March 31, 2005 10:24 AM

Buy now, pay later

What counts as $75,000-worth of "inappropriate and repugnant marketing"? What icky images pushed tennis star Martina Navratilova over the edge and caused her to sue her own business partners in Do Tell, Inc., the folks behind the queer Rainbow Visa credit card project?

Finally, some possibilities are trickling out: One story says: "At the heart of Navratilova’s complaint is the allegation that Do Tell wanted to advertise the Rainbow Card on a television show that the tennis star said portrayed gays in a negative light, according to [Navratilova's attorney, John] Chapman. He declined to name the TV show or identify on which channel it appears, but did say it is currently being broadcast. The marketing of the card on the show did not eventually occur, Chapman added." Well, there aren't that many shows the Rainbow Card might be interested in... "The L Word?" "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy?" [ADDED April 1: Duh, there's no lesbian on Queer Eye. I meant that new variant, the one that includes a lesbian in the cast named Honey Labrador] What else is out there? Would they bother paying for ads on a show that wasn't specifically queer?

The Philadelphia Gay News also has some the dirt: there might be an element of friendship gone bad. The principals in the 10-year-old Rainbow Card company are Nancy Becker and Pam Derderian. Minority shareholder Navratilova is the godmother of the pair's daughter. (Navratilova's image has since been removed from company marketing materials.)

Nonetheless, this is a story about big business. In a completely separate report, PGN notes: "A portion of the credit card fees are given to the Rainbow Endowment, a nonprofit organization the three women formed to promote the health and social well being" of LGBTs. "Since 1996, the Rainbow Endowment... has distributed 78 million grants totaling nearly $1.5 million." Of course, a credit card business can't do it all on its own. It needs to plug in to mainstream mega corporations for all sorts of banking-related services. The Rainbow Card is sponsored by MBNA. That company "recently surpassed Enron as President George W. Bush's top lifetime contributor, according to the Center for Public Integrity."

Cancel your MBNA credit card over an issue of ethics, and you screw a lesbian business funneling cash into its own community, while trying to build queer visibility and change the world. Make a choice.

March 30, 2005 10:53 AM

Open season

Playing catch-up: 10 days ago, Ipsos-Reid released a survey on how "many Canadians (39%) believe the recent debates over same-sex marriage have increased discrimination towards gays and lesbians."

The survey is about perceptions. What's the reality? Tough to say given that there are so few available resources when it comes to hard numbers. But queer news in the mainstream often hikes anti-gay violence. Toronto benefits from the 519 Church Street Community Centre, located smack in the middle of the Gay Village, and its Anti Violence Program focuses on bashing and conjugal assault.

Here's program coordinator Howard Shulman's response to my question: "When there is increased attention on the LGBT community, there is usually an increase in the numbers of reported bashings. This was especially evident in 2003 in the wake of the Ontario Court of Appeals decision in favor of same-sex marriage -- there was a spike in the number of bashings." (I think that with that court ruling, same-sex marriage actually began to be taken seriously as a threat by the bigots.)

"U.S. cities had similar spikes whenever their state legislature or courts were debating same-sex marriage. Having said all of that, so far this year there was not a notable rise in the number of bashings when Parliament began its debate [in February]... this may have to do with the time of the year, and only time will tell." Howard means that it's easier to beat up fags and dykes when it's warmer outside. One theory is that big winter coats make it harder to jump around and hit people, and it's also harder to hurt someone through all the layers they're wearing. So bashing stats go up in the summer. Or maybe there's just more public canoodling when it's warmer, which of course is an affront to heterosexuals....

There is some good news. Says Howard: "The stats do not always show an increase in the number of bashings when there is mainstream discussion about LGBT issues. For example, when Ellen came out in 1997; or when [the Canadian] Parliament included sexual orientation under the Charter of Rights [making anti-gay discrimination in the provision of services like housing illegal]. There was a dramatic rise in bashings in Toronto (and most North American cities) in 1991 (which lead to the creation of the AVPs in many cities including here) that may have had a correlation to the recession, the increasing impact of AIDS and HIV."

If only homos would hide away... we'd be so much safer.

March 29, 2005 9:57 AM

A lesbian saint?

Greta Garbo stars in the title role of Queen Christina in the classic 1933 movie of the same name. The bumph on the cassette box breathlessly told me everything I needed to know about the delightful queer coding in this film: La Garbo plays opposite John Gilbert, her real romantic interest at the time, and sparks fly on screen. In truth, Gilbert was really rather busy with other men. And off camera, Garbo was more likely interested in her lady-in-waiting. As for the film: Her majesty dresses up as a man to escape the dreary trappings of royal life, only to fall in love with a visiting male dignitary. Hijinks and tragedy ensue.

There's now a newish biography of her imperialness, who lived from 1626 to 1689. It's Veronica Buckley's "Christina, Queen of Sweden: The Restless Life of a European Eccentric." Critic David Williams has sent out advance word of his review, which will appear in the April issue of the queer Kentucky newspaper, The Letter. "A woman of her own mind who never married, did as she pleased, and loved to decorate: what's not to love?" he asks.

"Initially it appeared to me that Buckley was trying to devalue Christina's lesbian leanings, and I had to ask myself: what more proof do you need? Aren't her love letters, strong evidence of her same-sex affairs, and all that juicy gossip, enough? Fortunately, Buckley does end up admitting -- though grudgingly, [that she] thought that Christina had a few lesbian flings. Whew! And here I thought I was going to have to endure another heterosexual whitewash."

Williams also writes that Christina was exasperating and thoughtless. "That's why we might think twice before canonizing her as a lesbian saint. She wasn't a very good ruler, nor was she much of a friend to most. After she abdicated the throne, converted to Roman Catholicism, and ran off to Rome, she spent the remainder of her life restlessly, even aimlessly. She never seems to have had much purpose to her life. We're left to ponder what she might have accomplished if she'd been a little more intelligent and much less spoiled." So. Should we canonize the foolish? Or only "proper" lesbians?

March 28, 2005 2:34 PM

The politics of underwear

She had been patient, she said. But the granny panties had to go. My journey began.

March 28, 2005 11:40 AM

The injustice done to Boy George

Boy George has a hangover, which might account for the many bad words ***ed out in this interview. "I tell him he comes across as being completely obsessed with his sexuality. Why? He laughs long and hard and gives me a pitiful look. 'I'm not obsessed, really I'm not. Because being gay is not your reality, it seems that I'm really obsessed with it.'" More here.

