With a mission to “raise awareness about sexual and gender diversity in cultural communities in Montréal,” the Ethno Congress brings together Au-delà de l’Arc-en-ciel, Arc-en-ciel d’Afrique, AGIR, GLAM, HELEM and Ethnoculture for a series of events May 17-20.

Starting with a meet-and-greet at the Gotha Lounge (1641 Amherst) on Thursday (6-9pm), the weekend builds up to workshops and discussion groups at the Centre St-Pierre (1212 Panet) on Sunday from 2-5pm. The conference, now in its second year, is open to anyone interested in building links between Montréal’s diverse queer groups, to find ways to speak with a unified voice on issues that affect the various Latino, Arab, Afro-Caribbean and Asian communities. Recent issues affecting queer new arrivals, particularly the Conservative Bill C-31, are expected to be on the agenda.

But what queer event would be complete without performances and a party? Stepping up to the occasion is GLAM (LGBTQ Asians of Montréal), with a fabulous GLAMBOREEevent at Café l’Artère (7000 ave du Parc) on Friday night. With performances by Fantasy is Reality Unlimited and Ryan Thom (from recent Radical Queer Semaine fame), and a screening of the film “One Hundred Butches, Number 9″ from queer powerhouse duo Elisha Lim and Coco Riot, it’s a packed programme that also brings out fashionista and disco diva Tranie Tronic(!). $15 with a vegetarian meal included (and $10 without), it’s sure to be a soul-warming and eye-opening evening – and a chance to see the many voices and faces of a community that is rightly staking claim to more stages this season.

Queer artist Ryan Thom

Fantasy is Reality Unlimited is a witty and poignant one-person show (involving props and story-telling) about the experience of being a queer and Asian as a new arrival to Canada. If you miss their act at Glamboree, be sure to come to Meow Mix the night after (@ Sala Rossa, 4848 St-Laurent, Sat May 19, 10pm).

An awesome set of events and gatherings to add fresh voices to the struggle against homophobia and racial discrimination: sounds like it’s just what IDAHO needed!

For more info: congres.ethno@gmail.com

Still from "One Hundred Butches, No. 9" by Elisha Lim and Coco Riot

GLAMboree @ Café l'Artère May 18

“The atmosephere was festive and family-centred as well, since many parents came with their children. There was music,” describes Patry. Then they noticed the presence of “a group of about 20 people dressed in black.” “We didn’t know who it was. We didn’t mix in with them,” the teacher assures us.

After that, everything happened so quickly. “One of the directors was told ‘if you are a pacifist, leave right away. It’s going to get rough.’ I found that weird, because nothing happened that would have made the police act.”

“We came out traumatized”

According to Patry, “after five or ten minutes of protesting, the police started to launch [tear] gas. They didn’t throw it at the people dressed in black, but at us,” he affirmed. “We were only singing. If there were people causing trouble, they would have been easy to identify. The president of a federation was gassed, as well as elderly people and children. People from the coalition were hit with plastic bullets.”

The activist remains perplexed by the police’s actions, pushing the crowd into an area where some could find things to throw.  “We became paranoid and we began to think that it was a set-up,” he adds. “We came out traumatized. We thought it was impossible to experience that in Québec, unless there is some kind of manipulation. It is without precedent and it has no place here.”

“Faced with the student cause, the police have a prejudice,” affirms Patry. “There is a certain disdain towards the students. It is possible to make a parallel between this attitude and those of police officers who arrested gays in the 1970s.”

Eminent figure in the Québec LGBT community, André Patry has notably served as president of the Table de concertation des lesbiennes et des gais, as well as the president of the intersyndicale LGBT.

Photo Credit:Studio1

Kaskade – Fire & Ice

(Ultra) (Banner photo)

Let’s cut Kaskade some slack for surviving through his own transition of going from being a deep house impresario for the OM record label to now designing house music built for a stadium. “Fire & Ice” comes equipped as a double cd: “Fire” – the up-tempo counterpart to the chilled “Ice”; both illicit Kaskade’s mastercraft as songwriter and dancefloor filler. While his nods to his past are present, F&I remains to be a testament to his evolution (there’s that buzz word again) as a DJ and producer. Songs like ‘Lick It’, with subtle wobs-wobs courtesy of Skrillex, the fun ‘ICE’ with Dada Life and ‘How Long” with Inpetto and Late Night Alumni (Kaskade’s moniker side-project) fit nicely at the dance dens and after-hours, while it’s the gorgeous “Ice Mix” of “Room for Happiness” (featuring the sultry vox of Skylar Grey), that reminds us that electronic music can be just as effective sitting down.

