Conners was living in Cape Breton “to be near her grandchildren which she adored,” a recent Facebook posting from the AIDS Coalition of Nova Scotia says. She was an outspoken, former coalition board member and “a significant ally of the queer community,” it says.
N.S. HIV/AIDS activist has died
Janet Conners, a crusading HIV/AIDS activist in Nova Scotia who many years ago with her late husband, Randy, were in the thick of the tainted blood compensation battle in Canada, died last weekend. She died Saturday at age 66.
Janet Conners and her late husband, Randy, were in the thick of the tainted blood compensation battle in Canada. Michael Lightstone Aug 22, 2022 6:58 PM Article was taken from City News
Michael Lightstone is a freelance reporter living in Dartmouth WE MUST ALWAYS REMEMBER THOSE WHO CAME BEFORE US AND FOUGHT THE FIGHTS TO IMPROVE OUR LIVES & COMMUNITY.
Janet and Randy had been instrumental in pushing for a public inquiry in this country that examined a flawed blood system. Janet testified during the proceedings, known as the Krever Inquiry, the Halifax Rainbow Encyclopedia says. Her impact statement has been posted online by the e ncyclopedia.
Janet was bestowed with honorary degrees from at least two universities and received other public recognition of her efforts surrounding HIV/AIDS awareness and tainted blood.
“In 1989 there was stigma and a seemingly acceptable discrimination toward persons with HIV,” Conners said in her statement. “We were overwhelmed and alone,” she said in her comments to the inquiry.
In 2001, Janet and Randy were awarded the Meritorious Service Medal (civil division) for their advocacy on the tainted blood front, and their fight for government compensation for Canadian victims. Randy was given the honour posthumously, a Governor General of Canada website says, as he’d died seven years earlier.
Randy, a hemophiliac, died in 1994. He had become infected with HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) through tainted blood products, and Janet was infected after sexual relations with her husband. Janet Conners was diagnosed with HIV in 1989. She founded a national organization for people secondarily infected with HIV.
Although our community is loathe to admit it, and there are huge health disparities within the community of people living with HIV, I’m both very conscious and very grateful that we live in the golden age of HIV. Aidsmap, the authoritative source on all things HIV, says this of the UK situation: “these days . . .very few people die as a direct result of HIV. When deaths do occur, they usually happen in the first year after diagnosis and involve people who were diagnosed with HIV very late, when they were already very ill because of HIV. In many of these cases, the person did not attend an HIV clinic or did not take HIV treatment, or only did so irregularly.”
Becoming Older with HIV
EDITOR’S NOTE: POZPLANET Magazine has asked Bob Leahy to give his perspective on aging with HIV. In order to understand where we are going, we must learn from those who have been there. So, we appreciate getting the opinions of the people who have worked and fought for our community. We look forward to reading this series. Thank you, Mr. Leahy. What is it all of us do every day, compelled to do so since birth, something we do our entire life? It’s also something we don’t like to talk about much. Some find it depressing. Many of us hate it, go to great lengths to avoid it, in fact. It’s like an ongoing battle we can’t win. We never win, however much we try. It’s called aging. Or ageing. Two different spellings of the same word. I’ll use the former here even though I’m of British descent. Either way, its not a word we use much if we are young, but increasingly do so as we get older. As a person living with HIV who happens to be an advocate for those of us getting old, I write about it from first hand experience. But here’s the thing; I don’t write about it, as so many others do, from the perspective of someone who is aging but very far from their ultimate destination. I write about it instead because I am not so much aging, in fact, as aged. I am a proud 75 year old, and an opinionated 75 year old at that, as you’ll soon discover if you don’t already know me.
An opinion piece from activist Bob Leahy
I should be dead, of course. Diagnosed in 1993, there were no effective treatments then, so my early mortality was a given. But along came antiretrovirals. It was 1995. Without realizing that we were about to rewrite the history of the epidemic, I enrolled in the clinical trial of saquinavir, the very first protease inhibitor That changed everything, or almost everything. True, I qualified for long term disability this was before HIV was categorized as a “chronic manageable condition” but I looked well, felt well and a new world of possibilities, like volunteerism and activism, opened up. It changed my life. This rebirth this coming back from the prospect of an early death was dubbed the Lazarus Syndrome. But even then, for those responding well to treatment, our average life expectancy was usually quoted as 59. Today, of course, our life expectancy can be similar to that of someone without HIV. That means our average life expectancy in countries like Canada or the UK is in the low 80s. Some studies even suggest we will do better than those who are not HIV positive. That we poz folks tend to get more intensive or regular care because of our HIV is one reason for that
Why do I take such an unpopular stand? I said earlier I’m opinionated and a wee bit cranky and that comes with age but that’s another story. I’ve also been around. I tend to question “groupthink”; it’s a pervasive way the HIV community operates and it hasn’t always served us well. Groupthink told us for two decades, for example, quite wrongly, that undetectable does not equal to untransmittable. That was the fallacy fed to us by every AIDS organization in Canada until 2016 when some of us, myself included, cried “bullshit”. Eventually the popular narrative changed and U=U became fully accepted. Score one for us! Point is I’ve often challenged the status quo You should too. Researchers, funders, those who work in AIDS Service organizations have proved themselves far from infallible. I’m not confident they have got HIV and aging right I don’t often recognize their version of what aging with HIV looks like. Which is why I’m suggesting, however unpopular the view, that HIV, if treated properly, does not in itself accelerate aging, as some researchers suggest and believers parrot.
