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2 FEB 12–25, 2015 XTRA! 21 YEARS OF HEADLINES Doctor denies lesbians sperm Preview Issue, July 30, 1993 BIGGER PRESENCE. STRONGER VOICE. Breaking news. More impact. Global outlook. Local action. Join us @DailyXtra.com PREVIEW OF DAILY XTRA MOBILE (LAUNCHING SOON) (LAUNCHING MOBILE XTRA PREVIEW OF DAILY

Book seizures an international embarrassment Issue 21, June 3, 1994 XTRA! FEB 12–25, 2015 3 4 FEB 12–25, 2015 XTRA! 21 YEARS OF HEADLINES AIDS memorial proposed Issue 51, July 27, 1995 XTRA VANCOUVER’S Published by Pink Triangle Press GAY & LESBIAN NEWS PUBLISHER & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ROSANNE JOHNSON Brandon Matheson #560 FEB 12–25, 2015 Roundup EDITORIAL Counselling Service MANAGING EDITOR Robin Perelle STAFF REPORTER Natasha Barsotti COPY EDITOR Lesley Fraser “Committed to enhancing the lives EVENT LISTINGS [email protected] and relationships of LGBTQ individuals” CONTRIBUTE OR INQUIRE about Xtra’s editorial BELLE ANCELL content: [email protected] EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE [email protected] | (604) 319-2345 Hannah Ackeral, belle ancell, David P Ball, Niko Bell, Nathaniel Christopher, Adam WWW.ROSANNEJOHNSON.COM Coish, Tom Coleman, Tyler Dorchester, Evan Eisenstadt, David Ellingsen, Jeremy Hainsworth, Chris Howey, John Inch, Pat Johnson, Joshua McVeity, Jake Peters, Raziel Reid, Pega Ren, Janet Rerecich If you can flip your partner... COMMUNITY ART & PRODUCTION CREATIVE DIRECTOR Lucinda Wallace shouldn’t you be able to flip your mattress? DESIGNERS Darryl Mabey, Landon Whittaker ADVERTISING Padded on both sides. ADVERTISING & SALES DIRECTOR Ken Hickling This means you can FLIP your mattress. SALES ADMINISTRATION MANAGER Lexi Chuba Two sides, twice the life. SALES TEAM LEAD Lorilynn Barker DISPLAY ADVERTISING Corey Giles 1315 Venables St. NO EST. ONLINE ACCOUNT MANAGER Jessie Bennett FLIP 1964 ADVERTISING COORDINATORS 604.255.2113 | mrmattress.ca A+ Rating Since 1975 JUST SAY NO Brad Deep, Gary Major Picture perfect DISPLAY ADVERTISING Call 604-684-9696 Sensible Prices Friendly Service Zero Pressure or email [email protected]. CLASSIFIEDS Call 604-684-9696 A special tribute to the community or email classifi [email protected]. SPONSORSHIP & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT: we’ve chronicled in these pages Kero Saleib, [email protected] (and will continue to chronicle online) The publication of an ad in Xtra does not Get mean that Xtra endorses the advertiser. FRESH Storefront features are paid advertising content. E20 Action features are advertising intended to advance community involvement and at political action. Nesters Printed and published in Canada. ©2015 Pink Triangle Press. Xtra is published every two weeks by Pink Triangle Press. ISSN 1198-0613 Address: 501–1033 Davie St, Vancouver, BC, V6E 1M7 Offi ce hours: Mon–Fri, 9am–5pm Right in the Heart of Your Community Editorial Former trustees expelled for Phone: 604-684-9696 Fax: 604-684-9697 Website: dailyxtra.com Great Selection U Great Prices U Quality Products Xtra’s digital breaching party guidelines, Email: [email protected] Convenient Locations Friendly Staff universe is expanding says NPA E12 UÊ E PINK TRIANGLE PRESS By David Walberg 6 Seniors worry about aging Founded 1971 Xcetera E 7 without support Researchers DIRECTORS Jim Bartley, Gerald Hannon, Glenn Kauth, Didier Pomerleau, Ken Popert, launch LGBT End-of-Life Gillian Rodgerson Resource Inventory E14 HONORARY DIRECTOR Colin Brownlee Upfront PRESIDENT & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Ken Popert Kamloops addresses CEO, DIGITAL MEDIA David Walberg CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER Andrew Chang Derailed by gaybashing, homophobia Of BC’s 60 school Ritchie Dowrey dies Well-loved districts, 32 now have policies on Yaletown 990 Seymour St. Vancouver E Fountainhead regular never homophobia 14 Monday - Friday 7am - 10pm, Weekends 8am - 10pm regained his independence E9 Why Xtra is moving entirely Nova Scotia law society can’t online Squirt, our YouTube bar TWU grads, judge rules channel and the new epicentre E University’s covenant “may be of activism 16 off ensive to many, but it is not Refreshing the page unlawful” E 10 Daily Xtra gets a makeover, E NPA denies portraying Denike launches new mobile site 18 and Woo as ‘homophobes’ Out in the City ondailyxtra.com Sponsoring connection Xtra pilots new sponsorship Farewell to Xtra Vancouver News E CBC to staff : ‘Stay away’ program to support community from John Baird rumours groups E29 Thanks for over 20 years of telling E Wade MacLauchlan Blitz & Shitz set to become PEI’s fi rst Beyond the Blitz our stories in the community! gay premier By Raziel Reid E 30 E Istanbul court fi nes What’s On E32 bathhouse for rejecting The Brotherhood trans woman By Tyler Dorchester E41 E Video: Funny gay women 1033 Davie St. 604-251-4356 | [email protected] take over YouTube COVER PHOTO BY ADAM COISH

Canadian Human Rights Act amended Issue 72, May 16, 1996 XTRA! FEB 12–25, 2015 5 email [email protected] comment dailyxtra.com & facebook.com/dailyxtra Comment tweet @dailyxtra Xtra’s digital universe is expanding

EDITORIAL ous countries, as our past video productions have DAVID been. And then you’ll see it on our own channels WALBERG on Daily Xtra, YouTube and Vimeo. Our multichannel approach to video provides a model for expansion that we will extend to our journalism in other media — text stories, photos, David Walberg: Just a brief note to audio, graphics — as we seek to broaden our reach. let you know how much I appreciated Pink Triangle Press has a unique mission and you printing my letter. I was so thrilled editorial voice. For more than four decades, we I wanted to rush over and do your hair. have solidly championed sexual freedom and — letter from playwright and author freedom of expression. We hunger not for an equal Tomson Highway, Aug 31, 1997 slice of a stale heterosexual pie, but for a heaping portion of sexual liberation, made to order from scratch. Who doesn’t love receiving a letter? Or the prom- Along the way, we have challenged conventional ise of a new hairdo, for that matter? wisdom. I once received a letter from a Catholic priest When queer activists fought for hate speech in Saskatchewan. There was no local café or bar legislation, author and journalist Irshad Manji where he could collect his Xtra, so he had taken the questioned in Xtra whether such laws were a form bold step of purchasing a subscription. In those of thought policing. days, Xtra was mailed in plain brown envelopes, When gay couples started taking their vows, our discreet as the kinkiest porn, because in some former board member Brenda Cossman advocated musty corners of Canada, a mere interest in gay for revolutionary relationship recognition not Xtra news might destroy one’s life. celebrates its 200th issue back in 1992, with David Walberg standing on the right. JAKE PETERS exclusive to couples who fuck. The priest expressed gratitude for the lifeline Whether practical or provocative, these posi- Xtra presented. A few weeks later, I received an- tions have sparked debate and expanded our other letter, this one from a bishop ordering me to thinking around key issues of the day. These cancel the priest’s subscription. We continued to We hunger not for an equal slice of a stale unique perspectives have saved us from aspiring mail the brown envelopes and were saddened when heterosexual pie, but for a heaping portion of to mediocrity in favour of creating communities they came back to us marked return-to-sender, hav- that best suit our fabulous realities. ing being intercepted by the Catholic Stasi. sexual liberation, made to order from scratch. Over the years, we’ve also distinguished our- Gay news was hard to come by in those days. selves by tackling our not-so-fabulous realities, Connecting to a community was even harder. already publish signifi cantly more local journalism queer people around the world, and we are inspired including drug abuse, HIV transmission and com- Writing letters to the editor was a way even those on Daily Xtra than we did in the Xtra print editions. to support these struggles. munity infi ghting, or as Sharon Tate says in the in the closet or the boondocks could make contact At the same time, we look to the wider world. It’s noteworthy many of these stories are break- fi lm Valley of the Dolls, why “fags can be so bitchy.” and participate. Last fall, during the Toronto International Film ing on video. We are one of the only consistent For our communities to be strong, we believe we Missives took the form of angry screeds (these Festival, the producers of a queer fi lm from Kenya producers of queer video journalism in the world. need to speak candidly about hard issues, especial- have proliferated, sadly, as trolls highjack the visited our offices. Fearing reprisals, they had Our videos are gaining in popularity across numer- ly as some media prefer to present a whitewashed comments sections of websites everywhere) but submitted the fi lm to TIFF anonymously, and we ous platforms. façade in exchange for mainstream acceptance. also poetry, cartoons, homemade stickers, even were honoured to interview them as they chose Last year, we released a video documentary We’ve delved into seemingly intractable dis- lovingly crafted chapbooks. to publicly come out to the world. called Wham, Bam, mr Pam. It’s the story of the agreements between some radical feminists and For many scribes, the thrill of publication was “I am not afraid to go home,” producer George lone major female producer of gay male porn. The trans communities. More recently, in 2013, we greater than the rush of a hailstorm of Facebook Gachara told Daily Xtra in a video interview. “Shit doc provides a behind-the-scenes look at how one produced a video series about PrEP, the contro- likes. Tomson Highway, a Cree from northernmost can happen, but I want to go back home.” Gachara woman forms her own community in a subculture versial HIV prevention treatment that critics Manitoba, captures it in the quote above. was arrested when he returned to Kenya and is generally sensationalized for exploitation, drug warned would promote new sexually transmit- Today, priests in Saskatchewan have a world now out on bail. More recently, a video interview addiction and suicide. ted epidemics among gay men. That story was so of online gay connections at their fi ngertips. Gay we shot with a lesbian Kenyan judge threatened The fi lm has screened at queer fi lm festivals in underreported at the time that we garnered a Best news, porn, chat and hookups are available to all. to become headline news and the subject of par- Toronto, San Francisco, Copenhagen and Atlanta. Web Series nod at the Banff World Media Awards. These days, perhaps Tomson Highway is doing liamentary debate there. This month, it will play to houses at Sydney’s Arouse debate. Nurture communities. Incite Arianna Huffi ngton’s hair. We have begun to participate in international Mardi Gras, and it has just been invited to a major action. Our mission statement implores us to What does this crowded, chaotic queer virtual rights struggles, with all the risk and responsibility European fi lm festival. Once it completes its world work to these ends. We honour the legacy of Xtra reality mean for Xtra as we focus our eff orts on this involves. Our times are truly revolutionary for tour, our doc will likely be broadcast on TV in vari- and The Body Politic before it by continuing these the digital universe? eff orts in the digital realm. Please join us. Fortunately, we enjoy some unique positioning. The outcome that we seek is this — gay and lesbian We have deep roots in our traditional core com- people daring together to set love free. David Walberg was Xtra’s publisher in Toronto from munities in Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa, and 1994 to 2005. He is now CEO of digital media at Xtra is published by Pink Triangle Press, at 2 Carlton St, Ste 1600, Toronto, M5B 1J3. we intend to continue to strengthen those ties. We Pink Triangle Press, which publishes Xtra.