Kaskade plays the Olympia on June 16

Deadmau5 – Meowingtons Hax 2k11 Toronto

(mau5trap/Ultra)

What deadmau5 attempted to capture here was his final stop of his North American tour when he became the first Canadian artist as well as the first electronic artist to have a headlining concert at Toronto’s Rogers Centre. Production prowess aside, this dvd has no redeeming value save for a decent light show abound with lasers, an elaborate stage setup and mediocre (at best) audio quality. All his ‘hits’ are present, laced in an uber-over-produced styling that matches that of a finely tuned DJ set. But as packaging goes, the folks at Ultra missed the boat. Devoid of any audio track to rip for simple listening pleasure, the consumer is forced to sit through and watch numerous, misplaced and downright boring crowd shots – some would even think the crowd shots were looped alongside the heavy progressive electro beats that deadmau5 is known for. “Meowingtons Hax 2k11 Toronto’ works if you see this as a strategic marketing ploy, albeit, a winner in the numbers game, but doesn’t further deadmau5’s manifesto by any count.

Ferry Corsten – WKND

(Flashover/Ultra)

The mature, moody and trancey atmosphere of Corsten’s previous effort, “Twice in a Blue Moon”, is almost totally absent and replaced by pop-ish dance tracks flavored mostly with current nu + electro-house sounds and oodles of catchy vocals on ‘WKND’. For the veteran fans of Corsten, there are luckily some inklings of his trancier days left: “Take Me” and “Not Going Down” are the pod-worthy tracks combining melodica with driving Corsten-style basslines. Another highlight is the proggy collaboration with Armin van Burren, “Brute”, which has been hammered by both DJs in their recent sets. While the album does have the standard 6+ minute trancey-opuses, it’s in the radio friendly “In Your Eyes”, with vocal chops from JES and the poppy “Live Forever” sung by Aruna, that devises the core of the album. While it won’t soon be hailed as a classic outing, Corsten still has the gusto to make him one of the more forward-thinkers in the realm of EDM. Question is, will we follow him on his next night out?

Chez Nous3 : Mixed by Steve ‘Bear’ Sas

(Mile-End Records)

For the last few years, Mile-End Records has been steadfast in promoting that irreplaceable Montreal ‘house’ music sound with single releases and DJ compilations and the latest Chez Nous 3, helmed by Steve Bear Sas is one for the time capsule. A veteran to the scene for over 20 years, Bear has got nothing to prove, and with a track selection featuring Angel Moraes, Blond:ish, Honey Dijon and Tone Depth, Bear lets the music speak for itself. Simple, unabashed and true to form, Mile End Records is Montreal house.

Trajal Harrell's (M)IMOSA

“I’m really interested in the historical imagination. I’m interested in how performance can be a place where we reactivate and reimagine history,” Trajal Harrell tells me as we chat over Skype about his upcoming show. The thoughtful choreographer and dancer has been pursuing the project of a dialogue between voguing and postmodern dance since he attended his first fashion show and ball in 2001.

“It struck me how they both were much more postmodern than what I was seeing in the dance scene at that time,” he recalls. A vogue ball is a kind of pageant where contestants strut their dance moves, outfits, and “sell face” on a make-shift runway; their catwalk moves and style are subjected to live judging, with often raucous audience participation. Nothing could be more different than the type of dance espoused by the seminal Judson Church group, as articulated by choreographer Yvonne Rainer. In Rainer’s famed 1965 No Manifesto, she bade her fellow dancers say “NO to style. No to camp. No to seduction of the spectator by the wiles of the performer.” What made him want to merge these two radically different worlds?