But those numbers obscure the fact that the impact of HIV on our aging process may be real. How real is a matter of some controversy. It has become a mantra of our community that people living with HIV age more rapidly than our HIV negative counterparts. There is credible research that supports this. There is also credible research that doesn’t. Without going into detail, I tend to give the latter more credence
Here’s why I say this. Firstly the obvious; I don’t see my HIV friends and colleagues in Canada dropping like flies. As I indicated, most of us are fortunate to be living a normal like span. Simply put, accelerated aging would make that impossible. My HIV negative partner of over forty plus years is slightly older than me; we experience about the same level of heath challenges. This is despite the fact that research tells us pretty conclusively that people with HIV experience serious illnesses at an earlier age than those without HIV. There’s a problem here, though.
Indeed, HIV/AIDS now ranks 32 in the breakdown of causes of death in Canada; cancer and heart disease are numbers one and two respectively (If you want to know why funding for HIV/AIDS in Canada has stalled, look no further).
Too much research around HIV and aging compares apples and oranges. Studies that compare health outcomes between the HIV positive and the HIV negative routinely ignore that those two populations are very different in nature. The demographics are different. More of the HIV population smokes, for example and/or uses drugs. Housing, income and food stability all tend to be worse than in the HIV negative population. Simply put, HIV positive people as a whole are more likely to be unhealthy. That may have nothing to do with their HIV status but rather they score low on social determinants of health Unwittingly or otherwise, such research does not measure the impact of HIV on one’s life but that of lifestyle and similar socio economic factors instead
Bottom line: be careful about interpreting research like this; read the small print. If the research doesn’t compare groups whose demographics are equal, it just doesn’t further our knowledge of the impact of HIV and aging generally
There are other reasons why we don’t get the discourse on HIV and aging quite right. One is our own fault; we who are most affected let our voices become muffled. We as a community place the lived experience on a pedestal. How often though we see conversations around aging led by a panel of 40 and 50 year olds as if they know, really know, what it is to age other than through the lens of what I’ll
About the author . . .Bob Leahy has lived with HIV since 1993 and has been an active and sometimes controversial voice ever since. A past POZTO winner, he is the former publisher of PositiveLite.com. He is also a member of the Ontario AIDS Network Honour Roll, received the Casey House Award for HIV advocacy and is a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Award for his services to the HIV community.
I need to acknowledge, of course, that I’m privileged. I live a life where the social determinants of health line up in my favour. I can’t help that. But I try to address, as all advocates do, the interests of a wider and diverse population, never just my own. In any event, I plan to talk more about what aging with HIV is really like, from my own experience and that of others, in future columns. I think it will be an eye opener for many.
call the easier years. To truly understand the topic, we need to hear the voices of people who are not just aging but aged, people who have been there and know what it’s like, what it’s really like, to age Those voices are too often absent.
The International AIDS Conference
Jade Elektra was a representative for the conference and worked with the Canada Pavilion, ViiV, CANFAR, Gilead & Montreal Pride. She met many people from around the world and also performed her U=U anthem “Undetectable”. It was a wonderful networking event.
POZPLANET at in Montreal 2022)
(August
the WOMEN
PLUS Magazine and Johnson & Johnson chose Jade to be one of the HIV Heroes featured on a livestream and a couple of Roxannepanels. Ma and CANFAR did an excellent job with their SEXFLUENT booth geared towards educating our youth about HIV.
Maureen Owino, Robin Montgomery & Brittany Cameron gave great speeches at SPEAK panel.
EDITOR’S NOTE: We here at POZPLANET often get messages from people asking for help. Of course, we have no resources or power to help since we are a non for profit publication. But we can raise awareness of conditions in other countries for our brothers and sisters living with HIV.
