So many stars in a night sky, twinkling like little beacons calling us home. You get the feeling of floating away if you stare long enough. So many stars to spot in a black night sky—yet it’s so hard to stay focused on just a single one. They seem to sparkle just to grab our attention; like an ocean of glitter longing to capture one eye.

I remember years ago climbing up on the roof of a friend’s place north of the city. We were fueled by wine and wondering. We decided to ponder the universe, its vastness and our minuteness. We ruminated and cogitated and laid down theories as to what the universe held…what may be looking back at us. We looked at the endlessness staring back at us and pondered our little lives. We let our imaginations soar into the celestial. There were so many stars.

It’s hard to comprehend the chaos that’s taking place before our eyes when we look up at the night sky. It reflects back serenity and peace and wonder and possibility. It also reflects back loneliness. It’s hard not to feel tiny and isolated when you look up. For a vacuum, it sure is filled with a lot of matter and antimatter. But we look and wonder…does any of it matter? Does any of this matter?

Pondering a night sky can make us feel limitless. It can make us feel brave. It can make us feel infinite. It can make us feel insignificant. So much happening in so much stillness, and yet we gaze, rapt and fascinated, dreaming, hoping and wishing upon a star.

So many stars…how do we ever find the one that twinkles for us?

Madonna. Monroe. Minogue. Cher. Gaga. Streisand. Garland. These are just a few of the classic icons gay men revere and have admired for decades. They are recognized as beacons in the fight for rights. They are lauded as survivors who triumphed in the face of adversity to become legendary. They are all considered to be powerful women of their time (and some, tragic icons). What’s missing from the list? Men.

Gay men have long pointed to and acknowledged women as cornerstones in the queer movement. Some are bestowed status because they were victims of their own existence in times they didn’t conform to, while others are cheered for their power, determination and sheer fortitude. Read the full story

Well, today is Madonna’s birthday. It’s like the birth of the Baby Jesus to the Gay World. The day our queen (amongst queens) plopped onto planet Earth with a little bounce that turned into a thrumming disco thud.

I must admit that Madonna’s birthday is a little bittersweet for me. You see, I spent a meaningful afternoon with M several years ago and, well, the bitch never spoke to me again. Now, I call her a bitch with love and respect. After all, anyone who has featured herself trussed like a leather-bound Thanksgiving fetish goose and had a knife wielded at her wazoo by a shaved and pierced dyke can take a little “bitch” from little ol’ me.

Meanwhile, back to my bitter heart. M was in Toronto promoting a little album called Ray of Light. I was writing a radio show in those days and suggested we get an interview with Madonna for our little audio offering. I was told by one of the on-air personalities that if he couldn’t get an interview with her, I was spit-out-of-luck. The gauntlet had been thrown. Read the full story

Dear Pat Robertson,

I thought I’d write you this letter as you must be crestfallen and quite befuddled about Proposition 8 being overturned recently in California; when I heard the news, I immediately thought of you. Ok, I didn’t, but I did begin to think of you shortly after the announcement was made—because of what you had to say on the subject.

Pat, from your lips to God’s ear to my fingertips:

“Ladies and gentlemen, what are we facing? The homosexuals want to destroy the church, and they want to destroy marriage. That’s what it amounts to. It doesn’t matter how sacred an institution is and how important it is to society, as long as there can be a confirmation that this lifestyle is acceptable. That’s what they want. Oh man, pray for this country.” Read the full story

We’re still a few months away from the polls but Toronto’s race for mayor is heating up—and so is the rhetoric. This week, mayoral hopeful Rob Ford put his foot in it once again by making rather alarming statements about the relationship between cars and bicycles. Suffice to say, he managed to offend quite a few two-wheelers.

Ford is famous for speaking his mind—apparently without thinking first, though. Probably his coup de grace was his opinion about the spread of AIDS. It went something like this: “If you are not doing needles and you are not gay, you wouldn’t get AIDS probably, that’s bottom line.” Read the full story

Anne Rice—Gothic-Vampire-Queen-Of-The-Damned—announced this week that she has quit being a Christian. Her post on Facebook has taken wing like Nosferatu into a moonlit night sky, spreading across all forms of media and generating quite a large amount of murmur and buzz. Here’s what Rice had to say:

“Today I quit being a Christian. I’m out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being ‘Christian’ or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to ‘belong’ to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I’ve tried. I’ve failed. I’m an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.” Read the full story

Toronto Pride 2010 is now in the history books; but there are still Pride celebrations happening across Canada, the United States and around the world. This weekend I got a lovely little surprise that has my heart swelling with Pride! Read the full story

Living in Canada, we can sometimes become a little myopic when it comes to our rights and freedoms as queer people. We are privileged to live in a country that protects us from systemic and criminal abuses as well as hate crimes and many forms of sexual and gender discrimination. While it’s not perfect, we are able to speak out and rise up when we feel we need to be heard. We can do this without fear of recrimination. Read the full story

As the community continues to spiral about the big Pride controversy this year, other alarming queer-related stories are happening—and hopefully not falling under our radar. I was scanning the news today when I came across this very disturbing story: Gays targeted in most violent incidents as hate crimes jump by a third in 2008. Read the full story

My previous post was in reaction to a lot of negativity that I’ve been seeing and hearing in the queer community. How and why we got into this debacle is a bit of a mystery to me. I know there are the obvious issues that have been making headlines recently, but as a community we seem to be fostering an environment of enmity and negativity. We’re pissed. We’re outraged. We’re against just about everything. Read the full story