014

Drama queen

ONE ON ONE WITH PRIDE COMES MEAN GIRLS KATHLEEN WYNNE TO BROCKVILLE BURLESQUE E E E 7

Matthew DiMera is a freelancer reporter with Xtra and the author of last month’s cover story, “Who’s Watching You?�

Join the conversation: search for this article on dailyxtra.com to watch the video of the town hall, then tell us about the words you use and why they matter.

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“Jungle Jen No Longer Capital Pride Performer,� Aug 20, 2013. “Capital Pride Board Reveals That Chair Resigned During Pride,� Sept 10, 2013. “Capital Pride Directors Remove Vice-Chair Luke Smith,� dailyxtra.com, July 14, 2014.

Who do all three of these incidents have in common? Capital Pride still has a problem on its hands.

ALICIA SMITH DAILYXTRA.COM

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I am queer in the way that I see the world and in the way that I want it to change for the better.

However, I certainly don’t think we should be forcing the word onto an entire community who may not feel the same way as I do.

To me, queer is political. Queer is loud. Queer encompasses the L, the G, the B, the T and every other letter and number within our communities.

When people self-identify as queer, I hear two things: ďŹ rst, that they are referring to their gender or sexual identities and that they are committed to ďŹ ghting against homophobia and transphobia; but second, that they are just as committed to ďŹ ghting racism, ableism, sexism, classism and all other harmful “isms.â€?

To me, it signiďŹ es a resistance to the overwhelming corporate presence at our Pride parade and a resistance to pinkwashing by businesses and politicians.

Rightly or wrongly, that’s how many of the younger generation see the word and why they are so reluctant to give it up. Maybe that’s why they weren’t interested in joining the conversation.

OTTAWA’S GAY & LESBIAN NEWS

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While observing Xtra’s live-streamed town hall on the use of “gay� versus “queer,�

IÂ was struck more by who skipped the discussion than who chose to participate. Where were the youth?

Granted, by hosting the June 18 event at Vancouver’s Fountainhead Pub, a certain subset below the age of 19 was automatically excluded.

But, aside from two members of the invited panel, the 20-somethings who tend to embrace the word queer were absent. Earlier meetings of the discussion groups that led up to the town hall were also dominated primarily by people over the age of 40.

But many of the young people I’ve met in my communities, through LGBT youth groups, through university and through the reporting I’ve done for Xtra, identify strongly and passionately with “queer.�

One of the town hall’s panellists, Andrew Shopland, talked about the importance of intergenerational discussion — teaching and learning that goes both ways, between youth and elders. But that kind of discussion can’t happen when one party isn’t participating.

As participant after participant

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GUEST EDITORIAL MATTHEW DIMERA

chimed in favouring the word gay or lesbian or some other as-of-yetunthought-of umbrella term, I wondered where the “queer� defenders were. Their absence raised an equally troubling question for me: are we still a single community? Is the disagreement over what we call ourselves a portent of a deeper, growing rift, or is it just a symptom of a generational difference?

I didn’t grow up during a time where “queer� was used as the slur de jour; “homo� and “faggot� were the insults most commonly heard in the halls of my suburban high school.

So, I readily admit to not knowing what it feels like to hear the ugliness of the word queer from the mouth of homophobic attackers, like many gay and lesbian elders have. And I sympathize with the idea that some words can’t or shouldn’t be reclaimed. As a mixed-race black man, I still refuse to use the N-word, aloud or in print, because of its abominable history.

I can’t speak for our gay elders and their lived experiences, and I understand the refusals of those who have rejected “queer� for themselves because they still hear the echoes of hate in the word. But, within those same echoes, I hear swells of pride and I hear myself.

I am gay, and I am queer. I am gay in that I am attracted to other men.

email comment@dailyxtra.com comment dailyxtra.com & facebook.com/dailyxtra tweet @dailyxtra

Who’s watching you?

Government surveillance and the bill that keeps coming back to haunt us E10

Bad leadership Some of us who have lived in this community for many years have seen this before [“Capital Pride Directors Remove Vice-Chair Luke Smith,â€? dailyxtra.com, July 14]. Without a doubt Smith was the victim of the usual backstabbing politics at Capital Pride. That chair should be ďŹ red for opening her mouth to the press.

Fraser took the right approach not to discuss internal personnel matters. Pride has suffered from bad leadership for a number of years. That trend continues.

Why would anyone want to be a part of that board when it causes them nothing but trouble and a damaged reputation?

Never forgive an attacker If someone attacked me, I would never forgive them [“Gay Nova Scotia Stabbing Victim Reects on Last Nine Months,â€? dailyxtra.com, Aug 1] — especially if they stabbed me twice and left me with a slashed throat, paralysis, spinal-cord injuries and the prospect of never being able to walk normally again. The gay community really needs to discard the bullshit from the Metropolitan Community Church and other false, religious “do-gooders.â€?

STEVE P DAILYXTRA.COM

DIANNE JONES DAILYXTRA.COM

Why would anyone want to be a part of that board when it causes them nothing but trouble and a damaged reputation?

RE: BAD LEADERSHIP

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In early July, a Louisville, Kentucky, police officer reportedly called gay pornstar Jessie Colter “queer” and threatened to arrest him if he didn’t leave a city water park for wearing red brief trunks.

PIXEL PARADE

GAYMER PRIDE

EXPLORE THE GAY WORLD

To mark the decision by Japanese game developer Square Enix to allow samesex marriages in its Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, LGBT gamers’ guild Rough Trade Gaming Community staged a virtual Pride parade within the game.

You don’t need to be confined to binary notions. Think about how your character does or does not conform to the broader culture’s expectations of sex, gender and sexual behaviour.

— from the 2014 Dungeons & Dragons handbook MORE AT DAILYXTRA.COM

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OTTAWA’S GAY & LESBIAN NEWS

Upfront

Everyone told us there was no space in our community for families and that this wasn’t a need in Ottawa. Julia Wagg E10

PRIDE INSIDE

IT’S RAINBOW TIME Capital Pride adds new programming alongside festival favourites JULIE CRUIKSHANK Capital Pride is upon us, bringing 10 days of rainbows and glitter to Ottawa. In addition to such tried and true favourites as the parade and community fair, organizers have added exciting new programming to the mix, including international films, an educational conference and a visit from the stars of RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Kicking it all off, Ottawa will be awash with rainbows as the city’s public services show support for the community with flag raisings all across town on Monday, Aug 18. The day will start early, with a 6am pancake breakfast at Ottawa Police Service headquarters (474 Elgin St), followed by flag raisings at OC Transpo (10:15am), Ottawa Fire Services (12:30pm; with barbecue) and Ottawa Paramedic Service (2:15pm), culminating in the Pride proclamation and flag-raising ceremony at Ottawa City Hall (110 Laurier Ave) at 4pm to mark the official start of Pride Week. A double-decker Pride bus will be available to shuttle revellers to each event.

“I started raising the flag the first time I was mayor, back in the 1980s,” says Mayor Jim Watson. “I think it’s important that the mayor and city councillors and chiefs of police and fire and paramedic show their support for the GLBTQ community, not just during Pride Week, but throughout the year.”

Cinephiles will want to check out a series of queer foreign films being screened in partnership with the Dutch, Swedish and Argentine embassies, Aug 18 to 20 at the ByTowne Cinema (325 Rideau St). This will be followed by a special Village Movie Night featuring To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything! Julie Newmar (Aug 22), a camp classic presented by the American Embassy and the Bank Street BIA. Another new Pride initiative this year is the Free to Learn GLBT+ Conference , which will feature trans activist Stephanie Battaglino and mountaineer Cason Crane, the international grand marshal of the Pride parade. The conference, which is free, takes place Wednesday, Aug 20, 3–10pm, at Extended Stay Ottawa (141 Cooper St).

“Our clear view this year was to bring the festival back to the community. We really wanted to bring it down more to a smaller scale,” says MORE AT DAILYXTRA.COM

Plan ahead for sun, skin and fun at this year’s Capital Pride. BEN WELLAND

conference organizer Stephanie Lavergne. She says that in addition to lectures, the conference will include workshops by community partners (check capitalpride.ca for details) followed by a reception where attendees can mingle with the speakers.

Battaglino, the event’s keynote speaker, says she hopes the conference will inspire attendees to be better allies. “It’s all about education. The need for education is great, [and] the need for education is ongoing.”

The annual Human Rights Vigil, held at the Canadian Human Rights Monument on Elgin Street, is scheduled for Thursday, Aug 21, at 8pm.

The vigil will focus on this year’s Pride theme — Free to Love — and what that means for LGBT

people around the world. Battaglino will also be hosting the vigil, which she says is an important time to remember the struggles of those in the transgender community. “I see that very much as another Transgender Day of Remembrance in many respects,” she says. “At the end of the day, we all need to be respected as human beings.”

