Xtra - Vancouver's Gay and Lesbian News;

WALK THE TALK Christy Clark makes more promises › 7

LOOSE END FINALE Ivan Coyote says goodbye to Xtra › 9

VANCOUVER’S GAY & LESBIAN NEWS

MARDI GRAS The Village in beads Xposed › 17

#484 MARCH 8, 2012

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G A M E D I U G IO N TRAVEL SoEnCtrTeal’s Delhi, M & more Mile End

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MIDTERM REPORT CARD How well is Spencer Chandra Herbert representing the West End?

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COMMENT 4 XCETERA 5 NEWS 7 OUT IN THE CITY 13 XPOSED 17

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Roundup #484

JEREMY HAINSWORTH

MARCH 8, 2012

NEWS

Students to Clark: walk your antihomophobia talk The premier makes more promises as pressure mounts for a provincewide anti-homophobia policy for BC schools.

Pride heeds call for special general assembly

Will a new election be called? Will Ken Coolen step down on Sunday, March 11? Who should lead the Vancouver Pride Society? › 7

From the ashes of ASIA

A new health organization emerges in Vancouver for Asians with “culturally stigmatized health issues” — particularly sexual issues. › 8

OPINION

To our future

After 11 years of inspiring and moving storytelling, Xtra Vancouver’s longest-running columnist, Ivan Coyote, says goodbye. › 9

OUT IN THE CITY

Chasing Home

Screaming Weenie’s collaboration with emerging artists, immigrants and outsiders explores what home and family mean to them. › 13

ONLINE

Maple Ridge trustees support antihomophobia policy The Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows school board chamber was a sea of pink on Feb 29 as trustees responded positively to presentations from district teachers and students seeking a stand-alone anti-homophobia policy. › xtra.ca/vancouver COVER PHOTO

BY SHIMON KARMEL

›7

Parents’ Voice a no-show

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Administrators at Burnaby’s Confederation Park Elementary School were relieved that a rumoured protest by Parents’ Voice failed to materialize on Pink Shirt Day. But PV president Heather Leung still objected to the students’ participation in a collaborative dance to Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way.” › xtra.ca/vancouver

MEDIA SPONSOR

Former police chief testifies he supported raided safe house

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REGULARS

Commentary › 4 Xcetera › 5 Xposed › 17 COLUMNS

Naked Eye Natasha Barsotti › 4 Loose End Ivan Coyote › 9 Blitz & Shitz Raziel › 14 CARTOONS

The Village Ken Boesem › 25 The Brotherhood Tyler Dorchester › 26 LISTINGS

Parties ›13 Arts, festivals & performance ›13 Meetings & groups ›13

Home Again

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XTRA! MARCH 8, 2012

Enter for your chance to WIN The Cutting Edges Annual Score Party One of the best sports league parties of the year! Skate, drink, dance and ogle the jockstrap clad bartenders all at one venue!

West End Community Centre March 31 Doors 8:45 PM “Apuckalypse Now” theme, come get your Army on! email your name and phone number to contests.vancouver@xtra.ca with subject Cutting Edges Contest closes March 26

 ›  › 

Comment Is Jamaica changing?

Naked Eye Natasha Barsotti

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AMAICA KEEPS DISAPPOINTing and surprising gay sonof-the-soil Maurice Tomlinson.

There’s the Jamaica we all seem to hear about where two men were murdered by machete last year, including a 16-year-old chopped to death for “questionable relations” with another man. The Jamaica that Time magazine called the most homophobic place on earth in 2006.

And then there’s the Jamaica in which Tomlinson can glimpse “the one love that used to define us.”

The Jamaica where he’s beginning to hear more intelligent public discourse that is richer in the language of tolerance. Where islanders respond more or less positively to public advocacy on behalf of their gay brethren.

The one where Tomlinson recently witnessed a politician stand up in a televised debate in the midst of a national election and say unequivocally that she supports the rights of sexual minorities — and still become prime minister just over a week later.

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Without a hint of facetiousness, Tomlinson says Jamaica probably holds top spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most churches per square mile. It’s an easy way to make a living because prospective pastors don’t have to demonstrate any kind of interpretative rigour where the Bible is concerned.

The more rabid you are, the more congregants you attract, he says.

Still, Tomlinson is hopeful. Because Jamaicans are increasingly rejecting the evangelical posturing.

Because — privately at least — most politicians and even police higherups say the anti-sodomy law is way past its due date. Because these days there are more letters to the editor advocating for gay Jamaicans, instead of the rare missal written by the same one or two souls.

And because he never expected a Jamaican leader to say out loud what Mama P said. A statement that’s more in tune with the essence of the “One Love” culture that Tomlinson’s own mother remembers as a youth.

One without homophobic “marauding mobs.” Where everyone knew at least one gay in the village, but no one cared.

Natasha Barsotti is the staff reporter at Xtra Vancouver.

Send your correspondence by mail to 1033 Davie St, Ste 501, Vancouver V6E 1M7, fax 604-684-9697 or email comment@xtra.ca. We may edit letters.

Miss those days!

“Hey Guys, are you taking care of your Health?”

“To say that I was shocked would be putting it mildly,” Tomlinson says of the “bold statement” made by Mama P, the affectionate moniker reserved for Portia Simpson-Miller.

Activists’ quiet requests to decriminalize homosexuality in order to curb the murderous attacks had previously gone nowhere: no politician was going to sacrifice his or her political capital on the altar of decriminalization.

Then Mama P spoke up and survived. Though, as Tomlinson observes, you don’t “trouble” a black woman seen as a maternal figure.

“Not in our culture.”

Those who dared protest, like the evangelicals, only helped her win, he suggests. “I think she was able to actually convert what would have been an electoral disaster into a substantial electoral win because it showed empathy; it showed all the things she’s touted to be — caring and compassionate.”

Next steps: human rights training for the island’s roughly 8,000 police officers and more funding for advocacy campaigns to undo the homophobia that is in large part a legacy of colonialism, still fuelled by religious evangelicals, primarily from the US, now replicated in Jamaica.

WHILST READING KEVIN DALE McKeown’s brilliant article on men in dresses and the Empress Ball [“Soft Spot for Men in Dresses,” Xtra #483, Feb 23], I could not help but reminisce.

Kevin took us back, way, way back, to a time when we were brave enough to plod the mean streets of the West End and actually confront our sexuality and expose ourselves to Davie St. It was a great time indeed!

Having grown up in the ’burbs of VanCity, as the kids now refer to my ol’ hometown, the comments of the author sure made me relish those days — or rather the nights.

My coming-out bar/disco was the defunct Central, which, for those old enough to remember, was on Seymour St, across from what is now some monster condo called the Capitol Residences.

Ah, the Central! How fondly I remember the “prescriptions” neon sign above the bar and “Trash,” the coat-check gurl/guy. But most clear in my baby-boomer mind are all of the awesome drag shows that went

on there. My very first trans person thought that I seemed alone and ought to meet some people. Well, needless to say, that was the first of many hilarious evenings spent out at the bars and discos. (Yes, they were known as discotheques, kids.)

Point being that while I realize time moves along, as I continue to enjoy my semi-retirement here on the southern end of beautiful Vancouver Island, I must say what an utter joy it was to recollect and also to ponder what the future does indeed hold for the next generation of empresses.

And oh yeah, I don’t think too much of YouTube, either.

Kevan-Jay Stevens Shawnigan-Lake, BC

Just ask AS A PERSON WHO DIDN’T know what she was for years upon years, I now meet with gratitude the frank and gentle intrusion of persons who dare to venture in with the words it takes nerve to say [“In Plain Sight,” Xtra #482, Feb 9]. It is why I undertook to read what you wrote, and why I continue to read and listen. So if

someone asked me if I were a lesbian, which, by the way, no one has done yet, I would like to think that I’d meet that question with delight in my face and an unshy willingness to reply.

Heather Sutherland Victoria, BC

Taboo cancelled AS A PERSON WHO RAN FOR council in the last election, it definitely appears to be controlled by the Christian fundamentalists. Thank goodness we now have a mayor who does not believe that he should be the morality police As someone who supports LGBTQ in Abbotsford, I just don’t understand the rationale that this show is a detriment to our community [“Fraser Valley Taboo show cancelled.” xtra. ca Feb 17]. Teach healthy respect for sex, open up the dialogue, and be fair to all citizens in Abbotsford, not just a select few. Please come back next year. We will greet you with open arms, I promise.

Terry Stobbart Abbotsford, BC

“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 1033 Davie St, Ste 501, Vancouver V6E 1M7.

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XTRA! MARCH 8, 2012

 ›  › 

Xcetera

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In January, English footballer Lee Steele was booted from his Oxford City club for a tweet about not wanting a bed next to gay Welsh rugby player Gareth Thomas.

Former Everton and Manchester City footballer Michael Ball was slapped with a £6,000 fine for tweeting that gay Coronation Street star Antony Cotton is a “fucking queer.”

Last month, West Ham player Ravel Morrison won himself a £7,000 fine for tweeting, “Go suck out u little faggot” in response to an allegation that he was addicted to crack. And three others — Newcastle United’s Nile Ranger, Walsall’s Manny Smith and Manchester United’s Federico Macheda — are also in the Football Association’s bad books for allegedly being homophobic twitterbugs.

And this covers only news out of The Beautiful Game . . .

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You’re only two years older than me, darling. Where have you been all my life?

In the end, it was a relationship built on — and in — sand. Literally. The cuddling caped crusaders Batman and Robin had only just settled into same-sex sofa bliss in front of a television on the banks of London’s Thames River when their romance in sculpture succumbed to the river’s cynical tides.

So much for their long-planned marathon of dynamic-duo reruns.

Tickets at brownpapertickets.com and Little Sister’s

— veteran Canadian actor Christopher Plummer to his first-ever Oscar statuette, which he won for Best Supporting Actor for playing an elderly gay man who comes out late in life in the Mike Mills–helmed Beginners.

THE BACHELOR: GAY PIG EDITION QUEERTY-PRODWEB.S3.AMAZONAWS.COM

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WRITTEN BY SKY GILBERT DIRECTED BY JORDAN PATTERSON

SWEDISH FARMER HAS LONELY BOAR SEEKING SAME. Magnus Nyman told a local newspaper about his same-sex-seeking swine whose attempts at booty calls with the farmer’s bull have been roundly rebuffed. The heartbroken hog is happy to fulfill his mating obligations with the female pigs but has made it clear, with many mounting attempts, that his heart belongs to the bull. So if anyone knows of a lonely gay pig in need of some love, please let Magnus know. I feel a reality show coming on!

– Helen Whitehead

BREAKING NEWS › MAPLE LEAFS GM LAUNCHES NEW ANTI-HOMOPHOBIA CAMPAIGN › NEW SQUIRT MOBILE LAUNCHES GLOBALLY READ MORE ONLINE AT XTRA.CA

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 ›  › 

Upfront PRIDE

IT SEEMS RIGHT, SOMEHOW, TO TELL YOU NOW THAT THIS WILL BE MY LAST COLUMN.

Loose End › 9

EDUCATION

Motion to oust Pride directors Members urged to attend special meeting Natasha Barsotti A MOT ION TO QUASH T H E recent election of the Vancouver Pride Society’s (VPS) president and board — as well as any business they may have conducted since their January election — will be put to a membership vote at a special general meeting (SGM) on March 11.

“The best-case scenario coming out of the SGM would be that there would be a fair election process that elects a full board and a full executive,” says former board member Ray Lam, who spearheaded the SGM requisition.

Lam ran unsuccessfully for president at Pride’s Jan 20 annual general meeting and plans to run again if a new election is called. His requisition, signed by 39 VPS members, calls for a new election in the wake of alleged voting irregularities.

Lam says two members, for example, simultaneously cast their own ballots and ballots for organizations they represent. “The concern with regards to that is the fact that one member only gets one vote,” he says, adding that VPS bylaws are “very clear” about prohibiting proxies. Bylaw 46 states that “voting by proxy is not permitted.”

Former VPS vice-president Shawn Ewing, who resigned days after the January election, says holding an SGM is the right thing to do because “we did something wrong.”

Ewing, who chaired the AGM, says she came away from the meeting with questions about the quorum needed for the election, especially since VPS president Ken Coolen beat his closest competitor by only two votes.

“The end result was there was confusion, a lack of clarity around the numbers entitled to vote, the people that voted,” she says.

VPS general manager Scott Blythe declined to speak to Xtra about the SGM, saying any media requests will have to “go through Ken.” Coolen declined an emailed request for an interview. “Thank you for the email and the opportunity but at this time I feel that any more engagement in the media will be counterproductive for myself and the Vancouver Pride Society as a whole,” he wrote.

He encourages everyone to attend the SGM, whether or not they are VPS members. He has not said whether he will run for president

again if a new election is called.

In addition to alleged voting irregularities, some VPS members have expressed reservations about Coolen’s leadership, but usually in vague terms.

“Unfortunately, as the chief requisitionist, I don’t feel comfortable answering that because I don’t want that to be perceived as part of the reason for the requisition. It is completely separate from that,” Lam says.

“I’m confident that we would have had a treasurer and secretary if I was president,” Lam told Xtra in January, when several directors, including treasurer Bernard Leclair, refused to run again after Coolen’s reelection.

“I have been questioning the leadership,” Leclair told Xtra at the time. He will not elaborate on his concerns now but says he’s been “questioning the leadership for three years” and finds it “really, really lacking.”

He says he has filled out nomination papers to be on the executive if a new election is called. “I intend to continue on as treasurer if the membership will have me.”