“Honestly I think it’s my Yale education,” Harrell admits with a slight sigh. “Having done so much cultural studies; I was a student of bell hooks, who was a big influence on me as a teacher,” he says, referring to the black cultural critic and radical writer on race and sexuality. “The lens of voguing was able to help me rethink my relationship to postmodern dance,” he adds, cautioning that “We can’t confuse voguing you learn in the classroom, club voguing, and voguing that’s done in the ball scene. It’s liberating for me in my mind and my thinking about postmodern dance.” That liberation comes from all of the Judson-inherited rules voguing flouts. The hyperintellectual but passionate choreographer is adamant that his series isn’t “doing a service to voguing, [but rather] doing a service for postmodern dance.”

“You can sort of draw parallels between the concept of ‘realness’ in voguing and the concept of ‘authenticity’ in postmodern dance,” Harrell adds, his mind rushing to enjoy the endlessly fertile ideas that his project has unleashed. For (M)IMOSA, Trajal Harrell is joined by co-creators Cecilia Bengolea, François Chaignaud (France), and Lisbon-based contemporary dance it-girl Marlene Monteiro Freitas. Fresh from rave reviews in New York and Europe, the foursome will strut, catwalk, deconstruct, and diva their way across the stage in a performance not 2B missed.

(M)IMOSA, Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at Judson Church

Festival Transamériques

May 25 + 26, 9pm

Place des arts – Cinquième salle

175 Ste Catherine West

www.fta.qc.ca

The men convicted, Saadat Arefi, Vahid Akbari, Javid Akbari and Houshmand Akbari were named in the HRANA post, but details as to what evidence weighed on them and the circumstances of their charges are scant.

Reacting to the case, London-based human rights lawyer Mehri Jafari told PinkNews “There are two important issues in this case: the location of the alleged occurrence and the interpretation of the Shari’a law that a Hodud (strict Sharia punishment) is eminent.”

Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad is described as one of the more remote and “undeveloped” Iranian provinces, which means that exerting pressure to stay the sentences is considered difficult. It is also unlikely, Jafari intimated, that the men had access to adequate legal representation during their trial.

The legal status of homosexuality in Iran is such that those accused of consensual sodomy are considered to have committed the same act as rape. Iranians accused of homosexual acts are the victim of a double-bind: on the one hand, President Ahmadinejad, who denied that the mere existence of gays in Iran in 2007; and on the other, clerics like the Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi-Amoi, who referred to homosexuals as “inferior to dogs and pigs” in a speech earlier this spring. In other words: homosexuality does not exist, and if it does, its acts are equated with rape. A 2005 case of adolescents executed for allegedly raping a 13 year-old boy likewise left doubts in observers’ minds that due process had been carried out. Video footage of the hanging made the case a lightening rod of criticism from LGBT organizations worldwide, including Human Rights Watch.

“LGBT Iranians are suffering at the hands of the Iranian government. The authorities repress and entrap them online, they are ostracized from society, and find little solace in the asylum-seeking process,” the UK’s Peter Tatchell Foundation said in a statement released last week. The foundation will release its report “LGBT Republic of Iran: An Online Reality?” on Wednesday at the London office of Amnesty International. The report contains testimonials from Iranian LGBT people who seek community online, only to encounter censorship and entrapment from state authorities.

“LGBT Iranians are routinely harassed both by society and by the state. Many have been physically tortured and punished and some have been sentenced to death solely because of their sexual orientation,” the Foundation said in its release.

It is not yet known when the four men will be executed, or what pressure the international community can exert, if any, to attempt to stay the executions. Photo: Now Public

The rebranding of PTS as queer was initially met with resistance, but you wouldn’t know it by the faces at the Gala. Volunteers dressed up in balloon costumes, juggler Yoshi Chladny playing with balls (no pun intended) and kinky performers created an inclusive and jovial atmosphere while the public danced to the beats of DJ Jumpin’ Jim from The Lookout.

Juggler Yoshi Chladny at the PTS Gala

Celebrating and fundraising for PTS’s community work and its newly established counseling service, volunteers were auctioned off as dates and local businesses donated prized that were secretly hidden in the balloon costumes. The best prizes to be popped were in the balloons located closer to more “intimate” areas of the body. Needless to say, they went quickly.