Hot on the heels of their star-studded Glow Fair, the Bank Street BIA will pump up the Pride atmosphere by resurrecting the Rainbow Party on Friday, Aug 22, at 10pm, bringing an evening of high-powered fun to Barrymore’s Music Hall (323 Bank St).

“We’re going to try to jazz it up a little bit,” says BIA head Christine Leadman. “Barrymore’s is such a cool building inside . . . I think that for this

type of [event] it’s perfect. We’re really excited about the Rainbow Party coming back.” Popular Montreal DJ Stephan Grondin (who will also play the Pride Main Stage on Sunday) will be spinning beats, and RuPaul’s Drag Race star Courtney Act will add a touch of glamour to the evening.

The brightest gem in the Capital Pride tiara is the parade, which, for only the second time, will make its way through the official gay village.

“I know for the community it means a lot to have it in the Village,” says parade coordinator Tova Larsen. “It’s very, very symbolic. It’s the main reason that I pushed so hard last year to change the parade route.” continued next page E XTRA! AUG 14–SEPT 10, 2014 7

PRIDE INSIDE E Pride highlights continued from previous page

The parade starts at 1pm at the corner of Bank and Gladstone, travels north on Bank Street, turns east on Laurier Avenue, and finishes at Marion Dewar Plaza at city hall (110 Laurier Ave W).

For those looking to stake out a sweet spot to watch the spectacle pass by, Larsen suggests claiming a place on Bank Street, after James but before Laurier, and avoiding congested areas at the beginning and end of the route.

The community fair, in Marion Dewar Plaza after the parade, is a throwback to a time when Pride was little more than a picnic. “The community fair really is an important part of Pride because it gives businesses and community groups the opportunity to come together, promote [and] celebrate what they do year-round for the LGBT community,” organizer Ashley Blackwood says. Familiar faces from Bruce House, the Ottawa Senior Pride Network and the Ottawa Frontrunners will be setting up booths alongside small-business owners and pet rescue groups. Admission is $5.

The Capital Pride Main Stage, also at Marion Dewar Plaza, will feature live entertainment both Saturday, Aug 23, and Sunday, Aug 24.

RuPaul’s Drag Race: Battle of the Seasons will kick off entertainment on Saturday, with queens from past seasons, including Season 6 winner Bianca Del Rio and finalist Adore Delano, duking it out onstage.

“The show is going to be incredible,” says House of SAS producer Sebastien Provost, whose production company is overseeing the main event. “I really want to keep that energy going, and I’m trying to tell a story with the entertainment. What you’re going to see . . . is a highly polished show that will really build on the energy of the parade.”

Big names gracing the stage on Sunday include performance artist and fashion icon Amanda Lepore, rapper Cazwell, acclaimed Canadian DJ Stephan Grondin and Grammy winning producer/DJ Hex Hector. Local talent includes drag action from the Capital Kings and burlesque from Capital Tease.

Main stage admission is $10 on Saturday, including next-day readmission, and $5 on Sunday.

For comprehensive Pride listings, check out our Ultimate Pride Guide, in this issue and at upgottawa.com and dailyxtra.com.

8 AUG 14–SEPT 10, 2014 XTRA!

FETISH FOCUS Leather Pride sparks celebrations & memories ADRIENNE ASCAH

and Ms Ottawa Pup. On the judging panel will be Patty, International Ms Leather 2014, and Andy Coatham, Mr International Rubber.

At the wrap-up party on Aug 17, revellers are encouraged to show up in penal code attire. Whether a judge, a police officer, a prisoner or a warden, every cog in the penal system will party alongside the city’s newest titleholders as they serve up burgers from a “behind-the-bars” barbecue.

With no cover charge for any of the events, and all fundraising proceeds going to Pink Triangle Services, NCLP is an accessible, lively good time for the whole community.

Even as community members look forward to this year’s Leather Pride events, Jon Letke, Mr Leather Ottawa 2014, will be in people’s thoughts. Letke, 25, committed suicide on July 24.

“The hurt that people feel never goes away,” says Mike Tattersall, Mr Leather Ottawa 2010. “People just learn to do what they must do to keep living.”

Taking place over the weekend of Aug 15 to 17 at the Centretown Pub, National Capital Leather Pride (NCLP) For many, Leather Pride weekend brings leather, fetish and kink to will be a time for remembering Jon Letke, Mr Leather Ottawa 2014, who Ottawa. committed suicide the evening of NCLP is important both as a celJuly 24. Friends and family gathered ebration and as a reminder that marJuly 31 to celebrate the life of Letke, ginalized people must continue to 25, who was known in the leather community as Nizzi Greatpup. advocate for their rights. While being gay has become normalized in many communities, people in the leather and kink communities still stand out, Tattersall says.

“We in leather are obvious in our clothing and what activities we do in public, and we do not blend in,” he says. “We MR RUBBER don’t want to. We still OTTAWA want to be free to be.”

2014 COMPETITION Fri, Aug 15, doors at 9:30pm The festivities kick off Centretown Pub with the Mr Rubber Ot340 Somerset St W tawa 2014 competition PENAL CODE on Aug 15. Expect lube, GEAR LEATHER latex and charismatic PARTY AND judges and contestants COMPETITIONS owning their identity Sat, Aug 16, doors at 9:30pm while having fun.

Centretown Pub “The whole weekend 340 Somerset St W is a celebration of idenINCARCERATION tity, be it pup, rubber, BARBECUE leather — whatever your Sun, Aug 17, 3–8pm fetish or kink,” TatterCentretown Pub 340 Somerset St W sall says. “Whatever facebook.com/ your thing is, or what nationalcapitalleatherpride you are into, come celebrate it with us.”

The party will continue the following night, where shackles will be enjoyed but not required, as partygoers join the “penal code” gear leather party.

Competition will be stiff as contestants vie to be Ms and Mr NCLP 2014 and Mr

Bear Brunch

trying to gain more members.”

The group holds a monthly brunch taking place at different eateries so You’re sure to have a beary good time bears and their friends can enjoy difwhen joining these fun fellas for ferent menus and surroundings. brunch.

After a night of Pride partying, the The Ottawa Bears are holding a Bear Brunch is the kind of low-key brunch on Aug 17 at fun that will help partyPrime 360. Everyone goers refuel and regroup BEAR is welcome to attend before they head back BRUNCH and Steven Duguay, Mr out for another day of Sun, Aug 17, 11am Prime 360 Ottawa Bear, is clear celebrating.

433 Laurier Ave W about what will be found.

“Come on out and have “[It’s] a bunch of bears a good breakfast and a coming out to have a good time, to so- good time,” Duguay says. “We make cialize and just be themselves,” Duguay everyone feel pretty welcome, and says. “We’re a small group, but we’re that’s important.”

Remembering Jon Letke

OTTAWA’S GAY & LESBIAN NEWS

ALL ABOARD Capital Pride takes to the water with cruisy events ADRIENNE ASCAH It wouldn’t be Pride without cruising.

This year, Capital Pride has two boat cruises to get you meeting, mingling and celebrating on the water.

Jer’s Vision Boat Cruise In partnership with Capital Cruises and Dorothy’s Closet, Jer’s Vision Boat Cruise sets sail on Aug 14. Participants will meet at the Jacques Cartier Wharf at 6:30pm to embark on a two-hour voyage on which they will enjoy cocktails and finger foods while supporting Jer’s Vision in its mission to end bullying and discrimination.

“We’ve got a local performer named Rayne Fisher who’s going to be volunteering and singing a quick song for us,” says Zac Johnstone, community relations co-ordinator for Jer’s Vision.

“Our idea is to keep it low-key in terms of entertainment in order to let people have some fun, enjoy some conversa- When you have community partners like Yuk Yuk’s and Capital Cruises, tion and make some new friends.”

Mathieu Fleury, Ottawa city council- putting on a comedy cruise is a nautilor for Rideau-Vanier Ward, will be one cal dream.

“People are going to have fun,” says of the hosts of the cruise. Also in attendance will be Donna Blackburn, the Jodie McNamara, chair of Capital first out lesbian member of the Ottawa- Pride. “It’s going to be a variety show . . .

Carleton District School Board, and There’ll also be drag kings and queens and a couple of other Hedy Fry, Liberal MP surprises as well.” and longtime supporter JER’S VISION Olivia Travel, a San of Jer’s Vision. Nycole BOAT CRUISE Francisco-based comTurmel, NDP MP for Thurs, Aug 14 pany that offers lesbian Hull-Aylmer, will speak 6:30–8:30pm cruises and resort holiabout her experiences in Jacques Cartier Wharf Tickets: 613-400-1875 or days, was part of the inrelation to diversity and zac@jersvision.org spiration for the comedy inclusion.