6 FEB 12–25, 2015 XTRA! 21 YEARS OF HEADLINES Bars endangered: Vancouver has gone from more than a dozen queer bars to four in 16 years Issue 95, April 3, 1997 XCETERA

SELFIE ACTIVISM Kisses for Vitaly Upon seeing anti-gay St Petersburg lawmaker Vitaly Milonov on their flight, two Russian women took a photo of themselves in a lip lock with the politician in the background. The image, posted on Instagram and Vkontakte, Russia’s version of Facebook, is making its viral way around the world.

BUZZ DAILY XTRA

MOST-READ IMAGES POPPERFOTO/GETTY Most-read stories in January Why Is the CBC Censoring 1 Canadians to Protect John Baird? Hole and Corner columns: 2 Eating Out on Yonge Street & My First Dungeon Party Gay Publisher Xtra to Embrace 3 Digital, Close Print Barebacking in Gay Porn: Behind 4 the Scenes Video: Davey Wavey 5 Under Fire Most-read Vancouver OLYMPIC DECISION stories in January Ask the Expert: There’s A very public 1 Blood in My Cum One in 10 People Are Gay? 2 Not Even Close transition Deferred from Giving Blood, Gay 3 Men Urged to Donate to Research In the wake of a barrage of media speculation about the changes in Odyssey Nightclub Could Reopen his appearance, 1976 Olympic gold 4 in New Location in a Few Months medallist Bruce Jenner will sit down Sex Now Survey Looking for Gay with ABC’s Diane Sawyer to discuss 5 and Bisexual Men to Participate his transition from male to female.

Prostitutes fear for safety Issue 134, Oct 1, 1998 XTRA! FEB 12–25, 2015 7

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8 FEB 12–25, 2015 XTRA! Canadian Human Rights Act amended Issue 72, May 16, 1996 Mr Denike and Ms Woo, while sensitive to and understanding of the LGBTQ community, were less sensitive and understanding than the Upfront consensus of the NPA caucus. NPA E12 Ritchie Dowrey’s stolen life Well-loved Fountainhead regular never regained his independence after gaybashing

GAYBASHING edly expressed the desire to move back ROBIN PERELLE downtown. “I want to play golf; I want to go on a boat, catch fish. I want to Ritchie Dowrey, the well-loved man live,” he said. “And drink beers with my who was permanently incapacitated by friends,” he added, smiling and shaking a powerful punch that sent him crashing Wincherauk’s hand. to the hard tile floor near the entrance Wincherauk says that visit to the to the Fountainhead Pub nearly six Fountainhead marked the high-water years ago, died in a care home Jan 31. mark of Dowrey’s recovery. He never Dowrey never regained his indepen- moved back downtown, never again dent life. His friend Lindsay Wincher- lived independently and, in the last few auk tells Xtra that Dowrey had become months, had more bad days than good. bedridden in the last year and no longer “He was definitely not in good shape,” recognized anyone, though he still lit Wincherauk says. up when people came to visit him in his For his vicious punch that perma- Burnaby care home. nently injured the man who offered Dowrey’s brother Allan in- to buy him a drink at a gay bar, Shawn formed Xtra by email of Ritchie’s death Woodward was sentenced to prison in Jan 31 but declined to comment further. November 2010. Judge Jocelyn Palm- Prior to the gaybashing that derailed er ruled that his action was motivated by his life on March 13, 2009, Dowrey hatred and gave him a stiffer sentence of was a friendly, fun-loving man with an six years for aggravated assault. infectious, easy laugh and, friends say, Wincherauk and other witnesses a kind word for everyone. A regular at who stopped Woodward as he stepped the popular Davie Street pub, he could over Dowrey’s prone body, left the pub usually be found at the pool table or and attempted to walk away heard him at his favourite spot at the corner of repeat, “He’s a faggot. He deserved it. the bar. He never missed a Lions’ or The faggot touched me. He deserved it.” Ritchie Dowrey, seen here in a Langley care home in October 2010, couldn’t remember the gaybashing that deprived him Canucks’ game. “I see no other possible explanation of his retirement years. JANET RERECICH The assault left Dowrey with bleeding for Mr Woodward’s behaviour than on the brain, a shift in his brain position virulent homophobia,” Palmer ruled. that Dowrey posed no threat to him. “I think it’s important that all of that Dowrey was 62 years old and cel- and a skull fracture. Witnesses said they The judge’s ruling was welcomed by Woodward will have to report to a pa- was for something,” Wincherauk says. ebrating his retirement among friends heard a “sickening thud” when his head members of the gay community who role officer until his full sentence is “Do people just die and nobody cares? when Woodward attacked him. hit the tile floor. He needed 47 staples on had been pushing the justice system completed on Nov 7, 2016. I think it’s important not to let that his head, Allan told Xtra in 2010, tracing for years to recognize gaybashings and Wincherauk says he hopes Woodward happen; that we remember him and that Watch Xtra’s video interview with a line from temple to ear. “I counted punish them more severely according “feels a ton of remorse today. I hope he he was a great guy and a happy guy. And Ritchie Dowrey and read about his them all.” to sentencing provisions in the Criminal feels sick to his stomach.” that nobody deserves it.” struggle for recovery on dailyxtra.com. The doctors had to relieve the pres- Code of Canada that call for a harsher “What was it all about?” he asks. sure on his brother’s brain to keep him penalty for hate-motivated crimes. “Here’s this horrible event and it con- alive, Allan said. Two months later, Woodward’s crime was the second in nects a whole bunch of people, and WE’LL MISS Ritchie still couldn’t move his left side 2010 to be recognized as a gaybashing you go through this trial and you think and had only minor motion on his in Vancouver, and he was sentenced there’s some justice.” But then Wood- YOU XTRA right. More than a year later, he was accordingly. ward gets to return to his life and Dow- incapable of independent self-care and Woodward was granted full parole in rey does not, Wincherauk says. He finds VANCOUVER struggled to speak and walk. He could May 2013 after serving less than three some solace in the hope that Dowrey NEWS! recall only fragments of his former life. years behind bars. The Parole Board was never fully aware of his “medical By 2011, he had regained some of his of Canada found that although Wood- prison” — “because I couldn’t imagine speech and was more able to sustain a ward believed his sentence was “too what it would be like just sitting there, 604-893-2201 conversation. On a filmed trip back to punitive,” he “demonstrated genuine not having your life and watching the www.aidsvancouver.org the Fountainhead with Xtra, he repeat- remorse” and had come to recognize tick-tick-tick of the clock.”

Pride too corporate: Penny Issue 234, Aug 8, 2002 XTRA! FEB 12–25, 2015 9 Mortgage advice Nova Scotia law society can’t you can trust. bar TWU grads, judge rules Greg Fiddler Providing expert advice and service to +RPH)LQDQFLQJ$GYLVRU first time homebuyers, self-employed EDUCATION freedom of religion.” The decision is the first court ruling Serving Vancouver and individuals and new immigrants. JEREMY HAINSWORTH the Surrounding Area in Canada on whether provincial legal- Cell: 778-903-2287 Call me today. The Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society profession regulators have the power Email: greg.fiddler@ (NSBS) does not have the authority to reject TWU law school graduates. scotiabank.com to deny future graduates of Trinity Campbell questioned whether the Western University’s (TWU) proposed NSBS had “reasonably considered” law school the possibility of articling whether its decision, and how it af- in the province, a Nova Scotia Supreme fected religious freedom, is consistent Court judge ruled Jan 28. with Canadian legal values of inclusive- ® Registered trademark of The Bank of Nova Scotia. While the BC Christian university is ness, pluralism and respect for the pleased with the ruling, many gay law- rule of law. yers are disappointed, and law societies “The legal authority of the NSBS ® Registered trademark of The Bank of Nova Scotia. across Canada — especially in Ontario cannot be extended to a university be- and BC, which are also facing TWU cause it is offended by those policies or lawsuits — are mulling the decision. considers those policies to contravene At the heart of the case is TWU’s Nova Scotia law that in no way applies community covenant, a document all to it,” Campbell ruled. Trinity Western University’s covenant students must sign that forbids sex out- “may be offensive to many but it is During December arguments in side of heterosexual marriage. In April, not unlawful,” Justice Jamie Campbell the case, NSBS lawyer Peter Rogers the NSBS decided it would block TWU ruled Jan 28. JEREMY HAINSWORTH called TWU a “rogue law school” and students from its bar admission pro- compared it to all-white schools in the gram unless the university dropped or of significance. Refusing a TWU law United States. “If we validate Trinity Thanks Xtra changed the covenant. TWU took the degree will not address discrimination Western University’s law application, society to court, arguing that the ban against anyone in Nova Scotia.” we validate homophobia, and the mes- amounts to religious discrimination. The NSBS’s requirement that TWU sage to LGB youth is that they do not “The NSBS argued that its decision amend its covenant to have its de- matter,” Rogers argued. was an effort to uphold the equality grees accepted is an infringement of Campbell said the covenant “may be rights of LGBT people,” Justice Jamie religious freedom and not a trivial offensive to many, but it is not unlaw- for over two Campbell wrote. “It was not an exercise matter, he added. “There is a differ- ful. TWU is not the government. Like of anyone’s equality rights. It was the ence between recognizing the degree churches and other private institu- decision of an entity acting on behalf of and expressing approval of the moral, tions, it does not have to comply with the state purporting to give force and religious or other positions of the the equality provisions of the Charter. decades of voice to those rights. The NSBS is not institution.” He said a refusal to ac- It has not been found to be in breach the institutional embodiment of equal- cept an institution’s legitimacy over of any human-rights legislation that ity rights for LGBT people,” the judge concerns about the state’s perceived applies to it. ruled. “To justify an infringement of endorsement of religiously informed “The Charter is not a blueprint for publication and religious liberty, the NSBS action has moral positions would have a “chilling moral conformity,” he continued. “Its to be directed at achieving something effect on the liberty of conscience and purpose is to protect the citizen from the power of the state, not to enforce compliance by citizens or private in- community stitutions with the moral judgments of WWW.ANKORS.BC.CA the state.” Campbell said people have a right to attend a private religious support in university that imposes a religiously based code of conduct. “That is the case even if the effect of that code is to exclude others or offend others who Vancouver! will not or cannot comply with the code of conduct,” he added. “Learning in an environment with 1-800-421-AIDS people who promise to comply with the code is a religious practice and an KOOTENAY/BOUNDARY expression of religious faith. There is nothing illegal or even rogue about HIV/AIDS NETWORK, OUTREACH that,” Campbell ruled. “That is a messy HIM is dedicated to strengthening the health & SUPPORT SOCIETY and uncomfortable fact of life in a and well-being of gay men. pluralistic society. Requiring a person West Kootenay Boundary Regional Office to give up that right in order to get his THANKS for all the years 101 Baker Street | Nelson, BC V1L 4H1 or her professional education recog- of service to the community nized is an infringement of religious (250) 505-5506 | [email protected] that Xtra's print edition East Kootenay Regional Office has provided. freedom.” 209-16th Ave. N. Cranbrook, BC From all of us at ANKORS! V1C 5S8 | (250) 426-3383 Read the full story at dailyxtra.com.

