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#549 SEPT 11–24, 2014

VANCOUVER’S NCOUVER’S NCO N COUVER’S OUVER UVER’S S GAY & LESB LESBIAN SB NEWS

Gaybourhood watch Taking stock of our fading gay villages E10

2 SEPT 11–24, 2014 XTRA!

VANCOUVER’S GAY & LESBIAN NEWS

Published by Pink Triangle Press PUBLISHER & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

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#549 SEPT 11–24, 2014 N MAXWELL LANDER

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XTRA VANCOUVER’S GAY& LESBIAN NEWS

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Editorial Uganda’s endless loop

By Natasha Barsotti E4 Feedback E4 Xcetera E5

Upfront VPS to consult businesses about Davie Street party More open concept urged for 2015 E7 New HIM series tells firstperson stories about gay sex E8 BOLD festival turns 10 E8 Ask the Expert Desperately seeking older, horny lesbians

by Dr Pega Ren E9

on dailyxtra.com

Cover story Dwindling gaybourhoods Author Amin Ghaziani looks into the future of North American gay villages E10

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Sun, sin and sequins A guide to the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras E20

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Comment Uganda’s endless loop

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EDITORIAL NATASHA BARSOTTI

Uganda’s LGBT community is seemingly in for some déjà vu all over again, with reports that the country’s lawmakers are angling to bring back the court-nullified AntiHomosexuality Act (AHA) for a revote.

Nicholas Opiyo, one of the lawyers representing the nine petitioners who challenged the act’s constitutionality, and opposition MP Fox Odoi take great pains to stress that bringing back the voided legislation would not stand up to legal scrutiny. If the government is bent on having such a measure in force, it will have to start from scratch — and that means jumping through all the parliamentary procedural hoops, including getting leave to bring forward a new anti-gay bill.

If done by the book, it’s a process that could take at least two years, Odoi estimates. “That is the law; there is no shortcut.”

It’s a law that many determined legislators seem eager to overlook. According to Odoi, “well in excess” of 200 Ugandan MPs have signed a petition calling for a revote on the legislation.

“The attempt by MPs to ‘retable’ the AHA without starting de novo is an illegality dat will be challenged. There’s no bill in de hse 2 retable,” Opiyo recently posted on Twitter.

“They think it’s fashionable to be homophobic,” Odoi says.

With or without a bill on the table, the homophobia that fuelled MP David Bahati’s 2009 private member’s bill remains pervasive — and persistent.

When President Yoweri Museveni signed Bahati’s now-nullified bill into law in February, he played Janus with the issue: one side of his face telling the Ugandan electorate, the potent Pentecostal movement and their American evangelical supporters the anti-gay rhetoric they wanted to hear, while the other attempted to appease donor countries and organizations like the Robert F Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights — stalling tactics, as it turns out, to give the false impression that he was showing good leadership, restraint and some modicum of reason.

In January, for the consumption of

RFK Center delegates and the rest of the international community, Museveni called the bill “fascist.” A month later, he was scrawling his signature on the document that would be invoked to further discriminate against the country’s already-besieged LGBT population.

Looking at the crowds that turned out for a five-hour rally to thank him for “saving the future of Uganda,” Museveni made the right opportunistic call as the 2016 elections approach.

Whether the AHA is resurrected through illegal means in the short term or through a drawn-out process in the long term, Opiyo and Odoi argue that surrendering to the status quo is not an option.

And it bears repeating — not so much to the damaged, corrupt and dissentintolerant Museveni regime, but to those who intend to challenge his almost three-decade hold on power.

“We must engage the homophobes every day,” Odoi insists. “We must make sure they know they are as wrong as apartheid South Africa was; they are as wrong as the people who engaged in the slave trade.”

Natasha Barsotti is Xtra Vancouver’s staff reporter.

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

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

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As I’ve said to many straight friends while in the gaybourhood, if you get hit on, it is a massive compliment [“BC Judge Says Gay-Panic Defence No Longer Valid,” dailyxtra.com, Aug 13]. Only a complete dumbass would react badly to a person saying that they’re hot. What I don’t understand with some straight guys is if a gay guy finds them attractive, chances are that most women would share that ideal.

CHRIS TETREAU FACEBOOK

VQFF & pro-Israel ad The efforts by Queers Against Israeli Apartheid are nothing more than an attempt to bully the Vancouver Queer Film Festival into censoring a local group of Jewish supporters [“Queer Film Festival Criticized for Pro-Israel Program Ad,” dailyxtra.com, Aug 14].

Congratulations to Drew Dennis and her colleagues for refusing to be bullied. As Drew says, “The mandate of the organization is to bring communi-

ties together to provide a platform for safe, open and respectful dialogue and a diversity of viewpoints.” Let’s keep it that way.

GORDON HARDY DAILYXTRA.COM

The ongoing issues in the Middle East have nothing to do with the gay community any more than it does with any other community. Continued attempts to involve our community in this issue detract from our own issues. After all, the hatred both sides spew at each other as they have for most of my life has reached the point where I couldn’t care less.

GARY WOODROFFE FACEBOOK

Calling Suzanne Anton I have tried, without any success, to speak with my MLA for VancouverFraserview regarding the current dispute between the government and teachers. Admittedly, I am a teacher and no expert on Suzanne Anton, my MLA since I moved into the riding in

June 2014. I know she is the current justice minister and filed the appeal for government against the BCTF. Is that why she won’t respond to me or meet with me? I have left two or three voice mails with her constituency office, sent a postcard and emailed numerous times. Granted, I was invited to Ms Anton’s picnic with a few hundred of her closest Liberal friends — not really conducive to solving the current strike.

Maybe I am spoiled, having left Spencer Chandra Herbert’s West End riding and always getting a response when I needed one. Or is this a failure of our democracy? Aren’t cabinet ministers our representatives, too? Should they not be accountable to their constituents? Where is the government leadership while public education collapses on itself? Surely we deserve more as voters and taxpayers.

Hey, Suzanne, I can meet you. You have my number, so call me. Maybe?

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Daniel’s response? “I’m safe and definitely feel your love all around me. Thank you . . . but if you would still like to give money and help the LGBTQ youth homeless crisis, please visit Atlanta-based Lost-n-Found Youth website at lost-n-found.org.”

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VANCOUVER’S GAY & LESBIAN NEWS

Upfront

Assimilation into the mainstream is always accompanied by infighting within a minority group. Amin Ghaziani E10

VPS to consult businesses about Davie Street party Lower fences welcomed but more open concept urged for 2015 PRIDE NATHANIEL CHRISTOPHER

The Vancouver Pride Society (VPS) plans to reduce fencing and increase the participation of Davie Village businesses at next year’s Davie Street party, general manager Ray Lam says.

“We knew the possibilities with the new model, but we did not have enough time to implement it this year,” he adds.

In April, the provincial government updated special-occasion-licence policies so that events like the Davie Street party no longer require fenced-in beer gardens as long as there is a perimeter barrier, such as fenced-off streets or buildings so that people don’t take their alcohol outside the licensed area.

Vince Marino, co-owner of the Junction and PumpJack pubs, says the new regulations will allow for a more community-oriented and -integrated street party.

