FREE 20,000 AUDITED CIRCULATION VANCOUVER’SVVANCOUVER’S GAGGAYAY & LLESBIANESBIANIAN NNEWSEWS 2013 18 31, JULY 18–31, 2013 18–31, JULY JULY #519 IS PRIDE + INSIDE! REALLY 35? E9 @dailyxtra High AIDS VANCOUVER TURNS 3O E 16 Notes facebook.com/dailyxtra.com Lesbian opera When FOLK FEST the Sun Comes Out E 21 headlines annual dailyxtra.com Queer Arts Festival E28 More at More Unilever celebrates the diversity of people, believes in inclusion and respects people for who they are and what they bring. Our PRIDE diversity network seeks to create an open workplace environment for the LGBT community and helps develop its members by providing both business and social interaction to further personal growth. Unilever Canada supports the Canadian LGBT community through PRIDE @ Work, Out on Bay Street, PRIDE week and Toronto AIDS Walk. DOVE MEN+CARE is a registered mark owned by Unilever Canada. 2 JULY 18–31, 2013 XTRA! VANCOUVER’S GAY & LESBIAN NEWS XTRA VANCOUVER’S Published by Pink Triangle Press GAY & LESBIAN NEWS PUBLISHER & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Brandon Matheson #519 JULY 18–31, 2013 Roundup EDITORIAL MANAGING EDITOR Robin Perelle STAFF REPORTER Natasha Barsotti COPY EDITOR Lesley Fraser EVENT LISTINGS [email protected] CONTRIBUTE OR INQUIRE about Xtra’s editorial content: [email protected] EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE belle ancell, David P Ball, Victor Bearpark, Leah Bromley, Richard Burnett, Nathaniel Christopher, Tom Coleman, Tony Correia, Tyler Dorchester, Jeremy Hainsworth, Matthew Hays, Shauna Lewis, James Loewen, Michael Luongo, Audrey McKinnon, Raziel, Pega Ren, Rob Salerno, Denise Sheppard ART & PRODUCTION CREATIVE DIRECTOR Lucinda Wallace AIDS HISTORY GRAPHIC DESIGNERS Darryl Mabey, Bryce Stuart ADVERTISING ADVERTISING & SALES DIRECTOR Ken Hickling NATIONAL SALES MANAGER Jeff rey Hoff man DISPLAY ADVERTISING Corey Giles, Teila Smart CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING Jessie Bennett ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Lexi Chuba Polite DISPLAY ADVERTISING Call 604-684-9696 or email [email protected] LINE CLASSIFIEDS Call 604-684-9696 or email classifi [email protected] The publication of an ad in Xtra does not mean prevention that Xtra endorses the advertiser. SPONSORSHIP AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Three decades after six gay Erica Bestwick, [email protected] Printed and published in Canada. ©2013 AIDS Vancouver men founded AIDS Vancouver, Pink Triangle Press. Xtra is published every two co-founder its connection to the weeks by Pink Triangle Press. ISSN 1198-0613 Gordon Price. Address: 501–1033 Davie St, AUDREY MCKINNON community has weakened E16 Vancouver, BC, V6E 1M7 Offi ce hours: Mon–Fri, 9am–5pm Phone: 604-684-9696 Fax: 604-684-9697 Website: dailyxtra.com Email: [email protected] Editorial SUBSCRIPTIONS $55 for one year (26 issues); Heading home for Pride Out in the City $65 (US) in the US; $100 (US) overseas. By Natasha Barsotti E4 [email protected], 800-268-XTRA Beyond folk Indie folk fests PINK TRIANGLE PRESS Feedback E4 serve audiences diversity, says Founded 1971 E Xcetera 7 Kinnie Starr E21 DIRECTORS Jim Bartley, Gerald Hannon, Glenn Kauth, Didier Pomerleau, Ken Popert, Gillian Rodgerson Blitz & Shitz HONORARY DIRECTOR Colin Brownlee Upfront Hollywood North PRESIDENT & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Ken Popert By Raziel E25 CEO, DIGITAL MEDIA David Walberg Is Pride really 35 this year? CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER Andrew Chang Our own Venice Beach, Archives and witnesses sort of Denman Street’s say Pride began more than special charm E26 35 years ago E9 Cover Story Gay tourism highlighted But Celebrating transgression more must be done to attract Queer Arts Fest’s importance gay visitors, Stevenson says E10 Your Vaporizer Specialists confi rmed by public outcry Health Canada cracks over government cuts E28 down on poppers Retailers What’s On E33 could face three-year jail sentence, $5,000 fi ne E12 Xposed Surrey Pride By David P Ball E34 Rainbow crosswalks for E Davie ‘Just in time for our world- Real Estate 35 Smoke Shop class Pride parade’: mayor E14 Index E40 Light it up BC advocates envy Manitoba The Brotherhood Vaporizers, glass, & more.. code ‘It basically reads like by Tyler Dorchester E41 a grocery list of everything I wanted to see in BC,’ says E education advocate 14 online Edailyxtra.com IGNITE SMOKE SHOP offers OUR Spaces gets charitable Men ticketed for public 15% off to dispensary card holders & federal exemptees status Small board still hopes to sex claim homophobia build new community centre E15 and profi ling by RCMP 778-786-0977 Ask the Expert Strange bedfellows 109 W Cordova St Hungry for human contact team up to fi ght QuAIA Vancouver, BC E By Dr Pega Ren 18 Gay Yemeni activist Ignitesmokeshop.ca seeks asylum in Canada Huge Selection of Smoking Supplies! COVER