Doggy Style Love

Um, yeah. The title of this entry is pretty self explanatory.

She Had The Moves

Ok, so the final act was this woman.

Miss Heaven Lee Hights.

Yes, you read that right.

And she OWNED that stage.

And I'm not just saying that because she had a number that was a medley of Pussycat Doll songs.

Although when I saw her perform "I Don't Need A Man" I really did believe she didn't need one.

That, and she had a rocking ass.

A Bit More Experience

Ok, so Miss Nicolette Brown took to the stage after Honey.

She definitely had great banter with the audience and chose some older tunes, ending with the crowd pleasing "Last Dance" by gay icon Donna Summer.

And her outfit made her look like a mermaid.

Miss Toronto Pride 2007

Ok, so one thing that I do love is the drag shows.

No matter if they are kings or queens, they're always a good show.

On the surface it's fun to watch them lip sync to songs you love.

On the other hand it's a beautiful commentary on gender-bending. Virtually poking fun and taking over this idea of gender. What is feminine? What is masculine? If you're a man can you be feminine? If you're a woman can you be masculine? Shouldn't we feel like we can explore both sides, given that everything within ourselves relies of perfect harmony?

Miss Toronto Pride 2007 kicked it off with a performance that showed her relative newness to the medium of drag. Still, she killed a performance of Beyoncé's "Ring the Alarm". A song that I hate Beyoncé singing, but liked Miss Brown doing. Very nice!

It's A Bird, It's A Plane!

No-

It's SUPER PRIDE!

Pascal donned his peace Pride flag, bandanna and "This is What a Feminist Looks Like" T-Shirt.

In his off days he enjoys keeping Toronto subway stations safe, for all.

Promo At Toronto Pride 2007

As we were walking down Church St. we saw this advertisment for Botox Cosmetics.

That's right. At Pride.

Hey! Let's perpetuate the stereotype that all gay men are obessed with youthful looks, including washboard abs and wrinkle free faces. Ugh.

While we're at it let's also keep up the façade of lesbians who are more concerned with softball and sport bras.

Double ugh.

I'm really quite sick of the stereotypes tha we put the GLBTTQ2 community into constantly. It seems that we (collective society) are more comfortable with our gay men effeminate and weak and our gay women butch and straight forward. Anything in between and we don't know what to think. And let's not even get into what we expect people who are bisexual are "supposed" to be like.

Live and let live, people.

TORONTO PRIDE 2007!

WOOHOO!

This past weekend I went to Toronto Pride 2007 with Andrea and Pascal (two very good buddies!).

We had a blast!

We caught the last end of the Pride Parade...same stuff as last year, half naked people, rainbows galore, and beads, glorious beads!

We then hopped a barricade and walked the rest of the parade route and found ourselves at Church Street. We walked down Church Street and as we walked farther and farther...it got more and more crowded. Suffocatingly so. Shoulder to shoulder.

Now, for those of you who know me, I don't like being touched. So this was pretty bad.

Add in:

It was about 100 degrees

My strawberry smoothy was dripping on my fingers

The loop of Village People music coming from Sailor

The nakedness

I was uncomfortable.

But, we had a blast! And we caught some drag queen and king shows. An incredible energy the whole time, sandwiched in with great people and cold, cold drinks.

If you've never been to Pride (anywhere, really) you must, must, MUST go. Gay, straight or questioning Pride is one of the most wonderful environments ever!

London Pride is having its 25th Anniversary at the end of July! W00T!

This Is The Crap I'm Talking About...

Men on pimp rap as teen flees
By JONATHAN JENKINS -- Sun Media


TORONTO (Sun Media) - A teenage girl held against her will and forced to have sex with men at strip clubs and private parties sneaked away from her captors and flagged down a passing police officer for help.

"It was fortunate for her that she was able to find him, he was virtually right across the street," Toronto Police Det.-Const. Eduardo Dizon said.

The victim, 17, escaped on May 30 after three weeks of forced prostitution, Dizon said.
Three men have been arrested in the case in the past two weeks and all face a variety of prostitution-related offences, including living off the avails of an underage prostitute, forcible confinement and sexual exploitation.