March 26, 2005 2:56 PM

"Voters don't decide issues, they decide who will decide issues"*

An activist who takes the time to read Hansard, bless his soul, has sent out a note about the upcoming vote on the same-sex marriage legislation, Bill C-38. It appears the House of Commons will vote on April 12. (It's the second reading only, all bills get three readings.) The Thursday debate in the House began:
Hon. Karen Redman (Kitchener Centre, Lib.): "Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. Conversations have occurred among the parties and I believe you would find unanimous consent for the following motion. I move:

"That at any time, on or before April 11, when second reading of Bill C-38 is under consideration, when no member rises to speak on the amendment, or subamendment, all questions necessary to dispose of the said amendment to second reading of Bill C-38 be deemed put, a recorded division requested and deferred until the end of government orders on Tuesday, April 12."
The Deputy Speaker: "Does the House give unanimous consent for the whip to put the motion?"
Some hon. members: "Agreed."
The Deputy Speaker: "The House has heard the terms of the motion. Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion?"
Some hon. members: "Agreed."

The transcript is here.


*Said by pompous conservative journalist George F. Will, who also wrote: "Statecraft is soulcraft. Just as all education is moral education because learning conditions conduct, much legislation is moral legislation because it conditions the action and the thought of the nation in broad and important spheres of life."

March 26, 2005 2:13 PM

Sizzling out?

Old news for music fetishists -- but this will be new for others. "Three Dollar Bill" columnist Richard Burnett provides an update this week on anti-gay dancehall star Sizzla's new hit tune, "Nah Apologize" (it's in the middle of Burnett's column). Sizzla's chorus includes the line, "Rastaman nah apologize to no batty bwoy."

Writes Burnett: "So I am delighted to report that Jamaican security forces raided Sizzla's... premises on March 17, seizing a cache of illegal firearms including six AK-47 rifles, three sniper rifles, one M-16 rifle with a fitted silencer, two shotguns, one Intratec submachine gun, ammunition, and two bullet-proof vests. After Sizzla and 32 others were detained by police, Jamaican National Security Minister Peter Phillips announced, 'We are at war [with criminal gangs].'"

March 26, 2005 12:55 PM

Lesbian porn, or Nancy Ruth part 2

I profiled Nancy Ruth -- then known as Nancy Jackman -- back in 1993. She was no Canadian senator then, but rather the hand-picked candidate of the provincial Progressive Conservative Party (R.I.P.) in the Toronto riding which included the gay village. The opposing New Democratic Party aspirant at the time said: "I'm the only openly gay candidate."

Admittedly, this profile of Jackman-Ruth is now 11 years old, but she was no youngster coming to terms with her politics: By then, her opinions were firmly entrenched. Here are some excerpts from that profile.

"Nancy Jackman doesn't like drag queens. Jackman sat on the founding board of directors of Casey House, the hospice for people with AIDS. But in 1988, when drag queens proposed a fundraiser, Jackman stepped down. 'From my own understanding of feminism, cross-dressing from a position of power -- that is, male -- is a problem. I made no move to stop the board, but I felt uncomfortable. My time had come -- so I left.'

"Jackman says she still supports Casey House, even though drag shows have become one of the hospice's biggest sources of cash, giving Casey House some $250,000 over the years."

She traveled with the World Student Christian Federation, was a United Church minister for a time, and created a charitable foundation, Nancy's Very Own, which exclusively focuses on women's projects. (She later sponsored a youth site, Cool Women.) "But she's perhaps best known for helping found and fund the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF). 'What the LEAF experience did for me is to understand the importance of laws,' she says. 'The other side of litigation is to legislate.'

"LEAF is now under the gun for its role in the Butler decision, in which gay male SM porn was shown to Supreme Court justices [as a way to shock and disgust them]. LEAF spokespeople said that this would help the justices understand the degradation of women in heterosexual porn." And so the judges actually expanded the definition of obscenity to include written or visual materials that are "degrading and dehumanizing." Definitions, of course, were not provided. Within weeks, a judge declared an issue of the mainstream gay porn mag Advocate Men obscene. And oh yes, lesbian porn got caught, too: Butler was referenced by the judge who declared an issue of the lesbian mag Bad Attitude to be obscene (including a photograph by Canadian photographer Jennifer Gillmor).

"Jackman, who is still involved in LEAF, refuses to discuss censorship.... 'I have no idea,' she says about Butler. 'I've got other things to worry about. I need lawyers from different sides to sit down and teach me.' [Yet] Jackman has lectured on law and litigation for years."

In fact, LEAF suffered years of nasty internal battles over the Butler mess. Some thought dyke porn was gross, others did not. Eventually, the good gals won, and LEAF sheepishly issued a sort of apology. In 1999, LEAF staff lawyer Kim Buchanan said: "We did not expect or intend for obscenity legislation to target lesbians and gay men. That's what ended up happening."

But what to do? The Butler decision was already enshrined -- nothing could be done in the immediate. So LEAF tried to create a loophole, arguing that lesbian porn should be viewed differently than straight porn, that the historical inequalities between men and women were irrelevant in lesbian porn. The courts didn't buy it. And neither did Nancy Ruth (Jackman), who denounced the organization she helped found. And during the court case, Ruth (Jackman) sat next to Catharine MacKinnon -- the noted American anti-porn feminist nutcase.

March 25, 2005 10:26 AM

We have a lesbian senator...

... and she is Nancy Ruth. Lordy.

There are many polite words for Nancy Ruth: Honest. Up front. Stubborn. And there IS a lot of good in Ruth. She gets things done, and is an activist of many years: poverty issues, immigrant women, charter issues. We're talking feminism galore. She's done all sorts of astonishing things that the independently wealthy can do when they have a conscience and an iron will.

Ruth was nee Jackman, born into high falutin' Ontario royalty (brother Henry, Hal to his friends, is a former provincial lieutenant governor -- he's as leftie as a multimillionaire businessman can be). Ruth changed her last name a few years back over family stuff that she's never discussed publicly. She's both charming and foul-mouthed (some wonder whether she suffers from Tourette Syndrome, though I think she just likes to be blunt). She was appointed to the Canadian Senate yesterday (one of nine newbies), and, entertainingly, will sit as a Progressive Conservative. That's a party that no longer exists, having recently merged with a more right-wing gang to create the Conservative Party. She's not a compromiser, and that's good for us on many levels.

But she's also the sort of feminist who believes in women as victims, and her obsession with protecting women from victimization has hurt us in many ways, as well. I'll complete this entry later in the day.

ADDENDUM: ACTUALLY, I filed this the next day.... apologies for the delay.

March 25, 2005 10:02 AM

Blacks get indigestion, too

Prime Access Inc. is a New York-based marketing agency specializing in "urban majority advertising," and company president Howard Buford has an interesting piece in the January Gay & Lesbian Review, in which he discusses gay and lesbian advertising and includes some comparison with the evolution of ads featuring African-Americans.

"The use of gay and lesbian images in advertising can be expected to follow the trajectory of African-American representation, which has a much longer history in U.S. advertising. The first marketing efforts traded on broad stereotypes that associated this group with proficiency in food preparation: early examples would be Aunt Jemima's Pancakes, Uncle Ben's Rice, and Cream of Wheat," writes Buford.