“This isn’t a personal thing,” Ewing told Xtra in January. “I love Ken, the person, dearly . . . This is about the leadership of an organization I care very deeply about.

He is not the right person to lead.”

Though reticent to specify her concerns, Ewing says there was little enthusiasm for board meetings under Coolen’s direction.

“Board meetings were almost dreaded because there was such a huge potential for crap. That’s certainly how I felt. There was difficulty for some people to separate personal from the board.”

Ewing would like to see former secretary and parade co-chair Tim Richards run for president.

“I think he’s an outstanding candidate. He’s got a project manager background, he’s got people skills that are exceptional, and he’s well respected by all of the people that are both past and present board members.”

Attempts to reach Richards were unsuccessful by press time.

the deets VANCOUVER PRIDE SOCIETY

Special general meeting Sun, March 11 Registration: 11:30am Call to order: 12:05pm Holiday Inn, 1110 Howe St

Kimberly Samson, 10, from Mount Pleasant Elementary, joined about 100 youth to rally for Pink Shirt Day in Vancouver on Feb 29.

JEREMY HAINSWORTH PHOTO

Students to Clark: walk your antihomophobia talk Policy coming, premier promises again Jeremy Hainsworth “HEY, CHRISTY, WE NEED YOUR HELP. Stop ignoring us,” Grade 9 student David Levitt said Feb 28, as he and several other students implored BC Premier Christy Clark to implement a provincewide anti-homophobia policy.

“Homophobia comes in all shapes and sizes,” Levitt told a press conference hosted by the Vancouver District Students’ Council (VDSC), which represents 58,000 students across the city.

“It can be as hard as a fist in the face or as simple as three words: ‘That’s so gay.’”

“The government has been muddy on the subject of an anti-homophobia policy for schools,” the VDSC wrote in a Feb 17 letter to the premier. “LGBT students need to be protected from homophobic bullying, not only because they are susceptible to bullying, but simply because they require the same protection as every other child in class.”

Only 25 percent of BC’s school districts have specific anti-homophobia bullying policies, the letter notes. “Protecting LGBT students is not an issue that can simply be relayed to local school boards to deal with.”

Pressed in the legislature later that day, Clark promised to deal with the issue in the current session of the legislature.

“I promise the member this,” she replied to a question from MLA Spencer

Chandra Herbert, “we will work with him to make sure that we bring in the best legislation, the best policy, the best methods we possibly can for addressing this issue in workplaces, in schools and in homes for all people across British Columbia.”

Clark told the legislature she has heard the stories of homophobic bullying and that the government is “working very hard on addressing this issue.”

It’s not the first time Clark has promised to make anti-bullying a priority.

“If I become premier, one of the very clear directives I am going give to the education minister is I want you to deal with bullying in schools as a top priority,” she told Xtra as she courted the gay vote at The Oasis on Davie St on Jan 8, 2011, during her Liberal leadership campaign.

“I think school districts have to fight every kind of bullying that’s out there.

Homophobic bullying is the number one form of it, so, yes, they have to make sure that’s part of what they’re targeting when they target bullies,” she said.

Since then, Chandra Herbert has repeatedly pressed the premier on what her pledge actually means.

“It’s a concern that she has been expressing since she was Minister of Education, when she brought in a policy that contained zero recommendations to help gay, lesbian, bi and trans stu-

dents, despite the fact that, in the report, it said that that was one of the top issues,” Chandra Herbert reminded the legislature on Feb 28.

“In January, last year, the premier claimed that homophobic bullying — and addressing it — would be a top priority. She would get her education minister to get right on it. Well, when I did a freedom-of-information request for all the work that was done last year, what did I get? Four blank pages. That’s it. That’s this sum total of this government’s work on this issue.

“So my question is to the premier.

When will she stop just expressing concern, and when will she, now that she’s premier and has been premier for over a year, actually do something about it? Our kids are counting on us.”

Responded Clark: “We will be taking action on this, as I promised, in this, our second session of the legislature since I’ve been premier. We will be doing that this session.”

Levitt just shrugs when asked about Clark’s promises. “She’s a politician,” he tells Xtra. “You can’t really expect that much. They say they’re going to do something and they don’t.”

The students’ plea to Clark came one day before Pink Shirt Day, marked by students across the province who wore pink and rallied against bullying. Mayor Gregor Robertson also declared Feb 29 Pink Shirt Day in Vancouver.

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New Asian health group Richard J Dalton Jr A NEW ORGANIZATION THAT PLANS to focus broadly on health issues for Asians expects approval for incorporation this month, a year after the demise of an Asian HIV/AIDS group.

Asian Wellness Services will cater to Asians with “culturally stigmatized health issues,” particularly sexual issues, mental issues, addiction and disability, says co-founder Shimpei Chihara.

Founders of the group met on Feb 20 with several dozen people at the Roundhouse Community Centre to discuss the proposed organization.

Four days later, the founders applied to incorporate the non-profit group.

They want to fill the gap left by the demise of the Asian Society for the Intervention of AIDS (ASIA) and offer even more services.

“After ASIA, there have been no sexual health services targeting the Asian population, except a small portion of AIDS Vancouver,” Chihara says.

Most of the founders of the new group were staffers or volunteers with ASIA. But, Chihara says, ”This is not a revival of ASIA at all. On the other hand, we learned a lot from ASIA from the good aspects and negative aspects.”

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To our future FINALE

Loose End Ivan Coyote

M

Y FIRST LOOSE END COLumn appeared in Xtra West in March of 2001. That was 11 years ago. I like the number 11, always have.

I was born on the 11th day of August. I like how 11 looks like an equal sign stood upright on its feet. It is 1:11pm on the afternoon of March 1 as I write these words, and it seems right, somehow, to tell you now that this will be my last column.

I have decided that it is time for me to move on and accept new challenges. It has been a long good haul, me and these stories in these pages, but it is time.

I spent a lot of time over the last couple of weeks mulling over just what I would like to say in parting, and how to best say it. Should I tell you the story of teaching a memoir class to senior citizens this month? Hundreds of gems to offer up from this experience.

Should I tell you that I got a chance to hang out with my godson Francis last week, the little boy who used to like to wear dresses? Remember him?

He appeared in these pages multiple times. He is somehow magically driving a truck now and a foot taller than me, and trying to decide what he wants to do once he graduates from high school.

I could tell you about him, but I won’t. What I really want to talk about is not our collective past, but our community’s future.

Our kids. And by our kids I mean their kids, and our kids. And what I mean by their and our kids is the queer children of straight parents, and the sometimes queer but often not children of queer parents. Queer spawn, as some of them like to be called. And what I mean by queer kids and straight kids are all of our children. I want to talk about our kids.

I meet a lot of kids from all across the country and beyond, and I have been writing and publishing long enough now that I have met many full-blown adults who tell me they have been reading my stuff since they were just kids. What they tell me is how much it meant to them to see themselves in the pages of a book or a magazine, what a touchstone it was, to know they were not alone, to see a reflection of themselves out there somewhere, however blurry, to see themselves represented somehow in a world which some days seems very determined to make them disappear.

I want to say right now that I hereby

renew my commitment to keep writing and publishing queer stories for queer kids to pick up and see a part of themselves in, and to keep dragging my ass into high schools to do the work that still so desperately needs doing.

Don’t get me wrong; it is getting better. I see evidence of better in almost every school I step into. Last week I did a gig at an alternative school in Surrey.

Afterwards I was peeing in a stall in the girls’ bathroom when I heard a masculine voice announce, “All I need to do is get into this bra and fix the strap on this cheapass heel and I am good to go.”

I stepped out of the stall to find a young person squeezing themselves into a black bra, getting their drag on to go to their youth group after school.

You heard me right. In Surrey.

I see kids coming out younger and, while it’s never easy (I mean, whose teenage years are, really?), many do not seem to face the kind of violence and hatred and discrimination I remember running rampant in my high school back in the day.

But all you have to do is raise your eyes from that kid’s broken high-heel strap and look around you to see homophobia still alive and thriving, on our school boards, in our Parliament, in churches and rest homes and presidential campaigns and being screamed from cars at us on street corners. We

still have so much work to do, make no mistake.

I think one of the most tragic ways that homophobia still pervades our public schools is how it shuts down the ability for kids to really be everything they are capable of being. How that fear stops kids from reaching their full human potential.

I REALLY THINK THAT HOMOPHOBIA, AND ITS FRATERNAL TWINS MISOGYNY AND TRANSPHOBIA, KEEP ALL KIDS, INCLUDING THE STRAIGHT ONES, FROM FULLY BEING THEIR AMAZING SELVES. Girls are taught to play sports, but not to sweat too much or build up too much muscle. There is still a message being sent that in order to be a certain kind of pretty you can be good at volleyball but not rugby. You can throw a ball, just as long as you are not able to throw it farther than the boys can, not if you want one to want you.

Boys can be good at playing drums or the guitar or the trumpet, but not the flute or the triangle or the oboe. Boys are still supposed to want to be football players, not cheerleaders.

I really think that homophobia, and its fraternal twins misogyny and transphobia, keep all kids, including the straight ones, from fully being their amazing selves.

Let me make myself clear: I am not working toward the day when queer kids are tolerated in our schools. I envision a day where they are celebrated.

To that end, I am launching a book in Vancouver on May 3 at the WISE Hall.

It is a young-adult collection of my stories, some old, some new, aimed at GLBTQ youth. I want this launch to be a place where queer youth are celebrated.

We are going to have a talent show, so if you know any queer or trans youth from 14 to 20 who live in the Vancouver area and want to be involved, please get them to send me a link, through my website, to a four-minute-maximum YouTube audition video. Could be a drag number, could be a song, could be a dance, could be a choir. I will pick 10 kids, or groups of kids, and we are going to do a show. A really big gay show. Hope to see you there.

Let us welcome our kids into a glorious future. And thanks, Xtra, for a beautiful past.

10

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COVER STORY

As one of BC’s few openly gay MLAs, Spencer Chandra Herbert is a consistent advocate for gay and trans rights. He is also committed to affordable housing and the arts and was instrumental in keeping St Paul’s Hospital in the West End. SHIMON KARMEL PHOTO

NOT YOUR AVERAGE POLITICIAN

Spencer Chandra Herbert is openly gay and clearly outspoken

Matthew DiMera

N AN UNCHARACTERISTICALLY sunny February afternoon, VancouverWest End’s openly gay MLA sets up a table and banner at the corner of Davie and Bute streets, in the heart of the gay village.

Some of the passersby seem unsure of his intentions. They eye Spencer Chandra Herbert warily, wondering if he is trying to sell them something.

He calls it his mobile community office — a way for him to better connect with the people in his constituency. Today he is collecting signatures for two petitions he hopes to present to the legislature. The first is in favour of increased rights for tenants; the second is in support of St Paul’s Hospital.

Chandra Herbert takes pride in the part he played in getting the BC Liberals to commit

to keeping St Paul’s in downtown Vancouver and has now set his sights on getting the funds needed to rejuvenate the aging hospital.

“Is there an election coming up?” asks one man jokingly. After signing both petitions, he tells the young politician to keep up the good work, saying that more politicians could take a cue from him.

The next provincial election isn’t slated until May 2013, but before Chandra Herbert officially announces his intention to run again, he wants to get more feedback from the community and see what they think of the job he’s done as their MLA. “I don’t ever want to become the voice of Victoria to the neighbourhood, instead of the neighbourhood’s voice to Victoria,” he explains.

“If the message that I hear from people is ‘No, you shouldn’t run again,’ well then I won’t,” he says. “I don’t want to assume just because I’ve been elected once that I somehow have an entitlement to be elected forever. But so far the

word is good; people are telling me that I should run again.”

Chandra Herbert likes to see himself as a different kind of politician. The 30-year-old prides himself on not owning a car and prefers to bike, walk or bus to appointments within his constituency. He can often be seen cycling through downtown Vancouver or Victoria in one of his trademark vintage suits. He gets most of his wardrobe secondhand, salvaging his suits from thrift stores or as hand-me-downs.

For an MLA, there is no average nine-to-five day. When he’s not in the provincial legislature in Victoria or out shaking hands and meeting people in the community, he’s likely in his Denman St storefront office meeting with constituents. On any given day, anywhere from 15 to 50 people contact his office looking for help, information or advice. Some of the cases can be fixed with a quick phone call; others take months to be resolved.

When pressed for his proudest moments since

taking office, he points not to any of the myriad times he has been featured in the press for his outspoken statements nor to a change he has made in legislation, but to the advocacy work he does for his constituents.

He specifically recalls the case of an elderly West End woman who was repeatedly threatened with eviction.

“She wanted to give up so many times. She didn’t think she could withstand the pressure to leave the West End. Every time she talked about it, she would just start to cry,” he remembers.

After months of behind-the-scenes work from his office, the woman was able to stay in her home with more assistance and support than before.

“It’s the small things,” Chandra Herbert says.

“I would want to do this even if I wasn’t an MLA, but for her it’s the biggest thing in the world.” continued on page 12

12

Vancouver’s gay & lesbian news

XTRA! MARCH 8, 2012

Chandra Herbert continued from page 11

A

s a self-described festival organizer and community activist, Chandra Herbert never expected to find himself in public office.

But the then-24-year-old jumped at the chance when the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) asked him to run for a seat on the Vancouver Park Board in 2005.

“I’d worked a lot from the outside, fighting for late-night buses for example, and I finally went, ‘I’ve got to give it a try from the inside and see what difference I could make there.’”