“We’ve always pushed for an open street where you block off the corners, and in the corners you place the entertainment at the various blocks and only have the fences there to restrict entry,” he says. “They could make entrance by donation and basically let the businesses do their stuff inside of the area and also allow for the free flow of shoppers.”

In 2014, the street party included a beer garden between Thurlow and Burrard streets, as well as two blocks of open space with vendor tables, carnival games and an all-ages dancefloor at Davie and Bute.

“The comments from most people in this area, including ourselves, is that the 2014 event was more open than it’s ever been,” Marino says. “I’ve heard the same comments at the lower end as well, but there were still problems.”

Andrew Parker, owner of The Dish, MORE AT DAILYXTRA.COM

says the fences on his block have had a negative impact on businesses that do not serve alcohol.

“Businesswise it kills us, even the lower fences, because it blocks people from being able to walk freely,” he says.

“Also, they have a stage at Davie and Thurlow, which bottlenecks people near Starbucks and Denny’s. You have 300 people on one sidewalk. It was just ridiculous and, as far as I was concerned, a security nightmare.”

Marino says he would like to receive more notice from the VPS in order to adequately prepare for the street party.

“We got a letter from the Pride board maybe two and a half weeks prior to the Friday night that the beer garden was going to be,” he says. “The letter said that our part of the street was open and offered us an opportunity to set something up in front of our establishment before they opened it up to other vendors. It’s a good process, but two, three or even four weeks to do anything and us being a licensed establishment makes it impossible.”

Lam says that the VPS is working with the West End Business Improvement Association to offer free vendor spaces to businesses that are affected by the event.

“In a couple of weeks, we will have meetings with businesses along the street and interested stakeholders to ensure they have their say in what 2015 looks like,” he says. “We want to make sure that businesses benefit from our presence and that we are not just another visitor passing through.”

New West Pride president Ian Gould says the open-street model of their Columbia Street festival, which took place Aug 16, was a huge success for area merchants.

“I was told by one of the venues that they had the best day in three years

We want to make sure that businesses benefit from our presence and that we are not just another visitor passing through.

VPS GENERAL MANAGER RAY LAM

After last-minute negotiations with the city, the Vancouver Pride Society dropped its usual six-foot-tall barricades this year in favour of four-foot fences around the Davie Street party’s beer garden. DANNY GRAY FOX

since the new owners had purchased the establishment,” he says. “New West Pride itself just hosted the street festival but not the beer gardens; all the business was held by the business owners themselves. We did not make a penny from the liquor-licence extensions at any of the venues, but it gave us an opportunity to bring the festival to the community.”

Lam says the VPS is unlikely to forgo the revenue from ticket and alcohol sales, which supports many Pride events.

“I don’t know what New West Pride’s model was or [how] they were able to do it, but our expenses are very high with regards to this event,” he says. “We rely on fundraisers to make the events work, and almost all of these are free and open to the public.”

Councillor Tim Stevenson says the city will work to ensure that everybody’s interests are understood and maximized.

“The important thing is what’s best for the community — the overall GLBT community in Vancouver — and how do we bring that about and how do we meet all the competing interests,” he says.

“Obviously, the Pride Society would be concerned about losing money if the liquor outlets get all the profits. So how would that money be made up? Somehow if the Pride Society is not getting those revenues, they have to get those revenues somewhere else.”

XTRA! SEPT 11–24, 2014 7

First-person stories about gay sex New web series raises awareness of issues around gay male sexuality MEN’S HEALTH NATHANIEL CHRISTOPHER

The Health Initiative for Men (HIM) aims to foster dialogue about gay men’s health with a new web series that explores gay male sexuality in a “positive and explicit” manner.

“My Fucking Life is a collection of stories told in the first person from the actual guys who experienced those stories,” HIM program manager Jody Jollimore explains. “To make it more interesting than a talking head, we recreated the scenes with volunteers from the community in bathhouses, at house parties and various venues.”

The third episode of the series is

narrated by a bathhouse enthusiast and shot on site at Steamworks bathhouse.

HIM wanted to engage as many people as possible in a fun, sexy and interesting web-based media project that would increase traffic to their new website and expand awareness of the organization’s services and clinics.

“We did sort of a casting call where we asked for guys to come out and tell us some stories, and we assured them their privacy because we wanted to make sure they gave us the most intimate details,” Jollimore says.

The series, which was produced in collaboration with Pull Focus Film School, targets guys who engage in adventurous sex but also addresses other

BOLD conference turns 10 SENIORS LAYLA CAMERON

In a conference room at the Coast Plaza Hotel on Sept 6, a group of excited lesbians, mainly in their 70s, share their experiences with several queer women under 30.

It’s the third day of the 10th annual BOLD Old(er) Lesbian and Dykes Conference in Vancouver, and these women have come together for an intergenerational dialogue.

“Women are invisible, lesbians are

My Fucking Life targets internetsavvy gay men and guys who go to bathhouses or engage in adventurous sex, says HIM program manager Jody Jollimore.

invisible, older people are invisible, and I wasn’t ready for that,” one participant says.

Some of the older women in the workshop express concern about the apparent loss of women-only spaces, such as the Michigan Womyn’s Festival, lamenting that younger lesbians and queer women don’t seem to think such spaces are important.

For many of the older women, being a lesbian is an extremely important part of their identity, especially since many of them came out during the women’s

NATHANIEL CHRISTOPHER

topics of gay life.

“Whether that be isolation, sexual health or substance use, we hear about that in the web series,” Jollimore says.

“We don’t condone or condemn any of the behaviour in the series. We present them in a really non-judgmental way in hopes that we can create a dialogue about what are the joys, benefits and also challenges to their lives.”

The first episode of the series was released Sept 2. The remaining episodes will be released every Tuesday for five weeks.

movement in the 1960s and ’70s. The conversation pauses every so often to discuss new terms and how the younger women define the word queer.

Participants of all ages agree that both lesbian and queer identities can be synonymous with being a “process junkie” and that both sexualities tend to produce a “processing wonderland.”

Another kind of wonderland is offered a few rooms up, where a private workshop explores the art of seduction.

“Margaret Mann did a wonderful workshop on sex and older women. She did a wonderful job of getting women to talk about very personal issues,” first-time BOLDFest attendee Catherine Carter later tells Xtra.

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BOLD co-organizers Pat Hogan and Claire Robson celebrated the festival’s 10th birthday Sept 4 to 7. LAYLA CAMERON

To mark its 10th anniversary, BOLDFest featured a variety of workshops (including one on writing your own obituary), a reception, a dance, some dragon boating, film screenings, a concert and a retrospective of the festival’s first decade.

Co-organizer Claire Robson says the highlight for her this year was the woman who came out just two weeks before the festival and publicly shared her story. “In front of 120 people she told her story — how she went to Little Sister’s for the first time, how she was married for 36 years, how her roommate had signed her up for the conference,” Robson says. “She told us that she’s never felt more feminine, more free or more bold.”

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Desperately seeking older, horny lesbians Keep options open for uninhibited sex ASK THE EXPERT DR PEGA REN

Dear Dr Ren, I’m in my 50s and have been single for eight years. I’m trying to make a decision about how I handle dating.

My last relationship was nurturing and exciting. My girlfriend and I were perfectly matched sexually and I discovered how good sex can be. I learned to communicate openly and how to experiment sexually.