10 FEB 12–25, 2015 XTRA! 21 YEARS OF HEADLINES Barebacking subculture emerges in gay community Issue 237, Sept 19, 2002 Safe schools for some Issue 257, June 26, 2003 XTRA! FEB 12–25, 2015 11 GENERAL NPA denies portraying DENTISTRY Denike and Woo as dr. langston dr. anna raymond preis ‘homophobes’

POLITICS knowledge or consent of the NPA and NATHANIEL CHRISTOPHER was therefore in breach of the party’s terms of reference and code of conduct. Vancouver’s Non-Partisan Association “The terms of reference include (NPA) and NPA Councillor Elizabeth that members will refrain from speak- Ball deny that they falsely portrayed ing publicly to the media against any former school trustees Ken Denike and consensus-based caucus position and Sophia Woo as intolerant homophobes will notify the caucus chair as soon as suite 512-1033 davie street Serving the Community following Denike and Woo’s expulsion reasonably possible regarding press re- from the party’s caucus last June. leases of media events,” the NPA states on-site parking available 604.687.1008 since 2000 Denike and Woo are suing the NPA in a court document obtained by Xtra. and Ball for defamation. In their no- “The Code of Conduct includes that

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Ken Denike and Sophia Woo are suing the NPA for defamation. The NPA says the pair breached party guidelines and acted in their own self-interest. NATHANIEL CHRISTOPHER tice of claim, filed Dec 18 in BC Su- members will not surprise each other preme Court, Denike and Woo allege on issues or positions.” that the NPA and Ball created a “false The NPA further states in its response and misleading” portrayal of them as that Denike and Woo were advanc- “homophobes” who are “intolerant ing their own views in their own self- of the LGBTQ+ and gender variant interest and acting against the best communities.” interests of the NPA and the “majority of The former trustees were eject- the residents of the City of Vancouver.” ed from the NPA’s caucus following a “Mr Denike and Ms Woo, while sensi- June 13, 2014, press conference in which tive to and understanding of the LGBTQ they claimed the Vancouver School community, were less sensitive and un- Dahl & Connors is Board’s amended sexual-orientation derstanding than the consensus of the very pleased to announce and gender-identity policy would ad- NPA caucus,” the NPA response states. that our articling student, versely aff ect the enrolment of interna- “Sophia and I are pleased to be de- Sheena Massiah, has been called to the bar tional students and West Side students scribed by the NPA and Ms Ball as ‘sen- of British Columbia and in public schools. Woo and Denike were sitive and understanding of the LGBTQ will join the firm as an the only two school trustees to later vote community,’” Denike tells Xtra. “That associate in March. against the policy amendment. They view was clearly not what the NPA was Congratulations, Sheena! subsequently lost their bid for reelec- intending to convey with their press tion in the Nov 15 municipal election. release issued while the election was In their response to Denike and Woo’s pending. The suit will continue.” civil claim, fi led Jan 16, the NPA and In a statement released following 604.687.8752 620-1033 Davie Street, Vancouver, BC dahlconnors.com Ball say the “Denike/Woo Press Confer- Denike and Woo’s June press confer- ence” was organized without the prior ence and their subsequent expulsion

12 FEB 12–25, 2015 XTRA! 21 YEARS OF HEADLINES Not a gaybashing: Crown asks for less than three years in Webster killing Issue 269, Dec 11, 2003 from the party, the NPA said its caucus “concluded that Denike and Woo do Thank you Xtra! not share the same level of sensitiv- ity and understanding of the LGBTQ+ We will miss Rक़ॠक़क़॥ community.” Denike and Woo also take issue with seeing you comments made by Ball on a June 13 in print! broadcast of CBC Radio One’s On the Coast program. “On an issue that is so TLS PAINTING critical to so many of us in our caucus and that is something that is very, very 778-995-1665 clear to us how we feel about it, we simply do not feel that the two commis- sioners share the sensibilities that the rest of the caucus feels, and therefore TM it is not possible to work together any Level One Construction further,” Ball said at the time. 1 Denike and Woo claim that these Dream. Design. Build. comments have seriously injured their 3398 Dunbar Street characters, credit and reputations and (at West 18th) that they have suffered damage as a 778.330.7799 result. They allege the comments paint [email protected] them as homophobes who do not fully www.mbfunerals.com support efforts to assist LGBT and gender-variant people in Vancouver schools. They also allege that comments were published with “ulterior motive or purpose of enhancing public percep- tion of the Defendant’s commitment to principles of inclusion and under- standing of the LGBTQ+ and gender variant communities in the lead-up to the November 15, 2014 civic elections.” The NPA and Ball, however, say the Award Winning Renovations press release and CBC interview, re- Serving the community since 2000 604 . 337. 1428 | levelonerenovations.ca ferred to as “the Publications” in their response, constitute fair comment on matters of public interest. “Further, the Publications were made on privileged occasions, as they related to the suitability of Mr Denike and Ms Woo to be members of the NPA and to be candidates for public office,” the response claims. The NPA and Ball say that Denike and Woo “have a history of acting contrary Vimalasara Adelene da Jillian Donna to the NPA Caucus Terms of Reference Mason-John Soul Poet Christmas Mayhem Farewell to Xtra and its Code of Conduct.” “This includes appearing in a video Queer Black Women Performers in 2011 prepared and published by the Celebrate Black History Month Vancouver News Marriage Anti-Defamation Alliance, a US organization that opposes gay mar- Saturday February 28, Heartwood Community, riage, for which on January 16, 2012 the 318 E. Broadway, Vancouver and thanks for VSB passed a motion ‘that the Board censures Trustees, Ken Denike and soundsandfuries.com/concerts Sophia Woo, due to their comments your many years regarding their public misrepresenta- tion of the Vancouver Board of Educa- 11th Annual BOLDFest tion’s anti-homophobia policy,’” the of support! NPA response reads. “This resulted in Bold, Old(er) Lesbians & Dykes a threat of litigation by Mr Denike and Ms Woo. The video, the censure mo- “We Who Laugh, Last” tion and threat of litigation received substantial coverage in the traditional media and in social media, including in Sept 10-13 2015 803 East Hastings Street, the Vancouver Courier, Straight.com, Coast Plaza Hotel, Vancouver Sun, the Dailyxtra.com.” Vancouver Vancouver, BC The NPA and Ball have asked the court to dismiss Denike and Woo’s law- Entertainment, Tel. 604-893-2200 suit. They declined Xtra’s request for comment. Workshops, 150-200 lesbians!! For the full story, Sheila Norgate Comic Lisa Koch go to dailyxtra.com. heylisa.com

Dyke march in the works Issue 277, April 1, 2004 XTRA! FEB 12–25, 2015 13 BRIEFS the school district contrary to the code. tells Xtra he’s thrilled that a district Instead, it will promote a learning en- that once seemed resistant to such a vironment that emphasizes tolerance, policy has adopted one he calls simple Kamloops addresses equality and non-discrimination. yet effective. The policy also says the board is com- “It reflects the Kamloops I know,” he homophobia mitted to hiring employees on the basis says. “It’s one of the more simple poli- of merit consistent with human rights; cies. It touches on what it needs to. I’m The Kamloops/Thompson school board providing students with educational happy with it.” — Jeremy Hainsworth voted Feb 2 to add anti-homophobia programs to help them participate in language to its anti-discrimination and and contribute to a diverse society; human rights policy. reducing language and cultural barriers; Seniors fear lack “The intent of this policy is to en- and communicating effectively with all sure that an environment of tolerance students, parents, employees and other of support and respect is fostered, promoted and partner groups in its diverse community. supported throughout the district’s DeBruijn says some people pushed “I do not fear dying. What I fear is the working and learning community, spe- for a discrete anti-homophobia policy, quality of my last few weeks, months or cifically for sexual orientation, racial rather than adding provisions to the years of life,” Gayle Roberts says. and gender diversity,” the policy says. district’s existing anti-discrimination Roberts, 74, attended a town hall in With this move, Kamloops/Thomp- policy, while others preferred the latter Vancouver Jan 28 for LGBT seniors son becomes the 32nd school district approach to buttress and broaden the called Fostering End of Life Conver- in BC to adopt a policy that explic- existing policy. sations, Care and Community, after itly addresses homophobia. As of mid- “The board struggled a little bit with participating in a focus group last fall May 2014, only 31 of the province’s 60 that part because they were supportive on end-of-life planning. districts had passed such policies; 29 of all views,” he says. The town hall was an opportunity for had yet to explicitly address discrimi- David Komljenovic, president of the principal investigator Brian de Vries, nation based on sexual orientation in Kamloops Thompson Teachers’ Asso- along with research assistants Patrick their districts. ciation, tells Xtra that, while the policy Aubert and Robert Beringer, to share Kamloops superintendent Karl de- has been a long time in coming, he’s findings from the focus groups. “One of Bruijn tells Xtra the board wanted to pleased with it. “I think it’s very impor- the things that came up is that aging is create a policy that would foster a posi- tant because it addresses issues related a common concern,” Aubert says. “The tive learning and employment environ- to LGBT students and teachers and reality is, we don’t all age the same. We ment in line with the Charter of Rights support staff,” he says. “We haven’t had have different needs.” and Freedoms and the BC Human Rights those specific protections prior to that.” Bradford McIntyre’s needs centre on Code. The amended policy says it will “I’ve heard nothing but praise for the being HIV-positive. For him, chronic not tolerate racism, homophobia or policy,” he adds. medical concerns, medication interac- any other form of discrimination within Gay education advocate Ryan Clayton tions and a renewed fear of illnesses

