Flying While Transgender

Last week, the transgender blogosphere exploded in response to the July 29, 2011 changes to the Canadian Identity Screening Regulations. The focus of this attention was section 5.2 (1) of the regulation, which reads: “An air carrier shall not transport a passenger if [...] (c) the passenger does not appear to be of the gender indicated on the identification he or she presents.” The regulation is notable for two reasons…

Both of Both Worlds: Looking at Male Bisexuality

Breaking news from the scientific community: male bisexuality is no longer a joke! Yes, it does exist, at least according to a team of researchers from Northwestern University. Really, there are men out there who are turned on by men and women?! I’m more shocked by the fact that they needed a scientific study to prove this. I mean, Freud knew this and wrote about it almost a century ago. The new study from the same university refutes their previous findings from six years ago when they declared that “men who identified themselves as bisexual were in fact exclusively…

Lady Godiva Atop A Metal Steed

I am definitely the type of person who craves new experiences. I’ll try almost anything once, which has led me into some very interesting, questionably legal and often downright ridiculous situations. So when two good friends and founders of my burlesque troupe invited me to join them at the Midnight Naked Bike Ride last weekend, how could I resist? After all, I have been known to ride commando in a flowing hippie skirt during those dog days of summer, savoring the warm breeze…

A Day at the Races: Prepare Yourself!

People get ready, rummage through your closet and get out your Sunday best and your Friday worst because Montreal is about to witness a once in a life time opportunity. This Saturday A Night At the Races is gonna rock your world. At Espace des Arts (9 Ste-Catherine Est) the dream team of promoters, producers and artists are coming together for the first time ever. Three rooms, 17 dj’s,live performances and every hip to be square queer personality that Montreal has to offer. All of these legends have come together…

Religious moderation and Ghana’s quiet war

As fundamentalist Christians and fundamentalist Muslims unite to attempt to “get rid of these people in the society,” a statement both ugly in composition and in sentiment, the small and mostly silent homosexual community in Ghana finds itself on the brink of persecution. It is for this reason, that while I still maintain that violence is not the property of any single group of people, I must admit that if religion is not a necessary cause for violence and oppression, it is at the very least a sufficient one…

May The Breast Contestant Win

File this one under “ideas that Howard Stern wishes he’d thought of first”. Calgary radio station Amp Radio is giving away a breast augmentation to the person who receives the most votes in their online contest dubbed “Breast Summer Ever”. But before a disapproving sneer can escape your lips, know that there’s nary a ditzy stripper-lookalike in the bunch. Amp Radio has selected 10 finalists who each have a short video up on the station’s website, where they tell their story and why they deserve the $10,000 surgery, with personal motivations ranging from…

Get ready to rock with Hedwig and the Angry Inch

If you happened to be at the Catacomb theatre last week for the Fringe Festival, you would have seen me sitting in the audience, singing along loudly to the stage version of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. I know every word to every song in the play about an East Berlin transgendered rocker because the film version has long been a personal favourite of mine. Screw singing orphans or Austrian nannies spinning atop mountains…

Baby Storm Brews Up Controversy

One Toronto baby is causing quite the storm of controversy over the parents’ contentious decision not to reveal the child’s gender, in an attempt to allow the baby to develop free from the constraints of gender stereotypes. It all began when Kathy Witterick and David Stocker, the parents of 5-month old baby Storm, sent an email to their family and friends which read, “We’ve decided not to share Storm’s sex for now a tribute to freedom and choice in place of limitation, a stand up to what the world…

SlutWalk Montreal Solidarity: The Power of Sexy People

Montreal SlutWalkers gathered yesterday afternoon to send a message that no style of dress or behaviour should result in personal shaming, or suggest an openness to a sexual advance or assault…

Want to get slutty this weekend? Go to the SlutWalk, MTL style

So, you think a Saturday night in downtown Montreal is a guaranteed paradise for the hottest sluts in town? This weekend, you’re seriously mistaken. The real action’s going to be at Parc de la Paix (on the corner of Rene Levesque and St. Laurent) on Sunday afternoon from 2-5pm for Montreal’s very first SlutWalk. Slutwalk Montreal promises to be far better…

Looking Good – Lesbian-Style

On the lookout for a new stylist, I’d been asking friends with excellent coiffure where they get it done. One woman directed me to Bikurious on Amherst. “A bike shop?” I asked. “Lesbian Haircuts for Anyone,” she replied.

Sold.

Lesbian Haircuts for Anyone, owned and operated by the charming JJ…

Hobo Chic, C’est magnifique

Waking up Sunday morning my head was filled with the images of tampon earrings, bubble wrap dresses and duct tape neck ties, one might guess that I was at a narcotics infused screening of Zoolander but nothing could be further than the truth. Like many others I was frolicking in the old port at the latest installment of GAYBASH….

Gay Bash! 3rd Anniversary

Gay Bash is an all-inclusive, underground party created and hosted by SALLY and TYLER, infamous staples of Montréal’s thriving party scene, one of North America’s best kept secrets. Impossible to categorize, these party boys graced the main events in the city with their presence, from the stylish scenester bars on Boulevard Saint Laurent, to the throbbing dancefloor of world-famous Stereo afterhours, always causing a commotion with irresistible charm and innate sense of fashion and style…

Rae meets the Pope

If you don’t have a favourite transgendered artist added to your playlist yet, start with Rae Spoon. I’ve been listening to Rae for a month straight, so when I found out he was going to be playing a show at Casa de Popolo last Thursday, I took the last five dollars to my name and went (thank god my friend had money for beer). Not to mention the Popolo’s one of my favourite venues in MTL right now. So, here are the goods – The transgendered, Calgarian, folk/indie songster, most known for his mesmerizing female voice (and yes Rae Spoon is a female) spun pretty webs around the crowd’s ears; I know I’m still hmming his tunes and wishing the show was on YouTube.