Since then I’ve been disappointed with my lovers. They all seem sexually timid and more interested in cuddling than canoodling. I soon get bored and frustrated, so I’m still single.

Once you’ve known sexual ecstasy, can you ever be satisfied with lukewarm? Is there a way to find a good match, or are older, horny lesbians just a myth?

I don’t think I can stand one more round of finding someone attractive only to learn that she doesn’t really like sex. I’m wondering if I should just stop.

Thoughts?

Am I a . . .

— Unicorn?

Dear Unicorn, There are many reasons lesbians so often struggle with their sexuality.

We’re raised as heterosexual girls, learning heterosexual rules and ethics about dating. We’re not taught to initiate or how to handle rejection, both necessary skills to keep a sexual pattern lively.

Then there’s all that hormonal stuff that keeps us in flux regarding how we feel about receptivity. Our desire varies with our cycles. With both partners responding to hormonal cues simultaneously, sexual activity can become sparse.

Sex researchers posit that desire thrives on difference. Girlfriends can easily slip into being best friends, and that familiarity and intimacy suffocate eroticism.

For these reasons — and the reality of individual sex drives and personalities — lesbians can have a hard time finding a sex-positive match. It is sad that you found and then lost so good MORE AT DAILYXTRA.COM

a fit. But then, lost or not, you tapped in to sexual exploration. With that, you gained what these lukewarm lovers have yet to find. There’s always a chance that you can be the catalyst for another woman, just as your lover was for you.

Maybe you’re done. Maybe you don’t have the energy to keep kissing frogs and finding no princess.

If so, then take a break and join the thousands of older women who develop active and satisfying solo sex lives. This is a great time for personal growth and deep friendships, and without that pressure to be “on the market,” we can be expansive and outrageous. With a solitary focus and fewer outside demands, we can create enviable lives.

But if you continue to long for the besotted happiness of being in love and experiencing great sex, then continue your search. Despite your dating frustration, your body may well continue to crave the uncompromising pleasure of uninhibited sex.

Keep an active profile, and be precise about who you are and whom you seek.

A forthright and honest profile revealing your sexual aptitude may not get you quantities of replies, but the ones you do receive will be genuine possibilities. Fewer frogs, but a better chance at a sexually enthusiastic princess.

Consider attending festivals targeting older women, which offer contact and community. There you’ll find others experiencing the same issues — possibly even those longing, like you, for sexual ecstasy.

I remember reading a statistic that more women in their 70s “remarry” compared to those in their 60s. If this proves true for you, you two may not be able to grow old together, but remember that once past menopause, sex takes on a richness learned only with time. Your later years can overflow with happiness.

The older we grow, the better we know ourselves and what we want. You may find another ideal mate, or maybe not. The only real mistake would be to close yourself off to opportunities, however they present themselves.

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Have a question for Dr Ren? Send an email to asktheexpert@dailyxtra.com.

XTRA! SEPT 11–24, 2014 9

PAUL DOTEY

DWINDLING GAYBOUR COVER STORY MATTHEW DIMERA

Four and a half years ago, Shawn Ewing and her wife left their apartment in Vancouver’s West End to move to the suburbs. For the Ewings, leaving the gaybourhood for Surrey was a question of simple math.

“Two thousand square feet and a yard versus a little under 700 feet in an apartment,” she says. “Accessibility to the party downtown wasn’t important to us anymore. What was important was a house and having a yard and a garden and all of that good stuff.”

Ewing, a former president of the Vancouver Pride Society, is now vicepresident of Surrey’s Pride organization.

She says that despite Surrey’s conservative reputation and some early fears that they might have to “straighten up,” her family has had no problems at all.

“We haven’t changed any of our behaviour,” she says. “I don’t have a problem holding my wife’s hand when we’re walking down the street or giving her a kiss in my front yard.”

“I probably got called out more living downtown about being a dyke than I certainly have been in Surrey,” she says.

From Vancouver’s Davie Village to Toronto’s Church Street to Montreal’s 10 SEPT 11–24, 2014 XTRA!

Le Village, everyone has their own opinion about Canada’s gay neighbourhoods, but few seem to disagree that they are in decline.

Whichever name you call it — the gaybourhood, gayvenue, gay district, gay mecca, gay ghetto — the question of its future isn’t limited to Canada.

Across the border in the United States, many notable gay districts are also fading into shadows of their former selves, from San Francisco’s Castro to Chicago’s Boystown to Seattle’s Capitol Hill to countless more.

In his recently released book There Goes the Gayborhood?, Amin Ghaziani, an associate professor of sociology at the University of British Columbia, examines the changing face of the gay neighbourhood. His research is based on census data, opinion polls, more than 600 newspaper articles and more than 100 interviews with gaybourhood residents.

“I myself lived in Chicago’s Boystown district for nearly a decade, starting in 1999. I remember feeling uneasy in those years as I read one headline after another about the alleged demise of my home and other gayborhoods across the country. The sight of more straight bodies on the streets became a daily topic of conversation among my

The sight of more straight bodies on the streets became a daily topic of conversation among my friends — an obsession to be honest.

AUTHOR AMIN GHAZIANI

friends — an obsession to be honest,” Ghaziani writes.

“As the years went by, my friends and I bemoaned, perhaps most of all, feeling a little less safe holding hands with our partners, dates, or hookups — even as we walked down what were supposed to be our sheltered streets. I had been called a ‘fag’ on more occasions than I still care to remember, and I was shocked at the disapproving looks that I would receive when walking hand in hand with another man. I knew I could not escape this menacing straight gaze altogether, but I was so angry that I had to deal with it in Boystown. This was supposed to be a safe place,” he writes.

According to statistics, the days where the gay community was drawn to live and work in a single neighbourhood are ending. American census data shows that same-sex-couple households have become “less segregated and less spatially isolated across the United States from 2000 to 2010,” Ghaziani writes.

“This is a restlessness that clearly appears in cities across North America. To wonder where gayborhoods are going, debate whether they are worth saving, or question their cultural resonance — all of this announces to us that they are in danger.”

Although gay bars have been around

since the start of the 1900s, gaybourhoods are a fairly recent phenomenon.

It wasn’t until after the Second World War that they really began to flourish in North America, buoyed first by the thousands of men and women dishonourably discharged from the military for their presumed homosexuality and later by migrating single gay men and lesbians from smaller towns in search of a place to call home. Gaybourhoods promised safety and freedom, as well as places to find love and sex.

Ghaziani points to several factors that are changing these areas today: the increased acceptance of gay men and lesbians by society and under the law, allowing many people to feel safer moving to more spacious accommodations in the suburbs; growing development and gentrification, leading to rising property value and rents, driving some people out of downtown areas; and the increased migration of straight people back into desirable urban areas.

Ron Dutton has lived in Vancouver’s West End for 40 years and has never once wanted to leave. “I like the diversity of people, the sense of openness,” he says. In his opinion, changes are constant, and except for the rapidly increasing cost of living, he doesn’t think the changes are negative.

VANCOUVER’S GAY & LESBIAN NEWS

HOODS “Individual businesses come and go, but I don’t see the neighbourhood becoming any less welcoming,” he says.

Still, Dutton laments that many seniors on fixed incomes have been leaving the area against their will as rents continue to skyrocket.