He doesn’t know why he was able to successfully transition from activist to politician, where many others have failed, but credits his experience in the arts, both onstage and behind the scenes.

“I’m comfortable in both worlds.

There’s some people who are great at policy and not great communicators, and there are some who are really great on communicating but have nothing really to say. I try to work on both sides,” he says.

After serving a single term and carefully consulting with community members and his long-time partner, Romi, he made the leap to provincial politics in 2008, citing homelessness and the climate crisis as two personal motivating factors.

At the age of 27, in 2008, Chandra Herbert handily won a by-election over Liberal challenger Arthur Griffiths in the then-Vancouver-Burrard riding.

Seven months later he was reelected in a general election to represent the new Vancouver-West End riding. He is still

the youngest MLA in the legislature.

“I was on Park Board and saw the limit of what I could do there to deal with the huge increase in homelessness — the fact that friends of mine were getting evicted from their homes in the West End for no good reason,” he recalls.

As a member of the official Opposition, he has been fighting for affordable housing ever since, advocating against arbitrary rent increases and evictions.

In his very first speech in the legislature he called on the government to take action on the Residential Tenancy Act and on homelessness.

“I know this House is often one of chest beating and desk thumping, a place where the theatre of partisan politics is played out. I appeal to the members opposite, on behalf of my constituents, to take action now for renters and those living on the street,” he said in November 2008.

“My community is tired of stepping over homeless people, and the homeless people in my community are tired of being stepped over. They need supportive housing now so that they can get off the streets and into programs that help them with mental illness, help them with substance abuse and drug addiction problems, help them get back to living productive lives.”

A

s one of a handful of openly gay MLAs in BC, Chandra Herbert is also a consistent advocate for gay and trans rights. He has pushed the courts to apply hate-crime designations in gaybashings, attempted to amend the Human Rights Code to include gender identity and expression, and continues to press the government for a provincewide anti-homophobia policy in schools

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He also remains firmly committed to his roots in the arts. When the BC Liberals slashed funding in 2010, Chandra Herbert came out swinging as opposition critic for the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts.

While acknowledging their economic importance, he believes the arts have a more important benefit to society.

“They help us learn who we are, who we’ve been, and can give us a vision for where we’re going. They help us understand that the world is not always black and white, that in fact it’s a multicoloured universe,” he says.

M

ore than three years after Chandra Herbert became an MLA, the Tenancy Act remains unchanged, and of the five private member’s bills he has introduced, none have been adopted.

“The Liberals have not passed, to my knowledge, any private member’s bills in their 10 years in office,” he says.

“But, I offer them and I say in the spirit of bipartisanship, ‘Take them, you can rename them, claim that you came up with them. I just want the bill passed. I don’t need credit for it.’ But so far there has been no willingness.”

He dismisses the argument that the interests of West End voters would be better served by an MLA in government rather than in opposition and says he stands by his record.

“You’re going to have the same battles, whether we’re in government or in opposition. You have to push forward the policies and the ideas,” he contends.

“In terms of advocacy in the community, we had [previous Liberal MLA] Lorne Mayencourt for eight

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years and in that whole time we never got a commitment from the government to keep St Paul’s in the community,” he points out. “We never got any solutions to dealing with street homelessness.”

M

any of Chandra Herbert’s constituents have nothing but praise for him. West End Residents Association president Christine Ackermann gives him an A for his work with renters and the gay community.

“It’s been heavenly to have someone like Spencer Chandra Herbert be our MLA because in the past we’ve not had MLAs that have been responsive to our needs in the community,” she says.

“He makes himself available, he listens well, he has good ideas, he’s active in the community, his office is always open. Those are things I want to see in an MLA.” John Nicholson, chair of the West End Business Improvement Association, also gives Chandra Herbert an A for being inclusive of both residents and businesses.

But Chandra Herbert is not without critics. Laura McDiarmid, who ran unsuccessfully against him in the last election for the BC Liberals, is less impressed with his record and doesn’t think that he’s doing a good job representing the West End. “It’s very hard to be critical because he’s a very nice young man,” she says. “I just think there’s something to be said for experience.”

McDiarmid thinks Chandra Herbert has chosen issues that will raise his profile while ignoring others that affect local residents. “There’s a lot more in the West End than the renters’ issue

I DON’T EVER WANT TO BECOME THE VOICE OF VICTORIA TO THE NEIGHBOURHOOD, INSTEAD OF THE NEIGHBOURHOOD’S VOICE TO VICTORIA. and queerbashing,” she says. “Is the West End being represented well by him? Everyone, not just a select few?”

While acknowledging that it is a municipal rather than provincial issue, McDiarmid gives him a C-minus for not taking a stronger stance about Vision Vancouver’s Short Term Incentives for Rental Housing program.

“Even though there’s nothing he can do about it, he can still take a stand knowing the effect that it will have on the community,” she says.

Chandra Herbert resists assigning himself a letter grade, instead saying that he is doing well but needs more work. “I’d say I could always improve,” he says. “If I were to give myself an A, I think it would signal to people that I don’t think I have to improve.”

He is noncommittal about how long he plans to stay in politics.

“I’m still a relatively new MLA. I’m figuring out how this works,” he says.

“I think you’ve got to be focused on the job you have now, on the people you serve now. If I was focused on 20 years down the line, I don’t think I would be as effective.”

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listings › PARTIES Roboteria v2.5 Retro-futuristic and underground machine funk with DJs R-Lex and Taffi Louis. Fri, March 9, 9pm–2am. The Den at the Barclay, 1348 Robson St. $5 before 11 pm, $10 after.

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Not So Strictly Ballroom’s first St Paddy’s dance. Kathy Bradley teaches the box-style rumba.

Singles and couples welcome. Sat, March 17, 8–11:30pm. Let’s Dance Studio, 927 Granville St, second floor. Tickets $10–15 at Little Sister’s, 1238 Davie St.

Coronation 41: Trailer Trash Dogwood Monarchist Society. Sat, March 17, 6pm. Performance Works Granville Island, 1218 Cartwright St. $41 advance (at Little Sister’s), $51 door.

United XXX Big Roger presents DJ Joe Gauthreaux (LA) and Colt’s Spencer Reed. Thurs, April 5, 11:30pm–7am. Gorg-o-Mish, 695 Smithe St. Tickets at Little Sister’s, 1238 Davie St; Priape, 1148 Davie St; and clubzone.com.

Ruff: Easter Weekend DJs Barney Philly and DRKN, with Sister Alma B Itches. Thurs, April 5, 9pm–2 am. Club 560, 560 Seymour St. $10 advance at Priape, 1148 Davie St, or $15 door. ruffparty.com

Rubbout 21 Men’s rubber and leather party weekend. Thurs, April 5–Sun, April 8. More info at rubbout.com.

ART, PERFORMANCE & FESTIVALS The Odd Couple: Female Version Penned by original Odd Couple author Neil Simon; directed

by David C Jones. Runs Thurs, March 8–Sat, March 17. Jericho Arts Centre, 1675 Discovery St. $20. brownpapertickets.com/ event/221274

Mini-Theatre Fest Ghost Light Projects presents Mother May I and The Pitch, followed by Drag Queens on Trial. Fri, March 9–Thurs, March 15. Pal Theatre, 581 Cardero St. $25/$30. brownpapertickets.com/ event/222189

THEATRE

Tim Hammond screens and discusses his documentary. Wed, March 14, 7:30pm. Qmunity, 1770 Bute St, Meeting Room 2. By donation.

Victoria Grant poses as a man and becomes a top female impersonator only to fall in love with a straight man. Sat, March 17–Sat, April 7, 8pm. Metro Theatre, 1370 SW Marine Dr. Tickets at 604-2667191. metrotheatrevancouver.com

The Green Party

Blitz & Shitz ›14

Circumcision: Whose Body, Whose Rights?

Presented by Vancouver Men in Leather. Dress code: rubber, leather or shirtless. Fri, March 9, 9–11pm.

Numbers Leather Loft (upstairs), 1042 Davie St. Membership $5/ event, $20/year.

Presents Clubskirts, the Dinah party. Sat, March 10, 9pm–2am.

Red Room Ultra Bar, 398 Richards St. flygirlproductions.com

I’VE ALWAYS HAD A PENCHANT FOR STRAIGHT BOYS.

A concert reading of the Canadian comedy about an aging actress cast as King Lear. Sun, March 18, 2pm. Holy Trinity Cathedral, 514 Carnarvon St, New Westminster. $15/$12. brownpapertickets.ca

Hunx and His Punx Girl group fronted by a flamboyant gay male sings ’50s rock, ’60s girl groups and pop. Sat, March 24, 8 pm. Waldorf Hotel, 1489 E Hastings St. $12 at hunx.eventbrite.com.

Stage manager Carolyn Yu’s family is represented on her arm by peacock feathers: “The red one represents me — I’ve always felt like the odd one out.” STACY SHERLOCK

Bad Habits: The Movie Join the Vancouver Sisters for their screening of the documentary Bad Habits: The Return of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. If you have ever had questions about the Sisters or how to become one, this is an event not to be missed.

Admission is free, but they will be seeking donations and holding a raffle. All proceeds will benefit A Loving Spoonful. Thurs, March 29, 7–9pm. The Junction, 1138 Davie St. yvrsisters.ca

MEETINGS & GROUPS Out for Kicks Soccer Registration Social, coed recreational league is actively recruiting new players. No experience necessary. Sun, March 25, 5–8 pm. The Junction, 1138 Davie St. outforkicks.ca

Knowing You, Knowing Me Workshop Free workshop for lesbian, bi, trans and queer women, hosted by Safe Choices and Qmunity. How do we communicate our needs for privacy, time alone, sex, intimacy and togetherness in a partnership?

Tues, March 27, 6:30–9:30 pm.

Qmunity, 1170 Bute St. Free, but you must RSVP to maureen@ leavingmenforwomen.com. qmunity.ca

Dining Out for Life Support people living with HIV/ AIDS. More than 250 restaurants, from Whistler to White Rock and across the Fraser Valley, will contribute 25 percent of sales to people living with HIV/AIDS on Thurs, March 29. For info and participating restaurants, go to diningoutforlife.com/vancouver.

CHASING

HOME Collaborative project asks outsiders to share

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Greg Armstrong-Morris

F FO R S O M E K A F K A - C U M Pinteresque reason your understanding of metropolitan Vancouver’s population were based solely on what the larger theatres are showing, you might conclude that we’re a city of nothing but British ex-pats and the children of American draft-dodgers.

Hardly surprising since larger theatres — wrestling to attract a younger, more diverse audience without turning their backs on their loyal but dwindling (read: dying) subscriber base — can’t afford to step too far outside the box when programming their seasons.

What they can do is offer partnerships to smaller companies. By sharing rehearsal and performance spaces, access to marketing departments and professional mentoring, the more established theatres can attach their names to riskier projects that only the smaller companies dare tackle.

The Vancouver Playhouse last year struck such a partnership with queer theatre group Screaming Weenie. With funding from the federal government administered by EmbraceBC and the provincial Ministry of Social Development, they launched All the World’s a Stage in July 2011.

The two-part project, which also received funding from Qmunity’s Rainbow Refugee Committee, Mosaic and Leaky Heaven Circus, engaged emerging/non-professional theatre artists and recent immigrants from diverse cultural and social backgrounds in a five-month course of mentoring and creation.

The first component paired the participants with professionals in sound, lighting, set and costume design, and management and outreach. Collectively, they assisted in mounting Falling in Time, by gay Vancouver playwright CE Gatchalian, in November.

Gatchalian’s play ambitiously spans two continents and four decades in

its raw exploration of cultural conflict, sexuality and forgiveness in the shadow of the Korean War. Screaming Weenie’s producing director Seán Cummings was thrilled with the show’s success. “We took great care in reaching out to the queer East Asian population, as well as East Asian communities and artists.”

He points to one unsolicited bit of audience feedback that left him particularly pleased: “I am not a kung fu master. I am not a math nerd. I didn’t get accepted to MIT at 17. And yes, I have a penis,” one graduate student from Burnaby wrote. “Thank you to Falling in Time for proving this on my behalf and on behalf of gay Asians everywhere.”

The second half of the project is the collaborative creation and design of Chasing Home.

Under the guidance of Cummings, Gatchalian, and facilitator and drama teacher David Beare, the participants are now drawing on their experiences as cultural outsiders — immigrants, refugees and people who have been forced to flee their homelands — to create an exploration of home and family, discrimination and patriotism.

Pedro Chamale, whose Guatemalan parents immigrated to Canada before he was born, says that so far the collaboration is going well.

“Knowing we were there to work on something together broke down the walls,” he says of the creative team.

“We wanted to trust each other.”

Chamale says it was the collaborative aspect that drew him to the project. That and his love of storytelling.

“I remember lying in bed with my parents, with my head on my father’s chest, listening to him read from the Bible or National Geographic. I grew to love the power of story.”

The participants’ contributions to Chasing Home are proving to be as varied as their backgrounds. While some are comfortable writing personal narratives, poems and possible scenes, others express themselves more physically.

Stage manager Carolyn Yu’s story is inked on her body in a series of tattoos that represent her family and significant milestones in her life.

Born in Hong Kong, Yu moved to North Vancouver with her family when she was six.

“I have peacock feathers tattooed on my lower arm. The blue and green ones are my parents and older sister.

The grey one is my grandmother, who raised me. And the red one represents me — I’ve always felt like the odd one out.”

