Kev Maxen be first male ach a US men’s pro sports league to publicly e out as gay | CNN

Contents:

• WHY STT THOMPSON IS CANADA'S TE GAY NATNAL TREASURE
• THE TE NORTH LGBT: NEW POLL REVEALS LANDSPE OF GAY CANADA
• OUR GAY DATG APP: MAKE A DIFFERENCE YOUR LOVE LIFE
• KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY
• JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ACH OUT AS GAY
• GAY CANADA

WHY STT THOMPSON IS CANADA'S TE GAY NATNAL TREASURE

Queeri is a weekly lumn by CBC Arts producer Peter Knegt that queri LGBTQ art, culture and/or inty through a personal a Canadian gay man, if someone were to ask me to name our untry's tt natnal treasure, I would have to say that — personally — there are three rrect answers to that qutn: Céle Dn, Carly Rae Jepsen and Stt Thompson. Thompson, however, would be very unlikely to do the same — which ankly is a great gaynadian shame, bee he is one of the greatt gay ics of all time, anywhere. — wh Buddy Cole that timate settg would be somethg I uld easily fd a gaggle of fellow gays to e wh me.

THE TE NORTH LGBT: NEW POLL REVEALS LANDSPE OF GAY CANADA

Thompson walked to the bookstore, full Buddy Cole garb, and ma clear we shared a mutual annoyance regardg how gay Torontonians were choosg to spend their eveng. But also, for me, the time that I grew up — the time that I me of age —was a very different time for gay people. Especially for a gay man of my generatn the world today, bee thk of what we suffered through to get here.

"As for how the world today treats openly gay ics, though Thompson is sure 's "1000% better, " there's still one major problem: there's still no openly gay male star edy. We're a stage when gay men only seem able to give up for women or drag queens, but not other gay men. Like if a gay man is up there beg funny and he's not drag I thk most gay men feel like, 'Well, I'm as funny as he is.

OUR GAY DATG APP: MAKE A DIFFERENCE YOUR LOVE LIFE

To me, 's somethg that I found very sad over my reer: how ltle gay men embrace me, and how ltle gay men embrace other gay men edy.

"Personally, I thk a very good start for gay men ( the media or otherwise) would be by helpg Stt Thompson she as bright as he possibly n. It stars John Labow and Henry Tarvaen as two U of T stunts who velop a quasi-romantic relatnship — which is heavily d given this was ma a pre-Stonewall world where gay romance was que lerally forbidn.

Still, is wily nsired the first gay film ever ma Canada and has the further distctn as the first English-language Canadian film to ever screen at the Cann Film Ftival. In the film, he velops a relatnship wh a teenage boy that, though non-sexual,  an uproar bee of the then-very-mon stereotype that gay men were prone to pedophilia. It's not jt bee of s grty portra of life 1970s Toronto and Rsell's unnny impersonatns of everyone om Barbra Streisand to Judy Garland to Bette Midler — 's also simply the fact that a movie wh such unapologetilly gay ntent didn't jt get ma but beme an ternatnal sensatn.

KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY

It was a rerd for the 27-year-old mi-doc seri, which ma s gural dip to the rich history of queer Canadiana via the story of Jim Egan, our untry's first publicly known gay activist. And wh all due rpect to the nobily of that Aaron Ashmore-starrg take on the Oshawa teenager who fought the school board to take his same-sex date to prom, 's rather prsg that stands so alone as a out more CBC Arts stori on LGBTQ+ ins and activistsQueeriProudly prep some tissu: The first LGBTQ Herage Mute, celebratg activist Jim Egan, is hereSo wh the 50th anniversary of the crimalizatn of homosexualy this untry g next year, I feel like 's a very appropriate time for the media-makers and funrs Canada to get some balls rollg on addg a few exampl to the CanCon non of historil queer narrative storytellg.

(Lda Dawn Hammond/)The clost equivalent of a "Stonewall" (the 1969 New York Cy rts wily adopted as a startg pots for what was then termed the "gay liberatn movement") Canada is very arguably the 1981 Toronto bathhoe raids, which police vlently scend on four of the cy's bathho and arrted 304 men.

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ACH OUT AS GAY

Gay activist and polician Gee Hislop (more on him later) was quoted the The Body Polic (more on that later too) as llg the night "the gay equivalent of Crystal Night Nazi Germany — when the Jews found out where they were really at. (Canadian Gay and Lbian Archiv)Two years ago, I wrote this piece here at CBC Arts on why every Canadian should know about The Body Polic honour of Nick Green's Dora Award-wng play explorg s history.

GAY CANADA

(Canadian Lbian and Gay Archiv)The story of the Bnswick Four would make for que the movie (perhaps starrg say, Alison Pill, Tatiana Maslany and Ey Hampshire? Seven years earlier, Vriend has been fired om his job as a lab stctor at The Kg's College Edmonton bee he was gay. Everett Gee KlippertDigal Archiv3:15NWT man jailed for beg gayJtice Mister Pierre T rponds to a Supreme Court cisn that Everett Gee Klippert should be locked up fely bee of his homosexualy.

But outcry om the loss put the wheels motn for then-Prime Mister Pierre T and then-NDP lear Tommy Douglas (played by a pair of future Canadian Screen Award nome for bt supportg actor, to be sure) to ph for an omnib bill that would lead to the crimalizatn of homosexualy HislopArguably the bt Amerin example of LGBTQ history beg narrativized a movie is G Van Sant's Osr-wng Milk. Dubbed "the unofficial mayor of the Toronto gay muny, " Hislop — among many other thgs — -found the Communy Homophile Associatn of Toronto (one of Canada's first anizatns for queer folks) and helped anize the first gay rights monstratn on Parliament Hill. (VQFF)Another nference wh far-reachg fluence on LGBTQ history this untry and beyond was the third annual Intertribal Native Amerin, First Natns, Gay and Lbian Amerin Conference, held Wnipeg 1990.

(Canadian Lbian and Gay Archiv)History privileg the privileged, and Canadian LGBTQ history is by no means immune to that. The people, anizatns and stutns that are generally celebrated as inic and heroic to our untry's queer history are largely cisgenr, gay, whe and male. That's not to disunt their ntributns any way (though that's easy for me to say that, sce I am all of those thgs), but 's important to remember that while folks like Jim Egan and Gee Hislop and everyone at The Body Polic were fightg the good fight, there were so many unsung hero margalized queer muni — many of whom felt ignored by the whe gay men at the foreont of the general "movement.