As some gay people resist the tide and stay in gay neighbourhoods, many more are undeniably leaving — even as North American cities begin to recognize their cultural and, especially, potential financial value.

The permanent rainbow crosswalks in Vancouver and now in Toronto and the newly installed rainbow LED strip lights in Vancouver are all being used to promote these villages as destinations, to locals and tourists alike. These efforts at urban renewal can also contribute to the gentrification that eventually prices many gays and lesbians out of these areas.

To many, especially to the younger generation, the notion of a single gay district seems antiquated. As gay people, men especially, increasingly turn online to find sexual and romantic connections, their need for gay bars and physical places to meet and hook up diminishes. As the world becomes safer for some sexual minorities, the need for the protective embrace of the MORE AT DAILYXTRA.COM

Author Amin Gha azia ani lo ooks in nto o th he future of North Americ can gay village es

gaybourhood also begins to decline. In the early 1990s, there were 16 gay bars in Boston. By 2007, that number had dropped by half.

Ghaziani references these phenomena as part of the “post-gay” era, where gays are being accepted by society and are choosing to assimilate into the mainstream. He says it’s changed the way many of us think about ourselves.

As an example, he points to statistician Nate Silver, who was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2009. In a 2012 interview with Out magazine, Silver said that his friends saw him as “sexually gay, but ethnically straight.”

Ghaziani’s book defines “post-gay” partly as an assertion that who a man has sex with “is not necessarily related to his self-identity or to the cultural communities in which he participates.”

He compares this sort of sexual identity with white ethnic identity: “optional, episodic and situational.”

In reviewing media interviews with various gay people — often couples — who have chosen not to live in gaybourhoods and who say they are fitting in, he notes that their tones are often laced with some shame. He wonders why the opposite of “blending in” is having a “scarlet letter on our heads” or being

“those people?” self-segregation was hurting the gay “Assimilation into the mainstream movement politically. is always accompanied by infighting Ghaziani argues that even while many within a minority group, especially outgrow them, gaybourhoods remain between those who are eager to blend “culturally relevant as refuges for queer in and those who are youth of colour, transdetermined to hold on gender individuals and to what makes them difqueers who hail from ferent,” he writes. small towns, because Interestingly, Ghaantigay bigotry still ziani’s book also inaffects their everyday cludes interviews from life.” some of the straight Despite having left people living in gaythe confines of Vancoubourhoods. He finds ver’s gay village, Ewing that many are “benignagrees that there will ly indifferent” to their always be a need for the gay neighbours, while a gaybourhood, but she minority feel that they stresses the importance are victims of reverse of it needing to be about discrimination. more than just bars. She He found the rewould like to see more THERE GOES THE sponses of straight places that include nonGAYBORHOOD? people so repetitive drinkers and youth.

Amin Ghaziani and almost rehearsed Ghaziani suggests Princeton University Press press.princeton.edu that it was hard to tell that it’s unreasonable if they were being honto expect gaybourhoods est about being indifferent or if they — or any neighbourhood, for that matwere just being politically correct. One ter — to remain stable and unchanged single, straight 28-year-old in Boys- but that it’s equally unreasonable to town told Ghaziani that he would like declare them dead. to see the rainbow pylons and flags Neighbourhoods often move, reform taken down because, in his opinion, and migrate, he says. Toronto’s “Queer

West” and Vancouver’s Commercial Drive are two such examples. Many young queer people may want to live in a gay area, but they settle where they can afford the rents, even if that means congregating in — and queering — new neighbourhoods.

Ghaziani further theorizes that these gay-friendly neighbourhoods could eventually become full-fledged gay neighbourhoods in their own right.

If the old gaybourhood was an island, these new models are archipelagos.

These new villages may eventually supersede the older ones, or they may all coexist.

Dutton says that while we have gained a lot of freedom under the law, that doesn’t negate the need for the gaybourhood. “I think there is much to be said for an accepting environment where people can feel free to dress unusually or where they can express their affection for one another openly. That would be regretful if those things were lost over time,” he says.

“I don’t think the times have progressed to the point where we’re all just equal,” he continues. “There is much to be said for having a place within the city where people can come from elsewhere and feel that this is home — this is where my people congregate.”

XTRA! SEPT 11–24, 2014 11

The best of gay and lesbian Vancouver — on your desktop and your mobile device!

Check out the interactive digital edition of Xtra Living at

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Something Must Break (Sweden, 90 mins) >OPSL PKLU[P[PLZ HUK NLUKLYZ HYL HSS\YPUNS` Å\PK PU ,Z[LY Martin Bergsmark’s narrative debut, the desire for connection is unrelenting. Initially trepidatious to explore a femiUPUL ZPKL :LIHZ[PHUɬ^OV ZVTL[PTLZ WYLMLYZ [V IL JHSSLK ,SSPLɬMHSSZ OHYK MVY (UKYLHZ H Z[YHPNO[ THU )\[ ^OLU (UKYLHZ WYV]LZ H MHZ[ MYPLUK I\[ YLS\J[HU[ SV]LY ,SSPL Y\ZOLZ to the fore. Winner, Hivos Tiger Award, Rotterdam 2014.

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BOX OFFICE

• ONLINE at viff.org • IN-PERSON from Sept. 13 Vancity Theatre 1181 Seymour Street, at Davie (Noon – 7 pm)

VANCOUVER’S GAY & LESBIAN NEWS

OutintheCity

I keep joking that I’m going to wear out the rainbow on the crosswalk. Jennifer Mickey E14

New hijinks await in Furry Creek Second season underway on OUTtv TV RAZIEL REID

If you missed the first season of The Face of Furry Creek on OUTtv, then you don’t smoke weed or laugh enough.

Created by comedy writer, producer and actor Mark Kenneth Woods, the show follows the lives of the residents of a mountain-resort community whose tourists are leaving in droves. After deciding that what the town needs to attract visitors is a tourism ambassador, the local news program starts a reality-show contest to discover “the face of Furry Creek.”

And that face is “homely and disgusting,” as Woods describes Deb, one of his many alter egos on the hit show and the first season’s unwitting winner.

“I was always a big fan of Kids in the Hall,” Woods says. “The [actors] played all the characters, so they all played women and they weren’t exactly pretty.

They weren’t trying to be a blond bombshell; they were playing a housewife in rural Ontario. Since then I haven’t really seen anyone do that kind of drag. It’s all about RuPaul and being fabulous and fierce and looking really good,” he says. “We’re doing the exact opposite, looking as homely and disgusting as we possibly can — which is, of course, much more funny than looking pretty.”

In the second season of the mockumentary train wreck, the search is on for a new face of Furry Creek, with some previous contestants battling it out against Woods’s latest creations.

Apart from Woods, the cast includes Michael Venus, Ryan Steele and Amy Goodmurphy, who all play multiple characters. This season, Woods has taken on a total of nine roles, ranging from a Khloe Kardashian parody to one feisty little person to whom you do not want to owe a drug debt.

But Woods’s favourite character to play is Deb, lover of two-percent milk and hair scrunchies and the best friend of alcoholic and alleged prostitute Sisi, played by Michael Venus. The characters first debuted in Deb and Sisi — Woods’s feature film that premiered at the Vancouver Queer Film Festival in 2008 — and have been resurrected for The Face of Furry Creek.