Yu says it’s her bisexuality that makes her feel like an outsider in her family. “My family knows I’m bisexual, but we don’t talk about it. It’s a cultural taboo to talk about sexuality, period.

But to talk about homosexuality is not common. It’s a Chinese thing,” she says.

the deets CHASING HOME

Thurs, March 15–Sat, March 17 Vancouver Playhouse Recital Hall 601 Cambie St screamingweenie.com

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Vancouver’s gay & lesbian news

XTRA! MARCH 8, 2012

CARNIVAL CITY

Tempting straights with glitter Blitz & Shitz Raziel

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USED TO AGREE WITH THAT SEX AND the City quote that said bisexuality is a “layover on the way to gaytown.”

I thought all bi guys were fags and all bi girls were sluts. (Ladies, please don’t send me your hate mail; save it for Limbaugh!)

As it so happens, while I was at everyone’s favourite dress-up mashup, Queer Bash: True Blood Vamps vs Hollywood Glam-ps, I changed my tune.

I’ve always had a penchant for straight boys. What can I say? I’m a sucker for challenges, corruption and debasement. I get off on taking someone to the glitter side. A wife and Raziel and a bead-a-licious Joan-E. ALVIN GRADO kids is such an aphrodisiac.

One of my girlfriends introduced Well, regardless of how he swings, me to her colleague while we were does in my mouth, but I can still apliving for DJ Colby B (NYC) on the preciate beautiful tits (I’m looking the hipster didn’t come home with me. dancefloor. He was a typical East Van at you, Bloody Betty — check out her Another night alone with my toothhipster: scruffy and covered with su- Fetish Show March 15 to see for your- brush . . . perfluous tattoos. Needless to say, I self ). Give me enough tequila shots swooned. My friend told me he was and I’ve even been known to muffin straight, but I noticed him looking at munch (and enjoy it).

The problem with society is that we “Sleeping with the judges doesn’t me a few times, and there was something in his eyes that my intuition (as try to make sexuality black and white, guarantee your survival in this cominduced by my $4 Cariboo) picked up when in fact, most of us fall into the petition,” Peach Cobblah yelled to on, making me consider the complexi- grey area. Sure, we might be more the packed crowd during the Mr/Miss inclined one way or the other, but if we Cobalt competition. ties of sexuality.

I’m so gay my electric toothbrush let ourselves, we’d discover that nature “But it helps!” her mother/husband spends more time up my ass than it doesn’t make labels, humans do. (and judge) Isolde N Barron added, to

Cobalt confetti

roaring applause. “This is The Cobalt, after all.”

The coveted East Van title is up for grabs, and the nine queens/kings competing repped honourably. The rightful top four (as chosen by the audience and judges) are J’Adorie (who is being hailed as a mix of Courtney Love, Baby Spice and a little Toddlers & Tiaras bitch), Lady Jem (who gave one of her best performances to date, scrotum slip included), and two kings, Lou Souls and Trannipus Rex, who by my book, stole the show.

Seven competitors remain, and the prize is $500 plus three bookings at Apocalypstick, East Van’s Drag Show.

You don’t want to miss the next cut on March 11, and the finals on March 18. Cover is $5 and includes a voting ballot and admission to Apocalypstick, directly following.

PS Mardi Gras in the Davie Village was a success. I have never seen so many beads that weren’t being pulled out of my butt! It made for an intense turnout for Carlotta Gurl’s Absolutely Dragulous one-year anniversary at The Junction (congrats, gurl)! In total, $7,458 was raised for Friends for Life. Partying has never been so benevolent. Big thanks to Oasis, Numbers, Junction, Celebrities, PumpJack, 1181, Fountainhead and everyone who bought a wristband.

We did good, gays!

S P R ES S NGLE W TV SERIE A I R T E P I N K E N TS A N P R ES

TUES, WED & SAT 11:30PM PT / 2:30AM ET ON OUT TV gayestshowever.com

Hosted by Elvira Kurt

The To-Do List DRAG QUEENS ON TRIAL The humour and drama covers everything from AIDS to bullying in one-horse hockey towns (I can relate — proud hockey slut here). There are only five performances, running from March 10–17 at PAL Theatre. Don’t miss!

DOG TAG

Get a dog tag and pick a colour. Green: you are available. Yellow: you might be available. Red: you are not available, but who knows what will happen after a few $8 pitchers. And of course, two green stickers: meet me in the bathroom. I think I’ll skip the process.

Just meet me in the corner stall (and bring a pitcher). The objectification starts on March 11 at 4pm at Oasis.

HOLLYWOOD REHAB PARTY

Ever wonder what goes on in Hollywood rehab? Mugshots, syringe shots, test tube shooters and detoxing with an oxygen bar, naturally. Come to The Junction on March 15 to party like Amy and Whitney wish they still could.

Paramedics will be on standby. Dress as your fave hot mess for prizes!

more at xtra.ca

XTRA! MARCH 8, 2012

SUPERB WEST END LOCATION AT ROBSON & JERVIS EASY WALKING DISTANCE TO RESTAURANTS SHOPPING CULTURE

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RENTERS, RAISE YOUR STANDARDS!

TRANSIT RIGHT OUTSIDE YOUR DOOR ZIP CARS IN GARAGE DIAMOND-FLECKED QUARTZ COUNTERTOPS

GLEAMING WHITEOAK FLOORING WIDE PROTECTED BALCONIES MASSIVE SOAKER TUB FREE WIFI IN COMMON AREAS LARGE WORKOUT AREA AND TRANQUIL YOGA SPACE SECURED BICYCLE STORAGE AND WORKSHOP

S T E P U P TO PAC I F I C PA L I S A D E S. T H E W E ST COA S T M O D E R N, W E ST END ICON HAS UNDERGONE A MASSIVE CONVERSION FROM HOTEL TO 2 3 4 SPARKLING NEW STUDIO AND ONE-BEDROOM RENTAL SUITES. A P P LY N O W A N D C L A I M YO U R S P O T. W W W. PA C I F I C PA L I S A D E S .C A

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XTRA! MARCH 8, 2012

ADVERTISING FEATURE › HEADS UP

Vancouver’s gay & lesbian news

SATURDAY MARCH 10TH PONI with Guests Adam Dreaddy, DJ Quest and Dirty Margaret

SATURDAY MARCH 17TH PONI Presents DJ T St. Patricks Day Edition

SATURDAY MARCH 24TH

PONI Presents Hotel Room Service UK

SATURDAY MARCH 31ST

PONI UP Madonna with Special Performance and Guests Adam Dreaddy, DJ Quest and Dirty Margaret

DOORS OPEN AT 10 PM

HEADS

UP

Club pages

FOUNTAINHEAD PUB 1011 DAVIE ST, VANCOUVER 604-687-2222

WEDNESDAYS Red Truck pints; Beefeater gin highballs.

THURSDAYS Grower’s Cider; Alexander Keith’s pints.

FRIDAYS Polar Ice vodka highballs; Kokanee pints; Naughty Shots.

SATURDAYS Smirnoff Ice coolers; Granville Island pints; Naughty Shots.

SUNDAYS Caesars; OK Spring pints.

MONDAYS Labatt’s Blue pints; Jackson Triggs wines.

TUESDAYS Smirnoff Twisted coolers; Russell pints.

NUMBERS

1042 DAVIE ST, VANCOUVER 604-685-4077 WEDNESDAYS Karaoke Night 8–11pm and DJ Dom 11pm–2am. No cover. Pool,darts and Karaoke Funbox all night upstairs.

THURSDAYS ’90s Night. Join DJ Del for our night of the fabulous ’90s. Doors open at 8.

No cover. Pool, darts and Karaoke Funbox all night upstairs.

FRIDAYS Dance Party with DJs Drew and Del. All your favourite dance tunes. Best sound. Doors open at 8. Pool, darts and Karaoke Funbox all night upstairs.

SATURDAYS Dance Party with DJ Shelly.

Best light show in the city. Doors open at 8pm. Pool, darts and Karaoke Funbox all night upstairs.

SUNDAYS Karaoke Night 8–11pm and DJ Del 11pm–2am. No cover. Pool, darts and Karaoke Funbox all night upstairs

EVENT LISTINGS THURS, MAR 8 SecWest Conference

FRI, MAR 9

MONDAYS Trivia Night. Starts at 8pm.

Hosted by Shari and Richard. Are you smarter then a fifth grader? Doors open at 8. No cover. Pool, darts and Karaoke Funbox all night upstairs.

World of Drum and Bass Tour 2012 - DJSS, Crissy Criss, Greenlaw Live, MC Warren G and more!

TUESDAYS DJ Del spins a fusion of music.

Make a request. Doors open at 8pm. No cover. Pool,darts and Karaoke Funbox all night upstairs. Ask us about fundraising.

World Model UN 2012 Conference & PONI Saturdays

SAT, MAR 10

THURS, MAR 15

LIVE at FIVESIXTY Launch.

Bands to be announced.

FRI, MAR 16

Intimate and FIVESIXTY presents Marc Houle (Canada) and Troy Pierce (USA)

SAT, MAR 17

PONI SATURDAYS (St. Patrick’s Day Edition) with DJ Adam Dreaddy, DJ Quest, Dirty Margaret and Guests

For more information on events, visit fivesixty.ca

more at xtra.ca

XTRA! MAR 8, 2012

XPOSED

Wine tasting evening

Photos by Alvin Grado

Davie Village Mardi Gras

March 21, 2012 6pm to 730pm Enjoy 6 of BC’s best wines, paired with a specifically designed tapas menu all for only $30.00 per person.

Beads rained, and bacchanalia reigned, in fave gay village watering holes Oasis, Celebrities, Junction, and Numbers Feb 25.

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To purchase tickets please contact Pancho Fonseca by calling 604-682-1831 ext 1117.

1755 Davie St. • 604.682.1831• in BEST WESTERN PLUS Sands Hotel www.bestwesternsandshotelvancouver.com

Are you Out For Kicks?

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Registration Sunday 25th March 5-8pm Junction Pub

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1) Tracey Cole undercover at Junction. 2) Ross Neasloss and Jenni-Anne Bell.

3) Mike Bell and Josh Hamlin get playful. 4) Joe Callahan, Edwin Chaytor and Brad Chaytor at Numbers. 5) Masquerading David Lindsay and Ryan Stewart.

6) Sinead Loxton, Shelayne Mulholland and Kaylee Loxton.

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A World of Gay Adventure

Delhi

The jewel of India

D : The Jama Masjid, in Old Delhi, is India’s largest mosque and was commissioned by Shah Jahan, builder of the Taj Mahal. : No Delhi street scene is complete without a sacred cow or bull.

ISTOCKPHOTO/THINKSTOCK

LGBT ads:Layout 1 29/02/2012 10:31 Page 1

Ken Hickling

ELHI IS ONE OF THE LARGEST and fastest-growing cities in the world. Bursting at the seams, it teems with sights, sounds and smells; its vibrancy and cultural diversity radiate from every street scene. There are architectural marvels, colourful shops, delicious food, wonderful people and the ever-present throng intermingled with sacred cows and stray dogs. It is a place rich in history and steeped in contrasts: old and new, aromatic and smelly, pristine and grimy.

New Delhi, India’s capital, lies at

the centre of the metropolis of Delhi.

The best way to get around New Delhi is by rickshaw or tuk-tuk (motorized rickshaw). The passenger experience can be a little hair-raising initially, but it’s richer than being sealed up in a car.

Even if you’re not an architecture or history nut, a tour of the city’s buildings is a must. The Lotus Temple, Humayun’s Tomb, the temples of Akshardham and Laxminarayan, and the India Gate are not to be missed, but Delhi’s architectural jewel is the Rashtrapati Bhavan (Sanskrit for Presidential House), the largest chief-of-state residence in the world. Flanked by Parliament House and the Secretariat, the complex is

Be YOU in Manchester

enormous. Just up the street is the Bungalow Zone: street after street of British Raj–era mini palaces with magnificent gardens. For high-end shopping and dining, visit Connaught Place, where aficionados of art and history will find several world-class museums and galleries.

Just north of New Delhi is the walled city of Old Delhi. Although much of the wall has been lost, the magnificent entry gates still stand. At the centre of Old Delhi is the Red Fort, a 17th-century palace fortress. Don’t miss the nearby Jama Masjid, India’s largest mosque.

Wander the street bazaars of Old Delhi on foot for a rich shopping experience.

Find out why Manchester should be on YOUR places to visit list! visitmanchester.com/lgbt

XTRA! MARCH 8, 2012

The gay scene You won’t find a gay district or village in Delhi, but there are regular gay nights at various locations across the city. Listings for gay spaces and events can be found online, but one of the best ways to be in the know is to ask the locals.

Tuesday nights at Pepper in South Delhi’s Chanakyapuri neighbourhood is a good place to start. Guys can also find cruising and meeting-place listings, and connect with gay Delhiwallas, at squirt.org.

Travel tips The warm sunny days, cool nights and foggy mornings between November and April represent the best weather window for your visit. May and June are hot and sticky, with the monsoon season beginning to recede in early October.

Foreign nationals entering India need travel visas. Getting them can take a while, so plan ahead. Check with your Indian consulate for forms and procedures. See your doctor at least a month before you go to ensure your vaccinations are up to date.

Shorts and T-shirts are not culturally appropriate in India. Walking around in public in a tank top is like walking around in your underpants. You won’t get tick-

eted, but you may be turned away from some attractions and businesses, and you will get strange looks. Wear long pants and light shirts. And take a light jacket for the cool mornings and evenings if you’re travelling in winter.