14 FEB 12–25, 2015 XTRA! 21 YEARS OF HEADLINES Crystal palace: A candid look at the highs and lows of doing meth Issue 301, March 3, 2005 SAVE P rofessional VOTED BEST REALTOR THE Xtra! Reader’s Poll R esponsive Top 10% of all Lower Mainland I n Touch Realtors - 18 years DATE! Former Gay & Lesbian Business “The world is still heteronormative, and D ependable I don’t want to live out my last years Association Board Director in that atmosphere,” says Christine E thical Donates 5% of commissions to Waymark. JOHN INCH your favourite charity upon purchase associated with aging are added to anxi- AUG 8 –15 of a new home eties he already shares with other aging LGBT people. Award-winning service to the Gay and De Vries says the legacy of HIV domi- newwestpride.ca Lesbian Community for over 20 years nated the gay male focus groups. “It’s part of our community dialogue, our Re/Max Real Estate Services collective experience. It’s in us in a way 604.506.4264 s [email protected] that’s not true of other groups, and I think that becomes a limiting factor in how we, as gay men especially, seek support,” he says. Christine Waymark, whose partner, Robin Rennie, died Jan 4, carries her own list of concerns that grew out of What are you struggling to find her partner appropri- ate care. “Who will be there for me, how do I manage alone, how can I stay in my For all things antique, retro, home, what are my options if I don’t?” vintage, collectible, and just plain doing in 2015? she asks. fabulous, check us out! “The world is still heteronormative, and I don’t want to live out my last years in that atmosphere,” she says. Sunday • February 22 • 10am-3pm A key part of the town hall was the Retro Design & Antiques Fair HIM is here for you! introduction of the LGBT End-of-Life Croatian Cultural Centre, Vancouver Resource Inventory specifically for Brit- Sunday • March 22 • 10am-3pm ish Columbia, which lists services that st are either LGBT-run or LGBT-friendly. 21 Century Flea Market — Hannah Ackeral Croatian Cultural Centre, Vancouver Sat & Sun • April 18 & 19 • 10am-5pm For more on the End-of-Life Kerrisdale Antiques Fair Resource Inventory, go to Men On Men CONNECT dailyxtra.com. Kerrisdale Arena, Vancouver Sunday • May 24 • 10am-3pm st 21 Century Flea Market condom packaging Yoga with HIM Croatian Cultural Centre, Vancouver (in Vancouver & Surrey) Sunday • June 28 • 10am-3pm Retro Design & Antiques Fair Croatian Cultural Centre, Vancouver Sunday • July 26 • 10am-3pm 21st Century Flea Market Croatian Cultural Centre, Vancouver New activities starting regularly. Sat & Sun • September 5 & 6 • 10am-5pm Check HIM out for details at www.checkhimout.ca/events Kerrisdale Antiques Fair Kerrisdale Arena, Vancouver

Sunday • September 20 • 10am-3pm Want to be in the know? 21st Century Flea Market Croatian Cultural Centre, Vancouver Sign up for our free, monthly newsletter for the latest news: For More Information www.21cpromotions.com 21st Century Promotions 604.980.3159

SpongeBob is seducing the children Issue 302, March 17, 2005 XTRA! FEB 12–25, 2015 15 Why Xtra is moving

Squirt, our YouTube channel and entırely online the new epicentre of activism

PUBLISHING struggling for life in today’s online-news hunger NIKO BELL games: revenue without advertising. Squirt’s 700,000 active members make it a When I heard Xtra was shutting down its print behemoth compared to Xtra’s readership, and operations, I instantly thought of my hometown its revenues subsidize Xtra’s news-gathering, paper, the Nelson Daily News. which in turn flows back into Squirt as shared con- The News published valiantly, if sloppily, for tent. It’s a little poetic, really: Xtra advocates for more than a century before it was bought out people’s freedom to have gay sex, and gay people’s by a competitor in 2010 and promptly closed its desire to have sex keeps Xtra’s presses running. doors. By that time, I was in journalism school, Squirt’s success, in fact, was an inspiration watching Halifax’s Daily News go down in flames. for Xtra’s digital-only transformation, Matheson Everywhere, the story repeats: subscriptions dive, says. The press had had to go through one techno- advertising evaporates, costs expand, and the web logical shift already, when phone hookup service has no business model. Cruiseline was overtaken by Squirt. So when you, like me, heard on Jan 14 “In some ways, what Squirt is to Cruiseline, Daily that Xtra will soon be taking its print papers off Xtra is to the print edition,” Matheson says. the streets, you probably felt you had heard this So what now? In the following months, Xtra will story before. I know I did. At the request of my roll out a new mobile site, followed by a revision editor, however, I spent the next two days talking to Daily Xtra in the spring. The new release will to some of the decision makers at Xtra and digging collapse the Vancouver, Ottawa, Toronto, Canada through all the documents they gave me. It left me and world pages into one customizable front more optimistic that Xtra’s story is not the story page. Other improvements, like a makeover of the of the Nelson Daily News. comments section, which Walberg admits is less Take what I say with a grain of salt if you like; than adequate, are in the pipes. Despite the disap- after all, I freelance for Xtra. Nevertheless, this pearance of papers from the street, he promises is what I learned. that Daily Xtra will produce more local content It’s not because the papers weren’t doing well. than ever and stay true to its gay village roots. In fact, they were more popular than ever. As of The last issues of Xtra in print will appear in today, Xtra prints about 70,000 copies between its their purple boxes on Feb 12 in Vancouver and Ot- three markets of Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa. tawa and on Feb 19 in Toronto. At the same time, According to an independent audit commissioned the press will cut 12 employees across Canada, two by Pink Triangle Press last year, an enviable 89 in editorial and the others in advertising and pro- percent of those papers were picked up, a four- duction. Five new digital positions will be filled. percent rise from 2013. And yes, publisher and I still don’t know whether Daily Xtra’s new editor-in-chief Brandon Matheson says that model will work, whether Squirt’s revenues will With traffic to dailyxtra.com growing by approximately 30 percent in 2014, interest in Daily Xtra print ad revenues were slipping, but not at the Travel doubling, and average video views on our YouTube channel climbing to about 40,000 per continue to sufficiently sustain Daily Xtra’s sto- precipitous rate of other newspapers. day, it’s become clear that our readers are migrating online in droves. rytelling, or whether a new generation of queer If anything, Xtra’s papers were the victim of the people will be interested in reading a website web’s success. Xtra’s digital media head, David online that you can’t do in print. It just made more can be reported in print or online, but there’s like dailyxtra.com. But even as it changes, the Walberg, told me that traffic to dailyxtra.com grew sense to proceed with a digital-only strategy.” something about video that’s well equipped for new Xtra will still have something in common by about 30 percent in 2014, and the website’s If you want a good example of Xtra’s burgeoning emotion.” with its 1970s roots. Like its parent paper The readership is now estimated to be double that web presence, take a look at its YouTube channel. One of the most promising things about Xtra’s Body Politic before it, Xtra has always been a of the three print papers combined. In the same At the beginning of 2012, it was pulling in a few YouTube channel, he says, is how international proudly activist paper, and now, as always, it will year, interest in Daily Xtra Travel doubled. It was hundred views a day. Then Xtra’s web team started it’s become. Canadian viewers come in only fourth be publishing in the same medium where activ- clear, Matheson told me, that Xtra’s audience was to focus seriously on video content, and by the end on the source traffic charts, behind the United ism is happening. The first gay activists in Canada migrating to the web in droves. Print was cost- of the year, 15,000 videos were being streamed States, Brazil and the UK. Even Russia and the handed out leaflets on courthouse steps. Today, ing money and serving a rapidly narrowing slice daily. In 2014, the channel averaged nearly 40,000 United Arab Emirates have racked up more than protests are organized in Facebook groups. of Xtra’s audience. views a day. To put that in perspective, for every 100,000 views since Xtra hit YouTube in 2007. “The two things that we do as an organization “This is the economic reality of news- person who picked up a copy of Xtra on the street, As bullish as Daily Xtra’s prospects are, however, are to try to create debate in the community print. Xtra is not immune to all the negative seven people watched a video on Xtra’s YouTube the real reason for hope in Xtra’s future is Squirt. and to encourage activism,” Walberg says. “And factors that other print media have been encoun- channel. According to Walberg, 90 percent of Pink Triangle debate and activism are two things that are pre- tering,” Matheson says. “When we looked at the “We’re building a pretty incredible archive Press’s revenue now comes from the web, and the dominantly happening online now. And I don’t number side and the financial side, and when we of what gay life is like in our times,” says Frank bulk of that comes from Squirt membership fees. mean activism in terms of clicktivism; I mean looked at the human resources side, it became Prendergast, who runs Xtra’s video operations. As Pink Triangle Press’s self-described “gay sex organizing real-world activism.” clear that our best strategy was to reach more “Also, video is an emotional medium. It’s able to cruising hookup site,” Squirt gives Xtra a busi- “So that’s really a good space to be in if that’s people, to be more timely, to be able to do things transmit excitement, anger. All these emotions ness model the envy of almost every newspaper what you’re trying to accomplish in the world.”

16 FEB 12–25, 2015 XTRA! 21 YEARS OF HEADLINES The recriminalization of queer sex Issue 334. June 8, 2006 In memoriam: Jane Rule, March 28, 1931–Nov 27, 2007 Issue 373, Dec 6, 2007 XTRA! FEB 12–25, 2015 17 Daily Xtra gets a makeover, launches Refreshing the page new mobile site

MEDIA NATASHA BARSOTTI

Clean, visually enhanced and tight are the words Xtra publisher and editor-in-chief Brandon Design mockups of the new Matheson uses to describe the new design of the Daily Xtra website, which will be launched this spring. Daily Xtra website that will be unveiled this spring. Matheson says Pink Triangle Press has learned a lot since its construction of Daily Xtra, which went live in June 2013. In reviewing the data about the interactivity of the site and how people use it, he says, it became clear that a lot of content went unseen. In a bid to address that issue, some of the content was then posted in more than one of the fi ve mar- kets — Canada, the world, Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver — resulting in readers seeing the same stories in the diff erent sections they browsed on the website. “It’s not a huge problem, but it’s just not your optimal user experience,” Matheson says. What’s been missing is a dedicated page where all the site’s content appears to the reader, he says. The new Daily Xtra will feature a stand-alone, customizable home page, meaning users will be able to select the content they want to see from the various markets and eliminate “the clutter.” media and even to publish some content directly “Somebody might only choose to see Vancouver to social media channels, he says, since he doesn’t and Canada news, or Vancouver and world news, always expect readers to come to the website. and that’s what’s presented to them,” Matheson “The same way we have used YouTube to reach says. audiences that do not visit DX,” he says, “we’re go- While there won’t be huge shifts in the content ing to expand social media activity to eventually Matheson says he doesn’t have “a complete citizen journalism around it, but journalists doing covered, Matheson says, it will be presented more include some other types of social media content answer” regarding the future of the comments what Xtra does will always bring other information, cleanly and with enhanced visuals to engage more targeted to audiences, whether that be a special section. “That doesn’t make me feel bad because other aspects, other perspectives to the story.” readers more easily. Instagram channel, whether it be a Tumblr feed, media organizations that have vast resources What does concern him is the censorship im- Community news from Toronto, Ottawa and whether it be how we change and use Facebook.” compared to us don’t have the answers either,” posed by corporations whose rules are not always Vancouver will still be a key focus of dailyxtra. Prior to Daily Xtra’s new release in the spring, a he adds. in the best interest of the gay community. “Large com, as will coverage of international and na- mobile version of the site will be unveiled; it will Queerty is spending large amounts of money corporations that run social media where a lot of tional news. There will also be a push to share be an exact refl ection of the desktop site. to figure out the comments quandary, while the discussion and the debate is happening are Daily Xtra’s stories more eff ectively through social For readers who are concerned that the shift to heavy hitters like The Washington Post and The controlling, to some degree, what people post and a web-only presence means the end of investiga- New York Times are also looking for their own what they don’t allow people to post. I think, in A preview of Daily Xtra’s soon-to-be tive and feature pieces, Matheson says another solutions, he says. “It’s just one of the interesting general, that’s more problematic and [over] the launched mobile site. site update following the spring launch of the elements of what is going on in the online world long term may pose a larger risk than citizens who new Daily Xtra is also in the works. “High on my that nobody has really corralled and has come up consider themselves to be citizen journalists, even priority list is to develop new story templates with that magic of an amazing comments system if they don’t use that term to describe themselves.” that allow us to do long-form journalism in the that weeds out what you dislike about it and keeps Asked about die-hard print readers who may be same sort of way,” he says. “We’ve never stopped what you like.” reluctant to get their news online, Matheson says doing that. Every piece of long-form journalism Asked if the comments section will eventually that sentiment doesn’t surprise him; he professes we’ve produced in the last number of years for the be dropped from Daily Xtra, Matheson will say to be a print lover himself. Still, he argues, gay and papers has also gone online, but I think there’s only that he questions the value of having that lesbian publishing, which is already a marginal opportunities to fi nd more engaging ways to tell element on the site and points to debates and business, is not immune to what’s happening or present stories to readers, because long-form discussions unfolding organically on social media in the media landscape, including declining ad stories do require a certain amount of commit- platforms. He fi nds the tenor of the discussion on revenues and rising production costs. ment, and we have to fi nd ways to make them Facebook, for instance, more civil and of a better “A move to a completely all-digital strategy just work on mobile devices and websites.” quality. He notes, however, that much of the com- makes sense,” he concludes, pointing out that the One of the perennial challenges for Daily Xtra, mentary about stories is happening not on Daily press has had an online presence for a long time. and other media sites, is what to do with the Xtra’s Facebook page, but on the personal pages of Daily Xtra replaced xtra.ca, which went live in 1998. rough-and-tumble nature of the online comments people who are sharing content from Daily Xtra. Matheson says he’ll be sad to lose any print section, a source of frustration to many readers. “I think it takes a diff erent tone, because every- reader but points to the readers who are already “The one thorn in people’s side when it comes one’s page is almost like another little community. “embracing us in digital,” some of them longtime to comments is how fast the stream of comment Not that you don’t see people disagreeing, but it print readers. “Xtra is still going to be there doing around a story can veer away from that story — doesn’t usually devolve into the vitriol that often the work it’s doing with our unique content and completely — to the point where it’s not even happens on a website.” our voice, and we hope that people come along focused anymore on why people are there, and He says he’s not concerned that social media sites for that.” then overwhelmingly, some nasty tone emerges like Facebook will eventually compete too directly amongst people, and often about issues that are with digital journalism. “It’s fi ne for stories to break Daily Xtra not connected to what the story is.” or exist on social media and to have a certain level of dailyxtra.com