CAPITAL PRIDE cruise.

“It’s going to be a loveCOMEDY CRUISE “The Olivia Cruises ly night on the Capital Thurs, Aug 21, 4:30–6pm have comics on them all Cruises’ Empress of OtJacques Cartier Wharf the time,” McNamara tawa,” Johnstone says.

Tickets: eventbrite.ca says. “It seemed like a “You get to spend an natural fit, and it’s also evening with some of Ottawa’s most dedicated community a good way to differentiate it from the leaders, supporting a cause that’s really Jer’s Vision cruise so people don’t feel close to all of our hearts and an organi- like they’re going to the same thing zation that’s changing lives with young over and over again.”

Local comedians will hit the stage people across the country.”

Capital Pride Comedy Cruise

MORE AT DAILYXTRA.COM

Zac Johnstone, community relations coordinator at Jer’s Vision, invites all hands on deck for a good cause.

along with Al Rae, a Winnipeg comic who came out in 2013 after ending his marriage of 23 years. In addition to his standup chops, Rae is known for TV writing — particularly for his work on Little Mosque on the Prairie — and for being the co-founder and artistic director of the Winnipeg Comedy Festival.

Cruisers will rub elbows with one or two comedians from the Laugh Out Proud roster. McNamara can’t yet confirm who will be in attendance, but Elvira Kurt and Jessica Kirson are distinct possibilities. Kurt is Capital Pride’s out icon, an honour extended for being out in her public and private life, renowned in her field and raising the profile of LGBT people. Kirson, headliner for Laugh Out Proud, has been making waves in comedy since she left New Jersey for New York in 1999.

McNamara is happy to sum up the comedy cruise’s appeal: “Laughs, booze, food and Pride on a boat?

I mean, I don’t know what more you want.”

For more about comedy at Capital Pride, see our cover story on page 12.

VIDEO: Gay rights in Zimbabwe dailyxtra.com XTRA! AUG 14–SEPT 10, 2014 9

PRIDE INSIDE

ALL IN THE FAMILY

Ten Oaks founders to serve as community-builder marshals in Pride parade JULIE CRUIKSHANK Ten years ago, when Holly and Julia Wagg first started talking about creating an organization for queer youth and families, people told them it couldn’t be done — and what’s more, that it didn’t need to be done.

The pair, who have been together for 11 years and have three children, say they saw a need in the community for an organization that would allow the children of LGBT families to connect.

“When we thought about starting the Ten Oaks Project, and when we did start it, everyone told us there was no space in our community for families and that this wasn’t a need in Ottawa,” Julia says.

“It was very weird because we knew that was actually the opposite of our experience,” Holly says.

But 10 years later, as more LGBT couples choose to adopt or have children, Ten Oaks is celebrated for its dedication. “For us, Ten Oaks was about making families, children and youth from LGBT families — and the community at large — visible in a way that we hadn’t seen them before,” Julia says.

“Ottawa would be a completely different place for queer people — especially queer parents, queer children and queer teenagers — if it wasn’t for Ten Oaks,” says Hannah Watt, Capital Pride’s director of youth and families.

Ten Oaks offers two annual camp programs for children and youth, as well as workshops exploring the experiences of queer youth. The organization has also taken an active role in Pride, marching in the parade and co-hosting the popular Picnic in the Park event for LGBT families and allies.

Holly and Julia will be taking on the role of community-builder marshals in the Pride parade this year, representing the place that queer families have carved out in the community. They will be joining grand marshal Helen Kennedy, executive director of Egale; international marshal Cason Crane; lifetime achievement marshal Murray Lavigne; youth marshal Elliot Wehrle and Capital Pride’s out icon Elvira Kurt.

“The things that [Holly and Julia] have done for the larger community and for their own family [are] incredible; I’m so happy they are our marshals,” Watt says.

10 AUG 14–SEPT 10, 2014 XTRA!

Julia (left) and Holly Wagg, pictured with their daughter Addison, are community-builder marshals in this year’s Pride parade. JULIE CRUIKSHANK

For Capital Pride, family programming has become more of a focus in recent years. In addition to the Picnic in the Park, there is also the Kids Can tent at the Capital Pride Community Fair, sponsored this year by Giant Tiger.

The tent started out as a daycare service for parents enjoying the festivities, Watt says, but has since become more of a family-focused area for kids and adults.

There is also programming geared toward LGBT youth planned by Etc, Capital Pride’s youth committee. The Pride Prom is returning with a circus theme, joined by a glow-in-the-dark dance party and the weekly Café Q youth drop-in group at PTS. But it’s the picnic that is really the standout family event at Pride. “It’s incredibly important because it’s very grassroots,” Watt says. “A lot of Pride celebrations either start with a riot,

a parade or a picnic; I think it’s very Sexual Health Advisory Group to presimportant that we keep our parade and ent SHAG with Pride, a drop-in event we keep our picnic, and luckily we’re for queer teens and youth happening on at a time where we don’t need a riot.”

Aug 19. The event is poetry-themed, says The picnic will feature a free barbe- Rukiya Mohamed, logistics and projects cue for LGBT families, coordinator at Ten Oaks, crafts and face painting and will focus on queer CAPITAL PRIDE hosted by Family Servicand trans youth.

PICNIC es Ottawa and a poetry Pride represents an Tues, Aug 19, 4–6pm Hintonburg Park workshop. The event is important chance for Fairmont Ave & Duhamel St co-hosted by Ten Oaks, the LGBT community to which handles most of come together, Julia says, SHAG WITH PRIDE the logistics and enterincluding those who call Tues, Aug 19, 7–10pm tainment planning. “It’s the suburbs and more ruYSB, 147 Besserer St a really great mix to have ral areas home. “It’s a big capitalpride.ca [Capital Pride and Ten enough draw that it’s . . .

Oaks] working together,” the one time of year that Watt says. “It’s the same basic thing every people will get in their car from Barryear because it’s just done right . . . it’s haven, or they’ll come from Kanata or definitely one of those ‘don’t fix it if it’s Chelsea, and they’ll see what’s available not broken’ sort of things.” in our community.”

Ten Oaks is also partnering with the Holly and Julia say that the Picnic

in the Park is not and should not be the sole event for queer families, particularly given Pride’s downtown focus.

“It’s one of the many events that are offered now throughout the year for families,” Holly says, pointing out that many suburban communities organize their own events and do their own local community building.

“I believe that people who are looking for a space to connect their family to the LGBT community can do that with a Google search. It’s about creating compelling, meaningful opportunities to do that,” Julia says. “What Pride makes possible is that one moment where all of those people, from all of those interested communities and axes, come together and are visible.”

For more about the Ten Oaks Project, visit tenoaksproject.org.

OTTAWA’S GAY & LESBIAN NEWS

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XTRA! AUG 14–SEPT 10, 2014 11

PRIDE INSIDE

LAUGHING

MATTERS Jodie McNamara launches a new night of queer standup JEREMY WILLARD

Q

ueer comedians are the backbone — or at least the long eyelashes — of comedy, but there are few recurring standup nights with a queer focus. Ottawa will soon have one of its own, thanks to Jodie McNamara and Yuk Yuk’s.

McNamara is chair of Capital Pride, but a decade ago she was a budding comedian. She quit comedy to teach in Korea, but she’s gradually returning to it and to one of her old haunts, Yuk Yuk’s.

Yuk Yuk’s wanted to be part of McNamara’s return to comedy and decided she’d be a good fit for Laugh Out Proud 10, the 10th anniversary of their annual Pride comedy show.

“My material is very different from what it was 10 years ago. I didn’t identify as queer, but now I very much do, so this time around my material is mostly about being queer,” McNamara says.

She then worked toward brokering a partnership between Capital Pride and Yuk Yuk’s that should make this year’s Laugh Out Proud one of the best.

While McNamara’s looking forward to her set at Laugh Out Proud, seven minutes onstage will not assuage her hunger for performing in front of a queer audience.

“When I perform queer material for a straight audience, it has to be framed as queerness through a straight lens so that they can get the jokes,” McNamara says. “And if you always have to tailor your experiences for somebody who has no idea what you’re talking about, you’re just not as funny as you could be.”

So, she went back to Yuk Yuk’s (not in her capacity as chair of Capital Pride) and proposed a recurring queer comedy night, to showcase talent both local and otherwise and to begin in November.

“I want it to welcome the queer community but also the burlesque community or anyone who doesn’t feel like they have a place — misfits,” McNamara says.

12 AUG 14–SEPT 10, 2014 XTRA!

LAUGH OUT PROUD 10 Thurs, Aug 21–Sat, Aug 23 Yuk Yuk’s 292 Elgin St yukyuks.com

Jodie McNamara is chair of Capital Pride, but she’s gradually returning to performing comedy.