“It’s always fun to play, except I have to shave and put on makeup,” Woods says. “I have a really thick beard, so even when I shave there’s still a little darkness. The makeup person has to really MORE AT DAILYXTRA.COM

We’re doing the exact opposite, looking as homely and disgusting as we possibly can — which is, of course, much more funny than looking pretty.

— CREATOR MARK KENNETH WOODS In the second season of the mockumentary train wreck, the search is on for a new face of Furry Creek, with some previous contestants battling it out against Mark Kenneth Woods’s latest creations. FACEOFFURRYCREEK.COM

cake on the makeup, so it’s a bit uncomfortable.”

It’s almost as uncomfortable as bleaching his facial hair to play Australian Nate, one of the many new characters popping up this season.

“I added some new characters to keep it fresh,” Woods says. “I had more time to write this season, so I was able to focus more on the jokes. We upped our game in every aspect. Ryan and Amy are featured much more. They’re at the forefront with me and Michael.”

The series is shot in Whistler because, as Woods says, “there really is no set more beautiful than the outdoors of British Columbia, and I don’t have to pay for it!” The backdrop serves as the inspira-

tion for two of Woods’s characters, the French snowboarder Guy and his “bra” Chad, played

by Michael Venus, who is so convincing as a dumb jock that I’m totally attracted to him.

“People don’t look at them as drag characters because it’s guys playing guys, but it’s still characterization and it arguably takes just as much effort,” Woods says.

Season 2 sees Chad become mayor of Furry Creek in a hilarious parody of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, one of Woods’s many pop-culture inspirations. This season also features the Duck Dynasty “freedom of speech” fiasco and a Glee-full musical episode.

“I wrote the songs and then had to record them in multiple voices,” Woods says. “My neighbours thought I was a complete nutcase!”

And who can blame them? Deb singing?!

You may just need to invest in a bigger bong for Season 2 of The Face of Furry Creek, which premiered Sept 8 on OUTtv. XTRA! SEPT 11–24, 2014 13

1181 owner takes over Heaven’s Door Venue open only on weekends for now NIGHTLIFE RAZIEL REID

Jennifer Mickey, or simply Jenn to her regulars, made her debut on Davie Street in 2011 after purchasing the 1181 lounge.

“When I knew that I was interested in 1181, I went onto my Facebook and messaged the few friends I knew were gay who I had went to high school with and was like, ‘Tell me about 1181,’” Mickey recalls. She was quickly schooled, but not by former high school friends: the drag queens got to her first.

“The community is very loyal, so I can understand why it took a while to warm up to a straight girl from the suburbs taking over their cherished bar,” Mickey says. When they saw how determined she was to tap into 1181’s full potential, the queens quickly got on board. The club now hosts two drag nights a week: Peach Cobblah’s Shame

1181’s popularity motivated owner Jennifer Mickey to purchase Heaven’s Door, where she hopes to create a “more adventurous” space. NATASHA BARSOTTI

Spiral on Tuesdays and Joan-E’s show on Sundays.

1181 gets so much traffic that “it’s bursting at the seams,” she says. Its popularity motivated her to purchase a second venue, Heaven’s Door, at Davie

and Bute streets.

“I’m excited to create a space similar to 1181 but be a little more adventurous and have a little more fun,” she says.

“The possibilities are endless.”

Mickey says Heaven’s Door needs her

attention “day in and out” but promises she’ll still be behind the bar at 1181. “I keep joking that I’m going to wear out the rainbow on the crosswalk.”

Heaven’s Door was closed for Pride weekend and delayed its opening be-

To the moon & back East Van aliens and Joan Rivers BLITZ & SHITZ

RAZIEL REID

Let the aliens eat cake!

There were cupcakes and other treats at Brain Candy, The Fox’s new monthly party by Anna Propriate, “the dumpster cupcake of East Van.” In a bid to leave this dimension, I took a bite out of all the sweets because I wasn’t sure which were laced. It worked.

My space mission had me on a dancefloor alternate-reality moonwalking to the beats of DJs Jef Leppard and G-Luve.

The Fox has a marquee above the bar that says, “Living the dream on Main Street,” and you could definitely call Brain Candy dreamlike. The “space age synthpop new wave dance rave” felt like you were falling through one of the holes in your brain that you got from doing too much molly.

I entered the void and didn’t look back.

After testing the galaxy’s waters at The Astoria earlier this summer, Brain Candy took a hiatus to hoard sugar and plot how to really get their spaceship to take off. The event is now back the first Saturday of the month at The Fox, 14 SEPT 11–24, 2014 XTRA!

which has replaced The Astoria as Area 51. Access is unrestricted.

I’m so glad someone has finally thrown an alien party, because I get abducted every night anyway, and a girl likes an ET to buy her a drink before probing.

I’m not kidding about the abductions; I swear my pineal gland gets gangbanged by the greys. According to YouTube, the greys are demonic, but since they’re the most action I’ve been getting these days, I’m all right with that.

Think I’m just smoking too much weed? Well then, so is former Canadian defence minister Paul Hellyer. In an interview on the Russian television show SophieCo, Hellyer claimed there are more than 80 extraterrestrial beings in contact with our planet, some of whom “look just like us, and they could walk down the street and you wouldn’t know if you walked past one.”

If you need further evidence that aliens exist, just follow Jaden Smith on Twitter.

Or head over to Brain Candy! The queens were certainly otherworldly.

Anna looked like she was straight from

Raziel lifts off with Brain Candy hostess Anna Propriate. TALLULAH

Venus; Junita Werk was more spaced out than ever, and not just from all that, um, candy; Peach Cobblah lost one of her heads; and Valynne Vile was truly in a dimension of her own. She got all dressed up and posted selfies of her pre-game — then never showed up! A little spaceman whispered in my ear that Valynne allegedly got wasted (drag queens drink?!) and passed out before she could be transported from her home

planet to The Fox. Well, bitch is Miss Cobalt. We should count ourselves lucky she passed out at home instead of in a ditch for a change.

Shanda Leer was in attendance and took to the mic to eulogize/roast Joan Rivers. When some people in the crowd heckled, “Too soon!” Shanda told them, in true Rivers fashion, to fuck off because Joan “would be loving this shit.”

And she was right. Rivers knew that

cause, upon purchase, Mickey had to sort out licensing and permit issues with the City of Vancouver.

“When that came to light, I wanted my relationship with the city to be good to go before we opened our doors,” she says. “They wouldn’t do the transfer of the business licence until the issues were solved.”

A spokesperson for the City of Vancouver licensing department says Heaven’s Door has secured all required licensing and can be open for business.

Mickey plans to keep the venue open on weekends but closed during weekdays for renovations. “I didn’t want to take the venue away from the community, especially on high-volume nights like Friday and Saturday where there aren’t many places to hold an event,” she says.

“It’s still Heaven’s Door for now,” she adds. “We’ve slapped some lipstick on her, but I’m excited to have an official launch when she has her full face on.”

Mickey hopes to hold that launch “sometime in the next few months.”

For more on this story, go to dailyxtra.com.

laughter heals and counted on the gays to remember that.

“When the gay community starts becoming overly sensitive and loses its sense of humour, we’re all in deep shit,” Rivers said. “They’re the funniest people alive.”

Although Shanda was more of a creature than a person at Brain Candy, I’d have to agree.

