Gay teens bridging movements

My final printed article of the year came out today, which was a piece in Capital Xtra. It deals with a group of gay and lesbian teens at a local high school, and it was quite an interesting piece to write.

Its origins lie in a piece I was assigned regarding a local safer schools forum put on by one of the local school boards. That piece seems to have vanished on my editor's desk, however, and I need to figure out if he's either printing it, or paying me a kill fee. Now, that fact aside, while I was at said forum, I could interview the organisers but not any of the students. However, one of the organisers said that she could arrange for me to meet with her students at a later date, and we worked it out.

It's rare that I actually get to work with a photographer on a shoot, and in this particular case it was doubly fortunate since the high school in question is in a far-distant suburb, and Ottawa has been in a transit strike for a few weeks now. My photographer had a car, which made getting there so much less trouble. It was also interesting doing the interviews in a group format, while he took pictures as we went along.

One other thing I really enjoyed was the fact that I had a chance to talk to students about what their high school experience is like now. My own high school experience is nearly fifteen years ago, and it was from rural Alberta - a very different context than students in urban Ottawa in 2008. It's given me a bit of insight into the next generation.