BEN WELLAND

The new night launches Sunday, Nov 16. McNamara and Nikki Payne will be among those performing at the inaugural night. Some details are yet to be decided, such as the event’s name and frequency (monthly or quarterly), but McNamara is eager to announce this new event as soon as possible to take advantage of a great opportunity.

“Yuk Yuk’s has agreed that the proceeds from any tickets sold [for the Nov 16 event] during Pride Week — from the

limited batch that will be available during the period — will go to charity,” McNamara says. “The funds will go to the Jon Letke Foundation for his services, with any leftovers going to the Friendly Giants Dog Rescue and the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre.”

For more info and to purchase tickets, visit capitalpride.ca. Read about the Capital Pride comedy boat cruise on page 8.

OTTAWA’S GAY & LESBIAN NEWS

CANDID

COMEDY At age 49 Al Rae came out and changed his life — and his comedy JEREMY WILLARD

W

hen comedian Al Rae finally came out of the closet at 49 years old, he was particularly distressed by one sort of response he got. “[Some people] thought I was kidding! It’s an insult to my comedy sensibilities!” he half-jokes. “I may sometimes phone people and say dark things, but I wouldn’t do it just to say, ‘My marriage has ended and I’m out of the closet.’ What’s so funny about the idea that I’d be gay and come out?”

“It’s not even the comedy of extremes, where I’m the most overtly heterosexual-seeming

At least in my 50 years I didn’t do anything to make myself look like a tremendous hypocrite. I’m not a Republican.

From what comic Al Rae could tell in the early 1980s, coming out would mean being egged by kids every Halloween, sneaking into bars with blacked-out windows and dying of AIDS. APRIL PLETT

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person you’d ever meet or, conversely, somebody that everyone always thought was gay and I’m only just now admitting it,” he says.

Based in Winnipeg, Rae’s done standup comedy for more than 30 years and is the founder and creative director of the Winnipeg Comedy Festival. He’s written for such TV shows as Blackfly, Big Sound and the award-winning Little Mosque on the Prairie.

Rae will perform at the upcoming queer comedy night Laugh Out Proud 10, organized

by Capital Pride and Yuk Yuk’s.

Since coming out in January 2013, he has been trying to reconcile this new part of his identity with his standup work, which, like most comedians, he performs primarily in venues frequented mostly by heterosexuals. He is also aware there may be a disconnect between him and younger

queer audiences, who may not understand why he stayed in the closet so long.

Rae first realized he was gay in the early 1980s while living in Toronto. From what he could tell, coming out would mean being egged by kids every Halloween, sneaking into bars with blacked-out windows and dying of AIDS. So he lied, got married, and the years passed.

He feels some guilt over not being an active, supportive part of the queer community during the AIDS crisis but takes solace from one thing: “At least in my 50 years I didn’t do anything to make myself look like a tremendous hypocrite.

I’m not a Republican. To use a political analogy, I voted properly,” he says. “I may have been selfhating, but I didn’t hate the [gay] community.”

Just after Christmas of 2012 it finally all came clear. His daughter had moved out, he was about to turn 50, and he was starting to realize that all kinds of gay relationships were possible, even the sort of committed one he wanted. “It seemed like a new chapter was beginning, and I wanted to change the script,” he says.

A few days after his realization, his friend Carmen Stockton, also a comedian, came for a visit. Rae was taxed, frayed, off-balance, and her visit steadied him. In a candid conversation, he came out to her, and, quite unexpectedly, she responded by coming out to him. She then suggested the idea of a comedy show involving coming-out stories.

The show, called Coming Out Swinging, was the first time Rae outed himself to an audience.

It took place that spring at the Gas Station Arts Centre in Winnipeg. “Carmen was there, Elvira Kurt, Darcy Michael and others,” he says. “People would do some standup, and whenever they felt comfortable, they’d throw in their comingout story. It was very empowering.”

He has experienced a certain amount of euphoria since coming out, but it hasn’t been all back-slapping. It meant the end of a 23-year marriage and the need for an overhaul of his material. “One thing standup relies on is the good graces and buy-in of the audience,” he says.

“And since my act is autobiographical, for the first time since I started doing comedy, I have

something not in common with, on average, 99 percent of my audience.”

“If I’m doing an eight- or 10-minute set and it’s primarily around meeting somebody, dating or that kind of stuff, by having that partner be all of a sudden same-sex, I’ve created this new dynamic with the audience,” he says. “They have to try to filter it. In a perfect world, this would be academic, but the reality is that people find this hard to do, and there’s this kind of division, and there are limits to what people want to hear.”

Not everyone liked what they heard at a show he did a year after coming out, around Christmas 2013. Among the comments he heard were “I was okay with it, but a few people weren’t too comfortable with the gay thing” or “We wish we’d known going in.”

More often, straight audiences will define Rae as the “gay comic” or his performance as a “gay act.” “I don’t consider myself a gay comic, but people come out of shows saying things like ‘That last guy was great’ or ‘That older guy was great,’ and now [with regard to my act] ‘That gay guy was pretty good,’” he says. “That kind of labelling is pretty new to me.”

Rae should get some relief from his upcoming performance at Laugh Out Proud in Ottawa. It is also a notable occasion for him in that it’ll be his first Pride performance since exiting the closet.

The show is hosted by Elvira Kurt, who is also the icon marshal in the parade. The headliner is Jessica Kirson, and Jodie McNamara will perform (see previous page).

While it’s a relief to perform in spaces set aside for queer comedy, Rae has no intention of avoiding straighter gigs. Rather, he intends to stick it out, and it sounds like his straight audiences are going to see a bolder, more in-your-face Rae. “As you get older, you give less of a shit about what people think, and you’re more able to be candid about things. A lot of audiences will respond to that commitment even if they disagree with you,” he says. “I’m trying to move toward being more candid like that and seeing how I want to use my life, career and experiences as a subject of my standup material.”

XTRA! AUG 14–SEPT 10, 2014 13

14 AUG 14–SEPT 10, 2014 XTRA!

OTTAWA’S GAY & LESBIAN NEWS

OutintheCity

I could come out and be the big lesbo and then leave town the next morning. Jamie Anderson E16

Navigating sex Kaleigh Trace’s memoir looks at sex through the lens of a disabled person BOOK LAUNCH JEREMY WILLARD

From performance anxiety to difficulty achieving orgasm, everyone experiences sex-related complications of some kind, but it’s difficult for most able-bodied people to imagine what sex might be like for somebody with a disability. Depending on the particular disability, activities that most able-bodied people take for granted may have to be approached in a very different way.

Kaleigh Trace is a disabled queer woman, and in her new book, Hot, Wet and Shaking: How I Learned to Talk About Sex, she relates her experiences navigating sexual situations. While not all of her book directly addresses sex and disability, her various serious, amusing and often sexy anecdotes look

at sex through the lens of someone with a disability.

“I was in a car accident when I was nine and sustained some pretty catastrophic injuries. Now I’m 28, so for most of my life and all of my adult life I’ve been disabled,” Trace says. “I’ve had to learn my body and how to be sexual in this body in a different way from most people.”

Candour is reHOT, WET AND quired for a book SHAKING: of this sort to be HOW I LEARNED TO TALK ABOUT SEX hard-hitting, and Book launch Trace seems to have Wed, Sept 17, 7:30pm Venus Envy, 226 Bank St a boatload of it. venusenvy.ca “I have a lot of bladder stuff. I can’t hold my pee very long, so part of being out in public for me is navigating bathrooms. Where can I find

FIRST-TIME PLAYWRIGHT LAUNCHES TOTOTOO SEASON In The Lights of Shangri-La, some dreams come true while others die

While taking time off from his public service job four years ago, Whiteman watched old movies and started feeling As a child camping with his family, sentimental for that wondrous feeling David Whiteman spent many evenings from his childhood. He began writgazing wide-eyed at the ing a play that he hoped THE LIGHTS lights twinkling across would “capture that feelOF SHANGRI-LA the lake. He imagined ing and maybe reawakWed, Sept 10–Sat, Sept 13 the places and people en that kind of place in 7:30pm daily, plus 2pm Sat matinee that might have been other people’s hearts that Academic Hall over there, in that fanmaybe they’ve forgotten University of Ottawa tastical and enthusiabout.”

133-135 Séraphin-Marion Pvt tototoo.ca astic way children do.

The play, called The “I think I was sort of Lights of Shangri-La, imagining the future,” Whiteman says. is the first play of Whiteman’s to be “I think — or I hope — that’s a common produced. The work is sad and funny experience.” but, most of all, hopeful. Produced by THEATRE JEREMY WILLARD

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Shaun Toohey and Cathy Nobleman play a brother and sister who are pulled back to the family cottage to deal with their struggles in life. JOSH KEMP

them? Are they accessible? So there’s a lot of potty humour in the book,” Trace says. “Like what happens when I have to pee when hooking up with somebody for the first time.”