"Another association for African-Americans has been with cleaning products, and even today there's a TV spot for Pine-Sol that exploits the worst cliche about the sassy 'colored' woman. Nevertheless, advertising has largely moved beyond these stereotypes to portray African-Americans in virtually the same range of everyday situations as any other group, visiting a theme park or getting indigestion just like everyone else. Even the field of mainstream cosmetics has now embraced African-American images -- highly personal products have always been the most sensitive to any sort of 'denegration' -- something that didn't happen until the late 1990s....

"By the same token, marketers can be expected to become more sophisticated and begin portraying gay and lesbian people as plausible experts in a wider range of topics than just fashion and home decorating. For now, a show like 'Queer Eye For the Straight Guy' is in fact trading on such stereotypes, but it represents the kind of stereotype that has moved other 'emerging markets' into the cultural mainstream. Here an evolution can be observed from a negative stereotype to a positive attribute. Thus a classic stereotype of gay men is that they're overly concerned with their appearance. The flipside of this is an image of gay men as genuinely better groomed and even better looking than the average straight guy -- and possibly even sexier."

The complete piece can be found here.

March 25, 2005 9:34 AM

"D.E.B.S."

Drat. "Angela Robinson's attempt at a hip send-up of teen comedies fails miserably... it is neither smart, witty, or subversive," writes movie reviewer Katherine Monk in my morning paper. Katherine is Vancouver based and writes for the Asper-owned Canwest chain. If there were funny dyke jokes, she'd get them.

"Most surprisingly, for a lesbian movie, it plays into dated straight cliche by treating the women as empty vessels in push-up bras and stilettos without any redeeming human qualities.... D.E.B.S. feels like girl-on-girl porno for straight men -- only without the sex, female chemistry or a decent story." Ouch. Now what am I going to watch this weekend? (Actually, I'll probably see it anyway; perhaps I'll fall under its good-humoured spell.)

On the plus side, it's good to read an honest pan of a lesbian movie. The acclaimed "Mambo Italiano," by local Montreal boy Steve Galluccio, was a terrible movie (released in 2003). I began to wonder whether my disappointment with it made me an idiot -- or whether reviewers all over the world felt obliged to like a homo flick. I went with the latter.

March 24, 2005 9:53 AM

Artistic integrity? Phfeh

Listened to Captain James T. Kirk's 2004 album, "Has Been." It's quite fun. A mix of musical styles, a talking-more-than-singing approach that helps overcome the fact that William Shatner can't carry a tune. Plus a self-deprecating sense of humour. It was hilarious -- until I got to the middle of the album, and heard "What Have You Done," about finding his wife dead in the backyard pool. ("In truth I knew/ I was too late for death/ I had one chance/ I grasped her arm and floated upwards.") Only then did I realize that the whole album was serious.

Edit the artist. Just fast forward through that tune, program the CD player to skip it, take a three minute bathroom break. My entertainment trumps your agony.

March 23, 2005 11:01 AM

Ow, my head

I'm starting to think that homosexuality on TV has jumped the shark. I know I was impressed with all the homo stuff on telly sitcoms and dramas just two months ago -- but it's getting ridiculous. This week I can't turn on the set without getting fed gay content with Redeeming Social Value. "Oh bother," said Pooh Bear, resting head in hands. "I just wanted a Bit of Mindless Distraction."

Instead I found a comedy, The Newsroom, in which a shrink suggests that self-obsessed newsman George Findlay has latent homosexual tendencies -- then a stroke paralyzes the shrink, leaving George in emotional agony. And the medical drama "House," where a homophobe discovers his mobster brother wants to turn state's evidence in order to use the witness protection program to start a new life as an out gay man. Most hilariously, the bigot decides not to kill his sibling for the impending bean spilling, but tells him to do what makes him happy. Riiiight. (Actually, a couple of people with some insight into organized crime tell me there are quite a few bisexual mobsters, but that's another issue.)

Then there was the special, heart-warming (straight) AIDS storyline on "Judging Amy." And this afternoon (at 3:30), we Montrealers can finally see the banned episode of the kiddie Postcards From Buster on VPT (WETK-33). Sigh. Maybe I could find some "Married with Children" reruns.

March 22, 2005 11:38 AM

Gossip builds community

Columnist Billy Masters is often an entertaining read. Go here and click on the "Filth!" button on the left hand side of the page. Today's blurbs: American Idol, Michael Jackson, and Angelina Jolie continues to brag about her bisexuality. For the boys, lots of porn news (including details on the size of Antonio Sabato's member). I usually stop reading about halfway through...

March 22, 2005 9:58 AM

Yes it is! No it isn't!

It's dueling press releases, as Canada's PrideVision denies that the American Q Television has made a purchase offer, and Q Television says it has.

"'By acquiring Pride Vision, Q would be able to cut its expenses down on all of its programming costs,' Frank Olsen, president and CEO of Q Television Network, said in a statement Friday. 'It is still early in the game but we feel confident with our bid to purchase the network and further expand Q and the Queer television movement.'

"But, Monday, PrideVision said no bid had been made. 'PrideVision is not seeking buyers,' Bill Craig, president of the network and its majority shareholder, said in a statement. 'A representative of Q Television telephoned PrideVision without invitation last week simply to explore possibilities,' Craig's statement said. QTV, however, maintains that discussions have taken place." The full, confusing story's here.

March 22, 2005 9:30 AM

The triumphant return of Rick Mercer

I love the idea of Ricky the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television comedian. But here's a man whose hype has outstripped his talent. I started calculating his show's smile-per-minute ratio, and it just didn't warrant my time. Failed satire and social commentary make for hideous television, and my accounting method is not mean nor shallow: It's eminently practical.

But I was bored and turned on the telly last night, and Mercer's baaaack! His "Monday Report" was funny and snarky and made me a fan all over again. Insufferable loud-mouth Paul Cellucci, the outgoing American ambassador to Canada, was saluted ("Don't let the door hit you on the ass"). British Columbia's premier (unsuccessfully) tried to sell university tuition increases to a (supposedly) cold-calling skeptical student. And a fake government of Canada ad offered a pamphlet on how to talk to your children about airline bankruptcies.

It wasn't all perfect. Mercer still does lousy stand-up. His machine gun delivery of one-liners ("The Front Page" and the opening monologue) rarely delivers. (Older viewers will see the high groaner quotient as a tip of the hat to old style Canuck comedy, nostalgically evoking the bad jokes of the CBC's iconic Wayne and Shuster duo.) Mercer's true talent is improvising with others, where his quick mind shines.

His insistence on traveling about the country, on visiting the far north, hanging out in university pubs or (like last night), spending time on a Coast Guard ship, adds immeasurably to our understanding of our own country. His is an inquisitive nationalism that acknowledges Canada as a whole.

Mercer's gay, of course, but is offended about being asked. He won't actually deny his relationship with longtime executive producer Gerald Lund. But that's as far as he'll go, mumbling to reporters that knowing too much about his private life will keep viewers from appreciating his jokes. Funny, I know about his private life and last night I still laughed.