Present were NDP MPs Scott Craig, Nycole Turmel and Philip Toone, who said, “PTS is an organization that’s worked very hard to break down barriers [in the city]. I left Ottawa to a warmer [gay scene in] Montréal and I’m back to a much more vibrant community and it’s partly thanks to the hard work at PTS.”

By queers, for queers and in a queer space, PTS is open Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. 

with a colourful calendar of events and actives, ranging from speed-friending to readings. 

More info at www.pinktriangle.org. 

PTS Gala May 10 (with Deric Ziebarth)

The FDA is under no obligation to follow the recommendations of its panel, but it usually does. Truvada is already in use to treat HIV. It is a combination of two older HIV drugs, Emtriva and Viread. A daily dose of the drug costs approximately $12,000 to $14,000 per year.

Infection reduced by 75% in heterosexuals

The panel of FDA advisors met for nearly 12 hours to debate the many issues surrounding the marketing of a preventative drug for HIV. One of the concerns is that it could potentially reduce condom use, which remains the best means of protection against infection. The committee also questioned the effectiveness of the drug for women, for whom the drug has shown a mixed success rate.

From 2007 to 2009, a series of studies including clinical trials in six countries have established the effectiveness of the medication. For gay men also using a condom, the risk of infection was reduced by 44%. Another study showed that for heterosexual couples where one of the partners was HIV-positive, Truvada reduced the risk of infection by 75%.

During the FDA consultation, a large majority of speakers who testified before the panel of advisors were against the marketing of Truvada as a preventative drug. An American study published in April highlighted the potential economic savings of preventative treatment, which would reduce infection rates.

The right to self-identify

“Identity rights are directly and inextricably linked to the right to health, to intimacy, to the protection of life and the right to not be discriminated against,” the text of the law’s principles states. The law will allow anyone who wishes to change their sex, given name or image to correspond to their chosen gender, without having to undergo sex reassignment surgery, or obtain the authorization from a judge to do so. Instead, there will be a special Gender Identity Office set to review applications, which will have 90 days in which to respond to any request for a gender designation or given name change on the civil registry.

Presented in the Argentine Congress since 2007, the bill received sweeping approval from the Senate, and well as from President Christina Fernandez, who is expected to sign it into law officially in the coming days.

For María Rachid, president of the Federación Argentina LGBT, the bill was part of a national plan to “end discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and to obtain equality for LGBT people.” The Federation, which was active in lobbying for the law, represents 24 queer and trans organizations across the country. Gay and lesbian activists who witnessed the winning vote, including Comunidad Homoseual Argentina (CHA)’s Pedro Paradiso Sottile, stood and applauded in the balcony of the Senate on Wednesday.

The legal coordinator for CHA, Sottile said via his organization’s website that the Senate’s passing of the law “is an historic and crucial event for the community and the entire society. It affirms the principles of inclusive democracy, the National Constitution, and Human Rights, while celebrating diversity. It is an active of justice, a cry for freedom and dignity, to end the exclusion and discrimination faced by citizens because of their self-defined gender identity in its various expressions.”

Québec and Canada?

Many trans activists would see the Argentine law as a potential template for Canada and Québec, where name and gender designation changes are dependant on sex reassignment surgery, and other bureaucratic and medical barriers.

While Passport Canada admitted earlier this week that the possibility of adding a third gender “X” on Canadian ID papers was “under review,” Québec’s Justice Minister Fournier said through his press attaché that the possibility of allowing trans people to make the changes without having to undergo surgery may be reconsidered as well. Just last month, the Ontario Human Rights Commission struck down the surgery requirements for name and gender designation changes, saying that the requirement were discriminatory towards a traditionally disadvantaged group.

The incident is described in remarkable detail in a 12-page story by the Washington Post‘s Jason Horowitz, who interviewed Romney’s former prep school buddies. The former Massachusetts Governnor and multi-millionaire organized an attack on a new student, John Lauber, who was targeted for “walking around the all-boys school with bleached-blond hair that draped over one eye.” Lauber was perpetually teased for his “nonconformity and presumed homosexuality,” in a school where boys wore ties and carried briefcases. The former classmates describe Romney leading his posse to pin Lauber to the ground and forcibly cut his hair off. “As Lauber, his eyes filling with tears, screamed for help, Romney repeatedly clipped his hair with a pair of scissors,” the article reads. In spite of the school’s famously strict discipline, the school never reprimanded Romney or anyone else for the attack.