Community Stories from Other Places
My name is Ibrahim Musa. I am a 20 year old gay man from Sudan. I am writing to you because I’m currently living in Kenya at the Kakuma Refugee Camp. I would like to share my experience to bring awareness to the huge violation of human rights occurring here. In my home country I have been harassed, tortured and raped because of my sexual orientation. Even my own family stated that they would take me to the police to be punished under Islamic law. For me, this would mean the death penalty. I was so afraid to lose my life I had to leave my home country at the age of 17. I made the long journey with a burned leg from being tortured and colon problems due to multiple sexual assaults. The only place I could reach after leaving Sudan was this refugee camp in Kenya. Unfortunately, I still live here under inhumane conditions due to ingrained homophobia. I have been attacked numerous times simply for being a gay man. And the police do nothing about it. Sometimes they even harass us with threats as well. In 2019, I was badly attacked and as a result I can no longer move my left hand and leg. I am suffering here in Sudan. I feel I can’t live as a human being because of my sexual orientation and refugee status. Every day is a struggle to survive and maintain hope. My only wish is to bring awareness to the conditions here and to someday live a normal life without the constant threat of Iviolence.knowthat your publication is for the HIV+ Community. I am not HIV+ but there are more than 100 HIV+ people living here in the Kakuma Refugee Camp. There are more
We are looking for people to join our HIV IS EVERYONE’S BUSINESS Campaign. If you’re interested please send a message to our POZPLANET Magazine facebook profile.
Charty Morris, a social worker for several of the camps revealed an outbreak of HIV infections in our camp. She told me that there are diseases that are widespread in the camp (especially AIDS and syphilis in women). She indicated that the more than 1000 HIV infections include children under 17 years of age. Charty is working on guiding refugees with educating them about the dangers of diseases and how to prevent them as well as how to live with them if you get infected.
SUGGESTION: Google this camp and find out who is in charge. If you can help, please do.
than 1000 LGBT refugees and asylum seekers living here as well. This number includes many nationalities (Sudan, South Sudan, Congo, Burundi, Uganda, Yamen, Somalia, Tanzania, Rwanda, Comoros, Ethiopia & Eritrea). For the HIV+ population, they suffer from lack of food, medicine and shelter. They are exposed daily to racial discrimination and attacks by the surrounding community…and the UNHCR us still silent. Infants and pregnant mothers do not receive early detection of the disease here and there is a lack of awareness here of the disease. And how do you encourage the injured to continue their normal lives? There are no psychiatrists at the camp to treat our mental health.
AK: Deborah...thank so much for taking the time to do this interview. It was a pleasure to finally meet you in person for the first time at the conference. What did you get out of the conference, and did you accomplish what you went for?
DN: I was diagnosed with HIV in 1991 in Edmonton, Alberta after going for life insurance because I was a newly single mother of two young children (aged 3 and 1) and felt I should have insurance in case something happened to me. I received a letter saying I'd been turned down for life insurance because of an " abnormal blood test result". When I finally went in to see my doctor to get the results, I was shocked when she told me that I'd been diagnosed with HIV. Back then, the message that was being given by public health and the community was this only happened to gay men, not heterosexual people and certainly not women. I had a very switched on doctor who had tested me for HIV when I was pregnant with my son and it came back negative. My GP has told me that if I had not gone for life insurance, I would've probably died without ever knowing my status because she did not see me as being at risk. I was in a "monogamous" relationship; I am female; I am heterosexual; I was not in the "at risk" group. Turned out my relationship was not monogamous on his part. This attitude that women are not at risk for HIV continues to this day. Women often go years without a diagnosis, in spite of symptoms, because they are not seen as being at risk. I do a lot of community presentations on HIV and living with HIV and still have women come tell me that they were refused an HIV test because their doctor said they are not at risk so do not need to be tested. Women living with HIV also continue to struggle with supports for their family, and for themselves as caregivers. My children had to be tested and it was the longest two weeks of my life waiting for their blood
So, I am very pleased to sit down with a fellow activist here in Canada who recently attended the International AIDS Conference in Montreal and led a major protest. Meet the incomparable Deborah Norris...
Every month we here at POZPLANET try to bring our readers different stories of our HIV+ Community. It is rare that we get to hear the stories of HIV+ heterosexual women and this portion of our positive community is so unrepresented. It is important that we listen and these stories as well because many straight people still think that AIDS is a gay disease. And with the rise of COVID and Mokeypox these beliefs are repeating themselves all over again.