In an age where every queer-cunttranny-nigger is getting their tentacles in a knot over what words can and cannot be used on a politically correct Earth, we should step out of the shit and heed Rivers’s advice to keep calm and carry on laughing — even in the nipped-and-tucked face of death.

Thankfully, Rivers left us with plenty of material, like this joke about Xenu’s power bottom: “I hate Tom Cruise,” Rivers said. “In TV interviews Tom laughs inappropriately and much too vociferously at non-humorous declarative statements, which is ironic because in real life he can’t take a fucking joke at all. All you have to do is make one simple, little, harmless, innocuous aside like ‘The Scientology spaceship was late today; it had to stop by Fire Island to pick up Tom Cruise,’ and he has a pack of lawyers at your door faster than Katie Holmes can say, ‘No, really, he loves me in that way, I swear.’”

You’ll be missed, Joan! Enjoy your journey through the stars.

VANCOUVER’S GAY & LESBIAN NEWS

WHAT'S ON

strip for you onstage. 9pm–2am. The Cobalt, 917 Main St. $12; $9 if wearing just a jock. thecobalt.ca Cherry Pop Jane Smoker pops the cherry of local drag virgins every month. Featuring The Cherries in a live strip show and special guest Raye Sunshine. 10:30pm–2:30am.

Fox Cabaret, 2321 Main St. $12. foxcabaret.com

FOR MORE LISTINGS, GO TO DAILYXTRA.COM

Wed, Sept 10 Vancouver Fringe Festival The 11-day festival features 89 artists and includes such queer content as Meat Loaf Jesus, Ludwig & Lohengrin, The Chariot Cities, . . . didn’t see that coming, and Roller Derby Saved My Soul, as well as a new production from the puppetry duo Mind of a Snail. Festival runs until Sun, Sept 14. vancouverfringefestival.com.

Rainbow Refugee Committee This information and support group for LGBT people making refugee claims meets the second Thursday of each month. 7:30pm. Qmunity, 1170 Bute St. rainbowrefugee.ca

Fri, Sept 12 Joe Ford Tribute Lovely Linda, Myria Le Noir and Oliv host a tribute to Joe Ford, who, they say, was instrumental in organizing Vancouver’s first AIDS Walk, in 1986.

7–10pm. Lux Lounge, 1180 Howe St. $20; includes complimentary appetizers. eckess.com Lost Girls Burlesque The monthly burlesque show returns, at a new venue with new performances. 8pm. Fox Cabaret, 2321 Main St. Advance tickets at brownpapertoickets.com; $15 at door. lostgirlsburlesque.com VML Social The Vancouver Men in Leather host their monthly social in the back of the PumpJack Pub, for everyone from the curious to the serious. 9pm until late. Pumpjack Pub, 1167 Davie St. No cover. meninleather.homestead.com

Sat, Sept 13 Abbotsford Drag Show Join Anida Tythole and the Fraser Valley

Sun, Sept 21

Youth Society to support its drop-in for LGBT youth from Abbotsford, Mission and Chilliwack. 7pm.

Cheers Bar & Grill, 2814 Gladwin Rd, Abbotsford. $25 includes a burger and drink. For more information, email info.fvys@gmail.com.

Scotiabank AIDS Walk for Life Vancouver’s 29th annual walk around the Stanley Park seawall supports people living with HIV/AIDS. 10am–1pm. Meet at Sunset Beach, 1204 Beach Ave. aidswalkvancouver.ca

Martina Griffiths Jazz singer Martina Griffiths performs some of her favourite Canadian songs. 8pm.

The Emerald Backroom Cabaret, 555 Gore St. $20 at martinagriffiths. bpt.me.

Fraser Youth Pride The Fraser Valley Youth Society presents its second annual Pride march.

Gather at noon at Rotary Stadium in Abbotsford; walk begins at 12:30pm. Rotary Stadium, 32470 Haida Dr. Free. fraseryouth.com

Hustla: Back 2 Skool, Fool Your favourite sweaty-ass dancefloor is back, with host Peach Cobblah and DJs Dom Top and Jef Leppard.

9pm. The Cobalt, 917 Main St. $12. thecobalt.ca

Sun, Sept 14

Fraser Youth Pride — Abbotsford’s Rotary Stadium, Sun, Sept 21 DAVID P BALL

Passions In the last decade, this annual fundraiser, featuring tasting plates from some of Vancouver's top eateries, has raised more than $1 million for the Dr Peter AIDS Foundation. 6pm. The Imperial, 319 Main St. Tickets $250 and up, available at drpeter.org.

Wed, Sept 17

Tues, Sept 16 Royal City Pride AGM Join the organizers of New Westminster Pride to help steer the society and possibly join its board, then stick around for cocktails. 6:30pm.

Galbraith Conference Centre, 131 Eighth St, New Westminster.

Membership required; $5 at eventbrite.ca.

Shame Spiral Peach Cobblah brings East Side drag and debauchery to the West End. 9:30pm. 1181, 1181 Davie St. No cover. 1181. ca

Unleash Your Inner Diva with VMC The Vancouver Men’s Chorus holds open rehearsals every Wednesday in September.

Don’t be shy! 7:30pm. Vancouver Academy of Music, 1270 Chestnut St. vancouvermenschorus.ca Bingo for Life Joan-E’s weekly fundraiser for Friends for Life features prizes, cheap drinks and snappy drag queens. 8–10pm.

Celebrities, 1022 Davie St. $10 donation at door for bingo cards. celebritiesnightclub.com Faux Girls Emperor XLIII JJ Nation and Empress XLIII Kiki Lawhore host this monthly drag show. $3.

11pm–1am. The Junction, 1138 Davie St. junctionpub.com

Thurs, Sept 18 NSFW Hip Hop Meets Striptease Ponyboy, Bruce Wang, Sasparilla

JOIN US FOR BRUNCH AFTER THE 29TH ANNUAL AIDS WALK FOR LIFE ON SEPT 21ST. PARTIAL PROCEEDS WILL BE DONATED TO POSITIVE LIVING BC.

Foxx and others perform at this recurring striptease variety show set to a rap and hip-hop soundtrack.

9pm–1am. The Cobalt, 917 Main St. $10 before 10 pm, $12 after. nsfwvancouver.tumblr.com

of hotties, beer bongs, burlesque, a freshly tapped keg and games.

11pm–2am. Fox Cabaret, 2321 Main St. $12 door; $10 if dressed as a high-school stereotype. kaseyriot.com

Fri, Sept 19

Sat, Sept 20

AJ’s Café Join other HIV-positive gay men every Friday for this social gathering/support group sponsored

by Positive Living BC. 3–6pm. Free.

The Junction Pub, 1138 Davie St. positivelivingbc.org

Monroe: Trinity This fundraiser for the Vancouver AIDS Walk features Trinity K Bonet from RuPaul’s Drag Race. 9pm–2am.

Heaven’s Door, 1216 Bute St. $10 at monroetrinity.eventbrite.com.

Queer Women’s Book Club This monthly book club for queer women meets the third Friday of every month at Qmunity’s Out on the Shelves library. 7–9pm. Qmunity, 1170 Bute St. Register at 604-6845307 x112.