18 FEB 12–25, 2015 XTRA! 21 YEARS OF HEADLINES ‘Where did Davie Village go?’: Herbert Issue 385, May 21, 2008 Check out our columnists and bloggers on dailyxtra.com

A sex worker’s tale Trading a blowjob for 20 bucks and a half pack of Get under cigarettes had brought me to a new level of debauchery. Courtney Love would have been proud. his skin

Adventures in gay parenting It’s not that I don’t like Hot Wheels or Thomas the Tank Engine, but I can’t quite figure out my son’s predilection toward traditionally masculine pursuits.

History Boys The Wonder Woman comics from the 1940s are rife with BDSM. On almost every page there’s kidnap, slavery or bondage. We will miss Hooking up in public you Xtra! When I find myself exploring a dungeon party on a Sunday afternoon, I know why I’m there. I’m on a journey searching for those connections. Nicola offers free skin consultations! Integrative.ca • 604-732-9332

Pride parade draws 530,000 Issue 391, Aug 14, 2008 XTRA! FEB 12–25, 2015 19 ALLCOMMUNITY TOGETHER NOW

ROBIN PERELLE PHOTO BY BELLE ANCELL

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What better way to cap our 21-year 20 21 print run than with a commemorative photo to honour some of the people who have helped shape our community? Of course, it would be impossible to squeeze into one snapshot all the people who have nurtured our community’s 19 growth over the decades. This is by no means an exhaustive list. It’s only a handful, a cross-section of people from a variety of fi elds who have all contributed something meaningful to the community we call home. The photo shoot on Feb 1 was beautiful in itself, full of laughter and love. Though a few of our invited guests were, sadly, out of town or unavailable, everyone who attended seemed genuinely moved by the energy in the studio. I know I was. What an incredible group of people. What an honour to document them and preserve their legacy. Here’s to all of you, and here’s to many more decades of digitally documenting our community builders to come!

20 FEB 12–25, 2015 XTRA! 21 YEARS OF HEADLINES Is our gay village having a mid-life crisis? Issue 395, Oct 9, 2008 8 6 7 5

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More than 2,000 march on Davie after attack on gay man Issue 396, Oct 23, 2008 XTRA! FEB 12–25, 2015 21 ALL TOGETHER NOWBACK ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT

1 2 3 4 TIM BLAIR SMITH WILLI BARB SNELGROVE STEVENSON Blair Smith has been the volunteer ZWOZDESKY There’s hardly an organization in After paving the way director of the LOUD business When the conductor originally our community that Barb Snelgrove for gay ministers to be association, fostering connection hired to lead the Vancouver hasn’t organized or hosted a ordained by the United and strengthening BC’s LGBT Men’s Chorus couldn’t bring fundraiser for or assisted in some Church of Canada in 1988, business community, since 2009. himself to publicly perform capacity. Snelgrove has volunteered Tim Stevenson became He’s especially committed to with a group of gay men in tens of thousands of hours to a BC’s fi rst openly gay MLA mentoring our community’s youth 1981, Willi Zwozdesky stepped variety of community groups, has sat and Canada’s fi rst openly and to that end helped launch the up to lead Canada’s fi rst gay on the Vancouver Pride Society and gay cabinet minister philanthropic LOUD Foundation men’s chorus in concert. He Qmunity boards, and still sits on the in 2000. He is now “to provide fi nancial assistance was only 25 at the time. He’s City of Vancouver’s LGBT advisory serving his fi fth term on in the form of scholarships to been conducting the chorus, committee, Positive Living’s Red Vancouver City Council. budding community leaders.” arranging much of its music, and Ribbon advisory committee, the helping to nurture its members’ Vancouver Police Department’s collective musical voice and diversity advisory committee foster their profound sense of and the selection panel for the “The future is now online, it appears. brotherhood ever since. LOUD Scholarship Foundation, to name a few. Thank you, Robin, and your whole Xtra West team for many years of being our community voice. Like any strong voice, “It’s made me feel less alone out in the sometimes we agreed, sometimes we suburbs. It made me feel important. disagreed, but there is no denying its It allowed me to take my art to the presence. It will take some getting used to: community by highlighting what I’m not walking by a streetside paper-box and Xtra looking to see what community member(s) doing. was the fi rst sponsor on are staring back at me this week! But board for Zee Zee Theatre, and it Daily Xtra is a topical and timely news justifi ed my love source that I am and appreciation sure will continue for the community to fl ourish in the around me.” years ahead.” — Isolde N Barron — Barb Snelgrove

1971 1973 1977 Ken Popert — are charged with 1981 LOOKING Jearld Moldenhauer announces Gay pride activities take place The Body Politic publishes use of the mails for transmitting On Feb 5, Toronto police raid four BACK, at a Toronto Gay Action meeting in Vancouver, Saskatchewan, Gerald Hannon’s “Men Loving indecent, immoral or scurrilous gay bathhouses simultaneously, that all are welcome to join a Winnipeg, Ottawa, Toronto, Boys Loving Men.” Police raid literature. arresting more than 300 men. MOVING group of people starting a gay Montreal and Halifax. the offi ce and cart away 12 Thousands of gay men and 1979 liberation newspaper. Issue In Vancouver, the Gay Alliance boxes of material (manuscripts, lesbians protest. FORWARD The PTP offi cers are found not 1 of The Body Politic hits the Towards Equality organizes a subscription lists, et cetera). A story in the October issue of guilty, but Ontario’s attorney A timeline of Xtra streets around Halloween. On its picnic in Ceperley Park and an art The Body Politic, “Gay Cancer? Or 1978 general appeals. Vancouver and the cover is an image from the Aug exhibit in August for Gay Pride Mass Media Scare?” begins PTP’s community we’ve covered. 28 We Demand protest on Week ’73. On Jan 5, the offi cers of Pink More than 700 people attend a coverage of HIV/AIDS. Parliament Hill. Triangle Press (PTP) — Ed picnic in Mission for Gay Unity Vancouver mayor (and future BC Jackson, Gerald Hannon and Week in the Lower Mainland.

22 FEB 12–25, 2015 XTRA! 21 YEARS OF HEADLINES The evolution of desire: How trans people are challenging our understanding of same-sex attraction Issue 399, Dec 4, 2008 5 6 7 8 9 ISOLDE N BARRON DAVE DEVEAU SPENCER CHANDRA JAMIE LEE TIM RICHARDS Since her Bent days in 2007, Isolde Award-winning playwright Dave HERBERT HAMILTON Having volunteered since 2008 with the Vancouver N Barron has helped create new Deveau divides his time between When Spencer Chandra Herbert, Jamie Lee Hamilton has been a Pride Society, Tim Richards queer spaces east of the traditional writing for theatre and creating then 24, was elected to the fearless, outspoken advocate for stepped up to lead the society gay village, where community new queer spaces. Though Deveau Vancouver Park Board in 2005, he sex workers and transsexuals in 2012 after members voted to members can gather, freely is only 31, his plays have been was the youngest person to win a since the 1970s. When nullify the previous election’s express themselves and party. produced by local, national and seat on the municipal board. (Gay Vancouver police refused to take results because of allegations Now the matriarch of the Cobalt international theatre companies. parks commissioner Trevor Loke seriously the possibility that a of “voting irregularities.” on Main Street, she continues He is the playwright in residence usurped that designation in 2011, serial killer (later identifi ed as His term as president, now to nurture new East Van talent, at Zee Zee Theatre, where he when he won a seat at age 22.) Robert Pickton) was preying on in its fourth year, has been encouraging aspiring drag queens works with his husband, Cameron Chandra Herbert made the jump sex workers in the Downtown comparatively calm and has to step onstage. In boy form, Mackenzie (left), while his drag to provincial politics in 2008. He’s Eastside, Hamilton famously seen him lead the society Cameron Mackenzie is founder persona, Peach Cobblah, regularly been representing the West End dumped 67 pairs of stilettos through a peaceful transition and managing artistic director of joins Isolde N Barron onstage and as a proud, outspoken gay man, on the steps of city hall, one to more paid staff and less Zee Zee Theatre, a professional branches out on her own to create and advocating for our community for each missing or murdered contentious board meetings. company mandated to explore the new spaces in which to gather in the legislature, ever since. (He woman to that point. stories of the marginalized, now in and party, especially east of Davie is also married to activist Romi its seventh season. Street. Chandra Herbert, in the front row.)

