Lessons from Canada: How the U.S. Gay Rights Movement Can Learn From Its Northern Neighbour

When I came out of the closet in 1997 in Montreal, Canada, it never really occurred to me that same-sex couples would ever be given the right to marry. In fact, at 18 years of age, naïve, and Canadian, the issue never really passed through my mind. Like so many other things in Canada, multiculturalism, a state-funded television and radio station, and socialized medicine – same-sex marriage would probably happen, one day, naturally, in a softy Canadian way. Those liberal-minded politicians sitting in Ottawa, Canada’s capital, would eventually see the light, put forward a piece of legislation, and lo and behold, equal marriage rights would wash across the nation in a wave of liberty.

But things did not quite happen that way.

Growing up in the Jurassic Age, I never thought of myself as a tomboy. In 1965, when I was thirteen, I was shaken to the core when I discovered what the male academic establishment thought of girls like me.

I had started menstruating and still found this a weird, interesting and messy process. I liked my new female curves more than I disliked them, and I was fascinated by the world of women’s fashion. I loved to sew and to write poems. I thought I wouldn’t mind developing into a woman if I could be a hip fashion designer like Mary Quant, though I also cherished an image of myself as a novelist like Mary McCarthy.

Male Cheerleaders - Gay or Just Really Happy?

When I reached junior high school, my life long dream came true, I became a cheerleader. However, at cheerleading camp I learned that men were supposed to be just as manly on the sideline as they were on the gridiron. To be completely honest though, masculinity is hard to pull off when you're prancing around in a polyester uniform with pom-poms trying to get everyone else to, well, stand up and holler. 

It is a sport dominated by curly ringlets, bobby pins and more body glitter than an overweight drag queen. This is what mother’s dream of their daughters one day becoming, especially on the sprawling West Texas plains where football teams determine the survival of a town and bibles are placed right next to shot guns on night stands. But when a thirteen-year-old boy is drawn to the shiny pom-poms and a perfect spread eagle jump, it is the worse nightmare that wakes many fathers of their Friday night lights wet dreams.

A Science Fiction Convention Of Our Own

Think that being a GLBT science fiction and fantasy fan is all about running around in a Star Trek uniform talking to your pet tribble (not that there’s anything wrong with that)? Think again.

While Xena and Buffy live on only in fannish memory, now there’s Torchwood and The Lair. In addition, there are seemingly more GLBT characters in comics, gaming and books than ever before. But this isn’t to say that those characters are never marginalized or prone to wearing red shirts. While fandom (the larger community of science fiction and fantasy fans) as a whole is pretty accepting of us, that doesn’t mean that GLBT fans and our issues and concerns often get center stage at the conventions that are the primary social networking vehicle for sf/f fans.