Trace is a sex educator at Venus Envy in Halifax, running workshops on sex and sex-related topics. She also maintains a sex advice blog called Fucking Facts. So, sex is kind of her thing, but this is her first time writing something focused mostly on her personal experiences.

At the Ottawa launch of her book, Trace will not only read passages from her work, but will talk about sex and disability in general, including such topics as sex toys, positions and masturbation.

“I feel pretty happy about a lot of parts of my life, and this book is about the things in my life that I love and about the stuff I’m still trying to figure out. I’m still working on understanding what being disabled can look like for me,” Trace says.

Kaleigh Trace writes about navigating sexual situations as a queer, disabled woman in her book Hot, Wet and Shaking. KRISTA COMEAU

TotoToo Theatre, the play’s premiere will be guided by the steady hand of Sarah Hearn, a director with 28 years’ experience, and includes original music composed by Mike Heffernan.

To safeguard his plot, Whiteman’s description of the play is quite sparse. “At the outset, it’s about a woman who has been battling cancer, and she’s gotten some good news and is heading off to the family cottage to celebrate and to mend the fractured romance between her gay brother and his partner,” Whiteman says. “It gets a lot more complicated after that.”

The central characters — a middleaged brother and sister — have led extraordinary lives. She’s a famous broadcast journalist, he’s a former Broadway performer — but they’ve each had their struggles. “In a way, the play is about achieving some of your dreams and seeing others fall flat, the way life really does do,” Whiteman says, “and yet they come back to the lake, and I think they’re still dreamers at heart.”

XTRA! AUG 14–SEPT 10, 2014 15

Life is a highway Musician Jamie Anderson pens memoir of life on the road IN PRINT JULIE CRUIKSHANK

#news #arts #travel #events Everything gay, every day.

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16 AUG 14–SEPT 10, 2014 XTRA!

Life as a singer/songwriter isn’t glamorous. In the span of Jamie Anderson’s 27-year career on the lesbian folkmusic circuit, she’s spent more time sleeping on strangers’ couches than trashing rooms at the Hilton. But while it may not be a cushy life, it is certainly an entertaining one — so much so that Anderson, 56, decided to compile some of her craziest, funniest and most touching road stories into a book.

Drive All Night, Anderson’s ode to the road, recounts her years of touring through the United PRIDE BARBECUE States and Canada.

LUNCH She’s played almost evTues, Aug 19, noon ery venue imaginable, Good Companions Centre 670 Albert St from coffeehouses and thegoodcompanions.ca church basements to large women’s music DRIVE ALL NIGHT BOOK LAUNCH & CONCERT festivals where’s she’s with a hunger for tamFri, Sept 26, 7pm rubbed elbows with pons, a bare mattress in Raw Sugar Café the likes of Melissa the unheated attic of a 692 Somerset St W rawsugarcafe.com Etheridge and Amy filthy rooming house, Ray. Along the way, and a fair number of she’s put in thousands of miles, been mouldy bathrooms. caught in snowstorms and (almost) Touring also means a lot of solitary tornadoes and roomed with a tampon- time in unfamiliar towns. “I think any eating pig. musician who tours a lot who doesn’t Originally from Arizona, Anderson like their own company is in big troucalls Ottawa home these days, having ble,” she says. “You just figure out ways moved to be with her wife, Pat. “I’m a to entertain yourself. I always try to singer/songwriter and we love talking find good public radio, or I would call about ourselves,” she says wryly of her my friends when I stopped.” decision to write the book. “I have what The constant travelling also made I call my string-changing stories, so relationships trickier to navigate. when I break a string onstage I have Anderson recalls one girlfriend who a story ready so that I can change the feared she’d end up running off with string while I’m talking.” a fan. “When you’re doing work that When people started telling her to you really love, you make allowances,” write those stories down, Anderson she says. “You figure out how to make took the advice, but she says she strug- it work.” gled with whether people would find Another thing Anderson has had to reading about her life as interesting make work is playing to tough crowds. as it has been for her to live it. “A lot of In Drive All Night she recalls playing to it’s pretty mundane when you’re on the a conservative audience in a Bible-belt road,” she says. “It’s like, ‘Yeah, I drove US town that didn’t take kindly to her for three hours and then I stopped for particular brand of lesbian comedy coffee.’ Who cares, you know?” song. “I knew better than to get up In between the long stretches of road and go, ‘Hey! Lesbian, lesbian, lesbian, and stops for coffee, though, Anderson queer, blah, blah, blah.’ I kind of built had to sleep. Some of the places in up to that, but apparently when I got which she’s found lodging over the to that point, they were pretty shocked years have provided memorable sto- and they started leaving.” ries, including the aforementioned pig After that ill-fated gig, she arranged

After a 27-year touring career, Jamie Anderson has collected her best road stories in her memoir, Drive All Night.

WOODLAND WILLOW PHOTOGRAPHY

to stay with some local lesbians.

“We stayed up late that night talking, and I got a better understanding for what it was like for them to live there,” she says. “I mean, I could come out and be the big lesbo and then leave town the next morning. But they had jobs and homes and children.”

Anderson also recalls playing at early Pride marches, including one in Idaho where gun-toting protesters showed up. “Those people were frightening,” she recalls. “[The organizers] told us before we started the march, ‘Don’t engage these people, don’t look at them.’ They were right.”

Still, she says, over the years she has found her reception as a queer performer has gotten warmer. “I always went in with an open mind. No matter where I’m playing, I always look for that open face in the audience. There’s always somebody who is understanding what I’m saying and who will support me in some way.”

Reflecting on how her years of touring have shaped her, Anderson says she’s learned that she can be incredibly flexible as a performer. “I like that,” she says. “I like being able to reach different groups of people. That’s fun.”

There have been some practical realizations, too. “I’ve learned that I can drive for long periods of time as long as I have enough M&Ms.” OTTAWA’S GAY & LESBIAN NEWS

Defeating the demons Fiona Noakes’s latest is an anthem for those unable to conform MUSIC LAYLA CAMERON

Whether for a casual beer or a night of karaoke, Swizzles is a popular queer venue in Ottawa. For local singer/songwriter Fiona Noakes, the Centretown bar serves as the set for her latest music video.

“I wanted to have many different walks of life in the video, and so naturally, I thought the perfect setting would be a bar,” Noakes says. “It has real character and is smaller, which makes for a more intimate experience.”

Noakes describes her song “My Apology” as an anthem for those who have been made to feel shame for who they are. The apology, however, is more defiant than remorseful.

“Saying ‘I’m so sorry there’s no glory here for you,’” Noakes says, actually means “not conforming to that person’s expectations just so they can be happy.”

In the video, Noakes’s bandmates

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embody characters struggling with their identities while she portrays a hero.

“I play some sort of supernatural character who walks up to each character battling their demons, whispers something in their ear that shifts their mentality into thinking, ‘Fuck it, I am who I am and I am not going to care what you think,’” she says.

The video contains queer storylines, although Noakes says that shouldn’t be the focus.

“I don’t think it matters if the character in the video is straight or gay. Romantic relationships, whether straight or gay, all deal with the same challenges, feelings that anyone can relate to,” she says.

She resists being identified as a lesbian singer/songwriter, saying her sexual orientation should not overshadow her career, although she recognizes that being an openly gay musician can serve as inspiration for those struggling to reconcile themselves with their surroundings.

In the video for “My Apology,” Fiona Noakes portrays a superhero who helps those struggling with their identities. From left, bandmates Benoit L’Ecuyer, Danae Tsikouras, Cliff Chamberlain and Noakes.

Deniz Berkin, who directed, filmed and edited the video, says the song highlights universal emotions — heartbreak, insecurity and low self-confidence — that are often experienced painfully by LGBT communities.

“I thought it was an amazing opportunity to collaborate on a story that empathized with characters that are often marginalized,” Berkin says. “It’s a theme Fiona and I explored in a previous music video for her song ‘Glow.’”

The video is produced by Francko Edge and features drummer Danae Tsikouras, guitarist Cliff Chamberlain and bassist Benoit L’Ecuyer.

“It was my first real experience being in a music video,” Tsikouras says. “It was very interesting to see how much work goes into it on all sides — took us a day to film a four-minute video!”

While Noakes says her songwriting is inspired by themes or events she’s intrigued by, she says “My Apology” is personal.

“Growing up I always felt different . . . and got to the point where I tried to conform, but it just didn’t work for me,” she says. “More so after high school I found I could connect with people who felt the same and liked me for who I was, not someone else I was trying to be.”