A 10 percent gratuity is customary for waiters, guides and service providers.

Fifty rupees is standard for bellboys, luggage handlers and general service staff.

Avoiding Delhi Belly is not difficult if you avoid ice cubes and use bottled water for drinking and tooth brushing. Stay away from milk and uncooked dairy products, and choose raw fruits and vegetables you peel yourself. Consider forgoing meat; vegetarian dishes are common and very tasty.

Getting there Virtually every major air carrier offers regular service to Delhi, but the trip is a long haul from Canada, so choose your airline carefully. Indira Gandhi International Airport is modern and reasonably easy to navigate. It’s 20 kilometres from the city centre, but ground travel can be very slow because of traffic, so plan accordingly.

Delhi’s efficient transit system includes both rail and bus service to the city centre.

Taxi and car rental information is on the airport’s website. For rail information, go to the Delhi Metro website (delhimetrorail.

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com). For bus schedules and information, search online for the Delhi Transport Corporation (delhi.gov.in/wps/wcm/connect/ DOIT_DTC/dtc/home).

Getting around Public transit by rail and bus systems in Delhi is efficient and inexpensive and will likely get you where you need to go.

Taxi fares are paid in advance and depend on how much baggage you have and how far you’re going. It’s best to avoid unlicensed taxis, but state-regulated booths are easy to find. The Delhi Traffic Police website has specific information and booth locations.

Hiring a car for the day is a comfortable, hassle-free way to get around, and drivers can be great sources of information. Ask the concierge at your hotel for arrangements, and plan to spend $40 to $50 for the day.

Tuk-tuks and rickshaws are available on most every street corner and at most monuments and public spaces. Just be sure to set a price before you get in. Short tuk-tuk trips will cost around 20 rupees; 100 rupees should get you across the city. Rickshaws are more plentiful in Old Delhi; expect to pay 20 rupees for an average ride or 100 rupees for a nice tour of Old Delhi.

   :

A rickshaw ride is the best way to experience Delhi’s splendour.

Ganesha, India’s most widely worshipped deity, is revered as the “remover of obstacles.” Shrines and effigies are found on virtually every block and above every doorway.

An intricately carved wall mural in the Mogul style.

THOMAS ROTH

on the web Delhi Tourism ›delhitourism.nic.in Indira Gandhi International Airport ›newdelhiairport.in

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When the going gets tough, the tough find a really nice place to recharge.

There’s so much to do out here from hiking to biking to canyon exploring. Honestly. In fact, it doesn’t take much effort at all to totally forget you can also spend the entire day just doing absolutely nothing if you really want to. Which we offer in abundance as well. Then there are the museums. And the restaurants. And the clubs. And any of our 25-plus gay and lesbian resorts and inns to come home to after. Whatever your choice, we’ve got plenty to do. Or not do. It’s all up to you.

Like no place else.™

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A World of Gay Adventure

XTRA! MARCH 8, 2012

Guidemag.com

The second in a three-part series

Montreal

A dash of gay and hip enhances Mile End’s flavour Le Pick Up

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du Parc) and think about staying for dinner. The wine bar stocks an impressive list of private imports and offers AVE DU MONT-ROYAL a light menu of tapas, charcuterie and cheese. The bar is unpretentious and laid-back, buzzing with the relaxed energy of its arty crowd.

After dinner, head to the Royal Phoenix 10 (5788 Blvd St-Laurent), the anchor of the neighbourhood’s RUE RACHEL queer scene. The bar and restaurant has a different theme each night, so

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   : It’s always a good morning at Le Pick Up; Fresh bagels right from the oven at St-Viateur; a perfect latte at Club Social; late-night smiles at Le Nouveau Palais; dine outside at La Buvette Chez Simone.

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HE MILE END IS MONTREAL’S hot neighbourhood. Heavily associated with its artists, particularly the band Arcade Fire, this section of Plateau Mont-Royal — adjacent what is colloquially known as the Plateau — has been touted worldwide as a hotbed of creativity. Despite all the attention, the neighbourhood still feels refreshingly off the beaten track.

The area charms with its lowdensity, low-rise buildings, many featuring Montreal’s signature wrought-iron spiral staircases. Streets are tree lined and peaceful. Along the main drags, traditional Greek, Jewish and Italian merchants mingle with freshly opened shops, restaurants and bars patronized by newcomers. Swing a cat and you’ll smack any number of artists and homosexuals.

Some people bemoan the gentrification of yet another Montreal neighbourhood, but at this stage of the game, the mix works. Old and new, anglo and franco, traditional and trendy — the current mix of inhabitants seem to have really hit it off, creating in Mile End a lovely and unique ambiance.

The incoming denizens have an undeniable hipster aesthetic, but don’t let that put you off. Montreal’s hipsters utterly lack the snobbery and aloofness that pretty much defines hipsterism in North America’s bigger cities.

Beneath the skinny jeans and behind the pornstaches, you’ll find a crowd that’s welcoming, charming and playful. If Williamsburg and Queen West are laughing at you, Mile End is laughing with you. So join in and have fun!

Start your day at Le Pick Up 1 (7032 Rue Waverly). The traditional dépanneur, as the Québécois call their convenience stores, has been transformed into a quirky restaurant.

The modest two-storey corner brick building has a picnic table out front and a patio out back. Inside, you’ll

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still find milk and toilet paper for sale, but you really need to pull up a stool at the original lunch counter. Enjoy a hearty breakfast from the griddle and excellent coffee prepared by the cute staff. The menu is sophisticated without being expensive, and you AVE BEAUMONT can stock up on gum, snacks and beer before you leave.

If you prefer to breakfast chez vous, pop into one of Montreal’s famous bagelries. St-Viateur 2 (263 Rue StViateur Ouest) and Fairmount Bagel 3 (74 Ave Fairmount Ouest) are both in the neighbourhood, baking the distinctive Montreal-style sweet and chewy breads.

A walk around the neighbourhood AVE VAN HORNE 4 takes you to Drawn and Quarterly (211 Rue Bernard Ouest), the famous arts and literary comics publisher.

Bucking a trend, the publishing house has recently opened a bricks-andmortar shop in Mile End. Drawn and Quarterly publishes comic books, sketchbooks and graphic novels, most notably by the likes of Julie Doucet, Seth, Chester Brown and Joe Matt. You’ll also find works by gay and lesbian favourites such as Maurice Vellekoop and Debbie Drechsler.

If you’re a CanLit fan, you might want to stroll by Wilensky’s Light Lunch 5 (34 Ave Fairmount Ouest), famously featured in Mordecai Richler’s The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. You may recognize the diner if you saw the film adaptation of the novel, starring Richard Dreyfuss. If you’re in the market for some new duds, Local 23 6 (23 Rue Bernard Ouest) is a vintage store with well-chosen clothing and trinkets.

When it’s time for your afternoon coffee break, head to one of the Italian cafés, Club Social 7 (180 Rue StViateur Ouest) or Café Olimpico 8 (124 Rue St-Viateur Ouest). Some hardcore locals simply move back and forth from one to the other. These are no-nonsense, old-school espresso bars with large, languid patios that offer you licence to linger — the perfect place to rest your pegs under a shady tree.

By cocktail time, make your way to La Buvette Chez Simone 9 (4869 Ave

AV EV AN H

David Walberg

720

it’s an ever-changing experience with a diverse crowd. There are often four or five DJs working simultaneously to keep the energy up somewhere near the ceiling. Flirty bartenders exude warmth and smoulder with sensuality. Prepare to drink and dance till the wee hours.

Le Nouveau Palais 11 (281 Rue Bernard Ouest) is an ideal spot to wind down the night. It’s an old-school diner with fun, affordable and well-executed food. A full dinner menu is served until midnight, and until 3am a perfect postdrinking menu features perogies, poutine and burgers, all for less than $5.

By now, it’s late and time for bed.

This is Montreal, so chances are you’re stumbling home with a new chum.

This is the second in a three-part series on Montreal. Last month, we looked at the city’s new nightlife scene; read it online at xtra.ca. Next month, we’ll explore Montreal restaurants.

Le Vieux-Port

Absolument Montréal L’Escogriffe B & B

RESTAURANTS & CAFÉS

Le Commensal Resto du Village

SAUNAS & SEX CLUBS

Sauna 3481 Club Sauna

SHOPPING & SERVICES

Fétiche Armada Wega Complex

Find information on more than 200 places of interest in Montreal at guidemag.com.

on the web Le Pick Up ›depanneurlepickup.com Drawn and Quarterly ›drawnandquarterly.com La Buvette Chez Simone ›buvettechezsimone.com The Royal Phoenix ›royalphoenixbar.com Le Nouveau Palais ›nouveaupalais.com

Guidemag.com

A World of Gay Adventure

XTRA! MARCH 8, 2012

21

Culture sparkles in Montreal’s winter

Cruisin’ with Pride, Miami style

Hailed as one of the largest winter festivals in the world, Montréal en Lumière each February transforms the city into a dazzling showcase that celebrates Montreal’s renowned party spirit and flair for entertainment.

The 11-day free outdoor festival delivers a diverse program of gastronomy, activities and performances by icons and emerging artists from home and abroad. It used to take place in Montreal’s Old Port, but in 2012, the event moved to the Quartier des Spectacles entertainment district and its Place des Festivals.

Montréal en Lumière has become a must for foodies. Over the past 12 years, 400 chefs, wine producers and speakers from five continents have taken part in the event. An unforgettable experience is the Finest Tables program, in which visiting chefs create special menus in some of Montreal’s best restaurants.

Montréal en Lumière closes each year with Nuit Blanche, the all-night arts celebration. More than 180 original installations are featured in various locales connected by free shuttles.

Miami Beach Gay Pride (MBGP) is preparing to set sail once again with the third annual Miami Beach Pride Cruise, a four-night, fiveday voyage aboard the luxurious Norwegian Sky. Ports of call include Grand Bahama Island, Nassau and Great Stirrup Cay, a private island owned by Norwegian Cruise Line.

The cruise embarks after the wrap-up of the fourth annual MBGP parade and festival, which attracts 35,000 people, on Sunday, April 15.

“Miami Beach Pride has grown into the largest, single-day event of the year in Miami Beach,” says Babak Movahedi, president of MBGP’s board of directors. “The Pride cruise represents an exciting continuation of the Pride festivities, extending the great feeling of Pride to a community at sea.”

Norwegian Sky features a choice of five restaurants, eight bars and lounges, a fullservice Body Waves spa and fitness centre, two glimmering pools, five hot tubs, a basketball/ volleyball court, an internet café and a jogging/ walking track. Nightlife options include the Sky Club Casino, Stardust Theater, Dazzles Nightclub, a karaoke bar, and spaces for chilling out with old and new friends while admiring the view from the ship’s beautiful glass-domed atrium.

Pride Cruise prices start at $329 per person, based on double occupancy, plus taxes and fees.

If you didn’t make it to this year’s event, plan to attend the 14th annual Montréal en Lumière in February 2013. Visit montrealenlumiere.com for more information.

Place des Festivals. FRÉDÉRIQUE MÉNARD-AUBIN

cies AIDS/HIV Adve rtising Agens Arts & Crafts Accou ntant s Adult lies Artist Accom modationsments Art Galleries Art Supp eeping Books & Magazines Resources Apart Bars & Clubs Bicycles Bookk ess Supp lies & Services izatio ns Busin Chocolatiers Banking Bankruptcy Organ Shops al e ssion truction ing Chat Lines Chees Business & Profe t Cleaning Cater Comp uter Cons ultan ts Cons selling Butchers Carpe s & Servi ces ware Cosmetic Services Coun l Services Comm unity Group Services Denta Renovations Cook Contracting & & Shelters Cross-Dressing Dating ing & Posters Furniture Fram es s Event Crises Servic val Hair Stylists Enter tainment Gyms Hair Remo ry hings Groce Furnis es Dermatology Drag Home ic Design Servic & Nutrition r Design Gardening Graph & Personal Care Health Food Insurance Interio & Barbers Health nts & Repairs Hotels Illustrators Bars Kitchens Lawyers Massage Home Improveme ces Jewellery & Jewellers Juice ces Locksmiths Inves tment Servi Services Limousine Servi tessens Mortgages Moving Leather Life Legaled Massage Meats & Delica s Organic Food Painting etrist ies Optom Certified/RegisterOptical Services Stores & Suppl a tory.c g & Boarding Pet Psyc hothe rapy indexdirecSittin & Storage Music holog ists rs Pet Care Pet Personal Traine Plum bing Politi cians Psycts Real Estate Inves tments s& Photo graph ers Estate Real Estate Agen ration s Resta urantoing Tatto ry Public ations Real xolog y Renovatio ns & Resto Out & Delive l Agen cies Recreation Refle selling Spa Services Take tion Trave tions Trans porta en’s Services Cafes Sexual Coun Telec omm unica Web Sites Weddings Wom cies AIDS/ Tax Servi ces rtising Agen ies Upholstery Tree Services Trophtions Accountants Adult Adveies Artists Arts & Crafts zines ies Art Suppl Yoga Accommoda ments Art Galler les Bookkeeping Books & Maga ces Apart rces HIV Resou lies & Servi plies ppli Supp Sup Bars & Clubs Bicycons atio ns Business e Sh izatio iza Chocolatiers Banking Bankruptcy ops Organ ho Shops al nal ssion essio ofe Profe hat Lines Chees nts Chat Ch Cons truction Business & Pro ing Catering C C t Clean er Cons ultan tss Counselling uter mput om Comp C Butchers Carpe ou vicces Servi etic Serv upss & Servi ces w Group es Cosm are Servic ware wa l Comm unity Gr Cook Denta ns es e tions vatio enova Ren R Reno sing Dating Servic esssing -Dres rs Furniture Contracting & & Shelters Cross-Dre sters Poste Po &P ventss Framing Rem Event Ev E Crises Services ra val HairStylists moval ag Enter tainment Drag ry Gyms Hair Remo ocery ro Groce es G Dermatology D ome Furnishings Home ion Ho icc Design Servic Health hic ealtth Food & Nutrit nce Interior Design Gardening Graphh & Personal Care Hea Insura & Barbers Health nts & Repairs Hotels Illustrators Bars Kitchens Lawyers Massage Home Improveme ces Jewellery & Jewellers Juice ces Locksmiths g & Storage Inves tment Servi Services Limousine Servi ages Movin Trainers Leather Life Legaled Meats & Delicatessens Mortg Painting Personalgraphers Certified/Register es Optometrists Organic Food & Supplies Photo Music Optical Servic g & Boarding Pet Storesotherapy Public ations Real ology ts Psych Pet Care Pet Sittin s Recreation Reflex cians Psych ologis IANe Investment Sexual Counselling Spa Estat Plum bing PolitiR’S LESB GAY s&Real e Agent Cafes & Estat s OUVE Real e urant VANC mmunications Estate Estat TORYs Resta Restoration Services Teleco lstery Web NESS&DIREC ations BUSI Renov Upho ry Tattooing Tax Take Out & Delive cies Tree Services Trophies Servic 2011es l Agen Trave tion es Yoga Transporta Women’s Servic Sites Weddings

WHITE IN 3D Billed as the largest gay dance-music festival in North America, White Party Palm Springs, set against sun-drenched mountain vistas and spectacular desert skies, will take place April 6 to 9 — and organizers are promising a 3D experience.

