May 2004 Issue 7 FREE of charge PPrideride GGuideuide 22004004 OOfficialfficial GGuideuide ttoo PPrideride CCalgaryalgary EEventsvents NNeedeed HHelp?elp? MMap,ap, PPlaceslaces aandnd EEventsvents ooff CCalgary’salgary’s GGayay CCommunityommunity iinn eeveryvery iissuessue PPriaperiape OOnene yyearear ooldld aandnd ccountingounting iinn CCalgaryalgary CCalgary’salgary’s resourceresource fforor BBusiness,usiness, Tourism,Tourism, EEvents,vents, BBarsars aandnd EEntertainmentntertainment fforor tthehe GGay,ay, PPrideride CCalgaryalgary LLesbian,esbian, BBii aandnd GGayay FFriendlyriendly CCommunity.ommunity. RReinventingeinventing IItselftself iinn 22004004 http://www.gaycalgary.com 2 gaycalgary.com magazine 10 MFM Communications Established January 1992 Publisher Steve Polyak Editor M. Zelda 28 Original Graphic Design Deviant Designs Advertising Steve Polyak and Mark Gabruch [email protected] Table of Contents Contributors Rob Diaz Marino, Mark Gabruch, Nina Tron, 4 Bigger and Better Stephen Lock, Greg Nemeth, M. Zelda, Jason Letter from the Publisher Clevett, DJ Krazay Steve, Eric Berndt and the Gay and Lesbian Community of Calgary 5 The Real Truth About Bill C-250 Photographer Steve Polyak and Rob Diaz Marino 7 Gay Militias, Videographer ‘Mainstream’ Gay Politicos, and Dealing With The Steve Polyak and Rob Diaz Marino Christian Right 16 Please forward all inquiries to: Gay Calgary.com Magazine Suite 403, 215 14th Avenue S.W. 10 Pride Calgary Calgary, Alberta T2R 0M2 Reinventing Itself In 2004 Phone (403) 543-6970 or (877) 543-6970 15 Pride Calgary Pride Guide Fax (403) 703-0685 Official Guide to Pride events for June 6 to June 12 E-mail [email protected] Print Run Monthly, 12 times a year 16 Map & Event Listings Mapping Calgary’s core Copies Printed Monthly, 10,000 copies, all distributed in the Calgary Area, more then any other gay publication in Calgary. 21 Ming More than Martinis 37 Distribution points Over 150 points in Calgary, largest distribution points for any Gay publication in Calgary. 23 ISCCA Coronation Photos Distributed by DLRJ Distributions, Gallant 27 Apollo Western Cup Photos Enterprises and by GayCalgary.com Deadline for Ad Bookings 25th of the month 28 Priape Deadline for Ad copy 28th of the month One year old and counting in Calgary Masthead continued on page 4 34 Just Ask Nina! The Dish who Dishes advice 42 Spring 2004 Music with DJ Krazay Steve 43 A Sure Hit 6th Annual Fairy Tales Gay and Lesbian Film Festival gaycalgary.com magazine 3 Bigger and Better Letter from the Publisher By Steve Polyak I did not think this would occur so soon but it is great to see our fi rst 48-page issue, cover to cover with Gay and Lesbian content from Calgary. To accommodate the extra pages, some articles have been moved around in the magazine to new locations. In addition to layout changes, there are also more articles to read too. I hope that you will enjoy the new additions! More exciting things are still yet to come! Coronation 2004 Congratulations to the newly elected Her Most Imperial Sovereign Majesty Empress XXVIII Erica Divine and His Most Imperial Sovereign Majesty Emperor XXVIII Alex- ander De Knight. About 4,000 photos were taken during Coronation week, and as soon as they have been sorted, you will fi nd them online on the GayCalgary.com website alongside video footage from the events too. The newly elected Empress and Emperor have lots of events planned for the month of May, and the months to come. Make sure to make it out to some of their fund raising events. Awards I received an ISCCA Volunteer Appreciation Award dur- ing the night of the Coronation. I am always glad to help out the community as best as I can. I will add this award to my wall where I proudly display my President’s award from the Rainbow Lambda Society during 2001 to 2002, and also First Anniversary Commendations from the Cal- gary Eagle. Pride Week 2004 Continued from page 3 This is the fi rst of two issues that contain the offi cial Legal Council Courtney Sebree Aarbo, Barristers and Solicitors Pride Guide for 2004. Not all events are listed yet – there will be more added in the 2nd issue, but at least it’s a Printers North Hill News heads-up on what we know is happening. This Issue Cover Terry Stevens and Fred Udey at Detour The opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of GayCalgary.com, MFM Communications or the contributors of the magazine. Question or comments about the magazine or other things happening in the community, please E-mail me at People photographed or interviewed, writers, advertisers, contributors and anyone else involved [email protected] with this publication are not necessarily gay, lesbian, bi, bi-curious or trans gendered. They can be straight people that are gay friendly. No part of the publication may be reprinted without the expressed permission of the editor-in-chief. Copyright 2004 4 