The Gay Agenda: Glitter & Skin Imagine lots of men wearing very little, doused in glitter and ready to

TomBoy: Back to School House Party Fox Cabaret aims to turn itself into a giant living room full

Reset Summer Finale ME Events and seven DJs say goodbye to summer from a rooftop patio overlooking downtown. 2–9pm.

Scotiabank Dance Theatre, 677 Davie St. $20 advance at eventbrite.ca, with $5 from each ticket going to the AIDS Walk for Life. meeventsandmanagement.com Show Tune Sunday Sing along to your favourite Broadway musicals and more at this new night at The Junction. 3–7pm. The Junction, 1138 Davie St. Free. junctionpub.com AGM-alypstick Zee Zee Theatre combines its annual general meeting with a drag show to liven up potentially dry reports. Featuring Isolde N Barron, Peach Cobblah, Joan-E and more. 8pm–1am. The Cobalt, 917 Main St. $5 gets you the show and a Zee Zee Theatre membership. thecobalt.ca

Submit your event listing to oitc.vancouver@dailyxtra.com. Deadline for the Sept 25 issue is Wed, Sept 17.

175 tables of bargains on Deluxe 20th Century Junque!

Vintage jewellery, boho chic accessories, memorabilia, retro decor & kitsch, collectibles & much, much more...

Plus drop-in appraisals all day! Full details on Website.

Sunday s SEPT 21 s 10am-3pm Croatian Cultural Centre 3250 Commercial Drive at 16th Avenue Vancouver s Near Broadway Skytrain

1025 DAVIE ST. (604) 687-2222 MORE AT DAILYXTRA.COM

Admission $5 at door s Free Parking s Food Services Info s 604.980.3159 s www.21cpromotions.com XTRA! SEPT 11–24, 2014 15

Music & Lyrics By Jonathan Larson

RENT

XPOSED

1

PHOTOS BY TALLULAH

Sing with Soul

Orpheum Annex

823 Seymour St, 2nd floor Vancouver, BC

Show schedule

Thursday, October 9: 8pm Friday, October 10: 8pm Saturday, October 11: 2pm Saturday, October 11: 8pm

BRAIN CANDY After a brief hiatus, the “space age synthpop new wave dance rave” Brain Candy relaunched at The Fox Saturday, Sept 6.

+PYLJ[VY! Craig DeCarlo 4\ZPJ +PYLJ[VY! Christopher King :[HYYPUN! Chelsea Rose Tucker, Hal Wesley Rogers, Imelda Gaborno, Jennifer Suratos, Matt Hume, Nathan Houle, Theo Budd, & Tristan Pearson

-VY VMM \ZL WYVTV JVKL!

36=,9,5; 6--

2

1E Junita Werk & Isolde N Barron 2E Beardoncé & Tony del Rio 3E Paige Frewer, Rae Takei, Ryn Broz & Nadine Boulay 4E Dave Davey Decarlo & Oliv Howe 5E Marcia Gay & Lana Del Gay 6E Pierre le Blanc & Luke Driscoll 7E Parker McMullin & Petrus Drenters

4

Global Dance Connections series

3 5

France’s world-renowned

Ballet Preljocaj Empty moves

6 7

(parts I, II & III)

Photo: Jean-Claude Carbonne

A tribute to John Cage and the art of the abstract

September 25-26, 2014 • 8pm Scotiabank Dance Centre 677 Davie Street (at Granville), Vancouver Tickets 604.684.2787 • www.ticketstonight.ca

Info 604.606.6400 • www.thedancecentre.ca

16 SEPT 11–24, 2014 XTRA!

VANCOUVER’S GAY & LESBIAN NEWS

Online at xtralivingvancouver.com

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A world of gay adventure

Travel

Down Under’s largest state has a character all its own

Western

Australia AEFA MULHOLLAND

Western Australia, the largest of Australia’s eight states, will turn your expectations of Down Under upside down. This incredible chunk of the continent has a character all its own — or make that multiple characters. A vast land that covers a third of the country, Western Australia offers everything from the sophistication of capital Perth and chic wine region Margaret River to the exquisite white sands, strange rock formations and turquoise waters of the Coral Coast; the wilderness, barren backlands and inland sea of the rugged North West; and the seemingly endless expanse of the interior, the Golden Outback.

Approximately five hours’ flight from either Sydney or Singapore, Perth sits on the Swan River; it’s a city of two million with a reputation for laid-back beaches, outdoor dining and a bevy of pubs and breweries — it’s the perfect bookend to a WA adventure. Spend days exploring hip port neighbourhood Fremantle; lounge on all 19 of the city’s beaches, including famed Rottnest

The city of Perth, viewed from Mill Point.

18 SEPT 11–24, 2014 XTRA!

Island; and picnic in the shade in the gargantuan Botanic Gardens. Make for the restaurants of downtown, Subiaco and Fremantle when you fancy sampling such local flavours as Manjimup black truffles, Ord River sweet papaya, Broome mangoes and local venison, berries and, of course, seafood. Liquid delights are on tap here, too; the wine regions of both Swan Valley and Margaret River are within easy reach, and the state has a tasty crop of microbreweries.

Stir in an influx of compact, specialist cocktail haunts, or “small bars,” that have sprung up in the city’s alleys and laneways and the city truly is a drinker’s delight.

Less than three hours away, Margaret River’s chardonnay, sauvignon blanc and cabernet lure oenophiles south.

The picturesque town is crammed with artisan stores, galleries, boutiques, upscale dining and places to sample the area’s wines and ports. But if you think Australia’s South West region is all about grapes and groves, you’ll need to expand your palate. The area’s rugged, rural side is a stark contrast but makes a perfect pairing for the sophisticated

JJ HARRISON

wine scene that’s grown up between the gum and karri forests. Kangaroos lope about paddocks and kookaburras scrawk like demented monkeys in the jarrah trees. You might round a corner and encounter a field of two dozen kangaroos or reach a crossroads and see two emu lope off into the dusty distance.

Towns like Augusta feel far from the airbrushed chic of Margaret River.

Hunkered down on the precise point where the Indian and Southern oceans meet, it’s a one-pelican town. Pizzas are available on Friday and Saturday nights between 5 and 8pm if you order a week in advance. Sweet-and-sour kangaroo is on the menu in the August(a) Moon Chinese Restaurant. Checkout girls waltz with liquor-store boys in the last fish-and-chip shop before the Antarctic. In the town’s lone bar you’ll find weatherbeaten fishermen in ludicrously short shorts bream-boasting over Emu Bitters, conversations about the price of breeding ostrich and a jukebox that, regardless how politely you ask it to play your selection, will substitute AC/DC. If you have longer to linger around these parts, perhaps the most captivating part of Western Australia is north of Perth. The Coral Coast stretches to the tip of the Ningaloo Reef, almost 1,300 kilometres of turquoise waters and dazzlingly white sands, punctuated by

SPARROW’S NEST

characterful towns and the occasional strange rock formation. You can reach Ningaloo via a short flight to nearby Learmonth, but taking the ocean road makes for an incredible trip. Just a couple of hours outside Perth is the lunar landscape of the Pinnacles, a proliferation of otherworldly yellow rock spires that jut up out of the hot, flat desertscape of Nambung National Park, raucous pink parrots bobbing on top.

Seeing this place where desert meets

ocean is quite something.