March 21, 2005 5:11 PM

Gory Tory civics

Capital Xtra's Gareth Kirkby has filed another story on the weekend's Conservative Party convention. When delegates voted en masse against same-sex marriage, gay Tories put "a positive spin on it. A predicted walkout of delegates after the same-sex vote failed to materialize. They’re choosing party over principle."

Other popular policy moves include:
"Raising the age of sexual consent to 16 from 14;
"'Three strikes and you're out' criminal sentencing;
"And adding property rights to the Constitution, a move that would undermine the ability of government to protect the environment."

March 21, 2005 4:27 PM

The easy way out

Today is "racism is bad" day. And a federal government press release just went out announcing The Action Plan Against Racism, which has been allocated 56 million smackers over five years. Yet more background here. (Ignore the usual insipid pre-fab quotes -- zip down to the meat.)

Here's a couple of the more interesting bits:
One project will standardize the collection of data related to crimes and incidents motivated by hate;
Another will examine perceived racial-profiling and the over-representation of certain groups in the justice system.

It all sounds good. Until you get to the cybercrime stuff. "Countering Internet-Based Hate Crime (Justice Canada) proposes to combat hate via the Internet by working to establish a tip line to facilitate reporting, and working with Internet service providers to identify online hate." The feds want to shut down hate sites (and hate speech is illegal in Canada).

Regular readers will know that I'm a civil libertarian on such matters, and consider the criminalization of personal opinions to be contradictory to all that is good and just, plus it's just a stupid thing to do (like the world needs more friggin martyrs to the cause of racism).

But of course there's a price to pay for that attitude. Extra hate requires extra work to fight it off.

I so much want to believe that I can bring the misguided around. We all want to believe that education can work.

That's not necessarily true. "We expose our senses primarily to information that reinforces our own ideas," wrote William L. Rivers in the 1970 tome, "Politics and the Press." "This the psychologists call 'selective exposure.' In one test of it, Wilbur Schramm and Richard Carter of Stanford University found that Republicans are almost twice as likely as Democrats to watch a Republican-sponsored telecast. We also tend to see what we want to see -- 'selective perception' -- which social researchers have shown so often that they now have approximately the same compulsion to demonstrate it again that a mathematician has to show that two plus two equals four. Some of us go to ludicrous lengths to perceive 'facts' that will support our prejudices. In one experiment, anti-Semites looked at editorial cartoons that ridiculed religious bias and saw them in reverse -- as glorifications of Anglo-Saxon lineage."

Does that mean education can never work, and we should give up? Of course not. People can change. And if not them, then their children. Or their children's kids.

But criminalizing speech doesn't fix the problem, it just sends the bile underground. Banning is easy, and change, it turns out, takes work.

March 21, 2005 9:57 AM

For the spiritualist who has everything

It's the perfect gift: send her a spectre. "At My Adopted Ghost, we're committed to bringing ghostly and human spirits together." Mike C. from North Carolina says: "I have a hard time talking to people and thought that I may be able to communicate better with a more spiritual companion. I think I finally found someone who will listen to me."

If you meet the screening requirements (!), a mere US$23.95 (plus shipping and taxes) will get you a spook, a manual, a certificate of adoption, and your shade's biography. (Options include Gaylord, who "died when Cher fans stampeded a ticket outlet selling tickets to her 'final tour.'")

Would you make for a good ghoul guardian? "The ideal Ghost Host is someone with lots of time, patience, and not too many children or pets. (Ghosts are jealous by nature, and they do not like to compete for your attention.) Ghost Hosts are typically 24 to 49 years of age, though a Ghost Host can still be in diapers or as old as dirt. Ghost Hosts are male or female and from all walks of life. Note: We've found that single artistic women and married men moonlighting as clowns make the best Ghost Hosts, though we have no idea why."

March 19, 2005 11:01 AM

U.S. company wants queer Canuck TV

The American Q Television Network wants to buy Canada's PrideVision. The Canuck channel is having all sorts of problems. Sigh.


ADD ON [Sunday] Canadian broadcasting ownership rules can be found here.

March 19, 2005 9:56 AM

Ex gays are just looking for love in all the wrong places

They -- the ex gay enemy -- sound a lot like "real" gays when they talk about how unhappy they are with the culture of homosexuality. Many of these ex gays say that they can't find love. Just like many of us. More here.

March 19, 2005 9:55 AM

Harper on abortion and marriage

When he becomes Canada's prime minister, Conservative leader Stephen Harper will ban same-sex marriage (but allow for equal treatment under the law, implying some sort of queer couple's registry). He also told delegeates at this weekend's policy convention in Montreal that he would not introduce any legislation on abortion: thus it will remain legal. Harper's full speech is here (in PDF format).

March 18, 2005 4:41 PM

The last of today's Tory politics

Recently had brunch with two lovely people -- a lesbian couple. One woman teased the other about not liking public displays of affection, and blamed internalized homophobia. But the first woman then explained that she enjoyed same-sex public touching because it creeps out the heterosexuals.

She's using homophobia as a weapon. I'm not sure that's healthy.

So, was it appropriate for the Pink Panthers to use homophobia to humiliate Stephen Harper with their demo's centrepiece, the papier mache Harper-being-sodomized?

March 18, 2005 9:54 AM

Tory, tory, madory, fadory

"Those wild and crazy Conservatives are in Montreal. Delegates to the party's policy convention came to town with copies of the 10 Commandments and $20 bills. By Monday, they won't have broken either" (Montreal Gazette columnist Mike Boone).

Also from the Gazoo: "About 40 protesters in pink balaclava-type face coverings greeted delegates... [demonstrators arrived] by 'sodomobile' -- a white van bedecked with a papier mache roof sculpture of a [Conservative Party leader] Stephen Harper likeness being sodomized by a Pink Panther."


ADDENDUM: Regularly updated Canadian Press coverage of the Tory con can be found here.


MORE ADD ON [posted 15:08]: Capital Xtra's Gareth Kirkby might well be the only queer press reporter covering the conference. Today's story is here.

March 18, 2005 9:47 AM

Heavy metal pissing match

Because there's a difference between manly make-up and girlie shit, as explained by Nikki Sixx of Motley Crue: An interviewer asked Sixx whether he wears more or less make-up on stage now than he did in his days as a hair metal rocker. "It's the same as I've worn always," Sixx said. "Listen, if you wear make-up to look pretty like Poison, you're a bunch of fags. Motley Crue wears it more like Keith Richards. It's just to look [messed] up. I want to look like I just got punched in the face every day."

Found in Washington, D.C.'s queer Metro Weekly.

March 17, 2005 7:03 PM

Why being straight is unhealthy

"A former interim leader of the Conservative Party has resurfaced at the helm of a national campaign against gay marriage. And Dr. Grant Hill isn't backing down from views that once branded him as homophobic. He says he'll spread his message at the pivotal Conservative policy convention this week as the party tries to cast itself as election-ready."