gaycalgary.com magazine The Real Truth About Bill C-250 tection against malicious or “frivolous” charges being laid. By Stephen Lock Section 319 deals with incitement to hatred and it is Bill C-250 is now law in Canada, after over this section social and religious conservatives were pri- a decade of going through Parliament and marily concerned about. countless months of debate. For those not The arguments used against the amendment suggest, familiar with C-250, it was the amendment to or outright claim, that if ‘sexual orientation’ was added it would effectively render the Bible and other sacred Sections 318 & 319 of the Criminal Code deal- texts as “hate literature” and subject pastors, priests, ing with genocide and incitement to hatred. ministers, rabbis, imans, or religious laity who spoke out The amendment called for the addition of against homosexuality to criminal prosecution. “sexual orientation” to the existing list of co- Interestingly, no such concerns were ever raised about lour, race, religion, or ethnic origin protected Sections 318 and 319 when these sections dealt only with under these sections. people of colour, race issues, religion, or ethnicity. How can be speaking out against blacks, Jews or Muslims, The arguments and concerns of social conservatives, Ukrainians, First Nations or any other minority in the many of whom are also religious conservatives, have manner proscribed by these sections (i.e. inciting hatred received considerable coverage in mainstream media. The and/or genocide) be considered acceptable and proper in concerns centre around the belief that this amendment a democratic society but to extend the same protection to will infringe on freedom of speech and freedom of religion. It won’t. C-250 was very clear – it sought only to add “sexual orientation” as a protected characteristic in the sections dealing with hate propaganda. Nothing else in these sec- tions was changed, apart from, apparently, an additional change that further protects religious views. Those in support of C-250 have rarely had an opportu- nity to outline concerns about the opposition. The media, one can only assume, sees those of us in support of this amendment as “partisan”. There are some real concerns about how this debate has been framed and the mislead- ing statements being made by the leaderships of various conservative lobby groups and religious organizations (primarily Christian). Section 318 deals with genocide. The section defi nes “genocide” as “any of the following acts committed with in- tent to destroy in whole or in part any identifi able group, namely, (a) killing members of the group, or (b) deliberately infl icting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction.” The Section goes on to say, “no proceeding for an of- fence under this section shall be instituted without the consent of the Attorney General.” This is important as it is relatively rare in Criminal Code to have this consent required and it serves here as a pro- gaycalgary.com magazine 5 lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals (and heterosexuals, by something grotesque or evil, meant something ritually the way) suddenly makes these sections attacks against unclean in Hebrew practice. free speech and religion? What I, and those who supported C-250, do care about Section 319 takes great pains to ensure freedom of is the fact that inciting hatred against homosexuals was speech and freedom of religion are NOT compromised not a crime. I am protected in the Criminal Code from while balancing those crucial rights with the right to be zealots or outright bigots inciting hatred against me be- free from persecution and hate promotion. cause I may be a person of colour, from a different coun- try, or am a Jew, Muslim, Jehovah’s Witness, Catholic, Private conversation is protected. or a member of some Appalachian snake-handling cult. If the statements in question are established to be true, With the passage of this amendment into law, Canadian this is protected. jurisprudence took another step to the protection of all Canadians. If the individual is truly (“in good faith” also known as a bona fi de argument) expressing an opinion on a reli- Stephen Lock is the Regional Director for Egale Canada and gious subject or even attempting to establish an argument the Calgary Representative for The Canadians For Equal Marriage based on this, he or she is protected. Coalition. He is also the producer and host of a semi-monthly glbt radio show, Speak Sebastian, airing at 9pm on the 1st and 3rd If the statements are relevant to the public interest, and Wednesday of the month on CJSW FM 90.9. the discussion of the issue is for the public benefi t and if the individual reasonably believes the statements to be We are still looking for contributions to the Goliath’s Defence true (whether they are or not), prosecution cannot occur.