To watch the video for “My Apology,” see this story on dailyxtra.com. For more on Fiona Noakes, visit fionanoakes.com.

XTRA! AUG 14–SEPT 10, 2014 17

WHAT'S ON

Gay Square Dancing Folks socialize and learn invigorating dance patterns at the Ottawa Date Squares’ introductory sessions. Sun, Sept 7, 2–5pm; and Wed, Sept 10, 7–9:30pm. 1238 Parkway Dr. Free. iagsdc.com/ottawa

Tone Cluster Auditions

FOR MORE LISTINGS, GO TO DAILYXTRA.COM

LITERATURE

COMEDY & CABARET

Every year, local luminaries gather at Venus Envy to read one of their favourite passages from literature or something else important to their identity. Wed, Aug 20, 8–10pm.

Venus Envy, 226 Bank St. Free. venusenvy.ca

The Ottawa Gay Men’s Chorus focuses on all things gay and cabaret in this official Pride event. For more info, contact cgo.ogmc@gmail.com. Sat, Aug 16, 2 and 7:30pm. National Arts Centre, 53 Elgin St. $25. cgogmc.ca

Out Proud: Stories of Pride, Courage and Social Justice

Laugh Out Proud 10

Reading Out Loud

Complete with author readings and musical performances, this is the launch of an anthology of essays that deal with issues often not addressed in the mainstream. Thurs, Aug 21, 7–10pm. Saw Gallery, 67 Nicholas St. Free. galeriesawgallery.com

The Naughty Bits Book Club: 100 Crushes This month’s event focuses on Elisha Lim’s 100 Crushes, an illustrated tribute to butches, sissies, dandies — queer folks of all kinds. Tues, Aug 26, 6:30–8pm. Venus Envy, 226 Bank St. Free. venusenvy.ca

Hot, Wet and Shaking: How I Learned to Talk About Sex At the launch of Kaleigh Trace’s book about sex and disability, she relates personal stories and talks about issues surrounding sex and disability in general. (See story on page 15.) Wed, Sept 17, 7:30pm.

Venus Envy, 226 Bank St. Free. venusenvy.ca

For more Pride listings, check out our Ultimate Pride Guide, in this issue and at upgottawa.com

The queer choir holds open auditions for all sections, from bass to soprano. For more info, contact president@tonecluster.ca. Every Monday (from Sept 8), 7:30pm. St John Evangelical, 154 Somerset St W. Free. tonecluster.ca

A Gay Ol’ Time Cabaret III

NIGHTLIFE

Nature Nocturne: Pride Capital Pride kicks off the festivities with a Pride version of the Museum of Nature’s popular Nature Nocturne events.

Includes exhibits, DJs and 12 cash bars. For more info, contact reservations@museumnature.ca.

Fri, Aug 15, 8pm–midnight. The Canadian Museum of Nature, 240 McLeod St. $25. nature.ca

With headliner Jessica Kirson, guest MC Elvira Kurt and the Winnipeg Comedy Festival’s Al Rae, this evening is sure to tickle your funniest bone. (See story on page 12.) Thurs, Aug 21–Sat, Aug 23, various times. Yuk Yuk’s, 292 Elgin St. $30. yukyuks.com

Canada’s Capital Kings: Twisted Comedy

HEALTH & ISSUES

The drag king troupe kicks off Pride with fun numbers and special guest Frank N Beans, from Mr Casual Business. Fri, Aug 15, 9pm. The Lookout Bar & Bistro, 41 York St. $3. thelookoutbar.com

The Living Room

HIV-positive people and their loved ones are welcome to access many resources, including a food bank, laundry facilities, internet, counselling and workshops.

Contact The Living Room for an appointment. AIDS Committee of Ottawa, 251 Bank St, 7th Floor. Free. aco-cso.ca

Spectrum This Youth Services Bureau program offers queer and questioning youth aged 12 to 25 a safe space to socialize, discuss sexuality and related topics, participate in workshops, receive counselling and more. Every Tuesday, 7–9pm. YSB, 147 Besserer St. Free. ysb.ca

LEISURE & PLEASURE

100 Crushes at Naughty Bits Book Club — Venus Envy, Tues, Aug 26 are asked to bring dishes that serve six to eight people. RSVP required. Fri, Aug 15, 6–9pm.

Anglican Church of St John the Evangelist, 154 Somerset St W. Free. taliacjohnson.ca

Pride BBQ Lunch The Ottawa Senior Pride Network and the Good Companions Centre host a lunch that includes a musical performance by Jamie Anderson. (See story on page 16.)

Members and non-members welcome. For more info, contact ospn.rfao@gmail.com. Tues, Aug 19, noon. Good Companions Centre, 670 Albert St. $11. ospn.rfao.ca

First Ottawa Interfaith Pride Shabbat

Gender Mosaic Networking Social

An interfaith blessing is followed by a vegetarian potluck. Attendees

Capital Pride’s new signature event kicks off with a special guest, trans

activist Stephanie Battaglino. Thurs, Aug 21, 5–8pm. Atomic Rooster, 303 Bank St. Free. atomicrooster.ca

Human Rights Vigil Hosted by Stephanie Battaglino, the event’s theme is the many ways people love around the world.

Thurs, Aug 21, 8pm. Human Rights Monument, Elgin and Lisgar streets.

Free. capitalpride.ca

Community Fair, Beer Garden and Main Stage Proud folks gather to access information on sports and community groups at the community fair and enjoy a variety of entertainment, courtesy of House of SAS, at the main stage.

Sun, Aug 24, 2pm. Marion Dewar Plaza, 110 Laurier Ave W. Free. capitalpride.ca

Offbeat: Big Gay Dance Party DJs Emmett and Jas Nasty spin R&B, ska, Motown and more for gorgeously grinding guys and girls.

Sat, Aug 16, 10:30pm–2:30am.

Babylon Nightclub, 317 Bank St. $7; partial proceeds go to the Ottawa Wolves. thequeermafia.com

OSPN Annual Pride Party Queer people 50 and older and their loved ones are invited to socialize over refreshments. For more info, contact ospn.rfao@gmail.com.

Wed, Aug 20, 7–10pm. Good Companions Seniors’ Centre, 670 Albert St. Free. ospn-rfao.ca

Proud Chicks Dance Party What could be better than a summer evening with 300 lesbians, a huge dancefloor and a sandy beach for strolling?

For more details, contact info@girlswanttoknow.com. Fri, Aug 22, 9pm–1am. Ron Kolbus Centre, 102 Greenview Ave. $20 advance, $25 door. girlswanttoknow.com

Push It: Pride Party with VE and Mo Diggity DJs Yalla! Yalla! and Zehra bring heat to the dancefloor with throwback hits, R&B grooves, dancehall jams and hip-hop classics. Fri, Aug 22, 9:30pm–2am.

Café Nostalgica, 601 Cumberland St. $5–15. venusenvy.ca

Capital Pride Official Closing Party Hosted by Markida Brown, Pride’s official wrap-up party brings the festivities to a stupendous OSPN Annual Pride Party — Good Companions Centre, Wed, Aug 20 BEN WELLAND

18 AUG 14–SEPT 10, 2014 XTRA!

close with dancing to music by DJ Lady Taly. Sun, Aug 24, 10pm.

The Lookout Bar, 41 York St. Free. thelookoutbar.com

PAGEANTRY Dyke March

Gather at the Human Rights Monument (Elgin and Lisgar streets) at noon for the rally. The march — which heads west on Lisgar, south on Bank, then east on Gilmour — starts at 12:45pm.

It all wraps up with a party and picnic in Minto Park. Sat, Aug 23. ottawadykemarch.com

Capital Pride Parade Beginning at Gladstone Avenue and Bank Street, the parade proceeds north on Gladstone to Laurier Avenue West, turns right on Laurier and ends at Ottawa City Hall. Sun, Aug 24, 1pm. capitalpride.ca

THEATRE

The Lights of Shangri-La When a woman’s cancer goes into remission, she visits the family cottage to celebrate and help mend her brother’s relationship with his boyfriend. (See story on page 15.)