So much for the Tories hoping for a nice, non controversial meeting! The story continues: "Hill... says few people are willing to risk being criticized by stating what he says is scientifically obvious: that the homosexual lifestyle includes 'distinct health negatives;' that those with an 'unwanted sexual preference' can choose to change it; and that children do best when raised by straight couples. 'My position is based on science, on social science, my experience as a doctor and all the data and literature that I review in a scientific way... Every single [piece of] data says that marriage between a man and a woman is the best environment to raise children.'"

Asked about the homosexual lifestyle's "distinct health negatives," Hill cited AIDS as an almost exclusively gay disease.

Anyone want to take a shot at listing heterosexual "distinct health negatives"? There are quite a few, methinks.

March 17, 2005 1:03 PM

Famously hetero

Fun squibs in The Advocate relating how celebs deal with gay rumours.

"Troy Aikman
"RUMOR: In September of 1996, sportswriter Skip Bayless published the book Hell-Bent: The Crazy Truth About the Win-or-Else Dallas Cowboys, which examined the rumor that the quarterback was gay.
RESPONSE: Aikman publicly threatened to punch him out and later married a Dallas Cowboys publicist in 2000."

Others mentioned include American Idol Clay Aiken, Tom Cruise, Richard Gere and Cindy Crawford, celebrity ex-husband David Gest, Whitney Houston, Helen Hunt, Ricky Martin, Kelly McGillis, Mike Piazza, Kevin Spacey, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, and Oprah Winfrey. And Liberace, who denied, denied, denied....

March 17, 2005 11:36 AM

Hookers and homos

There's yet more posted in the Prostitution category, which is tracking the House of Commons Subcommittee on Solicitation Laws. Many thanks to all those who have sent in comments and presentations, and keep it coming! Hustlers and prostitutes especially welcome. Are there any johns (or janes -- how many women pay for sex?) out there who want add their two cents?

March 17, 2005 11:05 AM

Smooches for Stephen

I can get pretty snotty about "activism," but in the end almost all uppitiness is better than none at all. Even if the activism strikes me as dumb. Montreal's Pink Panthers (Pantheres Roses) once protested the evil commercialism of Valentine's Day by throwing up in gay village stores. The action was... poorly thought out.

"After puking on the doorsteps of the Village's most prosperous shops and bars catering to gay businessmen, members of this radical queer group flooded the neighborhood with counterfeit coupons, symbolizing the reign of the pink dollar and the capitalist compliance of today’s average gays and lesbians. Before vomiting on the step of the shop Priape, Amelia, a member of the Pink Panthers, confessed that the whirlwind of commercial publicity surrounding Valentine's Day really got her gut: 'Businesses make me feel like I’m really cheap if I express my love for my girlfriend in any other way than by buying her some meaningless object.'

"Another member of the Pink Panthers, before vomiting on the step of the store Wegavideo, revealed that the most infuriating thing for him was the capitalist appropriation of emotions like love and liberty, which have always belonged to everybody and should never have become dependent on consumption."

I don't think that barfing on a DVD will make people see the light. But good on ya for making a fuss. (And, well, it was kind of funny....)

Today, the Pink Panthers are sponsoring a kiss-in and street party to welcome (and oppose) Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper and his band of merry goofs, holding their big convention here in Montreal over the weekend. The Pinks leave Square Victoria (located by the subway stop of the same name) at 5 pm, and will end up kissing at the Palais de Congres (the conference centre).

Tory delegates will pick a party president this weekend. The choice is between a straight rural Alberta working class guy and a gay Montreal lawyer. Most importantly, the party will spend the weekend trying not to implode while the moralist control freaks fight the libertarians on social issues like homosexuality and abortion.

Let's give them all big sloppy kisses to start the conference out right.

March 16, 2005 3:02 PM

What's in a name?

What's the best part about the spam in my inbox? The absolutely lovely monikers generated for the sender's line:
Electroencephalogram I. Upbringings
Fearfuller B. Emasculates
Bristol F. Tactlessly
Uteruses H. Tegucigalpa
Encumbrances P. Wisterias
Abbreviated G. Towellings
Disciple G. Adipose
Blunter R. Coarseness
Exorcising L. Mesmerism
Skeletal M. Repossess.

March 16, 2005 7:28 AM

A little curl goes a long way

Steelworker James Miller got knocked off a raft, on Survivor, by gay hairdresser Coby Archa. Said Miller: "I feel terrible having my butt whupped by a homosexual, you know, but a lot of gay folks are strong, man. They all workin' out at the gym and all, you know. Damn."

March 15, 2005 3:22 PM

Snow White was a fag hag

The retail store Marshall Field's received complaints about its Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Xmas window treatment: there was a "hidden gay agenda.... because seven men were living together."

So revealed Minneapolis-based store executive Gregory Clark at a recent Retail Advertising & Marketing Association conference in Chicago. The Chicago Tribune story continues: "When Field's receives such complaints, the department store chain listens to them, Clark said. But unless it receives, say, 10,000 letters and phone calls, it doesn't change its strategy, he said."

March 15, 2005 12:45 PM

Sex, lies, and bawdy houses

I've created a new article category, Prostitution. It includes the latest on the Parliamentary Subcommittee on Solicitation Laws.

March 15, 2005 10:38 AM

On "What the Bleep Do We Know!?"

This 2004 flick is billed as a look at the intersection of quantum mechanics and philosophy (just released on DVD). But What The #$*! Do We Know" is not a documentary, it's a piece of dogma telling people that it's their own damned fault when bad things happen, because they're not thinking good thoughts. Alleged spiritualists and acolytes spew mumbo jumbo designed to inspire the viewer -- who's guaranteed to then collapse into an even more vicious depression when her brainwaves alone can't cure her terminal cancer. Offensive, evil drivel.

March 14, 2005 3:22 PM

Tick one: male, female, or e

India has added another option when answering queries about gender. It's "E," for eunuch, on passport application forms. "The existence of the hijra or eunuch community has never been a secret," says India's Telegraph newspaper. "To recognize them officially for the first time in 2005 is also to demonstrate their severe lack of rights. Even the exact size of the community is unknown....

"The urge to be part of the mainstream of society, and to have the right to vote in their own chosen identity, had been growing in the community for quite some time. The movement that developed led to the Election Commission's direction to its officials in 1993 to include eunuchs on the electoral rolls. Ironically, they had never been banned, because the Constitution forbids discrimination on the basis of gender. But most were overlooked in the counting, or they had to register as 'male,' often against their wishes, or were too embarrassed to go to the booths where derisive questions would be raised about their sexual identity.... There were suddenly eunuchs winning municipal elections, producing remarkably successful councillors and mayors, efficient and demonstrably honest."

Now there's a new fight brewing, because not all want to be called eunuchs. Others don't fit that bill and want a bunch of new categories. One step forward, then a bunch of squabbling.

