Want to bag a straight guy? Sign up, go to Afghanistan

The edited piece I wrote on the state of gays and lesbians in today's Canadian Forces for Capital Xtra is now online. Note that I said "edited"--this is not exactly the piece that I set out to write. The context has been largely carved out and sewn onto the sidebar piece that I wrote, and thanks to a "torqued" headline and a new introductory paragraph that my editor helpfully inserted, a feature that was about how homophobia is beginning to vanish in the Forces has become one focused on soldiers having sex with one another.

My editor and I had words about this, as the changes came as a complete surprise to me. His justification largely boils down to the fact that they torque their headlines, and given their competition in the free paper market, they need to be bolder and "flirtier" to draw in readers. Suffice to say, I'm not exactly happy about the changes.

I plan on posting the original piece here later in the week, to show how editing and torqued headlines can change the context of an article entirely.

I also wanted to send out thanks to Philippe Lagassé, assistant professor of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa for putting me in touch with Dr. Anne Irwin. His assistance was invaluable, and I doubt I would have been able to write this piece at all without it.