Runs Wed, Sept 10–Sat, Sept 13, various times. University of Ottawa, Academic Hall, 133-135 SéraphinMarion Pvt. $25. tototoo.ca

SEX & BURLESQUE Get In, Losers

This burlesque tribute to the movie Mean Girls is “almost too gay to function,” with performances by Helvetica Bold, Imogen Quest, Randi Rouge and more. Sat, Aug 16, 9pm. Bronson Centre, 211 Bronson Ave. $15 advance, $20 door; proceeds benefit Capital Pride and the Ottawa Burlesque Festival. ottawaburlesquefest.com

Bears at the Baths The Ottawa Bears invite guys of all body types to get together for a little steamy fun. Sat, Aug 16, 10pm–midnight. Steamworks, 487 Lewis St. Regular rates apply. oursottawabears.ca

Burlesque Brunch: Pride Fundraiser Brunch, followed by something sweet and steamy. This edition of the Great Canadian Tease Burlesque Brunch features the Capital Kings and Capital Tease Burlesque. Takes place the third Sunday of each month. Sun, Aug 17, noon–3pm. Maxwell’s Bistro, 340 Elgin St. $20. maxwellsbistro.com

BDSM 201: Edge Play and Power Relationships Andrea Zanin hosts a two-part workshop aimed at people ready to go beyond the basics of BDSM. Registration required. Sun, Aug 17, 6:30–8:30pm. Venus Envy, 226 Bank St. $25, $15 sliding scale. venusenvy.ca

Submit your event listing to ottawalistings@dailyxtra.com.

Deadline for the Sept 11 issue is Tues, Sept 2.

OTTAWA’S GAY & LESBIAN NEWS

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XTRA! AUG 14–SEPT 10, 2014 19

XPOSED

2

3

BY ZARA ANSAR

1

5

6

The Rainbow Heat edition of Queer Slowdance was held June 26 at Raw Sugar Café. The event — open to anyone with an open mind, heart and arms — was a fundraiser for the upcoming Ottawa Dyke March. Though Raw Sugar was full of lovely people dancing the night away, designated dancers were also on hand to draw out the wallflowers, with slow jams courtesy of DJ Luna, who organized the event.

4 8

9

7 20 AUG 14–SEPT 10, 2014 XTRA!

Queer Slowdance

1E Event organizer DJ Luna draws dancers to the floor with her slow jams. 2E Nyk

and T take care of tickets at the door.

3E Taking a break from the dancefloor are (from left) Allison Armstrong, Joanne Cey, Ariel Troster and Deirdre Brown. 4E The planning committee for the Ottawa Dyke March. At back, from left: Joanne, Sarah, Nicole, Lois and Sarah. In front are Lisa and Claudie.

5E Caro and Audrey share a moment on the dancefloor. 6E Dawn and Anita love to slow dance. 7E Steph HylandKilgour and Angie Renwick dressed up for Queer Slowdance. 8E Tristan and Joanne welcome guests. 9E Faizal and Zalina take a break from the dancefloor.

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A world of gay adventure

Travel Getting maximum enjoyment out of South Florida’s largest gay festival

Miami

Pride

machine PHIL VILLENEUVE

Any gay tourist already knows that South Beach, Miami, is one of the seven gay wonders of the world. There is no place on earth like 12th Street and Ocean Avenue. The weather, the bodies, the friendly people, the music, and did I mention bodies? Without exaggeration, it’s like a living, breathing Jennifer Lopez video.

This is what makes Miami Beach Pride such an incredible event. With the groundwork already laid for a weekend of guaranteed homo high jinks because of its location, Pride makes everything seem amplified, friendlier, happier, more delicious and beautiful.

For many, the Miami celebration in April marks the perfect kickoff to the North American Pride season (the 2015 festival takes place April 10 to 12).

Launched in 2009, the event is relatively new to the scene, but that is also what makes it unique. Started by the city’s

TRAVEL TIP Pack for every occasion. Have a light bag with you at all times loaded with sunscreen for your face and body, a bathing suit, a towel, a bottle of water and lip balm. A day out in South Beach, especially during Pride weekend, will most likely turn into evening and then into night without a return to the hotel to freshen up.

22 AUG 14–SEPT 10, 2014 XTRA!

former mayor, it’s a festival without a history of protest — it’s always been about celebration. These people don’t have deep roots in gay history like New York, San Francisco or Toronto. They’re young and they want to have fun (okay, they also want to make money: theirs is the largest Pride in South Florida and brings in mountains of tourist dollars).

The 2014 grand marshal was Gloria Estefan, who is basically the unofficial mayor, president and queen of South Beach. The pint-sized pop star spoke at the Pride main stage extravaganza (which also featured Lady Bunny and Drag Race finalist Courtney Act), thanking the gays for their support and wishing for a world where everyone can live as equals. She didn’t sing, but she didn’t need to; the crowd ate up her every word. This was definitely Miami’s biggest Pride yet; it’s certainly a festival to watch for next season.

Below is a guide to getting maximum enjoyment out of Miami Pride. In all honesty, a tourist could walk around randomly and be completely entertained, but let us give you some helpful tips to get the most out of your weekend.

Where to stay When experiencing Miami Pride, try to stay as close to the beach as possible; that’s where everything is happening, and you won’t want to miss out. The Breakwater, an Art Deco boutique hotel with a fishbowl pool, is a great little place on Ocean Drive. It’s nothing too fancy,

JIPSY

but the location and cleanliness are all a visitor will need for the weekend.

Having said that, for a more exclusive experience that’s off the beaten path, book in to the Hôtel Gaythering. This place is the unicorn of gay hotels. It may be a half-hour trek to the beach, but the details and the potential for fun here make it worth the journey. It’s South Beach’s only “straight-friendly” hotel, with a stellar bar and cocktail menu, a self-service spa (they provide the products, pool and saunas; you do the rest) cute parties —like Bears & Hares

every Friday — and fantastic coffee. The service is impeccable and the clientele is exactly what you want during a Pride weekend away: lots of friendly and devastatingly handsome men. While queer women also frequent this boutique hotel, the clientele is mainly men. We highly recommend this place.

Where to eat Finding good food along Ocean Drive can be tricky. The restaurants on the famous street have a view unlike any other, but the food is often cheap and OTTAWA’S GAY & LESBIAN NEWS

Clockwise from far left: the Miami Beach Pride parade, on Ocean Drive; Pérez Art Museum Miami; a room at Hôtel Gaythering; 2014 Pride marshal Gloria Estefan; Shepard Fairey’s mural in the Wynwood Art District; the fried chicken tacos at Huahua’s.

PAMM

Every building along the strip, and the colours they’re painted, has a story.

The Pérez Art Museum (PAMM), designed by Pritzker Prize–winning architects Herzog & de Meuron, is not to be missed. A visit won’t necessarily eat up a big chunk of time, as the museum is new and somewhat sparse, but it’s worth the trip to see the stunning building and the refurbished urban park that surrounds it.

It must be said again: get to the beach.

The gay block at the bottom of 12th Street is an experience. During Pride, it’s more of a beach buffet.

Where to escape If you need a break from the bulging bodies and cruising, visit the revitalized Wynwood neighbourhood. It’s an art district splattered with abandoned factories, impressive restaurants (check out Wynwood Kitchen & Bar) and more than 70 galleries. It’s a little forced, but don’t think too much about it — just take a stroll and enjoy the very expensive graffiti.

The backyard at the Freehand hostel offers another great breather. It’s away from the beach, but the adorable space is like walking into a Solange music video. Effortlessly good-looking tourists from all over the planet linger around the pool, Ping-Pong table and tiki bar.

JUAN SACO MIRONOFF

Where the locals go JUAN SACO MIRONOFF

PHIL VILLENEUVE

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greasy and really doesn’t leave one wanting to take one’s shirt off on the beach. Take a stroll away from the main drag to Huahua’s Taqueria, a little hideaway where you’ll find the best tacos in South Beach. Chef Todd Erickson is an up-and-coming culinary sensation, and he really impresses with his scrumptious tacos (we highly recommend the fried chicken version with a marguerita). Be sure to pick up a homemade popsicle on your way out.

Naked Taco is a close second for service, variety and deliciousness. They win for location (the expansive space is at the perfect people-watching corner of Collins Avenue and 11th Street) and tequila selection.

If you get bored of tacos and Latino fare, head to Khong River House for some incredible Thai-Vietnamese fusion food. With its stunning interior and

PHIL VILLENEUVE

the kitchen’s delicious family recipes, it’s hard to stop eating.

Villa Azur feels like somewhere Dona-tella Versace would eat on a Tuesday night. It has its own art gallery and a chic, gorgeous, all-white patio.

It’s completely over-the-top, but the crowd watching is top grade and all the front-of-house staff appears to have been picked from a line of supermodels.

If you’re feeling adventurous, take a taxi to the Wynwood neighbourhood and visit SuViche for some traditional Peruvian ceviche. It’s the best in the area.

Finally, at the end of any night out in South Beach, don’t be embarrassed to stop at Burger King’s Whopper Bar. Whoppers the size of small pizzas and one last beer on the patio are a hilarious way to coat the stomach before calling it a night.

Where to go out During Pride, just make your way to the beach. It’s bustling with stunning examples of gay men and women on display and at play. When the sun starts to set, head to Palace for the traffic-halting drag shows, Twist for its multi-room dance-party options and Score for its authentic Latino nightclub madness.