March 14, 2005 2:13 PM

The L Word

Just a smidgen more fluff for the beginning of the week: The imperialist AmeriKKKan official "L Word" website is off limits to anyone with computer cookies that betray a foreign identity. "We at Showtime Online express our apologies; however, these pages are intended for access only from within the United States," it sez here. So go here instead (but be warned, it's all second season spoiler material...). More L Word nooze here.

March 14, 2005 10:37 AM

L is for... lookers? loonies? larcenists?

How many Ls? An American senator named Marty Golden says a New York bus shelter ad for "The L Word" television show is too visible to school children and innocent shoppers. "The posters in question show all of the characters looking at the camera, minus clothes but the camera stays well above their cleavage."

Stop laughing: "Jodi Senese, the executive vice president of Viacom Outdoor [which buys the ad space], said the company policy was to be mindful of placing ads near churches or schools. 'We like to be responsive,' Senese said. Senese revealed that she has received a total of four calls about the ads. After receiving a copy of Golden’s letter the posters were taken down."

March 13, 2005 11:46 AM

The real Rosie, please stand up, please stand up

Boy George (O'Dowd) is getting lots of media coverage, while Rosie O'Donnell blogs her way back to attention.

"george o'dowd
wrote a new book
i am cast as a villian
a pottery barn lesbian
not quite gay enough
my knighted gay brother
called to tell me
we laughed
georgie boy .... unreachable
fame is fun again"

More here. This'uns about half way down the page, dated March 8 -- the more includes Howard Stern, Scoobie Doo, Condi Rice, other serious weirdness.

March 13, 2005 11:29 AM

Sex laws and the feds

I'm told no one from the queer community showed up for the last Canadian House of Commons committee hearing into the country's prostitution laws. Yet our interests are entangled with those of hookers and hustlers: whenever a bathhouse gets busted, owners and "found-ins" (this means you) get charged under bawdy house legislation.

Toronto's Peter Bochove has been an activist ever since the cops destroyed his bathhouse, The Richmond Street Health Emporium, back on February 5, 1981. His wasn't the only one: Hundreds of naked gay men in bathhouses around the city were rounded up and humiliated that night. One cop entered a shower room and said it was a shame the pipes spewed water instead of gas.

Bochove has never recovered (read my profile of Bochove here) -- he's a crabby hellion when it comes to stupid sex laws, and he thinks there's been a lack of PR about the hearings, on purpose. "I have been around for over 30 years in this community," he wrote to the Commons committee last week (Bochove kindly sent me a copy of the correspondence). "A decision was clearly made not to invite our community to this consultation. I believe, from what I have seen to date, that this decision was deliberate and that some care was taken to make sure we would be excluded and that you would be able to sneak in and out of town without any of us noticing. You almost pulled it off....

"Members of the Committee to Abolish the 19th Century are committed to the total repeal of the bawdy house laws and the complete decriminalization of consensual sex between all adults who have established a reasonable degree of privacy together or in groups, and that includes sex trade workers. I would also point out to you that the AIDS Committee of Toronto also belongs to our committee and we have the full and active support of Toronto Public Health."

The committee's vice-chair is out lesbian member of Parliament, Libby Davies (repping Vancouver East). In my last conversation with her, Davies struck me as a bit of a moralist -- but aren't we all. We just pick different issues to be moralists about. Davies is said to be surprised at the lack of queer input, so let's get going.

The committee's in Toronto on March 15, in Montreal on March 16, in Halifax on March 17. Then two days in Vancouver -- March 29 and 30; March 31 in Edmonton; April 1 in Winnipeg. The website's here. To make a presentation, contact committee clerk Marc-Olivier Girard. And if they won't give you a spot at the table, send them a written submission. And carbon copy it to me, too.


AND IF [posted at 17:55pm] you're interested in more finger pointing, Xtra has a grouchy story on the Subcommittee on Solicitation Laws here.

March 12, 2005 10:28 AM

Culture schmulture

PrideVision's mess (Gay TV goes bye-bye?) is a warning to Americans planning their own queer TV (Here! is already broadcasting, mega-company Viacom's LOGO launch has been put off till the summer). Here's my analysis of why gay TV is failing in Canada.

March 11, 2005 1:09 PM

Gay TV goes bye-bye?

A divorce battle is jeopardizing Canada's already close to kaput queer TV channel. PrideVision honcho Bill Craig, now in a gay relationship, owes his ex-wife 1.4-million smackers. "An Ontario Superior Court judge ordered a receiver be appointed over [Bill Craig's] income and his assets -- which consist mostly of his shares in PrideVision," says the Globe and Mail. "'This is classic War of the Roses stuff,' Mr. Craig said in a telephone interview in Toronto, likening the court battle to the 1989 movie in which a couple played by actors Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner engage in a bitter post divorce fight over their house that ends up killing them both. Mr. Craig and his ex-wife Sally, married for 19 years, separated in 1993.

"Although he now makes $120,000 a year from a numbered company, Madam Justice Nancy Backhouse expressed skepticism that Sally Craig would be able to collect the money she is owed out of that income, paid through a numbered company. She ordered a receiver to take control of Mr. Craig's income and assets, which he listed as a 2000 Jeep, the potential proceeds from a lawsuit filed in Bermuda, and his 24-per-cent controlling stake in PrideVision.

"Mr. Craig said that if a receiver moves to sell his shares, they won't be worth much now. And the sale would also prompt the resignation of the executive leading the channel's turnaround plan -- namely, him. 'They're welcome to liquidate it [the controlling stake.] At the moment it's losing money,' Mr. Craig said in an interview. 'It'd be kind of a dumb thing to do. The alternative is to leave it in place, and to let it come to fruition, and let it evolve into an enterprise that can support my wife's needs.'

"Mr. Craig said that his backers would remain in control of the company if his shares are sold, because a shareholders agreement guarantees them approval of a new shareholder. But the uncertainty may be coming at exactly the wrong time. Mr. Craig's plans include a relaunch of the station lower down the dial as soon as next month, which could quickly boost its value. Backed by a group of investors, Mr. Craig stepped in as a so-called white knight last year to buy money-losing PrideVision for $1.4-million, plus taking on $1.1-million in the company's existing debt."

March 11, 2005 9:25 AM

Flight risk

Right after midnight, the budget airline Jetsgo shut down and told passengers they were on their own. The company's applying for bankruptcy protection ASAP. Air Canada won't honour the tix; Westjet said it would do its best to help (whatever that means).

The queer angle? I submit that the (now jobless) girl flight attendants of Jetsgo were the best dressed in Canada, with tight leather jackets to die for. Yum. (There's something about being trussed up with a seat belt for a few hours....)