“Bigger and bolder LED and visual displays and immense stage and platform structures designed to stretch the limits of your imagination — the only lenses needed are your shades,” says founder and producer Jeffrey Sanker.

Sanker has built his reputation over the years by booking the best cutting-edge and breakthrough talent of the day; past performers include Lady Gaga, Robyn, Kesha and Jennifer Lopez.

The White Party 2012 lineup features some of the most innovative figures in dance music, including Grammy nominees Dave Audé and Rosabel; DJ/producers Moto Blanco, Wayne G, Manny Lehman and Hector Fonseca; and red-hot rising DJs Grind, Pornstar and Chad Jack.

Glitz & glam at White Party 2011. FILM MAGIC

On the Saturday afternoon, the cruising app Grindr will celebrate its third anniversary and three-million members with the “largest pool party in the desert,” headlined by UK powerhouse DJ/producer Andy Almighty (Almighty/7th Heaven/Club Junkies), who is making his White Party debut.

DJ sensation Nervo (outrageously beautiful and talented Aussie twins) will headline Saturday night’s White Party, their first appearance at a gay music festival.

The Sunday Tea Dance DJ lineup comprises Audé, Lehman and Moto Blanco; the event wraps up with a choreographed fireworks finale featuring an exclusive soundtrack remixed by Audé just for the occasion.

Advance tickets and passes are on sale now.

The host hotel is the Marriot’s Renaissance Palm Springs, home of the pool parties and just steps away from all White Party main events.

For more White Party information, reservations and tickets, visit jeffreysanker.com.

For reservations or more information, visit sourceevents.com. For details on MBGP 2012, visit miamibeachgaypride.com.

The luxurious Norwegian Sky.

WHERE LESBIANS CHOOSE TO STAY IN PALM SPRINGS indexdirectory.ca

Last chance to book!

Deadline: March 12

• When you advertise in the spring edition you will get a complimentary ad in the fall edition at no cost.

• All Index ads are provided with full colour — free of charge.

• All listings are also featured on the searchable online version at indexdirectory.ca.

• Listings are also published on a special Index page in every issue of Xtra Vancouver

CasitasLaquita 760-416-9999

NEW EXTENDED STAY RATES AVAILABLE

Toll Free 877-203-3410 A Special Resort in Palm Springs California

For more information about our special resort, please visit us online at:

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7

Call us today to book space or contact us for more information.

Phone: 604-684-9696 Email: index.vancouver@xtra.ca

Visit often for the latest in gay travel deals.

22

XTRA! MARCH 8, 2012

Vancouver’s gay & lesbian news

ADVERTISING FEATURE

Real Estate

Xtra’s guide to the lucrative gay & lesbian housing market.

TO ADVERTISE CALL 604-684-9696

ADRIAAN SCHIPPER ADRIAAN SCHIPPER

SELLING YOUR HOME?

youryour neighbourhood realtor neighbourhood realtor

www.AdriaanSchipper.com www.AdriaanSchipper.com

ASK A REALTOR Q: What are the advantages of buying my first home in 2012?

604-773-1443 www.ianeggleton.com ian@ianeggleton.com RE/MAX

604-916-7464

Independently Owned Operated Independently Owned andand Operated MacDonald 32153215 MacDonald St. St. Vancouver BC V6L Vancouver BC V6L 2N22N2 Office: 604.732.1336 Office: 604.732.1336

RE/MAX CREST REALTY (WESTSIDE) Independently Owned & Operated

Then you will want an agent you can trust, one who has experience, and one who puts your interests first..

THAT AGENT IS PHIL WARREN. With 30 years plus experience and hundreds of satisfied customers. You wont be disappointed with the service and the results.

Top 1% of Royal LePage Canada and #1 in the office

mikeandwill.com JUST LISTED 103 1241 Homer - 1 bed, 2 bath boutique LOFT with huge private PATIO $849.900 JUST LISTED 104 1440 East Broadway - 1 bed, great builing, huge PATIO steps to Commercial Drive! $279,900

M LS M

E

DA

M

LL IO

M

N

C L UB

Ian Eggleton

RE/MAX CREST REALTY (WESTSIDE)

RE/MAX CREST REALTY (westside) RE/MAX CREST REALTY (westside)

A: The most obvious answer to this question is that it’s a great time to buy as interest rates are still at historical lows. This makes it a smart time to lock in a good rate. For the majority of people, a condo would be the first step in purchasing a home.

The steady supply of new condo inventory coming on to the market in the last few years, has helped to keep condo prices balanced. If inventory had been lower, we would see over-inflated prices because of demand.

In my opinion, there are even more important reasons to buy your first home in 2012. The sooner you get in to the market, the sooner you can start building your own equity and stop paying rent.

It’s time to start paying yourself instead of paying your landlord’s mortgage payments for them! The most important reason of all, is that owning your own home just feels better, simple as that. Having a space that you can improve and customize to reflect your personality is a great feeling. It would be my pleasure to help you make your first, or next move.

PHIL WARREN

Direct: 604.818.8265 Direct: 604.818.8265 email: schipper@telus.net email: schipper@telus.net

E M B ER

DIAMOND AWARD

Mike Wilcox 604 782 3545 Will Pratt 778 772 4252

GAMBIER ISLAND WATERFRONT Offered at $949,000 This spectacular waterfront home was custom built on a private property w/ stunning ocean & mountain views. Situated on picturesque Gambier Island, you will enjoy the vast opportunities the Island lifestyle offers, yet are just minutes away from all of the amenities in Gibsons. Main level entry into the exceptional “Great Room” w/ floor to ceiling windows, a wood burning F/P that spans the 16’ ceilings and spacious outdoor decks leading to manicured gardens w/ steps to the beach below. A main floor master suite, 3 guest bedrooms, a fabulous loft space & the gourmet kitchen are just some of the added features. 100’ of pristine & private oceanfront, ideal for swimming, boating & fishing. A magical setting within 1 hour from Vancouver.

For more photos visit www.gambierwaterfront.com “The Sunshine Coast, with its proximity to Vancouver, housing affordability & its welcoming, safe communities make it the ideal escape from the City.

Call us and we’ll help you discover our unique area!”

Joel O’Reilly & Denise Brynelsen 1.604.741.1837 www.brynelsenoreilly.com info@brynelsenoreilly.com

West Coast Realty

Timothy James Moreau

604-831-9130

timothym@sutton.com www.timothyjamesmoreau.ca

#

206 1940 BARCLAY ST

Vancouver, British Columbia

Turnkey investment opportunity in Vancouver’s West End. This suite was used as a furnished rental, and is in great condition. Steps from Denman Street, this convenient location is within walking distance to shopping, restaurants and Stanley Park. Rentals and 1 pet allowed.

Klaus Rode 604.760.5856

Bruce Ward Realty Ltd.

www.klausrode.ca

more at xtra.ca

ADVERTISING FEATURE

Helpful Hints

P rofessional

Choosing a Gay-Friendly Realtor

REAL ESTATE

PROFILE

• Stop by open houses so you can meet your potential realtor faceto-face. Try to meet with two or three before making your final decision. You should choose a realtor who you think would be your best “business” partner.

Xtra readers are HOT for urban living. Reach 76k readers monthly in our new Real Estate section.

VOTED BEST REALTOR Xtra! Reader’s Poll

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Award-winning service to the Gay and Lesbian Community for over 19 years

• Check out the latest edition of Xtra’s Real Estate section to find reputable agents and peruse their current listings.

• When cruising through prospective neighborhoods, take down the names and numbers of realtors on the For Sale signs.

23

R esponsive

E thical

There are countless ways to find a realtor you can trust and with whom you can be comfortable. Here are some quick and easy ways:

• Ask your friends and family! Perhaps they have a realtor they could recommend.

XTRA! MARCH 8, 2012

Re/Max Real Estate Services

Phone: 604.506.4264 • Fax: 604.669.7233 Toll Free: 1.888.507.3226 • ian@ianholt.com

RECENTLY SOLD

#1903-888 Homer Street, Vancouver, B.C. LISTED: $424,900

SOLD: $421,500

IANEGGLETON

The Beasley in trendy Yaletown. Brand new one bedroom corner suite.

Extra 70 SF outdoor space for your BBQ. Central location. Close to everything. High end finishing & Kitchen Aid SS appliances. Free one year high-speed internet & cable from Telus. HST paid. Excellent amenities including gym, lounge meeting area & a dog park.

NEWS: BONUS FOR FIRST-TIME NEW HOME BUYERS

5C-328 Taylor Way, West Vancouver SOLD 658,000

THE FIRST-TIME NEW HOME BUYER’S BONUS was just announced by the BC Government, meaning a major savings for first-time buyers looking to purchase a new home.

604-773-1443

For more information, please visit www.MICHAELCHIU.net.

www.ianeggleton.com ian@ianeggleton.com

INVESTOR ALERT Rented to great tenants that would like to stay. Gorgeous views from this 3 level, 1746 sqft townhouse.Features include renovated kitchen & bathrooms, new thermal windows, new furnace, new washer/ dryer. 992 Lillooet Road, North Vancouver. $558,000.

Michael Chiu

604-992-2052 www.michaelchiu.net Royal Pacific Realty

Re/Max Clara Hartree PROUDLY SELLING VANCOUVER AND THE NORTH SHORE

West Side Real Estate.ca

Denise Brook

®

Expect the Best

Real Estate Sales and Marketing

In today's market, you need an experienced Real Estate Agent and marketing specialist to assist you along the way. Thinking of Buying or Selling? For personal, professional service call Denise.

Call Jessie at

604-684-9696 xt 124

Or email

www.denisebrook.ca www.westsiderealestate.ca

realestate.vancouver@xtra.ca PREMIER REALTY

Independently Owned and Operated

6272 East Boulevard, Vancouver BC

604.817.4856 denise@denisebrook.ca V6M 3V7 604.266.1364

24

Vancouver’s gay & lesbian news

XTRA! MARCH 8, 2012

indexdirectory.ca Vancouver’s online directory of gay-owned and gay-friendly businesses

indexdirectory.ca ACCOMMODATIONS - BRITISH COLUMBIA Bluff View Cottage 250-539-3475 The Eagle’s Nest B&B 1-866-766-9350

ACCOUNTANTS Accounting+ Best Books Inc Felicity Webb

604-374-1424 604-215-8872 604-721-7537 604-947-0420

ADULT 1-800-361-9929

AIDS/HIV RESOURCES A Loving Spoonful 604-682-6325 AIDS Vancouver 604-893-2201 AIDS Vancouver Island 250-384-2366 ANKORS, Kootenay/Boundary HIV/ AIDS Network, Outreach & Support 1-800-421-2437 Dr Peter AIDS Foundation 604-331-5086 HIM - Health Initiative for Men 604-488-1001 Positive Living Society of BC 604-893-2200 Youth Community Outreach (YouthCo) AIDS Society 604-688-1441

AIRLINES Harbour Air Seaplanes 604-274-1277

ALTERATIONS Simdy’s Fashion Alterations

604-633-0828

ALTERNATIVE HEALTH Access Healing Centre 604-568-4663 BC Compassion Club Society 604-875-0448 Dr Anita Komonski 604-568-7655 Inhale Smoke Shop 778-786-0977 Medicinal Cannabis Dispensary 604-255-1844 MyCannaMeds mycm.ca

APPLIANCES Coast Wholesale Appliances coastappliances.com Red Door Discount Warehouse 604-569-3232

ARTISTS Emily Carr

604-844-3810

AUTOMOTIVE REPAIRS Axle Alley Dueck Downtown George & Berny’s Repairs Ltd Jim Pattison Hyundai Northshore Jim Pattison Toyota Downtown