They’re all packed over Pride weekend and are open late. We ended up at Twist every single night of the weekend (as many do) in the top-40 room, the stripper hut and the starry patio. It’s a gay mecca that never disappoints.

What to see Take an Art Deco tour down Ocean Drive. Learning about this architectural style and its history in South Beach (spoiler alert: they owe a lot to Miami Vice and Gianni Versace) is a must.

La Sandwicherie: This cute little sand-

wich hut on 14th Street serves Frenchstyle sammies on fresh baguettes. Run by a French ex-pat, it’s a fave for lunching locals and curious tourists. Any Pride dwellers you meet at this spot will make instant weekend pals.

DecoBike. This easy-to-use bike-rental service will save you cab fare and is a great way to get around South Beach, with its many bike lanes and lock-up locations.

Base Superstore. Shopping on the famous Lincoln Road open-air mall is fun, but it’s filled with generic American brands. The Base store is tucked away in an alley off the main drag and features cool brands, scents and drinks.

For more on Miami, visit miamiandbeaches.com.

The online version of this story, at dailyxtratravel.com, contains web links to select businesses.

XTRA! AUG 14–SEPT 10, 2014 23

and a now infamous Stellaaaaaaaascreaming contest that sees tourists in varying states of sobriety drop to their knees and bellow to balconies in the French Quarter. So proud of its queerlit heritage is New Orleans that LGBT authors get their own celebration in May. Past guests of the Saints and Sinners Literary Festival have included Christopher Rice, Val McDermid and Lambda-winning Toronto author Jeffrey Round.

To find the neighbourhood that inspired Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire, trek just beyond the French Quarter to The Marigny. Frenchmen Street is where the locals go for their authentic jazz and cheap eats, and even though most of the LGBT part is centred in the Quarter, several neighbourhood restaurants and bars thrive here and on nearby Elysian Fields. A few doors up lies a cross between a gay bookstore and your favourite crazy aunt’s attic — minus cats — called Fab on Frenchmen. A ramshackle maze of quality new and secondhand books, music, film, knickknacks and random tat, this museum of queer history is an explosion of quirk and an essential stop on any walk around the Marigny.

A world of gay adventure

Travel

New Orleans The South’s most gay-friendly city is rich in history and folklore CHRISTIAN BAINES

There were no “vampires” in New Orleans until Anne Rice made them up.

This is the first unsolicited but valuable lesson I get in New Orleans folklore, from the grimly half-smiling man behind the counter of Garden District Book Shop. He’s spied me lifting an autographed hardcover edition of the author’s breakout novel Interview with the Vampire from a small, semi-permanent display dedicated to the famous writer.

One of New Orleans’ favourite bookshops, the store stands proudly behind its local authors. Though Rice hasn’t been one of these for years, the immaculate Garden District is filled with sights that have inspired her and countless others. These include Rosegate, the 1857 First Street property purchased

by Rice in 1989, adapted as the setting for her novel The Mayfair Witches. Just over the road from Garden District Book Shop, Lafayette Cemetery No 1 served as the not-so-final resting place of Rice’s beloved vampire Lestat. But this historic labyrinth of aboveground tombs also served the city of Lafayette, which occupied much of the Garden District until it was annexed by New Orleans in 1852. Every morning, tour groups peer between the monuments, one of several that each day lure visitors looking to separate fact from folklore in this death-obsessed city.

Most have arrived in the company of guides arranged in the French Quarter, heart of the city’s cultural — and gay — life. How many of those guides will reveal the truth about New Orleans’ devotion to interring, rather than burying, its dead? Magic Tours is one, specializing in tours that unearth the city’s real history. Local journalists and historians passionate about their city take visitors 24 AUG 14–SEPT 10, 2014 XTRA!

That voodoo magic

RIAN CASTILLO

CHARLES GANDOLFO

through the Garden District, the French Quarter, St Louis Cemetery No 1 and on ghost tours throughout the Quarter after dark.

Tours in this last category are a dime a dozen, and unless you love theatrical stunts so campy most drag queens would tell them to tone it down, many are worth about as much. Tour brokers can help sift through the schlock, though Magic Tours and French Quarter Phantoms rank among the best.

All of them are familiar with the LaLaurie Mansion — and thanks, now, in part, to American Horror Story, so are the rest of us. In the finest tradition of lies television told you, there is no public access to the former house of horrors, where Dalphine LaLaurie

VOODOOMUSEUM.COM

Clockwise from top: 1239 First St was once home to author Anne Rice; the Historic Voodoo Museum plays up the creep factor without straying too far from the religion’s true history; the tomb of voodoo queen Marie Laveau gets more visitors each year than the grave of Elvis Presley.

tortured and mutilated many of her slaves. Former owner Nicholas Cage was reportedly so disturbed by supernatural goings on that he refused to stay in the house. Still, for those content to stand outside and imagine if there can be anything scarier in there than Cage, it’s an essential creepy stop.

Another is Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop, purported to be the oldest bar in America. The confirmed local writing den of Tennessee Williams, it could well have once been the oldest gay bar, though

the queers have long moved on to Cafe Lafitte in Exile (which does openly claim the title), leaving behind a favourite tourist stop — and allegedly, the ghost of a local pirate in the fireplace.

Literary adventures The Tennessee Williams Literary Festival lures more than 2,500 book and arts lovers to the city each March. Dedicated to all things Williams, it combines readings, writing contests, theatre, art shows

Like its prolific ghost lore, New Orleans’ voodoo underbelly is a major tourist draw, and fakes abound, determined to separate those tourists from their cash.

Dodging them in the French Quarter narrows the field to two main locations.

The New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum, on Dumaine Street, isn’t afraid to indulge the imagination or play up its creep factor without straying too far from the religion’s true history.

Those wanting a closer look at voodoo practices today should trek north to Rampart Street, where priestess Miriam Chamani founded the Voodoo Spiritual Temple. Believers worldwide have flocked to the temple seeking her services, and whether you count yourself among them or not, a visit here is far more likely to yield results than tacking “XXX” on Marie Laveau’s supposed grave!

Rich with history and folklore, the South’s gayest city is an ideal destination for thinking queer snowbirds wanting more than beaches and cocktails from their winter vacation. In keeping with New Orleans’ tradition as a haven of tolerance, nearly all accommodations in the popular parts of town — including a staggering selection of B&Bs — are LGBT-friendly. Just be ready to pay a premium if you’re planning to stay over Mardi Gras or other major festivals.

Of course, The Big Easy also holds a reputation as one of America’s friendliest towns. You may even leave with the invitation of a spare bed for your inevitable return visit!

OTTAWA’S GAY & LESBIAN NEWS

Europe, au naturel Heading across the pond? Check out these great nude beaches

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Bellevue Beach Just a short train ride from the city centre, Bellevue Beach is one of a handful of gay beaches in Copenhagen. Virtually all beaches in Denmark are clothing-optional; the few that are not will have signs posted.

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Euronat Situated close to the famous vineyards of Bordeaux, Euronat is also just a few miles from the birthplace of French naturism, the village of Montalivet. Expansive is a word that comes to mind when describing this superbe beach, complete with nude lifeguards, on France’s southwest Atlantic coast.

Cap d’Agde This huge nudist “village” on the south coast of France, near Montpellier, is a kind of concrete jungle of apartment blocks with a wealth of accommodation choices and places to eat and drink. It’s the polar opposite in tone and style to Euronat.

Danube Island A 21-kilometre strip of land in the Danube river in central Vienna, Austria, is home to large nude beaches on either end.

Playa del Inglés and Maspalomas Spain’s Canary Islands, off the west coast of Africa, have several nude beaches. One of the most popular is Playa del Inglés, on the south coast of Gran Canaria, where rainbow flags mark the gay section of the eightkilometre beach. Trade winds and a mountain barrier to the north isolate the south, so clear skies are almost always guaranteed.

Englischer Garten Located in the heart of Munich, Germany, the “English Garden” isn’t exactly a beach; the Isar river runs through this mammoth municipal park, and nude sunbathing is allowed in and around the horse track.

Mykonos

Studland

When you get to the sun-drenched island of Mykonos in Greece, follow the flocks of LGBT folks headed to Super Paradise, Paradise and Elia beaches.

Officially sanctioned by the National Trust, the wonderfully named Studland is on the southern English coast, near the town of Swanage in the county of Dorset, and has been popular with the bare-it-all set since the 1920s.

Playa Costa Natura Just west of the Spanish town of Estepona (the nearest big city is Malaga) is the popular Playa Costa Natura nudist beach. The far end of the beach (to the west) is where the majority of gay people gather, both locals and holiday makers.

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Top, what’s more fun than skinnydipping off a sailboat? Above, Frédéric, one of the lifeguards at Euronat.

For a list of Canadian nude beaches, visit dailyxtratravel.com.

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