NEWSMAKERS OF THE YEAR Heroes & villains of 2014 #HEROES #VILLAINS Law societies vs Trinity Stephen Harper and Western University the Conservatives It’s perfectly acceptable for an accredited Our Bond villain of a prime minister law school to require that all its students continues to be up to no good, as he abide by a covenant that forbids intimacy quietly tweaks laws, rejects landmark outside of heterosexual marriage, right? #HERO international rights documents and silences Yeah, I didn’t think so. Thankfully, the law environmental research. But this year was societies of British Columbia, Ontario and a particularly active one for the Harper Nova Scotia agree, with their members government, with the Conservatives voting overwhelmingly against accrediting WorldPride in Toronto continuing to debate and delay the Trinity Western University’s law school. transgender rights bill, the introduction of If you’re still hung over from this year’s Pride festivities, we understand. Toronto hosted the anti-privacy and anti-terrorism bills that world for two glorious weeks, and queers from all corners of the globe flooded the city. They all would give the government unprecedented participated in various festivities, including Canada’s largest LGBT arts festival, a human rights access to personal information, and a new conference featuring delegates from more than 50 countries, and a six-hour parade. And then anti-prostitution law that puts sex workers at Mother Nature proved her love for all things queer by wrapping the city in a gigantic double risk. Remember when Pierre Elliot Trudeau rainbow, because we’re that awesome, you guys. said, “There’s no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation”? Well, Stephen Harper wants to be in your bedroom. #VILLAINS #HEROES The Duggars #HERO #HERO For two people whose sole talent is Ontario English successfully reproducing, Jim Bob and Laverne Cox Michelle Duggar sure have lots of opinions Conchita Wurst Catholic educators on things that have nothing to do with 2014 was the year of Laverne Cox. From A rundown of 2014 wouldn’t be complete This year, the Ontario English Catholic them. The TLC stars got in hot water in without a nod to the fabulous Conchita Teachers Association voted in favour of her Emmy-nominated performance on the 2014 for successfully helping to overturn Netflix hit Orange Is the New Black to her Wurst. The Austrian winner of the Eurovision marching in the WorldPride parade as a an anti-discrimination law that protected Song Contest in 2014, Thomas Neuwirth’s show of support for their LGBT colleagues history-making Time magazine cover, Cox the rights of queer and trans people in has made a name for herself as an outspo- bearded drag persona was a controversial and students. It was an act of faith so loving their community and for having affiliations hit, celebrated by LGBT groups worldwide and non-judgmental that you’d be forgiven ken advocate for trans issues, correcting with the anti-gay Family Research Council. hosts like Katie Couric and Gayle King on while being condemned by conservative for thinking individuals other than those Between this and the Mama June debacle, and religious groups. within the Catholic school board did it. language etiquette in interviews, speaking maybe it’s time we stop providing jerks with up for trans woman CeCe McDonald’s need platforms to spread their hatred. to use deadly force against her vicious at- PROUD TEACHERS: ADAM COISH; WORLDPRIDE: SPENCER XIONG tackers and being heralded as Glamour’s 2014 Woman of the Year. 8 DEC 25, 2014–JAN 7, 2015 XTRA! TORONTO’S GAY & LESBIAN NEWS WorldPride, the fall of the Ford Empire, marriage equality and PrEP — 2014 was a big year for the LGBT community, both in Toronto and abroad. And yet for every hero, there is always a villain. Join us as we look back at the Heroes & villains of 2014 individuals and groups worthy of our praise — and our scorn. JP LAROCQUE #VILLAIN Jian Ghomeshi With accusations mounting, sexual assault charges looming and your former employer lawyering up, what’s the best possible PR strategy to save face? How about #VILLAINS blaming your allegedly non-consensual, violent sexual behaviour on an erotic #HEROES subculture of which you have little to no The Fords and Ford Nation understanding? Ghomeshi stands accused It’s the end of an error, as it were. With of some pretty heinous acts, but his the Ford brothers finally out of the mayor’s decision to use the BDSM community as office and the city regaining a comparative Gay-for-pay corporations a scapegoat on social media was a very sense of normalcy under the Tory Starbucks has drag queens, Burger King celebrates gay families, and Kellogg’s makes Tony the public mistake that effectively hoisted the administration, it would be easy to write Tiger wear rainbow-coloured stripes. This was the year