DN: The main thing I got out of the conference was a renewed sense of the importance of advocacy and activism. I finally had the opportunity to meet many people whom I have had the pleasure of doing important activism and advocacy work over the last several years and whom I had not yet met in person, like you! I went to many sessions that gave me new insights into work being done around the world. I was most struck by the work being done in educating people about U=U, so I greatly enjoyed the opportunity to attend the U=U preconference. I definitely accomplished my aims of going to the conference: reinvigoration in my work, inspiration from others doing similar work and learning about new and exciting work being done around the globe. AK: So, let's go back and introduce you to our readers. Would you mind telling us where you come from and how long have you been HIV+?
test results. Thankfully they were not positive and now women can get results much quicker and they are doing PCR testing so that women don't have to wait to be certain their children do not have HIV. I became very ill several times in the mid 90's because there were no treatments for HIV. The provincial government threatened to apprehend my children because they said I was not capable of looking after them. I fought back, with the assistance of my local ASO, the social worker at the HIV clinic and the local newspaper and was finally successful in preventing this from happening because I proved to them that it was cheaper to put the necessary supports into my home than to put my children in care. It was a difficult time but I prevailed because I had supportive people around me. I strive to be that support to other women living with HIV and other people living with HIV. The issues for women living with HIV have not changed, I believe. We still need supportive people around us so that we can get the supports we need to live our lives.
(Previous photo with her children used with their permission)
AK: What are some of the organizations you have or are working with in the fight against AIDS?
AK: How did you become an activist?
DN: I have worked with many organizations who serve people living with HIV over the past 30 plus years. I started off at my local ASO, HIV Edmonton (then the AIDS Network of Edmonton), and the Federal Caring Together project. I then became involved with Living Positive, a local group of people living with HIV; a provincial group of people living with HIV called the Positive Voices Caucus, which I continue to be involved with; a national group of people living with HIV: the Canadian Positive People Network (CPPN), of which I am a Board member; and an international group of people living with HIV: the Global Network of People living with HIV, North America chapter (GNP+ NA), where I was a Board member. When I first started work with GNP+ NA, there were discussions about starting a national group of people living with HIV in Canada. I moved away from Canada and worked at a school for kids living with HIV, or whose parents had HIV, in Honduras, so I didn't see the CPPN come to fruition until I returned to Canada. I was then recruited by a Board member of CPPN to join the Board. I was so excited to be a part of the organization that I had so hoped to work with. I'm excited now to be part of Women Speak, a national organization of women living with HIV launched at the International AIDS conference. There is so much work that needs to be done to ensure that all people living with HIV have long and healthy lives and I'm proud to be a small part of that work. I'm also a peer researcher with the Alberta HIV Stigma Index and involved in the National HIV Stigma Index, again work started by GNP+ NA. I have been involved in education initiatives on HIV stigma, particularly around U=U. I have been part of carrying out several workshops in Alberta with healthcare professionals to educate them on U=U and the importance of educating their patients about this ground breaking information. I also continue to be invited to be a part of advisory groups across Canada around various initiatives, most recently point of care testing for HIV, Hepatitis C and syphilis in pharmacies in several sites across Canada. I'm sure many people look at this and think "Phew!" but honestly, I ensure that I balance the work I do with rest. I
DN: Soon after my diagnosis, I was invited to be on an advisory committee for a large Federal project on HIV being carried out in Edmonton, The Caring Together project. I was also invited by my local ASO to do speaking on living with HIV on volunteer education panels. The first panel I took part in, I met an Indigenous man living with HIV and he blew me away with how honest and down to earth he was. I recruited him to be on our client advisory group for the project and we have remained friends. He is a huge inspiration to me as an activist. You could say I was thrown into the deep end of activism. I was one of the few women living with HIV who was out about my status. I luckily was able to swim because of the many mentors I had over the years. People living with HIV who were strong activists and advocates mentored me to be the activist I am today. The year I started my activism and advocacy was 1992 when everyone around us was dying. Many of my close friends died. We were fighting for our very lives. I continue to take that attitude with me in everything I do: we are fighting for our lives. I continue to bring with me the spirits of the people living with HIV whom I loved and who died.
take on work that is important to me and is making the world a better place for people living with HIV. My two children are grown up now, so I have more time to commit to this work and have their full support. They are my biggest cheerleaders.