“We’ve been able to document and archive stories from our “I think Xtra can continue community that now cannot be forgotten because they’re to shine a light on stories there, in print. Not to knock the fact that we’re moving into that most other media either an online age. But there’s something about print, the printed don’t tell or will only tell once word, that exists, impermeable, forever, and that’s a beautiful somebody else has told them. thing. You can read Xtra from its fi rst issue to its last and it I think Xtra can shine a real captures a community. It’s a time capsule, it really is.” spotlight on both setting love — Dave Deveau free and those who have been marginalized — and open “Visibility and up new understanding and relevancy and a radical build new bridges between sense of queer love.” communities.” — Jen Sung — Spencer Chandra Herbert

premier) Mike Harcourt proclaims 1984 1986 concerned about its fi nancial 1988 1990 Aug 1 to 7 Gay Unity Week. The In January, PTP gives birth to a Canada Customs seizes health. The collective and staff As Little Sister’s prepares to Vancouver hosts the third Vancouver Sun estimates that four-page bar rag called Xtra. 78 titles headed for Little decide to suspend publication take Canada Customs to court annual Gay Games, bringing the 1,500 people attend the fi rst Gay Intended as a promotional tool Sister’s Bookstore. Community of TBP and keep PTP alive by over its continued seizure of gay community together like never Unity parade, which runs through for The Body Politic, as well as a members and free-speech focusing on Xtra. books, someone throws another before. The fl ood of 15,000 the West End. way to reach more people (and advocates demonstrate in front bomb, this time through the back openly gay and lesbian visitors 1987 a diff erent audience) than TBP of then-Vancouver Centre MP door of its downstairs neighbour, from around the world gives 1983 ever could, Xtra soon outstrips Pat Carney’s offi ce. Someone throws a bomb into Thurlow’s Restaurant. Broken many people the courage to The Body Politic’s two acquittals the stairwell leading up to Little its parent in advertising revenues In November, The Body Politic glass showers the diners, but no come out publicly and launches in the “Men Loving Boys Loving Sister’s from its Thurlow Street and, eventually, in circulation. celebrates its 15th birthday, one is seriously hurt. countless new community Men” case are fi nally allowed to entrance. No one is injured. but the collective becomes groups. stand. There are no more appeals.

Trudeau’s ‘indelible imprint’: A look back at the bill that decriminalized gay sex 40 years ago Issue 411, May 21, 2009 XTRA! FEB 12–25, 2015 23 ALL TOGETHER NOW MIDDLE ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT

“Seeing queers out on the street, whether people like it or not, in that old-school, out- and-proud kind of way. I really 10 11 12 13 appreciate Xtra JEN SUNG SHAIRA (SD) HOLMAN RON DUTTON BARBARA FINDLAY As a facilitator and coordinator As the artistic director of Ron Dutton has been In her almost four decades of having a leather of the Vancouver Queer Vancouver’s Queer Arts Festival, our community’s unsung practising law, barbara fi ndlay Film Festival’s educational Shaira (SD) Holman has been the volunteer archivist since has played an instrumental role mandate, too, outreach arm, Out in Schools, driving force behind its growth and 1976. BC’s Gay and Lesbian in numerous precedent-setting keeping that Jen Sung spent the last fi ve increasing depth, transforming Archives now take up most cases for the queer community, years bringing queer stories a previously small festival into a of his offi ce in his West from the legalization of gay forefront.” to youth across BC, creating three-week multidisciplinary event End condo, with carefully marriage in BC to parenting — Shaira (SD) Holman opportunities for constructive that adds an important layer to the catalogued boxes of material rights for same-sex families to dialogue. city’s annual Pride festivities. in every available space. trans rights, and more.

“Xtra has played “Certainly, I think it’s one of those vehicles for community a central role in building. It’s not just about the news; it’s about drawing bringing queer community together, many disparate micro-communities communities together together... I fear in a way that that sense of community and reporting on and building may dissipate. But I’m hopeful that [Xtra] will continue to report on where we are and where we’re going... advocating for rights Hopefully, it can continue to put emphasis on our sense of for all parts of our being part of something bigger than ourselves.” communities.” — Ron Dutton — barbara findlay

“Migrating online might be really good for Xtra because we as community members have to make the eff ort to reach out. I think it’s a really good idea to go online. I like the fact that it’s being sustainable. I’m more of a social media person than a newspaper person.” — Landon Krentz

stairwell leading up to Little discriminated against Little class. The Surrey school board 1999 Canada Customs to stop 1990 Sister’s. No one is injured, but Sister’s and enforced the law with refuses, citing parents’ concerns, In September, PTP takes its fi rst targeting the gay bookstore but PTP enters the world of audiotext considerable damage is done. “arbitrariness, inconsistency and launching a battle that will span tentative steps into interactive does not strike down Customs’ (telepersonal chatlines), No one is ever arrested. just plain foolishness.” However, six years and three levels of court web content. Squirtpersonals. authority to seize materials eventually creating Xtra’s Talking the court upholds Customs’ and challenge gay invisibility in com gets its fi rst hit. deemed obscene at the border. 1993 Classifi eds and Cruiseline. power to seize material. school curriculum. PTP launches squirt.org, a site Xtra West begins publishing in 2000 that allows gay men to swap 1992 1997 1998 Vancouver in July. The Supreme Court of Canada cruising tips and tricks. Sexual orientation is added to the Surrey teacher James Xtra.ca goes live, initially covering agrees that Little Sister’s suff ered 1996 BC Human Rights Code. Chamberlain asks his school Toronto only. “excessive and unnecessary 2001 Another bomb explodes in the The BC Supreme Court board for permission to use prejudice.” The court orders Aaron Webster is brutally beaten rules that Canada Customs gay-friendly storybooks in

24 FEB 12–25, 2015 XTRA! 21 YEARS OF HEADLINES Pride sees seventh director resign in six months Issue 411, May 21, 2009 14 15 16 17 18 PAT HOGAN LANDON KRENTZ ROB PONT ROAN REIMER CHRIS MORRISSEY Pat Hogan has spent decades When Landon Krentz moved to Before he co-founded Vancouver As a student representative on the An activist all her life, former nun building lesbian community, Vancouver at the age of 20 in 2010, Men in Leather (VML) in 2004, Vancouver School Board’s Pride Chris Morrissey co-founded the organizing workshops and bringing he found little support for deaf Rob Pont was the president of advisory committee in 2013 and Lesbian and Gay Immigration in entertainers through her Sounds queer people. So he resurrected Western Canada Leather Pride, 2014, Roan Reimer helped draft Task Force with her partner, and Furies production company, BC’s Rainbow Alliance for the Deaf which sought to unite all the the board’s revised LGBTQ+ policy Bridget Coll, in 1992 to push the running Josephine’s café off the (BCRAD) while simultaneously leather groups in the region, to better welcome trans students, federal government to allow gay Drive, and co-organizing Not So reaching out to the hearing including bears and women, staff and families. Reimer, who is and lesbian Canadians to sponsor Strictly Ballroom dances for the community to make room for “so that everybody was working genderqueer and uses the gender- their foreign same-sex partners broader LGBT community. Ten deaf people and other people with together.” He also represented neutral pronoun they, was 16 when for immigration. When that years ago, she founded the annual disabilities and encouraging event Canada in San Francisco in they began working on the draft succeeded, they broadened their BOLD Old(er) Lesbian and Dyke organizers to be more inclusive. 1999 as the last Mr Canadian policy and 17 when they spoke eff orts to help queer refugees. Conference, which continues to Now 24, he sits on the board of Drummer to date. He now works courageously and eloquently in its Morrissey then launched the draw lesbians aged 50 and older the new Foundation of Hope to on the annual Rubbout weekend favour at often contentious public Generations Project to support from across the continent. assist gay refugees, immigrants and and is still a member of VML. school board meetings. Despite older LGBT people and bring asylum seekers, and works with the opposition, the board passed the attention to their needs as they age. Queer Arts Festival. policy last June.

I think the paper has at times been an opportunity for “One of the greatest values discourse — at times that discourse has been in the paper, Xtra had was you would do and at times it’s been around the paper’s position itself. a cover with Alan Cumming It’s something that’s been healthy and productive... one issue and then with Isolde I think Xtra has tried to be good around trans coverage, N Barron the next, and you’d but I don’t think the mission has been updated to refl ect equate the two. That was very the full diversity of our community.” valuable for Vancouver artists — Drew Dennis and activists. We’re saying to people that Jen Sung is just as inspiring as Ellen DeGeneres — and she is, and people needed to know that.” — David C Jones

and left to die at the entrance to 2002 school board to reconsider coverage in Xtra West, police immediately to same-sex 2004 Stanley Park’s gay cruising trails Police raid Calgary gay bathhouse its ban on three gay-friendly fi nally arrest a youth in couples. (Ontario beat BC by a BC Supreme Court Justice Mary on Nov 17. Approximately 2,000 Goliaths. Xtra West stops the books. “Tolerance is always connection with Aaron Webster’s month. The rest of Canada lags.) Humphries convicts Ryan Cran of mourners march down Davie presses and sends a reporter age-appropriate,” Chief Justice death. Eight months later, police PTP joins a consortium of manslaughter in the Aaron Web- Street the next day to remember to Calgary to create a special Beverley McLachlin rules. arrest three of his friends. investors in the purchase of ster case but acquits Danny Rao Webster and demand an end to supplement. Prosecutors stay the PTP produces the fi rst season of The fi rst youth pleads guilty. PrideVision. The channel is for lack of evidence. Cran gets six gaybashings. Xtra West covers charges three years later, after a gay travel show Bump! It airs on Judge Valmond Romilly calls it a rebranded as OUTtv. The years in prison, but Humphries the subsequent push for police survey shows Calgarians tolerate PrideVision, a Canadian digital hate crime. press will eventually build an doesn’t call it a hate crime. Out- accountability, anti-homophobia gay bathhouses. specialty television channel. On July 8, the BC Court of almost 25-percent stake in the raged community members call programs in schools, and the In December, the Supreme Court Appeal orders the province to enterprise. for an inquiry into the prosecu- apprehension of Webster’s killers. 2003 of Canada orders the Surrey begin issuing marriage licences tion’s handling of the case. In February, after relentless

More than half of last year’s new HIV cases in BC were gay men Issue 424, Nov 19, 2009 XTRA! FEB 12–25, 2015 25 ALL TOGETHER NOW FRONT ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT

19 20 21 22 23 PAIGE FREWER DAVID C JONES ROMI CHANDRA DREW DENNIS JUSTIN SAINT Paige Frewer and her alter ego, Actor, fi lmmaker, teacher and HERBERT As the executive director of As a self-described “queer Ponyboy, have been creating director David C Jones has been Romi Chandra Herbert Vancouver’s Queer Film Festival geek activist” and cosplay lesbian space for the last six making the community laugh founded BC’s fi rst gay- since 2000, Drew Dennis has enthusiast, Justin Saint years since co-founding the for longer than he would care to straight alliance in 1997 in helped bring countless refl ections founded the Vancouver monthly drag-king show and remember. He co-founded the Maple Ridge and has been of our lives to the screen, especially Gaymers fi ve years ago queer dance party ManUp, then Bobbers queer improv comedy helping queer and other when such refl ections were and, more recently, BC moving it from the now-closed troupe in 2004 and regularly hosts youth blossom ever since. eff ectively non-existent elsewhere. Superfriends to educate allies lesbian bar Lick to The Cobalt and performs at events for a variety He worked with Youthquest Dennis (who uses no gender and make room for queer in 2011. of community groups. and Qmunity’s Gab Youth pronoun) also helped launch the identities in geek spaces. program and today supports festival’s educational outreach He is also a proud Sister of skills development for youth arm, Out in Schools, and sits on the Perpetual Indulgence, where “Its physical presence on the streets all over the city, across the province as co- Vancouver Park Board’s Trans and his alter ego, Sister Sweet executive director of PeerNet Gender-Variant Working Group, Cherribum, volunteers her for everyone to see. If you were on the cover of Xtra, BC. (He is also married to whose 77 recommendations to time each month to help everyone would see you. People see that we’re here.” MLA Spencer Chandra make parks, pools and recreation raise money for community Herbert, in the back row.) centres more trans-friendly were charities. — Paige Frewer unanimously passed by the board last April.