of corporations going to bat for the LGBT fallen host by his own petard. off the last four years of drug videos and community, ignoring various calls for boycotts and religious backlash, and bravely marketing to drunken stupors as a collective bad dream. our demographic. Congrats, everyone! Our copious amounts of disposable income are finally But the Fords did tremendous damage to being acknowledged by capitalism. Freedom comes with a gift card and a delicious mushroom- Toronto’s civic character, cracking open Swiss-bacon Whopper. the veneer of acceptance that had been fostered for decades to reveal a hotbed of intolerance, resentment and division. Even politically neutered, the Ford family remains a potent symbol of a portion of Toronto that isn’t interested in accepting the LGBT community. Sadly, we still have lots of work to do to repair our fractured city. #HEROES Ontario voters #HERO #VILLAIN On June 12, Ontario voted in Kathleen O’Day Wynne as premier of the province Jill Soloway’s Pastor Manning and the first openly gay elected head of The passing of Reverend Fred Phelps left government in Canada. And perhaps Transparent a career opening for crazy religious bigots what was most significant about both the Amazon entered the streaming television everywhere, and so we now have Pastor campaign and victory was how little the game with this touching and subversive James David Manning of Harlem advocating media and her political opponents called #VILLAINS series about a father (played with grace stoning homosexuals to hell, accusing attention to Wynne’s sexual identity. At by Jeffrey Tambor) who comes out to his President Obama of destroying the black a time when mudslinging in the political grown children as a transgender woman. community and suggesting that Starbucks arena is common, Wynne’s win came Capital Pride Exploring sexuality, identity and familial flavours its coffee with the “semen of across as a tentative step forward for both It hasn’t been an easy year for Capital dysfunction with intelligence and humour, sodomites.” Well, I guess that explains the the province and LGBT rights. Pride, with the Ottawa organization the show is easily the year’s best and drag queens. declaring bankruptcy without community represents a clear turning point in queer consultation, owing various suppliers televised storytelling. KATHLEEN WYNNE: ANDREA HOUSTON; THE FORDS: SISSYDUDE; CAPITAL PRIDE: BEN WELLAND thousands of dollars and casting serious CONTINUED NEXT PAGE doubt on the future of the event. MORE AT DAILYXTRA.COM XTRA! DEC 25, 2014–JAN 7, 2015 9 CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE #HERO #VILLAINS Reluctant Hero: IOC #HERO #HERO The International Olympic Committee Catholic bishops didn’t exactly make lots of gay friends BioWare’s Dragon Age: PrEP with its decision to stay quiet on Russia’s So, that Pope Francis is kinda cool, right? numerous human rights violations in the Inquisition He’s fairly progressive, as far as popes go. Approved as an HIV-prevention method lead-up to the Sochi Games. But by the Video-game developer BioWare is used He made strides to welcome gay people and by the US Food and Drug Administration end of 2014, the committee had shifted to courting controversy and has given divorcees into the fold and is helping to bring in 2012, PrEP (under the brand name its position, announcing that it will add countless interviews describing its the church into the 21st century, but then he Truvada) is still not offi cially licensed for use sexual orientation to its anti-discrimination commitment to creating rich, entertaining has to deal with a bunch of buzzkill bishops in HIV prevention in Canada. Still, countless language in host-city contracts — a move games populated by diverse casts of going against him out of the fear that it would sexual health organizations have come that some hope will see signifi cant changes straight, gay and bisexual characters. And “undermine the traditional family.” Well, stay out in support of the drug, and many in to LGBT rights in the countries where the with Dragon Age: Inquisition, the company strong, Francis — something tells me that the community see it as a valuable tool for games are held. went even further, creating its fi rst trans you’re on the right side of history. lowering the risk of infection. character, a second-in-command named Krem who has been heralded as a huge step forward in gaming representation. #HERO Michael Sam The St Louis Rams’ decision to draft Michael Sam — an openly gay football player — took many by surprise. For a sport #HEROES that has a bunch of burly men in spandex #HEROES shorts aggressively rubbing against each Stories of Our Lives and other, the idea of a gay football player seemed to make subtext a bit too textual filmmaker Jim Chuchu International Pride celebrants for some in the industry.