DN: Last year, I was invited as a member of our provincial organization (Alberta Community Council on HIV), the Positive Voices Caucus, to join a national group of advocates, made up of mostly EDs from national ASOs and community based HIV organizations. This group started a
AK: So, I attended one of the planning Zoom meetings for the protest at the opening ceremony for the conference, but could you tell our readers what we were protesting and what you ended up doing at the closing ceremony?
letter writing campaign to the Minister of Health and MPs. http://hivfunding.ca/ We also pulled together a video of people living with HIV from across Canada to talk about the issue. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIgjHi9Ygq0
DN: Sadly, this is one of the things that is a direct result of the lack of appropriate funding for the HIV response. A few years ago, the government, specifically the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), made the decision to no longer fund organizations that provide direct supports to people living with HIV. There were two organizations that provided direct support to women living with HIV, Voices of Positive Women in Toronto, and the Positive Women's Network in BC who over the years have had to close their doors. Many organizations that provided direct support to people living with HIV had to close their doors. Their lack of foresight means that essential supports for people living with HIV, and in this instance, women living with HIV were no longer funded. This meant that in many communities the direct support for people living with HIV is often not there, in particular in centres outside Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. And these supports are even less available to women living with HIV. Thankfully, thanks to work by many women living with HIV across Canada, Women Speak, a national organization run by and for women living with HIV in Canada was launched at the conference. I'm so excited to work with them to ensure that women living with HIV in Canada have the supports they need. You can change the fact that women living with HIV are often not targeted for supports by talking to your ASO about what supports they could provide. You can support women to become involved in their local ASO, particularly women of colour, who are often marginalized. Sit down with women and ask them what they need. Work with organizations like Women Speak to advocate for their continued funding. Help fundraise. Support us. Write to the Minister of Health and let him know that support services are essential in the care cascade for HIV. When people diagnosed with HIV are connected to supportive services, they can live their
During the planning, we talked about what we could do at the AIDS conference. The ED of the Canadian AIDS Society (CAS) said that he would be unveiling of the AIDS quilt at the opening ceremonies and asked if anyone would like to join him. I told the group that I was certain I could pull together a group of activists living with HIV from across Canada to carry out an action. I honestly was not sure who would say yes, but after putting a call out to people I know who are activists in Canada, we had a large group who were willing to assist. We decided that since it was the quilt we would do a silent protest, to respect the quilt. It was very powerful. We got word that the Minister of Health would be speaking at the closing ceremonies, so we planned another action during his speech that was much noisier. (*Can you insert the video from Facebook? I can't access Facebook on my laptop*) The conference has a Community Activist Liaison who helped us plan our action and was able to work with the Minister's security to allow me to take the stage to talk about the lack of funding for the HIV response in Canada and to call on the Minister of Health to work with people living with HIV. This Community Activist Liaison is at every conference, and I highly recommend working with them if you're ever planning an action at any of the IAS conferences as they will ensure that your message is heard. I've had so many people who have reached out to me to say how powerful our closing ceremony action was. I hope our message was heard by the Minister. Our message to him: "We are here!!" AK: I feel like there are a lot of outlets and support for gay men living with HIV but I don't hear of any for women living with HIV. What do you think should be done and how can we help change this?
best lives. PHAC needs to reprioritize support services if we ever hope to reach the 95 95 95 targets that the government has set for themselves. How can we connect 95% of people diagnosed with HIV to care if they aren't supported to do so? We have a lot of work to do, and we need the government's support to do it.
AK: And before I let you go...what advice would you give to a newly diagnosed female about living with HIV?
AK: Very solid advice. Thank you so much for your time and I look forward to working with you in the future. In order to STOP AIDS we are going to need all hands on deck! And we definitely need more voices like yours. Thank you for the work you do and for all of the people you have helped along the way. This month we are partnering with the Toronto People With AIDS Foundation. As usual, there is NO COVER but we will be accepting donations at the door and we are also selling raffle tickets. There’s a show hosted by Jade Elektra with special guest performances by Billy Poisson & Sherry Sylvain at Buddies In Bad Times Theatre (12 Alexander Street, Toronto)
DN: Surround yourself with people you can trust, who love you and support you. Even if that is just one friend or one other person living with HIV. Find yourself a good doctor familiar with HIV who listens to you. It's ok to fire a doctor until you find one who listens to you and supports you. Take your meds. It won't necessarily be easy at first. You might have side effects. But medications are much better now so you should be fine after a couple of months. Ask your doctor to switch if you just can't deal with the side effects: there's lots to choose from now! Find supportive people who will help you with tips and tricks to take your meds (like a pill minder and a reminder on your phone). Work with your doctor: tell them if you are feeling depressed or anxious. Don't be afraid to go to a support group, or a peer counselor or a therapist to help you get through the rough times. Self care is essential. Take time for yourself every day. You've got this!
