A conversation I had with a friend this week sparked a few questions around bisexuality – concerning the label itself, people’s acceptance of bisexuality, and more.
Here are a few bi-curiosities we pondered…
(more inside…)
A conversation I had with a friend this week sparked a few questions around bisexuality – concerning the label itself, people’s acceptance of bisexuality, and more.
Here are a few bi-curiosities we pondered…
(more inside…)
From the good folks at T.E.A.C.H.:
LOOKING FOR A GREAT VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY? Be an Anti-Homophobia Warrior! Meet new people, learn new skills and fight homophobia.VOLUNTEER WITH T.E.A.C.H. AT PLANNED PARENTHOOD TORONTO!
T.E.A.C.H. is recruiting youth volunteers ages 16-23 from diverse backgrounds who are lesbian, gay, bi, trans, queer and straight to fight against discrimination and hate.
Teens Educating and Confronting Homophobia (T.E.A.C.H.) is a dynamic group of youth who facilitate anti-homophobia workshops in schools, community centres, shelters and group homes to challenge the myth and attitudes that lead to homophobia and discrimination.
Activist Report,
Event Listings,
Media Savvy,
Queeriosities,
Race and Racism
The Youth Activist Retreat
Check out this rad retreat happening in Manitoba this summer!
The Youth Activist Retreat is a free, five-day overnight camp that brings together activists aged 16-20. YAR is a great place to meet other young folks who are interested in social change and to learn new skills and ideas.
YAR 2009 is being held August 10th to 14th in Clearwater, Manitoba.
During the week of the retreat, participants will take part in workshops and other events to learn from other experienced activists about different political struggles and issues.
The retreat offers a variety of workshops to accommodate all levels of experience. Whether you just want to sit back and listen, or work with others to develop strategies for organizing, YAR is a great place to meet other youth who care about similar issues.
Workshops are taught by people who have experience working for social change, including organizers, activists, and artists.
Some of this year’s workshops will include Worker’s Rights and Unions, Anti-Racism, Colonization in Canada, Ecological Justice, Gender Oppression and Heterosexism, Direct Action, and many others. There will also be creative workshops offered on silk-screening, radio, puppet-making, and zines!
The retreat is completely free; all that is asked for is your time and commitment. Some travel subsidies are available for people who live outside of Winnipeg.
YAR is an anti-racist, LGBT*-positive event, and is wheelchair accessible.
Register early, because spots are filling up fast!
VISIT YAR’S WEBSITE FOR MORE INFO: http://youthactivistretreat.ca
Q: When does a feminist blog concern itself with men? A: When we’re talking about New York City’s MEN, a band made of JD Samson (of Le Tigre and moustache fame), Ginger Brooks Takahashi (who’s also appeared in The Ballet and the wonderful Black Mountain Music Project, with Mirah), Michael O’Neill and other special guests. MEN make sounds in the proud queerio dance music tradition of Lesbians on Ecstasy, The Ssion, and Tracy & the Plastics. The video for Off Our Backs by K8 Hardy (who also produced the wicked tree-vulva video for the Lezzies on X song Sisters in the Struggle), below, is the kind of visual garage sale/image stew/eyecandy that half makes my head explode and half makes me want to go out and, like, be somebody.
MEN will be performing this Saturday in Montreal at La Sala Rossa (4848 St. Laurent) with a veritable panoply of loud and proud women, including Alexis O’Hara and DJ Lynne T, who has been spinning up a storm of late.
They play Toronto June 24 at Wrong Bar and June 26 at Lee’s Palace as part of Vazaleen. For more details and tour dates, check out their Myspace.
I’m back Shameless! Had to finish some serious schoolwork, but I am now getting slowly back in gear. However, because that was a long semester full of big words, and big deadlines, I’ll probably just post the occasional funny until my grey matter has had time to rest up a bit.
Let’s start with this awesome video of Portia De Rossi apologizing for her big gay wedding.
That’s right Portia, it’s people like you who force haters to wear silly hats.
When a bunch of Argentinian and Mexican women from various queercore and feminist punk bands decide to get together to form a supergroup sensation, you know the results will be a force to be reckoned with. What you maybe didn’t see coming were the Madonna covers.
But that’s what’s so sweet about the Kumbia Queers - they combine the fearlessness and energy of punk rock with the infectious bubbliciousness of pop music. Oh, and they’re also really gay. If the name Kumbia Queers didn’t give that away already.
Cumbia is a traditional form of Latin American music that’s somewhere between folk and popular; in the context of this band it seems to refer less to a specific kind of music than to the idea of “popular music” itself, the sort of tunes that are unavoidably cheesy, kind of lowbrow, and completely irresistible. Which might also seem like a pretty apt description of the Kumbia Queers, except there’s something sophisticated and complex about the way they flip a traditionally masculine genre of music on its head, making it both female and queer.
The video for Chica de Calendario (“Calendar Girl”) is a lezzie take on the old standard of the song written to the babely object of desire:
I’m a little last-minute with this event posting, but those of you in Montreal might be interested in a screening hosted by Queer McGill tomorrow night.
The film is FtF: Female to Femme, and it’s an exploration of one side of lesbian life that often gets ignored: queer women who also identify as femme, girly, ladylike. From the Queer McGill website:
[FtF] explores femme dyke identities as radical gender practices. A film that envisions more than it documents, FtF denaturalizes gender and pushes for an understanding of femininity as multiple rather than singular, constructed rather than natural. Sexy, funny and controversial, FtF features a host of fabulous femmes, including professors, activists, artists and dancers.
Femmes a-glitterin’ (from AltCinema website)
I’m not able to embed the trailer for the movie, but you can watch it here.
The screening is tomorrow, Feb 2nd at 7:30
Shatner Building room B29, 3480 Rue McTavish (McGill University)
More about the screening at Queer McGill, and more about the film at Altcinema.
Women Who Have Sex with Women (WSW) need pap tests too!
In 2007, Planned Parenthood Toronto and Sherbourne Health Centre conducted a community consultation on the sexual and reproductive health needs of WSW. Pap tests emerged as an important issue; many women who have sex with women (WSW) aren’t clear if they need them and neither are their healthcare providers.
So we’re creating a campaign to make sure we all know we need paps and we need your help. Please come to a focus group and tell us what a pap campaign for WSW should look like.
FOCUS GROUPS
-All groups have food at 5:30pm, group runs from 6-8pm
-Food, TTC tokens and a $20 honorarium provided
-Childcare subsidies, interpretation and attendant services available if requested in advance
-Trans women welcome
-All locations are accessible
-Registration required
Now don’t get me wrong. I was as happy as anyone to see that jerk Bush get into a plane no longer called Air Force One and fly on home to Texas. I am ecstatic that the U.S. has a Democrat as a president again and I am even more so that finally a day has come when a person of color can hold the highest office in that country. Good for you, U.S.A.!
That said….I could have done with a lot less of the church revival at yesterday’s inauguration speech. The inclusion of one homophobic and misogynist religious leader and the notable exclusion of the words of a progressive, queer religious speaker at an earlier inauguration event have made me pause to wipe the pixie dust out of my eyes.
Plus: What you need to know before volunteering abroad and excerpts from She's Shameless!
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