PHOTO: belle ancell MORE AT DAILYXTRA.COM XTRA! JULY 18–31, 2013 3 email [email protected] comment dailyxtra.com & facebook.com/dailyxtra Comment tweet @dailyxtra STEPHEN EMERY FEEDBACK (VIA DAILYXTRA.COM) It’s manifestly about freedom of ex- Heading home for Pride Court rejects pression, which trumps your claim that it’s “about hate.” Words do not comedian’s appeal beer and other libations at optimal fear of ridicule, or diminished reputa- maim or kill. EDITORIAL So it would seem that the BC Supreme NATASHA BARSOTTI temperature for consumption. tion, is still enough of a deterrent to What you’re calling a creditable Partying is serious business. Per- being unabashedly out, never mind Court agrees with the so-called Kan- “use” of “the courts” is actually law- As he hunkers down in petual Pride, Trinidad-style. the colonial-era laws that still may, on garoo Court (the term applied to the fare — now thankfully impossible at Lebanon, biding time This year I’ll be forsaking Vancouver a whim or a whiff of blackmail opportu- Human Rights Commission by “bad the federal level after the repeal of the before he and partner Aamer get the Pride to head home for my 30th high- nity, be invoked to punish the deviant guy” Ezra Levant). noxious clause of the Canadian Human official okay to come to Canada, Syrian- school reunion to soak up some of that and different. Good on Lorna [“BC Supreme Court Rights Act that permits exactly the born Danny Ramadan jokingly blames devil-may-care vibe that I left behind In August last year, there was a fleet- Rejects Zesty’s Comedian Appeal,” sort of assault on freedom perpetrated his “unholy union” for the war’s arrival almost 11 years ago when I decided to ing spark of political leadership when xtra.ca, June 19]! Now let’s see if the in British Columbia. If the comedian in Damascus. make Canada my new home. Unlike Ra- the prime minister reportedly promised recreants actually pay up. I bet they were guilty of hate speech he would He can find levity in recalling the madan, I didn’t flee a war-torn country to “put an end to all discrimination are dumb enough to try to avoid doing have been found thus in a court of backgammon and card games he and with anywhere near the level of deeply based on gender or sexual orientation.” it... I wonder how much more that law with real evidentiary rules, pre- Aamer used to play in the safety of a rooted familial and cultural strictures That lasted only until the island’s Inter- bit of novel ignorance will cost them. sumption of innocence and the ability MARK ROBERTS to cross-examine the shit out of the bathroom as sniper and rocket fire ruled on what is “acceptable,” “normal” or Religious Organization reminded politi- (VIA DAILYXTRA.COM) the Syrian capital’s streets. “right.” As I wrote in my first-ever col- cians that “the Constitution is based on complainant. Ramadan’s gallows humour reminds umn for Xtra, Trinidad is no utopia, but the supremacy of God.” “You hurt my feelings! Gimme money!” Can’t you do some research before me of home — and my fellow Trinida- I do not fear for my life as a gay person. What differed from politics-as-usual Wipe the snot off your sleeves and get a commenting, Stephen? dians’ ability to tease the ridiculous Yet the parallels are there. was the public response: at least some life. These human “rights” lynch mobs JOE CLARK out of a crisis. At the height of a coup The percentage of gay people who end people called bullshit on the politicians’ are a blight on a free society and should (VIA DAILYXTRA.COM) attempt in July 1990, Trinidadians who up in traditional marriages in Syria is “cop-out” and wondered about the shame anyone who has any self-respect found themselves stuck at friends’ or high, Ramadan observes. Anecdotally, at absence of “real consultations” on the (y’know, “pride”). Thanks, Queer Prom relatives’ homes threw spontaneous the very least, many Trinidadians do the issue with a broader spectrum of the RICK LAMBERT I’ve had a really hard time coming out curfew parties to relieve boredom, to same to keep up appearances. Trinidadi- electorate. Since I left Trinidad, such (VIA DAILYXTRA.COM) and being myself, and this was the first forget that their proudly cultivated, ans may be partial to a good fete, but they progressive reactions to homophobia This isn’t about art or freedom of expres- place where everyone accepted me carefree approach to life could actually like their sexual relationships to appear are no longer few and far between. sion [“When Courts Judge Comedy,” [“Qmunity’s Queer Prom Gives Youth be under threat, or just to prove that straight, if not monogamously narrow. The worst I can expect when my mari- Xtra #518, July 4]. This is about hate. a Chance to Celebrate and Connect,” armed insurrection was no match for As Ramadan succinctly puts it, “it’s tal status and sexuality come up once I Forty years of gains in LGBT rights dailyxtra.com, July 2].