Continue on up the ocean highway to surfing hotspot and lobster port Geraldton, on the Batavia Coast, where the Moresby Range backdrops intense sunsets and offshore the 122 Abrolhos Islands offer unparalled fishing and bird-watching opportunities. Farther north again, friendly schools of bottlenose dolphins, rare burrowing frogs and white fairy wrens are among the hundreds of varieties of birds and beasts VANCOUVER’S GAY & LESBIAN NEWS

SATU SURO

impossible to see all of this state in one trip, but Western Australia will have you boomeranging back for more.

Bars The Northbridge area of Perth is home to most of the city’s LGBT bars, including the drag queen haven Connections and the mixed community hub The Court. And 2013 saw a new addition to the scene in the form of the lesbianowned Sparrow’s Nest café.

22, starting at 8pm. It will mark the 25th anniversary of a protest that led to the formation of Pride WA. Also popular is the day-long Fairday celebration, schedule for Feb 15 in Hyde Park.

Above, the Golden Outback wheatbelt near Centenary Hill.

Far left, the Sparrow’s Nest café.

Left, the tasting room at Howard Park Wines, in Margaret River.

Read this story on dailyxtratravel.com for links to select businesses mentioned.

Accommodations

that await at Monkey Mia and Shark Bay. Dramatic blow holes and steep cliffs keep you on your guard in lush Carnarvon, while inland, banana plantations stretch as far as the eye can see.

The endpoint of this antipodean trek is the seaside town of Exmouth, on the tip of Ningaloo Reef, home to 260 kilometres of nearly untouched barrier reef and a wealth of wildlife.

Whatever you do, you’re sure to encounter some of its 220 species of MORE AT DAILYXTRA.COM

coral, whale sharks, humpback whales and 500 species of tropical fish. There are deserted islands from which to snorkel and dive and dugongs and rare sea turtles to view if you venture out by sea kayak. And endless beaches to explore in all directions. And dramatic gorges to scale in Yardie Creek. And open waters to sail beyond Exmouth Gulf. And still all of the North West and the rugged interior of the Golden Outback of this state to explore. It’s

Small, chic and luxurious, The Outram in Perth basks close to the tropical Botanic Gardens and offers 22 rooms of Parisian townhouse style.

For a homier introduction to the city, book a room at Richard’s in Northbridge, a gay-owned bed and breakfast close to bars and cafés and boasting excellent breakfasts. Margaret River has a plethora of LGBT-welcoming accommodation: try the opulent Cape Lodge, a five-star wine-country getaway on the water’s edge.

At the northernmost point of the Coral Coast, book a house or apartment to rest after your journey through the super-friendly folks of Ningaloo Reef Holidays.

Pride celebrations The Pride WA (for Western Australia) parade will take place in Perth on Nov

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A world of gay adventure

Travel

Sun, sin and sequins A first-timer’s guide to the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras CHRISTIAN BAINES

In 1995, Sydney was just about the hottest gay destination on the planet.

The sequins of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert still shone brightly in our eyes, same-sex activity was legal in all Australian states but one (Tasmania would catch up two years later), and Sydney’s Oxford Street was the envy of an emerging gay world.

Central to its fame was the Gay and Lesbian Mardis Gras. Originally a 1978 protest march, the event soon evolved into a full-blown cultural festival.

Loud, brash and controversial — the giant model of a well-known Australian homophobe’s head on a silver platter will be forever seared into Sydney’s memory — the parade offered a fullcolour scrapbook of what it meant to be queer in Australia. By 1993, it was the biggest outdoor nighttime parade in the world, attracting more than 600,000 spectators. Today, Mardi Gras continues to be one of the world’s premier LGBT events and is a must-do for any LGBT traveller.

So where does an out-of-towner start? If you’re going just for the parade and party, you’re going to miss a lot. Still, a number of tour and cruise companies offer inclusive packages to get you there for the main event.

The parade and party are held the first Saturday in March, bringing Mardi Gras to a spectacular close. Expect Oxford Street to be packed all weekend, with cafés, bars and stores all recapturing just a little of the ’90s glam that made Sydney’s scene so famous.

The parade route typically follows Oxford Street up to Taylor Square, where the energy hits its peak before veering onto Flinders Street and ending in Moore Park. If a three-hour wait amid a jammed-in crowd doesn’t bother you, grab a spot on the western side, between Crown Street and Taylor Square. Those wanting a bit more space should grab a spot on the western side of Flinders. Be ready to get wet! Every year, Fred Nile (of silver platter fame) and his church crew pray for rain on the parade and frequently get their wish.

Still, if you do catch a glimpse of these charitable souls, be sure to thank them for doing God’s work in giving marchers further reason to strip off.

20 SEPT 11–24, 2014 XTRA!

ANN-MARIE CALILHANNA

After the parade, most of the clubs and bars on Oxford Street will charge extortionate door fees for the privilege of being squeezed in. Honestly? If you’re paying to get into a party, splash out on a ticket to the real thing, where all the parade’s energy is released in one blazing gay burst in Sydney’s Entertainment Quarter. Expect five or six different dancefloors, plenty of chill-out space, a sea of flesh ripped straight from a gay-cruise brochure and live performers in the league of George Michael, Cyndi Lauper, Boy George and Kylie Minogue. It’s big, showy and varied enough to offer an unforgettable night, even if dance parties aren’t usually your thing.

Here for a week or more? Fair Day is your best chance to catch daytime LGBT Sydney at play. Enjoy hot live acts and check in with local sports and community clubs for special Mardi Gras events. One outdoor event not to be missed is Harbour Party. It’s another dance party, but how many can boast sunset over the Sydney Opera House

ZAC

Top, festive and flamboyant Mardi Gras parade participants. Above, a drag queen pays homage to Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

and Harbour Bridge as their backdrop?

For the artsy, intellectual types, Queer Thinking takes over the Seymour Centre for a full day of stories, academia and controversy, while many of the city’s theatre spaces are devoted to queer content all through February.

Longtime allies Darlinghurst Theatre and New Theatre present Falsettos and Privates on Parade in 2014, while Sydney Opera House, the Seymour Centre and many of the city’s cabaret venues host Australian and international entertainers as diverse as Pam Ann, Courtney Act, the always provocative La Soirée and Jinkx Monsoon in her Australian debut.

To get a free dose of Sydney queer history, take a sinfully spiritual walk through Kings Cross and Darlinghurst with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Visit the sites of Sydney’s first gay bars and explore the city’s deliciously seedy historical underbelly. The Sisters can also take you to meet other types of animals on their annual Taronga Zoo walk.

If you’re planning any of the popular day trips from Sydney, there’s probably a special Mardi Gras departure to get you there. Hunter Valley wine tasting?

There’s a trip for that. Furry Australian natives (not the kind you’ll meet at the Oxford Hotel) at Featherdale Wildlife Park? Easily done. Or trek out to the Blue Mountains and Jenolan Caves.

This is an essential first-timer’s day trip at any time of year. But since it’s Mardi Gras, why not make some likeminded friends along the way? Most day trips depart from Cambridge Hotel in the heart of the Darlinghurst gaybourhood.

The 2015 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras festival runs Friday, Feb 13, to Sunday, March 8. The parade takes place Saturday, March 7. For more information, visit mardigras.org.au.

Read this story on dailyxtratravel.com for website links to select businesses.

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