On my day off this past Monday, I spent 4 hours in my Mother’s back yard, helping her hired handyman Denis construct a new wood shed. I returned Tuesday afternoon and helped my Mother move 2 by 4’s and sheets of wood to the back yard. Hilariously, both days, within 10 minutes of working, I was covered in dirt and sweating like a pig while my Mother remained unsoiled and impossibly fresh looking.   

I had to laugh again when, on Tuesday evening, a Father and Son had walked past our driveway and wistfully starred at my Mother and me, enjoying what is traditionally thought to be more of a male bonding experience. His internal thought process appeared to read ‘I can’t wait till my son is older, and helps me build shit’. Little did he know what an odd couple my Mom and I really were. My Mother had showered, changed, done her hair and make-up, and picked out accessories, including a really cute bracelet, before moving wood, and her queer son was so freaked out by the amount of earwigs crawling on the timber that she had to bang, flick, or squish them before I would help her move any of the lumber. That dichotomy perfectly sums up my Mother and why I love her. She is more man than I’ll ever be, and more women then I’ll ever know.

Damn You BP!

Inspired by similar parties in New York City, and Montreal (Learn More), the AIDS Committee of Ottawa is organizing the very first official party for poz queer men in the nations capital! A quarter annual event, the Magnet Party will examine pressing issues, topics, and perceptions around HIV in a creative but accessable manner. Bringing HIV+, HIV- and those who don’t know there status together in a safe, stigma free space to socialize, network, disclose, access educational materials, safer sex supplies, and PARTY!

This month’s party has adopted the motif of tattoos and explores themes of stigma and the misconception that HIV+ men cannot get tattoos because of their status. Dida you know that the word stigma comes from the Greek word for tattoo? Originally meaning ‘a prick or stitch’, the term changed to be interpreted as ‘a moral blot’ as perceptions about tattooing negatively changed.

DJ Dan Valin will have the decks and your's truely will be the master of ceremony. There is NO COVER for this event.

Poster design by Wicked Wanda's (www.wickedwandas.ca) tattoo artist Tiffany Francoeur.

Hey everyone, thank you to all those people who made it out to my 3^rd annual Birthday Bash at Swizzles Bar on May 20^th. While yes it was my Birthday, the party was really my way of thanking everyone who has supported me in my activism and in my fundraising over the past year. Special thanks to all my extraordinary musical guests, fetish community leaders, drag queens, models and artists who participated in entertaining my supporters and friends and for lending their voices to a dialogue around sexual discrimination and stigma, sex workers rights, and the criminalization of HIV transmission.

Extra special thanks to Swizzles Bar and its owner Jess for allowing me to fundraise once again in his space and for providing drink specials, party favors, and cake and candy for my guests.  Also I’d like to thank Bode Spa, Second Cup, Cruiseline, and Venus Envy for providing me with prizes and the AIDS Committee of Ottawa for providing safer sex supplies and information to party goers. Thank you to everyone who brought me cards and gave me well wishes, I am truly blessed to be so supported in the work that I do.

The night of my Birthday we raised over 273.00 dollars for P.O.W.E.R. (Prostitutes of Ottawa/Gatineau, Work, Educate, Resist). P.O.W.E.R. believes that sex workers should be able to practice their professions free of legal and social discrimination, victimization, harassment and violence and that sex work should be valued as legitimate and fulfilling work that makes an important contribution to society. I was glad to do what little I could to support them in getting their message out to my community. 

I also want to thank Capital Xtra photographer Erik Faure for the great pictures he took at my party and for allowing me to post some of them on this blog and Jason Johnson at J2Designs for designing my amazing Birthday fliers! Above is a picture of my coffee table, littered with the Birthday cards I received at my party! Thank you again one last time to everyone who made it out! I hope you all had a great time!