604-875-9988 604-675-7900 604-731-8644 604-985-0055 604-682-8881

AUTOMOTIVE SALES & LEASING Dueck Downtown 604-675-7900 Jim Pattison Hyundai Northshore 604-985-0055 Jim Pattison Toyota Downtown 604-682-8881

BANKING RBC Royal Bank

royalbank.com

BATHHOUSES Steamworks Vancouver 604-974-0602

BATHROOM Ripples Kitchen & Bath

604-879-6999

BEAUTY CARE David Blue Hair Design

604-688-2583

BEDDING Bernstein & Gold Interiors Simmons Mattress Gallery

FIREPLACES

MASSAGE

PRINTING

Vancouver Gas Fireplaces

Mail Box Plus

CELLULAR

FITNESS & EXERCISE

Hot Stone Massage Therapy 604-366-4386 Relaxation Massage Vancouver 604-789-0857

CAYA

Davie St: 604-609-CAYA Gastown: 604-648-CAYA Denman St: 604-647-CAYA

CLEANING & MAID SERVICES Paul: 604-685-7422 Gary: 604-875-1413 The Maids Home Services 604-987-8181

CLOTHING - DESIGNER Deluxe Junk Co

604-558-2005

CLOTHING - VINTAGE Mr. Mz. Boutique

604-685-4871

COMMUNITY GROUPS & SERVICES Community Based Research Centre QMUNITY West End Seniors’ Network Society

604-568-7478 604-684-5307 604-669-5051

COMPUTER SALES & SERVICES Mac Station Vancouver WhiteWay IT Solutions Ltd

macstation.com 778-384-1210

CONSTRUCTION Aaron Construction 604-318-4390 maison d’etre design-build inc 604-484-4030

COSMETIC SERVICES Carruthers Dermatology Centre Inc 604-714-0222

COUNSELLING ah-ha! Counselling & Consulting 604-537-0130 Alex Sangha 604-842-7340 Bekar Counselling 778-990-1825 Dragonstone Counselling 604-738-7557 Lehmann Counselling Service 604-614-8121 Preece & Associates Psychological Consulting 604-685-5968 Tricia Antoniuk 778-378-2633 Willow Tree Counselling 604-521-3404

COURIERS Mail Box Plus

604-683-1433

DENTAL SERVICES Aarm Dental Group 604-647-0006 Dr Dean Wershler Inc 604-688-4080 Dr Langston Raymond 604-687-1008 Dr Sam Daher 604-662-3290 Redtree Dental 604-873-3337 Yaletown Laser 604-70-SMILE

EDUCATION & INSTRUCTION Emily Carr 604-844-3810 Vancouver Elementary School Teachers’ Association 604-873-8378 Vancouver Photo Walks 604-318-1277

ENTERTAINMENT ActorWorks Vancouver 604-723-1776 Ballet British Columbia 604-732-5003 DanceHouse 604-801-6225 Playland 604-253-2311 ShowTimeTickets.com 604-688-5000/1-800-480-7469 Sounds & Furies Productions 604-253-7189 Vancouver Symphony Orchestra 604-876-3434

604-687-1535

EVENT PLANNING & PROMOTIONS

604-733-0166

Flygirl Productions

604-839-9819

FESTIVALS & FAIRS

BICYCLES

Hot Stone Massage Therapy

604-732-3470

604-366-4386

FLORISTS

Walkey & Company Funeral Directors 24hrs: 604-738-0006

FURNITURE

MASSAGE - EROTIC

604-685-3649

FUNERAL SERVICES

Bernstein & Gold Interiors Bravura Interiors Jordans Interiors Liberty Yaletown Interiors

604-687-1535 604-872-4880 604-733-1174 604-682-7499 604-669-7544

GRAPHIC DESIGN SERVICES Spread Media Inc

604-440-8792

GROCERY Safeway

Davie St: 604-669-8313 Robson St: 604-683-6155

HEALTH & PERSONAL CARE Carruthers Dermatology Centre Inc 604-714-0222 Vancouver Lipo Laser 604-904-0888 Yaletown Laser 778-323-7866

HEALTHCARE SERVICES Hot Stone Massage Therapy Orchard Recovery

604-366-4386 604-947-0420

HEALTH Hospital Employees’ Union heu.org The Vancouver Health Show 1-888-999-1761

HOLISTIC HEALTH Integrative Healing Arts Sequoia Thom

604-738-1012 778-786-3677

HOME ENTERTAINMENT SERVICES Wallmount Tronics

778-960-4447

HOME IMPROVEMENT & REPAIRS Crown Roofing & Drainage 1-877-628-5010 Klondike Contracting Corporation 604-708-3337 maison d’etre design-build inc 604-484-4030

JEWELLERY Benée Rubin Jewellery Design Saatchi & Saatchi Fine Jewellery

604-278-8456 604-685-5625

KITCHENS Coast Wholesale Appliances coastappliances.com Klondike Contracting Corporation 604-708-3337 Red Door Discount Warehouse 604-569-3232 Ripples Kitchen & Bath 604-879-6999

LEATHER LIFE East Side Re-Rides

604-327-7433

LEGAL SERVICES

BLINDS

FINANCIAL SERVICES

Nextstep Communication

604-468-0888

MEN’S SERVICES BC Society for Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse (BCSMSSA) 604-682-6482 Men’s Bereavement & Support Group 604-684-5307 xt 112

MORTGAGE Chris Cornborough

604-765-4823

MOTORCYCLES & SCOOTERS 604-327-7433

NATUROPATHY Dr Anita Komonski

604-568-7655

OPTICAL SERVICES English Bay Eyeworx 604-685-7001

ORGANIC FOOD & MARKETS Vancouver Farmer’s Market

604-879-3276

PAINTING Pro Works Painting TLS Painting

604-715-0985 778-995-1665

PET CARE City-Dog.ca Pet Services Kitty Kare Latisha’s Pet Care

604-608-6959 604-813-4239 778-385-7313

PET STORES Pet Habitat

604-433-2913

PETS The Vancouver Pet Expo

1-800-626-1538

Feeling Photography 604-318-1277 The Shooting Gallery 604-254-5869 Vancouver Photo Walks 604-318-1277

PHYSIOTHERAPY & REHAB Andrea Martens Eric Hoppe

604-669-8233 604-669-8233

PRIVATE INVESTIGATORS

Baker Street Agency

604-294-6574

PSYCOTHERAPY Dragonstone Counselling 604-738-7557

PUBLICATIONS Pink Triangle Press Xtra Ottawa Xtra Toronto Xtra Vancouver

416-925-6665 416-925-6665 416-925-6665 604-684-9696

REAL ESTATE AGENTS Adriaan Schipper 604-818-8265 Amalia Liapis 604-618-7000 Annette Thomas 604-805-5572 Becci Dewinetz 604-230-1044 Chris Wendland 778-232-8319 David Gering 778-822-0775 Fuller Service Realty 604-724-7964 Ian Eggleton 604-773-1443 Ian Holt 604-506-4264 Ken Chalmers 604-803-4966 Kim Monk 604-740-6615 Klaus Rode 604-760-5856 Lyn Hart 604-724-4278 Mark Hammer, Kathy Watkinson, Philip Watkinson 604-732-1336 Phil Warren 604-684-6155 Steve Jamieson 604-307-9167 Susan Cameron 604-720-1214 Trevor Ashcroft 604-602-1111 Tyler Barrs 604-602-1111 Wayne Blackburn 604-209-4775

RELIGIOUS GROUPS & SERVICES

SENIORS GROUPS & SERVICES West End Seniors’ Network Society

RENOVATIONS & RESTORATIONS

Priape 604-630-2330 Squirt.org squirt.org The TABOO Naughty but Nice Show 1-800-626-1538 Wega Video 1-800-361-9929

SHOPPING Denman Place Mall

The Vancouver Snow Show 1-800-626-1538 University Golf Club 604-224-7799

SPORTS TEAMS & ORGANIZATIONS The Cutting Edges Gay Men’s Hockey Club cuttingedges.com

STORAGE Freeway Mini-Storage 604-251-2017

THEATRE ActorWorks Vancouver 604-723-1776 ShowTimeTickets.com 604-688-5000/1-800-480-7469 Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company 604-873-3311

TICKET SALES ShowTimeTickets.com 604-688-5000/1-800-480-7469

TRANSPORTATION Helijet International

604-689-5858

TRAVEL AGENCIES GayTrip.ca

gaytrip.ca

TRAVEL BRITISH COLUMBIA Black Rock Oceanfront Resort 877-762-5011 Bluff View Cottage 250-539-3475 Harbour Air Seaplanes 604-274-1277

WEBSITES

RESTAURANTS & CAFÉS

WINE & SPIRIT

Adesso Bistro 604-568-9975 Checkers/ Bayside Lounge 604-682-1831 Ciao Bella 604-688-5771 Joe’s Grill Davie St: 604-682-3683 West 4th Ave: 60-736-6588 Denman St: 604-642-6588 Lift Bar Grill View 604-689-5438 Out To Lunch Catering 604-681-7177

ROOFING

1-800-665-4354

TRAVEL

Guidemag.com Squirt.org

Crown Roofing & Drainage

604-684-9254

SPORTS & RECREATION

Klondike Contracting Corporation 604-708-3337 maison d’etre design-build inc 604-484-4030

PLUMBING

604-669-5051

SEX

Aquabus Ferries Ltd

Christ Alive Community Church 604-739-7959 Rainbow Community Church 604-299-9538 Renaissance Christian Church 604-636-4276 St Andrew’s Wesley United Church 604-683-4574 Trinity United Church 604-732-3075

Hillcrest Plumbing & Heating

604-879-1415

604-683-1433

1-877-628-5010

guidemag.com squirt.org

WEDDINGS Umbrella Events The Grape Escape Wineworks

604-315-4302

604-254-1200

WOMEN’S HEALTH North Shore Women’s Centre

604-984-6009

YOGA SpiRe Wellness

604-569-0963

Booking deadline is Mon, March 12 for the spring 2012 edition.

Call today for more info.

604-684-9696

LAWYERS Bell Alliance Lawyers & Notaries Public 604-873-8723 Dahl & Connors 604-687-8752 Ganapathi & Company 604-689-9222 Harrop, Phillips, Powell & Gray 604-688-8211 Holness Law Group 604-633-4878 Island IP Law 778-886-8626 Law Office of barbara findlay 604-251-4356 Rob Hughes 604-683-4176

Bell Alliance Lawyers & Notaries Public 604-873-8723

Jennifer Maier

MEN’S HEALTH Community Based Research Centre 604-568-7478 HIM - Health Initiative for Men 604-488-1001

PHOTOGRAPHERS

Out On Screen 604-844-1615 Queer Arts Festival queerartsfestival.com

604-263-0050

A1 Massage 778-828-4683 handsomehands.ca handsomehands.ca Masculine/Muscled/Mature Erotic Massage/Escort 604-719-3433

East Side Re-Rides

Bernstein & Gold Interiors 604-687-1535 Jett Grrl Bike Studio 604-255-5097 Budget Blinds

MASSAGE CERTIFIED/REGISTERED Brian Mount RMT 604-254-4272 Burrard Health Centre Massage Therapy 604-816-0210 Linda Duncan RMT 604-630-0101 Sharon Jackson RMT 778-320-5561

