February 2012, Volume 190
With the start of a new year, OutWords has taken a huge step that we expect to be controversial in the queer community – we are no longer running ads for Cruiseline and Squirt. It was a decision that was a long time in the making and one that was debated with some emotion by staff and board members. We know that some people will cheer this move while others will condemn it. Either way, readers deserve an explanation...
Book celebrates Vancouver chorus | Quebec university to study homophobia | Gay group honoured | Ontario to force schools to accept gay-straight alliances | Lesbian book wins prize
The kiss seen around the world | Petition seeks pardon for Turing | Obama links aid to GLBT rights | 21 years for gay slaying | Mayor outed by sex shop purchase | Water cited as cause of homosexuality | Lesbian leads Scottish Tories | Malta ponders more liberal laws
DOUBLE STANDARDS FOR TEACHERS
When teacher Ray Desautels goes to a school function with his partner he knows the gay couple won’t face a hostile reaction. “I have always been able to (attend functions),” he says of the accepting environment in the St. James-Assiniboia School Division in west Winnipeg. “I have found St. James-Assiniboia to be supportive (though it) was not always that way.” That acceptance extends to allowing gay and lesbian teachers to display photos of their significant others in the classroom, he says. Sadly, acceptance isn’t universal...
WALL TO WALL WOMEN
Twenty-two years ago, Mariah Hanson’s dream was to produce an event that was far and above what lesbians were used to. The result has been the incredible Club Skirts Dinah Shore Weekend that takes place over five days in Palm Springs, California, every year – an iconic gathering and music festival for the lesbian community. “It’s an honour to produce an event that in many respects has become a right of passage,” Hanson says. “The Dinah is where facets of our community come together for five days to celebrate
BORN IN THE WRONG PLACE
It didn’t make national headlines, but last March Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced a rare partnership with Canada’s queer community: a pilot project to help refugees persecuted for their sexual orientation find safe haven here. Through the project, Citizenship and Immigration Canada is to work with the Rainbow Refugee Committee to share the cost of sponsoring gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual refugees come to Canada.
PROUD TO BE TWO SPIRIT
In September, Donna Glover and I flew to Denver, Colorado, to attend the International Two-Spirit Leadership Summit 2011. Hiram Calf Looking Sr., co-ordinator for the Two-Spirit Society of Denver, invited leaders from the U.S. and Canadian two-spirit groups to attend this historical event. As co-directors of the Two-Spirited People of Manitoba Inc., we were honoured to be invited and made the journey to the Mile High City.
TECHNOLOGY - TABLETS TAKE OVER
The top change in the tech world this year is going to be that tablets and netbooks are going to swap places in popularity and availability. Netbooks debuted in 2007, but they paved the way for the tablet boom that is now taking off. In our ultra-connected world, the young and tech-savvy are demanding an internet-connected device larger than their smartphones and smaller than their 15-inch laptops.
RAE SPOON: NO MORE SECRETS
In February, Winnipeg will welcome back singer-songwriter Rae Spoon, who will be promoting a sixth full-length release, entitled I Can’t Keep All Of Our secrets. Spoon, who has been performing for 14 years, started out singing country music in their (spoon uses the neutral pronoun they rather than he or she) home province of Alberta. “I was singing about regular country music stuff. Oil rigs, and you know. “Stuff like that,” they say with a laugh.
BUCK ANGEL GETS MOTIVATED
When Buck Angel started marketing himself as “the man with the vagina”, his peers in the adult entertainment industry were not only shocked, they were hostile.
“They hated it,” he says. “They called me a freak.” It took him two years to get a foot in the door, to go from bad business deals to getting awards and having people coming to him with requests to do interviews or educational gigs. “I kind of fell into the crossover from pornography to education,” Angel says with a laugh. “I think my message is more powerful by getting into education.”
JANN ARDEN TAKES A LOOK BACK
“I liken (the book) a little bit to songwriting in that you are honest in it,” Arden says. “In pop music you basically have three and a half minutes to tell your tale. When I was writing it there are lots of things I decided not to write about because I would never want to do anything to hurt my family any more then I already did. I just wanted to paint an accurate, really fair picture of life in the 1970s on the prairies – crock pots and wagon wheels and...
FASHION - UNDIES: IT'S ALL ABOUT THE BRAND
It’s quite possibly the most important piece of clothing you put on, the present you get to unwrap all year long, and this Valentine's season your best offence in making that special someone more than just a friend. The pièce de résistance I speak of is none other than the manty. Boxers, briefs, thongs, jockstraps, and...
FASHION TIPS
It has been said in a number of Hollywood movies that 2012 will be our swan song. If this is the case - in retaining the holiday spirit and erring on the side of the glass is half full – we have put together a list of head-to-toe pre-apocalyptic fashion tips and resolutions to make sure that if we go out, at least it will be in good style.