March 11, 2005 9:20 AM

No blacks -- unless you're Beenie Man

Hmm. Beenie Man plays Montreal tonight. Mr. Man encourages attacks on fags from the stage (some background on Beenie Man, Sizzla, and gays in Jamaica here). Beenie Man's lyrics show him to be fond of burning homos. And Jah is love to you, too, buddy.

It's interesting that Beenie Man could find a Montreal venue, while many black acts can't. One of the local dailies reported last week that Equipe Spectra, the company that books Montreal's two main midsize venues and many of the city's music festivals, won't hire hip hop. They've refused Cypress Hill, Snoop Dogg, and Nas. Even the nicey-nice Mos Def, for crikies sake. "It's too bad," Spectra spokesguy Andre Menard told the Montreal Gazette. The worries began in 1997, Menard said, when a Wyclef Jean show turned into a mini riot. "For somebody like me, raised in the '60s, with principles of no prejudice, when you have to block off part of a music scene -- it's not something I do lightly. But if I don't want to lose the confidence of the people surrounding me, the bar staff and security, I have to take into account the huge reservation expressed."

Spectra isn't the only bunch ixnaying hip hop. To keep its liquor licence, the Medley concert hall was forced to sign a contract with the state-run booze licensing agency in 1997, agreeing not to present any more hip hop shows. This after a shooting at a concert the year before.

March 10, 2005 9:38 AM

Can't get any gayer than this

Ripped off the wire: A new ballet opened Tuesday in the U.K. about Prince Charles and the dead dead dead Diana Spencer (just in time for the heir to the throne's blasphemous remarriage to Camilla "the cow" Parker Bowles -- where would the fine art of nicknames be without the queerer-than-thou Brit tabs?). "The ballet is the work of internationally renowned Danish choreographer Peter Schaufuss.... [and] features a jodhpur-clad Camilla taking her riding whip to Charles while an angelic Diana battles to win acceptance by the House of Windsor."

And wind-up toy Boy George can't stop his mouth from moving: he's called Rosie O'Donnell a "Pottery Barn lesbian." Montreal Gazette gossip columnist Doug Camilli (really the Pottery-Barn heterosexual Brian Kappler, the paper's moonlighting editorial page editor), writes plaintively: "Can anyone tell me what Boy George meant...? Since Rosie makes no secret of her orientation, the 'lesbian' part can't be the insult, especially not coming from Thing George. So I guess there's something not-very-lesbian about Pottery Barn, maybe." Poor things. They'd be lost without us.

March 10, 2005 9:36 AM

The race card

Canuckistan's Stephen Harper, the leader of the official opposition in Parliament, is hoping to set homos against ethnics in the same-sex marriage mess. Details here.

Those looking for an update on how Canadian queer marriage is goin' down should also check this out (er, these are links my work -- I'm told modesty is the kiss of death in the land of blogville).


ADDENDUM [posted at 14:25]: Fab mag has always been weird about same-sex marriage (an attitude many of us can relate to -- who wants to buy in to that crap?). According to a Canadian Press story today: "The magazine says the publication had no intention of joining the marriage debate until Harper made comments in the House of Commons suggesting that allowing gay marriage 'is an assault on multiculturalism and the practices in those communities.' Harper's comments have moved the debate from one about marriage rights to one about lifestyle choice, said Mitchel Raphael, who edits the Toronto-based publication. 'This is not about marriage anymore. The average gay person is feeling the repercussions of the stuff that he's doing on the street,' said Raphael. 'He's bringing out so much hatred.'"

So out came 32,000 postcards. Half are addressed to Prime Minister Paul Martin, thanking him for same-sex marriage legislation. "The rest are destined for Conservative Leader Stephen Harper's mailbox with a not-so-nice message from a hunky, scantily clad male model gesturing his middle finger. On the back side, the card reads: 'Stop instigating hatred against gays and lesbians and stifling minority rights. Your attitude sucks!'"

To see the postcards, click on the banner ad in the middle of this web page. The Fab bridal issue coincides with a National Gay and Lesbian Wedding Show at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on Sunday (yuppers, an anti-gay marriage group has promised a protest -- wear lipstick and army boots).

March 9, 2005 10:20 AM

Drug habits, old bean

Drug issues are gay issues because we single-handedly keep the darned trade going. So the killing of four Mounties in Alberta, by the lunatic who grew marijuana on the property, is a gay issue. We must become socially responsible drug users.

I know that sounds dreary.

The Alberta guy is believed to be a lone nut. Here's the bigger picture: Most of us buy drugs supplied by the mob. Those involved in organized crime agree to abide by their own rough justice (like getting killed for doing too much of the cocaine that was supposed to be sold on the street, as occurred here in Quebec a few years ago with the Hell's Angels murdering some of their own unruly members). But the tentacles of organized crime slither into everything. Gang wars kill passers-by -- because car bombs and public shootings are especially popular.

Farmers, neighbours and shop keepers are harassed into playing along with mob demands. Building a varied and sustainable local economy gets screwed over in favour of a monopoly drug economy (and when something goes wrong, everyone but the drug lord is left destitute).

So grow your own. Make your own in the bath tub. Buy from local independent producers. And keep it quiet, eh? The mob doesn't take lightly to losing market share.


ADDENDUM Funny how this seems more disgusting than some of tina's other vicious side effects: In an interview published in Fort Lauderdale's HotSpots mag, 33-year-old incarcerated Jeffrey Lotshaw talks about his gummy smile. "His teeth all broke apart, tarnished with yellow and black. 'Before I started doing meth, I didn't have a cavity in my head'.... [users have] rotting, brittle teeth that seem to crumble from their mouths. "Methamphetamine can be made with a horrid mix of substances, including over-the-counter cold medicine, fertilizer, battery acid and hydrogen peroxide." Stir it all up and watch your teeth slough off. Gross.

March 8, 2005 10:40 AM

Cat fight!

Boy George is deliciously desperate for face time. She's pissy with The Material Girl.

"Gay pop star Boy George has slammed Madonna for embracing the Kabbalah, the mystical offshoot of Judaism which preaches homosexuality is a disease. The former Culture Club singer is horrified the Material Girl flirted with lesbianism - most famously in her controversial kisses with Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera at 2003's MTV Video Music Awards -- yet supports a religion which believes homosexuals can be cured.

"He fumes, 'I have a problem with Madonna's devotion to Kabbalah, because I watched a documentary that said that Kabbalah believes that gay people are diseased and can be cured. She's such a hypocrite. This is the woman who has embraced homosexuality and used it to her advantage.'"

More Boy, on Elton John:"Eighties singer Boy George has slammed Sir Elton John for his inability to accept retaliations from stars like George Michael who have suffered his cutting comments."

Mreow!

March 8, 2005 7:16 AM

God hates you, okay?

Canadian politician Charlie Angus's priest has told him there'll be no more holy communion if Angus votes in favour of same-sex marriage.