Hanamo Florist

Clean Sweep

ADDICTIONS Orchard Recovery Wega Video

CATERING Emelle’s Catering 604-875-6551 Out To Lunch Catering 604-681-7177

LIFE COACH next-step.ca

cies AIDS/HIV Adve rtising Agens Arts & Crafts Accou ntant s Adult ies Artist Accom modationsments Art Galleries Art Suppleeping Books & Magazines Resources Apart Bars & Clubs Bicycles Bookk ess Suppl ies & Services ns Busin izatio Chocolatiers Banking Bankruptcy Organ Shops al e ssion ructio n ing Chat Lines Chees Business & Profe t Cleaning Cater Comp uter Consu ltants Const selling Butchers Carpe s & Servi ces ware Cosmetic Services Coun l Services Comm unity Group Services Denta Renovations Cook Contracting & & Shelters Cross-Dressing Dating ng & Posters Furniture Frami es Events Crises Servic val Hair Stylists Enter tainment Gyms Hair Remo ry hings Groce Furnis es Dermatology Drag ic Design Servic & Nutrition Home Gardening Graph & Personal Care Health Food Interior Design nce Insura & Barbers Health nts & Repairs Hotels Illustrators Bars Kitchens Lawyers Massage Home Improveme es Jewellery & Jewellers Juice ces Locksmiths Inves tment Servic Services Limousine Servi tessens Mortgages Moving Leather Life Legaled Massage Meats & Delica s Organic Food Painting etrist ies Optom Certified/RegisterOptical Services Stores & Suppl a tory.c g & Boarding Petts Psych other apy indexdirecSittin & Storage Music ologis rs Pet Care Pet Inves tments Personal Traine Plum bing Politi cians Psych ts Real Estate s& Photo graph ers Estate Real Estate Agen ration s Resta urantoing Tatto ry Public ations Real xolog y Renovatio ns & Resto Delive & Out cies Recreation Refle elling Spa Services Take tion Trave l Agen es tions Trans porta n’s Servic Cafes Sexual Couns Telec omm unica Web Sites Weddings Wome cies AIDS/ Tax Servi ces tising Agen ies Upholstery Tree Services Trophtions Accountants Adult Adveries Artists Arts & Crafts & Magazines Galleries Art Suppl Yoga Accommoda Apartments Art Bicycles Bookkeeping Books & Services HIV Resources ies Clubs plies ppli Suppl Bars & ns Business Sup ons atio izatio Banking Bankruptcy ops Chocolatiersn ho Shops al Organ iza e Sh nal ssion essio ofe Profe hat Lines Chees ltan Ch Chat Business & Pro ntss Constructio ing Catering C C t Clean er Consu ltants uter mput om Comp ces C Butchers Carpe ou vicces Counselling Servi Gr upss & ServiCookw es are Cosmetic Serv wa ware Comm unity Group es Dental Servic e tions ations enova Ren R Renov sing Dating Servic esssing -Dres rs Furniture Contracting & & Shelters Cross-Dre sters Po Poste ng & P Frami es s vents Servic Ev E Event ent Crises val HairStylists moval Remo ag Enter tainm es G Dra ry Gyms Hair Rem ocery ro Groce Dermatology Drag ome Furnishings Home ion Ho icc Design Servic Health hic ealtth Food & Nutrit nce Interior Design Gardening Graphh & Personal Care Hea Insura ators ers Health Illustr rs Lawy & Barbe Bars Kitchens nts & Repairs Hotels Massage Home Improveme es Jewellery & Jewellers Juice ces Locksmiths g & Storage Inves tment Servic Services Limousine Servi ages Movin Trainers Leather Life Legaled Meats & Delicatessens Mortg Painting Personalgraphers Certified/Register es Optometrists Organic Food & Supplies Photo Music Optical Servic g & Boarding Pet Storesotherapy Public ations Real Sittin Pet Psych ts Pet Care ation Reflexology ians Psych ologis Investments Recre l Counselling Spa IAN Estate Plumb ing Politic LESB Real & s GAY R’SAgent s Estate s & Cafes Sexua OUVE Real VANC Estate TORYs RestaurantTax Services Telecommunication Restoration ESS&DIREC ations BUSIN Renov Upholstery Web ry Tattooing Take Out & Delive ies Tree Services Trophies Servic 2011es Travel Agenc Transportation Women’s Services Yoga Sites Weddings

Last chance to book! indexdirectory.ca

Deadline: March 12

• When you advertise in the spring edition you will get a complimentary ad in the fall edition at no cost.

• All Index ads are provided with full colour — free of charge.

• All listings are also featured on the searchable online version at indexdirectory.ca.

• Listings are also published on a special Index page in every issue of Xtra! Vancouver

Call us today to book space or contact us for more information.

Phone: 604-684-9696 • Email: index.vancouver@xtra.ca

more at xtra.ca

XTRA! MARCH 8, 2012

Classifieds ANNOUNCEMENTS › Notices MEDICAL MARIHUANA

G.A. BEAULIEU COMPASSION SOCIETY Free access to filing for Medical Marihuana. We fill out all your forms with you, file with the government and grow it. All with just one call.

778-808-4442 Phone Hours 8am - 4pm Proudly Gay Owned & Operated. *Currently at Capacity* *Call for Waitlist*

Notices

SPERM DONOR

SEEKING GAY SPERM donor for professional married lesbian couple. We want you to be known to the child.

Not seeking co parent. Email: vanspermdonor@gmail.com

To place an ad, call 604-684-9696 or book your line classified at xtra.ca

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES › Book your line classified online!

Visit Xtra.ca for more information.

Construction

Painting

Display Classified booking deadline: Wed, March 14 @ 4pm Line Classified booking deadline: Mon, March 19 @ 12pm

Interior/Exterior Renovations/ Restorations Decks Fences Tiling Hardwood floors Electrical Painting Plumbing

9248

604-836-7102/604-728-1973

Skilled & technical Cleaners POWER CARPET CLEANERS 1 Bedroom Apartment $60 2 Bedroom Apartment $70 Condos: 2 Rooms & 12 Stairs $60 Sofa & Loveseat $89.99 Portable or truck mount.

100% Guaranteed.

604-515-0998

Counselling

Tom Durrie M.A. Registered Clinical Counsellor

Effective—Affordable 604-215-0019

www.tomdurrie.ca

WESTSIDE HANDYMAN GROUP Improvements, repairs, installation, custom design, wood, metal, plastic, tile. Home, condo, marine.

Since 1989 Call Mark 604-780-2087 handymangroup.ca

General YOU NAME IT Odd Jobs Includes: Roofing, Painting, Yard Work, Household Cleaning and More.

Call Mike at 604-216-0888

Electrical JD ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS Commercial and residential wiring and lighting. Licensed BC Hydro Certified Power Smart Installer.

Good work, reasonable rates.

Dan 604-218-1809

A winning combo!

Double your exposure with Xtra and Index.

MERCHANDISE ›

TRAVEL ›

Adult

Vehicles for sale

International travel

THE GREAT CANADIAN MALE

will be in Vancouver to discover fresh new faces for its adult website.

Must Be 19-50 Email: applications@ thegreatcanadianmale.com Call for info 778-732-0222

SILVER, 1997, AUTOMATIC Well-cared for family vehicle with low kms for its year: 216,000. AWD, CD, LX, Power win/doors. Recently serviced with new radiator & front brakes. Passed Aircare. Priced to sell, I’m getting a bike! $4,595 OBO 778-834-6929

Call about upgrade options. Bold, all caps and colour

Massage certified

REJUVENATING MASSAGE RELAXING, DEEP TISSUE Esalen, Big Sur, Cali Trained.

Ray 778-918-4457

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Jiwan from Nepal 604.789.0857

West End

www.RelaxationMassageVancouver.com

Relaxation ASIAN MASSUER Young & Attractive with Skillful Hands

Outstanding Massage 778-869-7885 (In/Out)

Because you deserve it. In a peaceful setting in Langley. 9am-8pm Robert 604-857-9571

Real estate agent

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General

MR. BALDNÜTZ

PERSONAL SHAVING SERVICES FOR MEN HSafe H Clean H DiscreetH 604.767.8625

My CannaMeds

YOUR ONLINE COMPASSIONATE CLUB Organic medical marihuana shipped quickly, discreetly to your door.

Several varieties to choose from. mycm.ca

Download your full copy of Xtra at xtra.ca

Registered massage

NEED A PRO? I’M YOUR MAN

EMPLOYMENT ›

GREAT HONDA SUV

HEALTH & FITNESS ›

RELAXING BODYWORK

REAL ESTATE › Homes for sale

Upcoming deadlines:

Xtra 485 — March 22, 2012

THOR CONSTRUCTION

No job too small Taking pride in our workmanship

Spiritual services

25

PUERTO VALLARTA MEXICO

BOANA-TORRE MALIBU Condo Hotel. Largest pool in gay Vallarta. Located by gay beach. boana@pvnet.com.mx Call 011-52-(322)222-099-9 Direct line Montreal: 514-800-7690 BOANA.NET

A DYNAMIC MARKETPLACE Needs a matching agent. Time is of the essence so enlist a professional who is meticulous, tactful, direct and sharp. Jark@soldbyjark.com 604-790-9945

AWESOME VIEW HOME 799K BOWEN ISLAND

Vancouver under 45 minutes.

Over 1 acre of lush privacy, 2695 sq ft home and a million dollar view under 800k.

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604-329-8049

Grab attention.

Add features such as boxes, borders and bolding to get your ad noticed.

Brian Mount, RMT

whole body health

Sharon Jackson, RMT

therapeutic deep tissue massage

604.254.4272 778.320.5561

www.brianmount.ca bmount.rmt@gmail.com

stillpointmassagetherapy.ca rmtstillpoint@gmail.com

HeartQuest Healing Collective 202-1651 Commercial Dr at 1st Ave

26

Vancouver’s gay & lesbian news

XTRA! MARCH 8, 2012

PERSONAL › Erotic massage

Masculine Muscled Dad!!!

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KLEIN

Erotic Massage Yaletown Location

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Call 604-684-9696 to book your <Nointersectinglink> classified or book online at xtra.ca

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Get Laid Now! FREE FULL-ACCESS WITH THIS CODE: XWST

www.squirt.org /HIV g Agen cies AIDS Adult Adve rtisin Artis ts Arts & Crafts lies ns Acco untants Acco mmodatio tments Art Galleries Art Suppkeeping Books & Magazines Resources Apar y Bars & Clubs Bicycles Book ess Supp lies & Services ruptc Busin rs ions Banking Bank se Shops Chocolatie ssional Orga nizat ing Chat Lines Chee ultan ts Cons truction Business & Profe Cons t Cleaning Cater Butchers Carpe ps & Services Com puter etic Services Counselling Cosm ces Com muni ty Grou ces Dental Serviture vations Cookware Servi g Reno & Datin g -Dressing rs Furni Contractin & Shelters Crossent Events Framing & Poste Hair Stylists Crises Services Removal Enter tainm Grocery Gyms Hairtion Home Furnishings Dermatology Drag ic Design Services & Nutri or Design Gardening Graphh & Personal Care Health Food Insurance Interi & Barbers Healt nts & Repairs Hotels Illustrators Bars Kitchens Lawyers Juice veme llers Impro Jewe s Massage Home ices Jewellery & ices Locksmith Inves tment Serv l Services Limousine Serv tessens Mortgages Moving Leather Life Lega age Meats & Delica ists Organic Food Painting Mass tered Optometr Certified/Regis c Optical Services Stores & Suppliesy directory.gca & Boarding Pet erap & Storage Musi Petindex Care Pet Sittin s Psyc holog ists Psyc hoth ts ician Personal Trainers Estate Inves tmen s Plum bing Polit e Agents Real ons Restauran ts & Photogra pher Estate Real Estat orati Publicatio ns Real xolog y Renovatio ns & RestOut & Delivery Tattooing Refle Take n cies ices Recreatio selling Spa Serv Trans porta tion Trave l Agen ces Servi tions en’s Cafes Sexual Coun Telec omm unica Web Sites Weddings Wom cies AIDS/ Tax Serv ices ies Upholstery ts Adult Advertising Agen & Crafts Tree Services Troph lies Artists Arts dations Accountan Yoga AccommoApartments Art Galleries Art Supp Books & Magazines les Bookkeeping ppli HIV Resources lies & Services plies Supp y Bars & Clubs Bicyc ons Business Sup ions atio nizat Banking Bankruptc opss Chocolatiers ho Sh Shop al Orga niza nal ssion essio ofe Profe hat Lines Cheese nts Ch Chat Business & Pro tss Cons tructiong Catering C ing ultan C Clean Cons t er puter mput om C Com Butchers Carpe ou ces Counsellin ices vic ps & Services w etic Serv ups Gr Grou Cosm ty are wa ware muni Com nss Cook es Dental Services ce ces ation vatio enov Reno Ren R sing Dating Servi esssing -Dres rs Furniture Contracting & & Shelters Cross-Dre sters Po Poste ts Framing & P vents Ev Even ent E Crises Services ra val HairStylists moval Remo D ag Enter tainmces G s ry Gyms Hair Rem ocery ro Groce Dermatology Drag ome Furnishingn Home tion Ho Nutri icc Design Servi Hea & hic Graph Food h th ning or Desig ealt Healt Garde Insurance Interi h & Personal Care & Barbers Healt nts & Repairs Hotels Illustrators Bars Kitchens Lawyers s Massage Home Improvemeices Jewellery & Jewellers Juice smith Lock ices ge Inves tment Serv l Services Limousine Serv s Moving & Stora tessens Mortgageing Personal Trainers Leather Life Lega Paint tered Meats & Delica ographers Certified/Regis ces Optometrists Organic Food & Supplies Phot Music Optical Servi g & Boarding Pet Stores erapy Publi catio ns Real y Psyc hoth Pet Care Pet Sittin Psyc holog ists Investments Recreation Reflexolog cians Politi Spa g sellin IANe Estat Plum bing LESB GAYts&Real e Agen Cafes Sexual Coun ER’S Estat COUV e Real VAN Estat Ys Restaurants & Services Telecommunications CTOR ration Resto NESS ns &DIRE Tax Web BUSI vatio Reno ies Upholstery Delivery Tattooing ces Take Out & l Agencies Tree Services Troph Servi 2011 Trave tion ces Yoga Transporta Women’s Servi Sites Weddings

indexdirectory.ca

Last chance to book!

Deadline: March 12

• When you advertise in the spring edition you will get a complimentary ad in the fall edition at no cost.

• All Index ads are provided with full colour — free of charge.

• All listings are also featured on the searchable online version at indexdirectory.ca.

• Listings are also published on a special Index page in every issue of Xtra Vancouver

Call us today to book space or contact us for more information.

Phone: 604-684-9696 Email: index.vancouver@xtra.ca

more at xtra.ca

XTRA! MARCH 8, 2012

27

TDCT_P1633_RESL P1633_Xtra_ST

Pay a little more towards your mortgage each month

Take time off when you want

Take a Payment Vacation

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We know how important managing your mortgage is. We also know how important it is to live life to the fullest.

That’s why a TD mortgage offers a range of flexible features that helps you balance both.

Take our Payment Vacation. With it, you arrange to pre-pay a little more each month and work towards the opportunity to take time away from your mortgage payments when it benefits you the most.1 Staying at home with a new baby, finishing that degree, taking a sabbatical or something else entirely – the choice is yours.

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Subject to approval. Conditions apply. ®/ The TD logo and other trade-marks are the property of The Toronto-Dominion Bank or a wholly-owned subsidiary, in Canada and/or other countries.

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