Get pink and come out tonight at 6:30pm for Jer’s Vision 2012 Day of Pink Gala. Rick Mercer will be there. Plus, it’s free! And if that’s not enough, I am told there will be some good food and amazing performances.
It doesn’t matter what lures you there — just come out, chill and meet some peeps from the community. I don’t know what I’ll wear since the pinkest thing I have is this T-shirt (pink-beige, is that a colour?):
The lesbian stereotype: I don’t own anything pink.
(Photo: Beatrice Borja)
I called up Jer (aka Jeremy Dias) — who is one of the hardest-working people I know — and pop-quizzed him on queer facts and history. I tried really hard to find some nebulous facts to make him look bad in public . . . but that pink boy got it all right!
These are tough questions, am I right? I had to Google the facts. In all honesty, I would have got maybe one or two right, max (hey, the first one has 50/50 odds). I’m sorry for my ignorance, but hey — I’m the one testing! Let’s be real: how well do you know Canadian queer history?
BT: True or false: In 1963, the RCMP Directorate of Security and Intelligence’s A-3 Unit — a unit dedicated to rooting out and removing all homosexuals from government and law enforcement — produced a map of Ottawa replete with red dots marking all alleged residences and frequent visitations of homosexuals?
JD: True
(Hmmm . . . 50/50.)
BT: Which Canadian prime minister famously said, “[There is] no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation”?
JD: Pierre Trudeau
(That was easy.)
BT: On Feb 5, 1981, the police raided four bathhouses in a coup called Operation Soap. Today, this event is considered a crucial turning point in Canadian queer history. The unprecedented community outrage and mobilization led to a protest march that is now generally recognized as the city’s first Pride parade. In what city did this occur?
JD: Toronto
(Wow, as if he actually knew that.)
BT: The Body Politic was first published in 1971. Four years later it was incorporated as Pink Triangle Press. The magazine was twice charged with publishing obscene material and twice acquitted; materials seized by the police were withheld until 1985. Two years later, in 1987, the magazine stopped publishing following the launch of which tabloid?
JD: Xtra!
(See how I tied that in? Smooth . . .)
Why you can trust Xtra