EDITOR’S NOTE: We here at POZPLANET are proud to share the journeys of our HIV+ Community but we never hear from our allies who have no problem dating or having relationships with HIV+ people. So, when I asked my colleague, Robert Thomson about sharing his thoughts on stigma he gladly said yes. I am hoping that he gives us some insight into acceptance and empathy for those living with this disease. Share my brother share. From a fairly young age, I knew about the underbelly of fear and denial that manifests as stigma. I grew up in a culture as most of us still do, unfortunately where people were openly derided and devalued based on the colour of their skin or their perceived masculinity or femininity. Most of us don’t need reminders of the long lasting, wide reaching effects that stigma can cause. But I’ve learned that it was probably because of being the subject of stigmatization that I grew to understand it and to not only negate it in my day to day life, but to rise above it as well. No one promised us an easy ride. It doesn’t mean there’s not a great view. If you asked me in 1986 how I felt about the prospect of having a boyfriend who was HIV positive, I’m pretty sure I would have answered that there was zero probability. I was young and HIV/AIDS had only really been on my radar for a couple of years. My response was more than likely tempered by the fact that I had heard so many horrible things about how it spread, and how those afflicted suffered, and even though I was afraid of it, I was also very cautious and, as a result, I made the (unconscious) decision to avoid sex. As the decade progressed, I started to notice that people I used to see in the village all the time weren’t around anymore. People in my age group, plus and minus a few years, were suddenly gone. And then someone I knew died. And then another. And before you could say “it’s a new decade,” I knew dozens of people who had lost their lives after seroconverting. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you how trying it was for all of us. I saw how my parents responded to any non white, non heterosexual, non conforming people and it left a mark on me. I didn’t want to be like them, as harsh as that might sound, and I think, looking back, that I went out of my way to expose myself to exactly the types of people they derided. I think that because of those conscious, as well as other unconscious, reasons, the
My first live in relationship was with an HIV positive man. There were one or two short lived affairs before, and quite a few after him, most of whom were positive The “negotiations” with him were simple, really. I didn’t even have to bring it up. He told me as soon as we met that he was poz, and I heard it, let it sink in, imagined how difficult it must have been for him, and courageous he was to have to have this conversation with prospective partners. He had been through this before, but not with the same outcome. He told me he would never forego condoms, and he was a one man man. I admired and respected him for his candor and courage. When my head didn’t explode, and I didn’t break up with him, I’m pretty sure he was relieved. I’m not trying to paint myself as any kind of saint or deserving of praise for this. To me it was all straightforward, reasonable, rational, the way I think it should be between partners, and it made me comfortable that he was considering my health when it came to our sex lives Maybetogether.we need to flip things around to see what changes occur. Instead of looking in the mirror and seeing ourselves as others might see us (ill, sick, disgusting, perverted, flawed, monstrous, lacking… the list is practically endless), perhaps it’s our accusers/tormentors who are sick, lacking in that one elemental human quality that enables many thousands of different types of people to get along together: empathy. If you don’t have it, you need to get some. It’s
shame and stigma simply did not worm their way into my outlook. As a teenager, most of my friends were in theatre, or were black. Those friends weren’t welcome in my parent’s home. I was reminded of this more often than I care to remember. Decades later, I think I always felt so awkward in my own skin that there seemed to be nothing to gain from looking down my nose at other people. If I, as a white male from an upper middle class background, had problems, I could only imagine how difficult life would be for someone who was living in poverty, or was black, or poor, or had mental health issues, or any health issues, or any combination of the above. Maybe I was just good at being empathic? That might be the tipping point to understanding and dealing with stigma. The more I think on this, and discuss it with friends, the more it makes many uneven pieces fit into place, at least from my perspective. I came out of the closet just as major news outlets were starting to run stories on this mysterious new illness that was killing gay men. To say that it curbed my sexual appetite would be an understatement, but it wasn’t the only factor in my decision. Growing up in a homophobic culture took its toll on me. I was never that comfortable being sexual, so the “fear” of AIDS was only background noise, giving me another reason to abstain. There were other issues I was grappling with as well that fed into my decision to abstain, but when I became more confident and sexually open, I discovered that a lot of gay men my age were positive. Where was my hideous knee jerk reaction? I honestly don’t know. What I do know is that I believed that so long as I practiced safer sex, my life or rather, my sex life was not in jeopardy.
I never had any misgivings about meeting, getting to know, having sex with, having tea with, going dancing with HIV positive men. Maybe because I saw so much racism and homophobia in my formative years, it just didn’t seem right, or logical, or fair, to dump my own insecurities on people I didn’t even know.