“Reading about our “Being able to take your communities is always scope out of Vancouver, important — this [moving I think you’ll be able online] makes it a little to reach more queers through the internet more accessible to people. and inspire a lot more There are many people people. I think you who are behind those will continue to cover screens, looking for those actual events and issues connections, those stories. that remain relevant It may not be a physical to the growth of the presence, but it’s still there.” community.” — Romi Chandra Herbert — Justin Saint

2005 travel-focused publication and it discontinued in 2013). The 2012 growing international audience. 2015 Canada fully embraces same-sex transition from print entirely to magazine’s fi nal issue of the Xtra undergoes another redesign, The new site also incorporates PTP decides to fully embrace marriage, with the passage of the web in 2010. year features a cover and moving to a square format. PTP’s travel site, Guidemag, digital journalism, discontinue Civil Marriage Act. PTP provides interview with Lady Gaga, who rolling it into a new section called its Xtra print editions, expand 2008 sponsorship for Canadians for subsequently goes on to some 2013 Daily Xtra Travel. its digital operations and move Equal Marriage. Masthead magazine names success as a pop star. As xtra.ca turns 15, PTP replaces entirely online. The last issue of 2014 The Body Politic among Canada’s it with a more contemporary and Xtra Vancouver hits the stands on 2010 2006 20 most infl uential magazines of broader website, dailyxtra.com, Daily Xtra’s YouTube channel Feb 12. You’re holding it now. PTP purchases long-running US all time. Xtra undergoes a redesign and to refresh and expand its online tops 40,000 subscribers, with gay publication The Guide, which PTP buys the assets of drops the “West” from its name presence and engage with both more than 26 million views and will later be transformed into a Toronto’s fab magazine (which in Vancouver. its local communities and its counting.

26 FEB 12–25, 2015 XTRA! 21 YEARS OF HEADLINES Odyssey closing Sept 5 Issue 442, July 29, 2010 VEBC Luau... So wear your favourite Hawaiian shirt, or grass skirt, if you dare... PRESENTS It’s sure to be a blast, and we hope to see you there!

March 13 - 15, 2015 vebc.ca for details

SPONSORED BY MEDIA SPONSOR Storm dailyxtra.com The bowler’s company

Judge rules Fountainhead bashing a hate crime Issue 450, Nov 18, 2010 XTRA! FEB 12–25, 2015 27 FROM WHITE ROCK TO WHISTLER

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28 FEB 12–25, 2015 XTRA! 21 YEARS OF HEADLINES 1 in 40 gay Vancouver men unaware they’re HIV-positive: ManCount Issue 451, Dec 2, 2010 A drag queen’s bawdy joke can be as comforting Out in the City as Mom’s chicken soup. Blitz & Shitz E 30 Sponsoring connection Xtra pilots new program to support community groups

COMMUNITY says. The social sponsorship program PAT JOHNSON is intended to go beyond that, providing non-profit organizations with a range of Community organizations are express- resources to meet their missions. ing some anxieties about the way for- In discussions with stakeholders, ward as Xtra goes all-digital and ends Popert says, he was surprised that its print edition. money was not the foremost concern. Ray Lam, general manager of the “Quite surprisingly, and I was im- Vancouver Pride Society, says the vis- pressed by this, the thing that people ibility of the purple boxes on the streets mentioned the most was not actually and the availability of hard-copy papers money, which is what I was expecting to throughout the city have helped con- hear, but marketing skills and graphic nect many to the community. design. What I found was that especially “I discovered Xtra because they were younger activists are very aware of the sent to my community centre,” he says. difficulty of making an impact on people “Without that kind of ability to promote and that you need professionally de- itself, you’re really just kind of catering signed materials in order to get people’s to the same people, as opposed to expos- attention,” he says. ing the LGBTQ message to younger That is an area where Pink Triangle queers or people who are not already Press can offer direct support, he says. engaged in the community.” Still, he But the long-range idea is to create a says, it’s too soon to determine the hub where community agencies can impact of the change. link with people who have the skills and A “social sponsorship” program that resources they need to succeed. Xtra is now piloting with its Toronto “That’s why the internet is so crucial audience is intended to give a leg up to to us,” Popert adds. “Trying to do that nonprofit organizations as they navi- in print would be hopelessly slow and gate the new landscape without print difficult. We want to create a device that editions of Xtra. will allow people to ultimately make Shaira (SD) Holman, artistic director of Vancouver’s Queer Arts Festival, says Xtra’s coverage over the last five years Ken Popert, executive director and those connections themselves.” has been critical to the festival’s success. DAVID P BALL president of Xtra’s publisher, Pink Tri- Popert acknowledges the downsides angle Press, says the idea of the social of ceasing the print edition but stresses open the box,” he says. But municipali- to be able to leverage that?” he asks, tor of the Queer Arts Festival, says her sponsorship program is to create tempo- that decisions were made after long ties are getting increasingly picky about wondering if such organizations have organization has received a front-page rary partnerships between activists and consideration. such boxes, and, more importantly, the the means to maintain a digital presence feature annually for the past five years, people with resources to help empower “We are highly aware of the fact that cost of printing has become prohibitive of their own. a level of exposure that has been critical organizations and causes. Xtra has al- the boxes, in particular, are territory and, like all print media, advertising Wayne Campbell, chair of Positive to her small organization’s burgeoning ways provided sponsored advertising markers. They send out a signal: ev- revenue has slumped in recent years. Living BC, says his organization has success. to community agencies, and that will erything is normal, all is well. They’re Popert welcomes the prospect of depended on Xtra to inform members “It’s a hugely important way of getting continue in the new digital format, he a source of information if you want to other print media picking up the slack. and the public of their services. our message out,” Holman says. “I don’t “We don’t want our community to be “There may be a slight drop-off as think I can stress enough how much without a print resource as long as there people learn about the online process their support has been.” Quite surprisingly, the thing that are people reachable that way,” he says. and we try to find different ways of out- Holman looks forward to learning “But the fact is, we can’t do it anymore.” reaching,” he says. The social sponsor- more about the social sponsorship people mentioned the most was When the social-sponsorship- ship program could be good for smaller program. “The more of that kind of stuff program testing in Toronto is com- agencies, he adds, but the sorts of skills the better,” she says, though she’s still not actually money, but marketing pleted, it will be rolled out in Vancouver. it is likely to offer are probably things concerned that the loss of the purple Lam says anything that provides smaller his agency has in-house, though he street boxes will mean a reversal of skills and graphic design. nonprofits with the ability to access a hopes it will be of value. “I can see some visibility. “It’s kind of inning us in a KEN POPERT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND wider audience is welcome. potential that, once the program is up way I really don’t like. I think it’s still PRESIDENT OF PINK TRIANGLE PRESS “The challenge that I see with that and going, we may be able to tap into.” important for us to be kind of screamers is are the smaller organizations going Shaira (SD) Holman, artistic direc- on the street.”

Burnaby passes anti-homophobia policy Issue 466, June 30, 2011 XTRA! FEB 12–25, 2015 29 out of my comfort zone. I came of age on a dancefl oor. At parties, I often felt like an outsider. It was my duty to observe, and I’m natu- Beyond the Blitz rally a shy person, so I was happy to hide in the shadow of the strobe. I told myself My heart will forever burst I was Andy Warhol at Studio 54. I was there to absorb all the beautiful people. with your sequins and boas And there are so many. Vancouver’s scene is full of innovation. I have been BLITZ & SHITZ never been to a leather party before, and shaped as an artist and a person by RAZIEL REID I showed up wearing a leather jacket, all the amazing things I’ve seen on its thinking that would suffi ce! So embar- stages. I won’t even try to list all of you, I feel like I’ve lived a rassing. In fact, all of my most embar- but know my heart is forever bursting million lives in this rassing moments happened courtesy of with your sequins and boas. I will never newspaper. But it’s just been a million Xtra. Someone make those Pride videos forget you. blackouts. go away?! This rag defi nitely forced me My Blitz voice was always a bit hyper- I never wanted to name my col- umn Blitz & Shitz. It will haunt me forever. I wanted to name it The Blitz Kid, after the Blitz club night in London where Bowie went to steal ideas. But my edi- tor Robin Perelle thought “kid” might alienate older readers. Little did she know, alienation is the best way to get readers! I forgive Robin, of course. She did discover me after all, and over the past three years gave me enough writing assignments to pay my rent. Not quite enough to pay my rent and also feed myself, but fuck it — eating won’t make you a bestseller. For a writer de- termined to survive off his words, Blitz has been a godsend. I’ve learned a lot over the years. And I mean a lot. You have no idea how green I was. My very fi rst gig for Xtra was a leather party. I had

The best of Blitz: Raziel’s Pride portraits, run with his annual picks in our Ultimate Pride Guide, capture his tenure and growth as Xtra’s scene columnist, from 2011 to 2015. PHOTOS BY CHRIS HOWEY, JOSHUA MCVEITY, DAVID ELLINGSEN, EVAN EISENSTADT

Founding Media Partner

30 FEB 12–25, 2015 XTRA! 21 YEARS OF HEADLINES Pride and the Outgames kick off Issue 468, July 28, 2011 bolic. I saw Raziel the social columnist as my drag character. Drunk, bitchy, cheap. She had a low-brow humour and a toilet bowl full of glitter. I wanted to entertain. Instead of beating my face, I beat my keyboard. But between the lines of the drama, there was also a thread of honesty — for better and worse. Larry Kramer received a lot of criti- cism for depicting the gay scene in Manhattan and Fire Island in his nov- el Faggots. It was too truthful. And the truth hurt. A lot of gay people saw Kramer’s portrait as a betrayal. He didn’t hold back in criticizing the vapid- ity of gay men. He thought they were too busy fucking or dancing at a nightclub to notice the world burning around them. He was probably right. And we’ve only gotten worse. With gay communities existing on a Facebook feed more than in a Village these days, the detachment has increased. Which is exactly why nightlife is more important than ever. For some, the club is still a distraction — lost souls will al- ways gravitate toward shiny disco balls — but it’s also a place where dr. sean peter sikorski queer men and women, who spend much of modern life behind a screen, congregate for love and real human interac- tion. A drag queen’s bawdy joke can be as comforting as Mom’s chicken soup. It can be as saving. A scene fuelled by gossip and vodka is sure to develop cliques, but a clique is really just another word for family. There’s real love in the dark; more than there is in a “like” or a retweet. And that’s why I know that the gay nightlife scene will continue to thrive. Kevin Dale McKeown was the fi rst gay social columnist in Vancouver, writing for The Georgia Straight in the early 1970s. Back then, the creatures of the night gathered at bars for the same reason we gather at bars today — to be reminded that we’re not alone. In McKeown’s day, it was inequality that isolated us. Today, it’s our phones. When I fi rst started writing this col- umn in 2011, the Odyssey had recently closed. Over the years, there have been constant rumblings about its reopening. I never got to experience the Odyssey, but I know its legendary nights were dear to the hearts of many. It feels like a full-circle moment that as I wrap up this column and chapter in my life, the Odyssey is fi nally planning to reopen. Anyone else just get chills? Or is that just the molly? Aw! That was my last molly joke. I miss you already. I said earlier that this column taught me a lot. Here’s the most important thing: We’re not like everyone else. We’re better. We shouldn’t be fight- 331 east broadway ing for equality; we should be fi ghting for superiority! Because that’s what it means to be special. 604 559 4638 And above all else, that is what this journey has been.