Dizon said the young woman met the main culprit through a friend and he quickly lured her into turning tricks.

PAID FOR SEX

Any illusion she may have had of having a say in the matter quickly faded, Dizon said, and she was not allowed to keep any of the money she was paid for sex.

"She was physically restrained from leaving," he said. "At times when she tried to leave or questioned whether she could leave she was assaulted and choked."

At one point, the man who first lured her left town, leaving two other suspects to watch over her.

That's when she was able to slip away from the men holding her and find the passing police officer.

Christopher Lewis, 22, is to appear in College Park court today. Garnett Grant, 25, also known as G and G-Money, is to appear in Old City Hall court today.

Released on bail June 22, Donovan Lewars, 25, will be back in court July 19.

Introducing Gizmo

This is Gizmo.

Gizmo's gender is a bit of a mystery to me.

I think Gizmo is trans, which is awesome.

Gizmo weighs about 5 pounds, but is frequently trying to dominate Toby.

Mostly dominating by mounting Toby. A male.

I love 'em.

Introducing Toby

This is Toby.

He is Rachel's dog and I've been hanging out with him for the past couple of weeks.

Awesome dog.

Even if he's a little yappy.

But he's a good cuddler. And, as you can see, a bit of a licker.

An Open Letter To The London Free Press

Re: Billboards pimping beer dumb, not offensive

Being able to connect cause and effect is vital to solving our community’s problems. It seems as though Ian Gillespie’s column “Billboards pimping beer dumb, not offensive” missed this valuable opportunity to draw connections. For those of you who are unaware London does have pimps.

Those of us working with our eyes open are very aware of this fact. What is a pimp? The short definition is that a pimp is a coward, a liar who sexually exploits others. In London’s case many are sexually exploiting children and youth.

Most people constantly ask the question “How is it that child after child is being recruited into the sex trade and is being sexually abused in London?” Campaigns such as this beer ad and Mr. Gillespie’s response don’t help by using the word in a humourous and playful manner. The word pimp is not playful.

I think reclaiming words is an interesting way some social groups go about gaining some of their power back; however in this case the persecuted people are not the ones trying to re-instate the word pimp. And since we have pimps in London and rarely in our community do the adult sex trade workers have pimps, it can only be deduced that we are trying to glorify people who take part in the sexual abuse of our children youth. That is simply disgusting.

Just because we have television shows like “Pimp My Ride” (MTV) and contests like “Pimp My Garden” (Toronto Star) and “Pimp My Library Cart” (Wisconsin Library) doesn’t mean we’ve taken back a word.

You can’t identify a pimp by what they wear. Far from popular opinion pimps do not wear grillz, bling, fur coats, feathers in their hats, carry canes or challis’ filled with alcohol. Nor do they drive Cadillacs’ with hydraulics. They look like every other person on the street. They can be young or old, male or female, affluent or poor. In fact 30% of the sexual predators (pimps included) make more than $50,000 a year from a legitimate job. 10% make more than $80,000 a year. These folks are “upstanding” citizens.

Pimp is not a word we can reclaim until we recognize the fear and violence (sexual, physical, and emotional) they disseminate throughout the young people they hurt on a continual basis in London.

As well, I take offence to Gillespie’s implication that this issue shouldn’t be talked about. Using the word pimp in our vocabulary is disgusting, hateful and offensive. Talking about this is the only way to ensure London’s youth stay safe.

This attempt to stifle conversation about this topic is reminiscent of pimps threatening kids if they talk about what’s going on, they’ll kill them or the people they love.

I guess it’s reminiscent because I see and hear it on a daily basis.


Jessie Rodger

Did You Pride It Up?

Hey!!! Hope you all had a kick ass Pride!

Update anyone?

My pictures will have to wait, but a lot happened this past week or so...

- The 3rd Regional Social Forum has come and gone (a great time for all!)

- Andrea and Pascal returned to Canada from Brazil!

- I went to Toronto Pride with Andrea and Super Pride

Lots of fun.

Stay tuned.

:)