a pretty simple task, really. You just imagine sliding your feet into another person’s shoes and take a walk through their life for a while. You never know what you might learn. I always ask myself this question when I’m involved in a debate or argument: what if I’m wrong? It’s not self defeating. It’s empowering. It’s how I learn. Not by shutting myself off, but by opening, relating, sharing, and allowing other people’s voices and experiences sink into my/our collective unconscious and hopefully making me all the better for it. It might sound wishy washy, or delusional, but what else can you think of that will end this ugly cycle? Be sure to check PURE RETRO RADIO here: www.pureretro.ca
Check out DJ Relentless’ HearThis page: https://hearthis.at/djrelentlesstoronto Man...this year has flown by! Can't believe we are already at September. Lots of new music and remixes to discuss as well as Pop Culture and Politics through music. Heavy hitters like Beyonce, Elton John, Chaka Khan, Years & Years, Cardi B, Drake and Calvin Harris are back with some amazing remixes and mashups. It seems like Nicki Minaj took my advice and Elton John & Britney Spears give “Tiny Dancer” a makeover. We’ve got twenty tracks to get through…so let’s get started shall we! Up first is Years & Years with their cover of Estelle’s “American Boy”. I am lovin’ this cover! Don’t get wrong...I’ll still play Estelle’s version, but it’s nice to have a new gay version to program into my sets. I really hope they do a video for it.
Our second selection is the new one from Anitta featuring Missy Elliott called “Lobby”. Watching the rise of Anitta makes me think of the Latin artists who were dominating the Pop charts twenty years ago. Ricky Martin, Shakira & Jennifer Lopez…paving the way for all the Latin crossovers today. About three years ago I was asked to DJ for a Christmas party at a Latin restaurant. I had no idea who Anitta was and was not ready for all the requests for her. Well, I know who she is now! And her new single is FYRE! It’s not in Spanish but her English is on point! The video is great, and I hope that there are remixes on the way.
Check out DJ Relentless’ Mixcloud page: https://www.mixcloud.com/djrelentlessny
Download the video of this mix here: https://krakenfiles.com/view/kpM5q1Wgaf/file.html
Listen to the mix here: https://www.mixcloud.com/djrelentlessny/ear-candy-september-2022
Our seventh track is the Ultimix of “Billie (Loving Arms)” by Fred again… I am just not understanding this obsession with 90s hits but not wanting to give the proper credit or being truthful about vocals. I don’t know who Fred again… is nor do I care. When I listen to this track I hear Billie Ray Martin’s vocal slowed down to make it sound more like a man’s voice. I guess whoever this producer is did pay some kind of homage by naming the track “Billie (Loving Arms)”. And the other slap in the face with these new rebranded tracks is that they only sample the vocals. It’s almost like today’s audiences have such a short attention span that they cannot handle a full vocal.
Chaka Khan is back with her new single, “Woman Like Me”. And while it’s a solid R&B track, I am livin’ for the Terry Hunter Remix Terry is one of my favourite remixers. His production is always true House. And no one touches Chaka on vocals. I hope that this time she shoots a proper music video I want this remix to get promotions instead of pushed out and forgotten. The lyrics are about respecting women and I believe this is very important with the Supreme Court reversing “Roe vs Wade” Must give props to the state of Kansas for standing up for Women’s Reproductive Rights. Let’s hope the midterm elections continue the trend.
And speaking of Latin tracks, “Ibiza” by The Change featuring Kiko el Crazy & Luciano is also FYRE! I don’t understand a word of it but it makes me wanna dance. And I haven’t cut a rug in Theyears!fourth selection is a personal album pick from Beyonce’s new album, “Move” featuring Grace Jones. The first couple of times I barely recognized Grace’s voice. She’s doing a rap in her lower register. So, if you’re not used to hearing her that way you could miss her. I love this track because it has elements of Reggae and Afro Beat to it. There is no video but I found a Tik Tok performance and combined it with the lyric video to create a visual. I think it works. So, remember all those times I was complaining about all these Hip Hop artists doing Trap tracks around 70 BPMs? Well, I think a few of them must have heard me. Or artists are figuring out that it’s okay to do a House track. The new Megan Thee Stallion is “Her” and it’s a House track! Love, love, love it! I want more Hip Hop artists to switch gears and do something for the clubs! Not everyone is sitting around smoking joints and bumpin’ the latest Thug track in their Andcar!
The eighth song in our mix is the Proppa Remix of “Never Leave You” by Lumidee. This Pop hit from the 2000s had an Anthony Acid & DJ Skribble Remix (which was great at that time) but there really hasn’t been any proper remixes that kept the original production intact. Well, now we have one. Not a lot of the vocals were used but it does sound like a Club version of the Ioriginal.wasjoking the other day that Justin Timberlake couldn’t get a hit in traffic. I heard when he was last here in Toronto in concert it was not sold out. Well, I might have to eat my words. It’s not his track but he is a feature on Calvin Harris’ “Stay With Me” featuring Justin, Halsey & Pharrell Williams. And the Amice Remix kinda has me hooked.