Pride Society president ousted Issue 485, March 21, 2012 XTRA! FEB 12–25, 2015 31 WHAT'S ON Here’s what’s happening in Vancouver this Valentine’s Day weekend. For more event listings — and to post your own events — go to dailyxtra.com. Masquerade Ball — Numbers, Fri, Feb 13 THINKSTOCK

Fri, Feb 13 1167 Davie St. No cover. meninleather. Tonight’s motto: celebrate Valentine’s Day homestead.com the way God made you — in the buff . 8pm– The Masquerade Ball Numbers brings you 2am. Club 8x6, 1775 Haro St. $15 door, $10 a night of lust, not love — not to mention DILF For men over 35 and the men who want them, with DJ Zarfan. 10pm–4am. for members. $25 memberships available promises of sexy staff dressed to the nines. at door. p-can.org Masquerade masks and costumes are Steamworks, 123 W Pender St. $6 and up, highly encouraged. 8pm–3am. Numbers, plus locker. steamworksbaths.ca Hustla: Dumpster Twin Bromance Your 1042 Davie St. $5. numbers.ca BootyBox HoneyPot and Junita Werk invite favourite homo hip-hop haunt is reuniting you to grind with hot men at Heaven’s Door. its two founders and co-hostesses for a iCandy Pub Night Pluri Productions and drag bromance featuring Bambibot and iCandy want you to join them in naughtiness 11pm–2am. Heaven’s Door, 1216 Bute St. No cover. Peach Cobblah. 9pm. The Cobalt, 917 Main on Feb 13 and save the romance for later. St. $12. thecobalt.ca Featuring a live jazz ensemble followed by a DJ, the organizers invite you to socialize, Sat, Feb 14 Sin City Valentine’s Fetish Ball Any mingle, have sex and enjoy some kinky play. Vancouver Pride Society AGM The fetish outfi t, as per the full Sin City dress 9pm–3am. Club 8x6, 1775 Haro St. 8x6.ca Vancouver Pride Society invites community code, will do, but a Valentine’s theme is highly encouraged. Featuring prizes for 4Play Friday A weekly lesbian event to members to join them at their annual general meeting to review Pride 2014, the best themed outfi ts; a 50/50 fl ogging get in the mood, with DJs Emilita, Chelsea fundraiser; suspension- and bondage-play Joelle, Lisa De Lux and Agent 99 taking society’s fi nancial status and the direction of the annual Pride parade and festival. furniture; main-stage rope, bondage and turns spinning sexy vocal house music. suspension shows by Vertigo Rope; and 9pm–2am. Lux Lounge, 1180 Howe St. $10. 12:30–3pm. CBC Studio 700, 700 Hamilton St. No cover. vancouverpride.ca lots more. 9pm–3am. The Hindenburg, 23 luxlounge.ca W Cordova St. $13 at ticketzone.com and P-CAN Naked Valentine The Pacifi c- Vancouver Men in Leather VML hosts its sincityfetishnight.com. Canadian nudist association for gay and monthly social in the back of the PumpJack CandyGram Vancouver Art & Leisure Pub, for everyone from the curious to the bisexual men is for men of all (legal) ages and body types to socialize in the nude. promises to get your heart pumping serious. 9pm until late. PumpJack Pub, on Valentine’s Day at the city’s newest inclusive party, featuring the Cherchez la Femme room, the Man Pit and the Lust Lounge. 10pm. 1965 Main St, back entrance. $12 before 11pm; $15 before midnight; $20 after; $12 advance at bit.ly/ CANDTGRAMTIX. Sun, Feb 15 Caliente Nights The Junction presents a Latin Valentine’s Day, featuring Miss Funtasy, Rebecca Wolf, Casha Only and Miss Understood, plus salsa lessons, a drag show and, of course, Latin beats. 9pm. The Junction, 1138 Davie St. No cover before 10pm, $5 after. junctionpub.com

Peach Cobblah at Hustla — The Cobalt, Sat, Feb 14 FACEBOOK

32 FEB 12–25, 2015 XTRA! 21 YEARS OF HEADLINES If you’re gay, you can play Issue 485, March 21, 2012 THANK YOU A big thank you for all AND FAREWELL XTRA! the years of community Maestro Bramwell Tovey and the support, Xtra newspaper! Vancouver Symphony Orchestra would like to thank the readers of Xtra for their support of arts and culture in our community. BRAMWELL TOVEY WITH THE VSO

TICKETS ONLINE vancouversymphony.ca 1025 DAVIE ST. (604) 687-2222 @VSOrchestra OR CALL 604.876.3434

The kiss heard across Kelowna: Okanagan Pride grows up Issue 497, Sept 6, 2012 XTRA! FEB 12–25, 2015 33 NDP Caucus The Elbow Room Café Nesters Market The Fountainhead Pub A thank-you to our advertisers Netflix The Frank Theatre Company North Shore Law LLP The Great Travel Challenge As Xtra moves entirely online, we want to acknowledge the vital contribution Oasis Restaurant and Bar The Heart of Richmond of the people and businesses who choose to advertise with us. Out for Kicks Soccer Club AIDS Society Publishing — in print or online — costs money, but thanks to our advertisers, Out in Harmony The Red Wagon Café we can keep you, our readers, informed. Also thanks to them, we can offer free Out on Screen - Vancouver The Scotiabank Dance Centre Queer Film Festival or discounted advertising to the volunteer organizations that are the building The Vanity Lab Outtv Network Inc blocks of our communities. The View from the Shard Pacific Cinémathèque Tim Stevenson Please complete the circle by supporting our advertisers, who have been with Platform 7 Coffee Topdrawers Apparel us in print and are now joining us on the web, at dailyxtra.com. PlayLand Amusement Park Travel Clinic Positive Living Society of BC Travel Gay Canada Dahl & Connors Deacon’s Corner Immediate Buying Services Pressnet Inc (Squirt) 21st Century Dynamics Derma Medical Laser Informa Canada Inc Pride in Art Society UBC Sexual Health Lab 21st Century Promotions Designer Trips Integrative Healing Arts Pride Tek IT Consulting Union Events Aarm Dental Group Diane Kadota Arts International Day Public Education Project Urban Body Laser Management Against Homophobia Alex Axsen Hair Removal Push Festival Urban Fare Dining Out for Life International Web Express Alfie Italia PV Events/The Vancouver Vancouver Art Gallery Dog Country Specialty Inc iRepair.ca AMC insurance Health Show Vancouver Folk Music Festival Dogwood Monarchist Society Jamie MacDougall - Arsenal Pulp Press Raphaella’s Dressmaking Vancouver Green Party Dr Dean Wershler Sotheby’s International & Alterations Ashton College Vancouver International Jean-Marc Hébert rareEarth Project Marketing Bakana Dr Langston Raymond Film Festival Law Corporation Raving Theatre Ballet BC du Brule Hair Vancouver Latin Restoration Centre Jer’s Vision Bank of Montreal Rebus Creative American Film Fest Dunn’s Tailors Joe’s Grill BCSMSSA - BC Society Restricted Entertainment Vancouver Men John Hopkins for Male Survivors of Dutil Denim RGP Law Group In Leather Sexual Assault Jordans East India Carpets Ltd Robbie Gallaugher Vancouver Men’s Chorus Bill Reid Gallery of JQ Clothing East Village Bakery Rosanne Johnson Vancouver Opera Northwest Coast Art Egale KIA Vancouver Counselling Service B-Mobile Telecommunication Vancouver Pride Society Elton Media La Brasserie Royal City Pride/ Body Energy Club New West Pride Vancouver Recital Society Erik Carlson Laura Murray Public Relations Vancouver Symphony British Columbia Law Office of barbara Rubbout Organizing Executive Hotel Vintage Park Orchestra Nurses’ Union findlay QC Committee Fair Trade Jewellery Vancouver’s English Bay Cup Burnaby Citizens Association Level One Construction Salt Spring Island Fatburger Canada Pride (GLOSSI) Vera’s Burger Shack Canadian Gay & Little Sister’s Book Store Lesbian Chamber First Media Group Inc. Saltenas Live Nation Vancouver Viiv Project Cannibal Cafe Flourishing Age Entertainment Scandilicious London Drugs Virgin Mobile Canwest Productions Inc. Fortune Sound Club Select Hair Removal Long Live Cats & Dogs Vision Vancouver Capreit Limited Partnership Gastown Business Skynet Wireless Inc Improvement Society Lyn Hart Vya South Creek Vista Chestnut Management Spartacus Copy of Paper Ltd Partnership Ghost Light Projects Mabel League CiTR 101.9 FM Splitz Grill Wega Video Mac Marketing Solutions City of Vancouver Gilead Sciences Canada Inc State of Mind Boutique West End Business Global Atomic Designs Inc Mainland Medical Clinic Civil Rights Now Steamworks - Vancouver Improvement Association Grafton-Fraser Inc ManCakes Bakery Co.Erasga Dance Steamworks Management Western Gold Theatre Martin Brothers Community Marketing Inc Grant Bohn Stratosphere Hair Salon Funeral Services Windsor Meat Co Cruisey T Productions Health Initiative Susan Cameron/ For Men (HIM) Masc Wright Mariner Supply Cutting Edges - Gay Coldwell Banker YYZ Travel Men’s Hockey Club High Fidelity Hair Michael Wilcox TD Canada Trust Zee Zee Theatre Dan Savage’s Hump Tour Holiday Inn Miller Thomson LLP Telus Mobility Dancehouse/Lancaster House of Teeth Mr Mattress Ten Ten Tapas Communications Howe Street Development LP Mr Mz Boutique Inc The Centre for Israel David Tung Ian Holt Musette Caffe and Jewish Affairs Dayton Boots Ignite Smoke Shop Musica Intima Society The East Village VANCOUVER’S GAY & LESBIAN NEWS

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Feds cut Queer Arts Fest funding Issue 514, May 9, 2013 XTRA! FEB 12–25, 2015 35 THE BEST OF GAY & LESBIAN VANCOUVER

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36 FEB 12–25, 2015 XTRA! 21 YEARS OF HEADLINES A gay Syrian’s fl ight Issue 518, July 4, 2013 Online at xtralivingvancouver.com

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Pride censoring nudity Issue 520, Aug 1, 2013 XTRA! FEB 12–25, 2015 37 THE BEST OF GAY & LESBIAN VANCOUVER

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38 FEB 12–25, 2015 XTRA! 21 YEARS OF HEADLINES Can this pill prevent HIV? Issue 534, Feb 13, 2014 Online at xtralivingvancouver.com

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’Roid rage: Why are gay teens nearly six times more likely to use steroids? Issue 539, April 24, 2104 XTRA! FEB 12–25, 2015 39 THE BEST OF GAY & LESBIAN VANCOUVER

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