"Mr. Angus (Timmins-James Bay, Ontario), a devout practising Catholic who has an active church life, hasn't been to Sunday mass since and said he doesn't know when he'll go back. 'I haven't decided what I will do,' said a despondent Mr. Angus in a telephone interview with The Hill Times from his riding last week. 'I go to mass not to have to deal with problems, but to get a respite from them, so with the friction... it doesn't really make me feel on Sunday morning like getting up and going.'"

Blackmail has always been a particularly effective means of control.

March 7, 2005 8:34 PM

That's not funny, you pig

Must everything be dumbed down for the lowest common denominator? We live in a world where any culturally-specific message might indeed offend someone else -- and the "someone else" always gawddam wins.

The London fire department has scrapped a recruitment ad campaign in the British gay media because it's "tasteless" and otherwise yucky. "Fancy pulling an older woman?" read the headline. "In small print underneath, it continued: 'Out of a car, from a burning building or just out of danger?'

"But brigade chiefs were forced to pull the advert when a complaint was received from the Networking Women in the Fire Service organisation. Barbara Riddell, the brigade's director of resources, said in an e-mail to colleagues that the advert was 'designed to be attention grabbing [but] crosses the line between being provocative and being tasteless.'"

Message to us: The old boys' club has been swept away, and lesbians will be welcomed, will even be comfortable here. Message to them: Ew.

And here's another embarrassment to all of us who "get it"-- out of Canada, oh smug one. It's the over-the-top reaction to a Bell Sympatico Internet service ad. Like at website Rabble.ca, seeking to take credit for the wave of condemnation which spread across the country: "It began when our webmistress, Jane, started this thread in the labour and consumption forum of babble [the message board], after having received a troubling flyer from Bell Sympatico. The ad read, 'You'll do anything to protect your kids from inappropriate content. So will we.' It featured a drawing of a female figure from what appeared to be a children's science textbook. The breasts, vulva, ovaries and uterus appeared to have been slashed away with an Exacto blade....

"But this ad made me feel like I'd been kicked in the stomach. The reaction from the babblers was both fast, and furious. We began discussing our many issues with the ad: the image of a woman hacked into pieces; the reinforcement that the female body is somehow offensive; and the notion that students need to be protected from sex education."

Dear Rabble.ca: The ad pokes fun at hysterical parents who seek to protect their children from absolutely anything and everything, nasty or not, on the Internet. It's a really funny ad, building off the Bell TV commercials that feature a pair of overly earnest parents trying to control their world-weary kids' lives. Rabble, and the others who've loudly thundered about the ad's anti-woman orientation, don't understand it. What an embarrassment the self-styled leaders of the left are to the rest of us.


ADDENDUM [posted March 10]: That IS funny, but you're still a pig.
In Canada, we don't just ban hate speech, we police taste, too. An episode of the American call-in show "Loveline" was broadcast on Vancouver's CHMJ-AM (MOJO Radio) after 10pm back in 2002, when an overly, er, efficient phone sex gal sought suggestions on how to keep her male clientele on the phone longer. The host recommended a change of spiel. He presented a new way of talking to the client: "I'm wearin' a lacy black teddy, Holocaust, with a long, Hitler, camisole.... You know, 'cancer,' and just see, like, see if you could just slide in like 'cancer,' 'Holocaust,' 'grandparents,' and see what you could do.... I have this quick word thing that's gonna hurt the guys' penises."

The idea gets tested:
Female caller: Mmm. Well I’m wearin’ a nice black garter. Mmm just thinkin’ about the Holocaust right now.... Oh this is too much. Male host: [in mock aroused voice] Yeah, yeah, burn those Jews. Gas 'em in the shower, baby. Yeah, yeah.
Caller: I’m sending you my bill.
Host: [continuing with mock aroused voice] Yeah, yeah, send 'em on the train to Krakow.... we may need to tweak this just a little bit more.…

A complaint of racism was filed. The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, which oversees private broadcasters, said no, "the Panel does not find a scintilla of racist commentary in the remarks.... To the contrary, their collective suggestion regarding the use of the terms cancer, Vietnam and Holocaust is that these are reminders of significant unpleasantness and societal distress."

But the radio station was not off the hook: "[T]he humourous constructs erected here on the base of great tragedy constitute improper comment," the council ruled, and public spankings were administered.

Then came a further complaint, to the government agency the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission, which released its decision yesterday. And sure enough, the blah blah "amounts to a clear lack of respect for human dignity." In Canada, the state decides what's funny and what's acceptable for you to hear. And you'll pay for lapses come license renewal time.


FYI: This ruling was discovered by the very charming Barry Rueger. Barry and his spouse specialize in non-profit training (and they have a particular interest in boosting community radio).

March 7, 2005 8:31 PM

Those zany Newsweek folks

Holy unprepared-for-the-power-of-the-old-geezer-print-media, Batman! I must apologize: OpLes (rhymes with apples, sort of) was mentioned in the March 14 Newsweek -- on the stands today, check out the bottom of page 10.

The server instantly crashed. On the plus side, I rediscovered how an excited six-year-old feels....

Humblest sorries, and I think it's fixed. Oh, and here's the post that got Newsweek's attention.

March 5, 2005 9:48 AM

Queer rights, in the hands of lawyers

The straight lawyer whose work led to same-sex marriage is profiled in the March Toronto Life magazine (not available online). Martha McCarthy's client was the lesbian M (not even a real initial, but rather Martha's own), who had been dumped by a lover of many years and left with $3 in the bank. McCarthy fought for, and won, the equivalent of palimony, which led to queer spousal rights, which led to legal marriage in the province of Ontario. And it turns out that when all this started 13 years ago, McCarthy was barely out of law school. "I knew nothing, but nothing, about equality law. I had to ask an articling student to get me a copy of the Charter [of Rights and Freedoms, an integral part of the Canadian Constitution].

"I called a pal... who jokes that she was the only gay person in my life then -- which wasn't far from the truth."

McCarthy is Catholic, married to a man, has three kids. She's become one of the most vociferous gay rights activists in the country. On request, the Toronto Life reporter doesn't mention where McCarthy lives because of the threats of violence against her and her family that she regularly receives.

Not only was the case a surprise, so was the opposing lawyer. Attorney Mary Eberts was a bigshot in feminist legal circles, and her representation (for a time) of the other woman, arguing against spousal support, shocked a lot of people.

McCarthy says: "It's really a David and Goliath sort of story. Here I was, two years in, up against Mary Eberts -- I mean, Mary fucking Eberts, the mother of Canadian equality law -- and she'd be talking to the judges about all these past cases she'd argued. You know: 'I submitted such-and-such to the Court of Appeal.' And I'd be like, 'Could you give me a brief of the cases you're talking about, because, um, I wasn't there.'"

March 4, 2005 12:55 PM

Free Martha!

My hotsie totsie dream girl Martha Stewart was released from prison this morning. "I don't understand why so few lesbians want a naked Martha Stewart in their beds, complaining about the low thread count in their cheap sheets." More on why she's my va-va-voom here.