Our tenth track is a reboot of Elton John’s classic, “Tiny Dancer”. Just like his duet with Dua Lipa I am guessing this will be just as big of a hit. “Hold Me Closer” featuring Britney Spears will probably keep Sir Elton on the charts for another year. And the David Michael Remix has the perfect sound to appeal to a dance floor. When I heard the original mix of “21 Reasons” by Nathan Dawe featuring Ella Henderson I was not impressed. I felt it was filler at best. It wasn’t until I heard the Sisco Kennedy Club Mix that I gave it another listen. The obvious sampling of “Calabria 2007” by Enur featuring Natasja gives that familiarity needed to catch my attention. This mix will be the one I will be playing!
Now, you know I loves me a remix of a classic and the Kyle Kinch Remix of “My Lovin’ (Never Gonna Get It)” by En Vogue is definitely a banga! Back in the 90s, it was rare that an R&B hit would see a House remix. It would happen every now and then but I would not have even dared to dream of an En Vogue hit getting a full House remix. But here we are and I am in heaven! It is very rare that I program an artist twice in the same EAR CANDY mix but Beyonce’s “Break My Soul” mashup with Madonna’s “Vogue” reset the gage of a hit. And with there being no real official video for “Break My Soul” VJs like myself were scrambling to get some kind of visual to play in our sets. I saw a few that were pretty good but the Robin Skouteris version blew everyone out of the water! His remix incorporated “Show Me Love” by Robin S as well as “Vogue”. He kept both shoutout lists of celebrities from Madonna & Beyonce. In my opinion, this is the only version to play! I don’t think anyone else can bring anything to the table
Every now and then you need a good reason to get drunk and make bad decisions….well, “Bad Memories” by MEDUZA & James Carter featuring Elley Duhe & Fast Boy is definitely a new anthem for that! I like the production and I think it should be a great college party song.
And in our sixteenth spot is the JD Live House Bootleg of “Sticky” by Drake. Man…I am so happy that he, like Megan has switched gears with some great House remixes for their releases. Now if only he would do a video for “Massive” He definitely has some great Club tracks on this album.
selection is actually by my alter ego, Jade Elektra. And since my birthday is the day after Madonna’s I decided to include this present from down under in this month’s mix. The Friday before August 17th, I got an email from a DJ fan, Shawn King in Australia saying that he had remixed my track from 2015 called “Karma”. He even had Paul Norman do a video edit as well. Imagine my surprise when I played this amazing Disco House remix of my song! It totally reinvented the track and I couldn’t wait to play it in a set! I liked it so much that I sent it to Cris Is Bliss (original producer and owner of the label). We are in talks to officially release Shawn’s mix.
And speaking of Madonna, Happy Belated Birthday! And congratulations on the release of the box set “Finally Enough Love”. And might I say that your son, Rocco has grown into quite the hot young man. And being a fellow Leo I can’t help but marvel at your career. I don’t always agree with all of your choices but I do respect you for going your own path and for being a trailblazer. And I was very lucky to find this Megamix. Finally, there is a complete look at your entire Ourcatalogue.fifteenth
And our nineteenth track is the Hotter Remix of “Hot In It” by Tiesto featuring Charli XCX. From the second I heard the original I knew this was going to be a hit! Great hook! Great production! And Tiesto took it up a notch with his Hotter Remix.
And to close out our mix is the return of the Nicki Minaj that the Pop charts has been missing. I said months ago when she dropped her album that the Thug Bitch raps were played out and she needed to return to the formula that made her a household name. Do something upbeat with a great sample like “Anaconda”. Well, she’s back with “Super Freaky Girl”. Complete with the Rick James sample and raunchy lyrics. She performed it at the VMAs this year and also received the Vanguard Award. I noticed that no other female rappers were in the building during the broadcast…interesting. She alsio received several awards that night. Was this payola? How do you win an award for a song that just dropped a couple weeks before the ceremony? It all sorta seemed like a big promotion for her and her new song. I’m glad you got the message that you needed to come back to fun colored wig Nicki with the Pop appeal. Just hope that you can maintain this without slipping into old habits of wanting to sound hard and tough. You’re a mother now. Find some other source to tap into for inspiration for future tracks.
Up next, we have the Chris Ultranova Remix of “Hot Shit” by Cardi B. featuring Lil Durk & Kanye West. First…I want to give props to Cardi for making an appearance at the L A.’s Pride Parade this year. More Hip Hop artists need to embrace the LGBT Community and gain loyal fans instead of continuing the homophobia that has plagued the scene. And thank God for this remix! I don’t think I would have ever played the original. I’m just so sick of this Thug Shit. Let’s get back to some party records!
Don’t forget to get your FREE download of the video mix at the top of this article.
