the lighter side
Who’s Hot, Who’s Not
HOT
Amber Dawn
The Vancouver-based author and community activist was nominated by the Lambda Literary Awards for Sub Rosa, her novel about magical prostitutes working in an otherworldly realm. (It also made the Globe and Mail’s best of 2010 list.) The author’s hobnob with New York’s queer literati should inspire further tales of dark, erotic magic realism.
Catholics
Pick your jaw up off the floor, Mary. The Public Religion Research Institute in Washington, D.C., reported that ordinary Catholics express more support for gay rights that the general public and other Christians. Just like the collection plate, small change matters in a big institution.
Ralph Klein
No, it isn’t Opposite Day. The Vancouver Sun reported that the former Alberta premier—the guy who almost clubbed same-sex marriage with the not-withstanding clause—privatized Alberta’s public adoption system. The unintended result is easier access to adoption by same-sex couples. Yes, Junior, you were a happy accident.
NOT
Exodus International
This “reparative therapy” ministry offered a dose of Jesus to cure the gay in the iPhone app store. A petition was signed and the app was pulled. What’s next, an app from Raid that promises to “kill erections dead?”
Blood and Honour
After much hoopla, this white supremacist group marched in downtown Calgary on March 19. The handfull of uptight whiteys were countered by 200 anti-racist protestors who shouted them down with a collective “Oh no, you did NOT just do that!”
Tony Clement
The Globe and Mail reported on March 24 that the industry minister circulated an e-mail to Conservative Senate members to vote against a bill that would allow the sale of cheap HIV meds to the world’s poorest countries. Clement once held a 25 per cent stake in a pharmaceutical company. No conflict of interest? That’s a bitter pill to swallow.