Mitt Romney as a teenager

Lauber, who died of liver cancer in 2004 in Seattle, was later asked to leave the prep school for smoking a cigarette. One of the witnesses of the attack, Cranbrook graduate David Seed, recalled meeting Lauber in the mid-1990s by chance, and taking the opportunity to apologize to him for not doing more to help in the situation. “It was horrible… It’s something I have thought about a lot since then,” Lauber is said to have responded. Lauber, who eventually came out to his friends and family, would bleach his hair for the rest of his life, according to his sister.

Obviously aware of the media storm, the Republican presidential hopeful went on Fox News yesterday morning to say that he did not recall the incident. “I don’t remember that incident,” Romney said, laughing. “I certainly don’t believe that I thought the fellow was homosexual. That was the furthest thing from our minds back in the 1960s, so that was not the case… But as to pranks that were played back then, I don’t remember them all, but again, high school days, if I did stupid things, why I’m afraid I got to say sorry for it.”

While Romney may be laughing off the incident as a “high school prank,” the undertones of the story point to the man’s image problem and weak spots on social issues. The article also describes some less harmful pranks, but the overall picture is that of a rich man’s son who could get away with cruelty in a world known for its secrecy and cronyism. It would take many decades for the issue of teen bullying to become as mainstream as it is today, but the fact remains: a link is being drawn between Romney’s vehement opposition to gay marriage – and even civil unions – and his macho bullying ways in school.

While Obama wins points throughout liberal America and the world for supporting gay marriage, Democrats are surely hoping voters may now look at Romney and ask, “Bullies grow up, but do they ever really change?”.

Photo via Joeff (Flickr)

The issue of transgender people and government-issued ID is currently unresolved in Canada. Added to the difficulty of obtaining a gender designation change from the provinces, the federal Transport Ministry seemed to make matters worse with a new regulation last July. It came out in February that the Ministry had made a new regulation stating “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,” which alarmed many trans rights groups.

At the same time, EGALE Canada issued a position paper on the needs for passports to better reflect the lived reality of transgender people. “The primary concern identified by trans and gender diverse Canadians when applying for a Canadian passport is the requirement for sex reassignment surgery (SRS) prior to the issuance of a passport that reflects one’s lived gender,” EGALE’s paper stated. Citing the International Convention of Civil Aviation, EGALE points out that Canada “has at present agreed to include one of three sex identifiers (“M”, “F” or “X”) on all Canadian passports.”

Like EGALE, the Association des Transsexuel(le)s du Québec (ATQ)’s position is that, if a third gender category is created, it should be available as an option for intersex, transitioning or gender non-conforming people to choose, and not simply have assigned to them.

“Should there be a third gender category, it should be the person’s choice,” says ATQ president Sandrine Marquis. “The ideal situation would be to eliminate the gender category on ID papers altogether,” Marquis says, which is also the recommendation of EGALE. “For me personally, I don’t want to have an ‘X’ or third category assigned to me, I want an ‘F’; each individual should have the choice,” Marquis told 2B.

Marquis also points out that the centuries-old tradition of the Hejira made the ‘E’ category (for “eunuch”) a good solution for India, where the idea of a third gender is culturally specific. “Why do we still need gender categories in 2012?” Marquis asks, saying that the removal of the categories would make more sense.

As far as birth certificates are concerned, there may be news forthcoming on that as well. Québec Justice Minister Jean-Marc Fournier told 2B that his government was “looking into” the issue, when the announcement of the Action Plan against homophobia was made last May. “We expect to examine the question gender redesignation on birth certificates for people who have not undergone a surgical operation,” his press attaché David Couturier told La Presse via e-mail. “We have not waited for this issue to go to the courts. The Minister is very sensitive to this question,” he added.

Whether an intermediary or long-term administrative solution to trans people’s ID woes, approving a third gender category would make Canada part of a short list of countries – including the UK, Australia, India, and Bangladesh – to try and accommodate trans people who either cannot or do not wish to undergo sex reassignment surgery.