US HIV travel ban on the way out, albeit slowly

I have a piece today on the Xtra.ca national page, which talks about changes to the American HIV travel ban. This was an interesting piece to write, which I had at first thought might be a bit boring, but I talked to a variety of different people which created a slightly more interesting article than I had read in the past. As well, it gave me a bit of an insight into how the regulatory process works in the American political system, which is quite different than the Canadian system.

Trans bill piece - Reprinted

Just a quick note to say that my piece on Bill Siksay's newly tabled bill for trans rights has been reprinted in the new issue of Capital Xtra. It's always nice to have other parts of the Xtra chain pick up pieces I've done for the website.

California court to rule on gay marriage

I have a short piece today on the national page of Xtra.ca about the rallies planned to mark the fact that the California Supreme Court will rule on the challenges of Proposition 8 tomorrow. I will have to say that both rally organisers got back to me in short order, which made my job much easier, which is always greatly appreciated.

The Toronto organiser mentioned the Love Exiles group. I have a project on the backburner about them, and hopefully I'll get to writing about them before too long.

Gay MPs on International Day Against Homophobia

My second video piece is now up on the national page of Xtra.ca. This was shot at the same time as the first piece, on the 40th anniversary of the passage of Trudeau's Bill C-150, but edited separately.

The editing process for this second piece went much more smoothly than the first piece, but that had a lot to do with having more practice. I'll also note that the original version was a full minute longer, but my editor chopped out a couple of the segments, but most of those only just illustrated a couple of further points, rather than adding anything substantial, so it wasn't a huge loss (and it's also a lesson to me that I need to be tighter with my video editing - much as I've learned to be with my writing).

Also, the phrase that didn't make it into the video that I almost wish could have, was Scott Brison saying "Octogenarian pugilism aside..."

Here's the video:

Siksay tables trans bill for a third time

I have a new piece today on Xtra.ca's national page, this time regarding Bill Siksay's new Private Members' Bill. This was probably one of the most straight-forward pieces I've written in the past couple of weeks, where everything fell into place nice and neatly, and I didn't have to chase people, or harass them endlessly on the phone, or anything like that. In other words, it was a refreshing change from the way things normally work around here.

The Maclean's Parliamentarian of the Year Awards

Last night, I attended the Maclean's Parliamentarian of the Year awards, and over the course of the evening, spent time talking to Liberal MP Rob Oliphant, who I frequently interview for my various projects. We were photographed by Maclean's Mitchel Raphael, as part of their coverage of the event.

Gay Canadian MPs on the legacy of Bill C-150

I have a video piece on the national page of Xtra.ca today. This was a great deal of fun to shoot, in conjunction with a piece for a second video which will go up this weekend. And despite the trials and tribulations involved with editing video (yes, I'm still learning), that's not to say that there weren't some additional complications over the course of its creation. Like for example, how my Conservative senator interviewee pulled out at the last minute. And how I was supposed to get a clip of the Liberal leader to add a statement in there as well, but the people who had said video couldn't get the clip to me in time. And having to translate Réal Ménard's comments with the aid of the only other bilingual guy at the office. But overall it turned out quite well, and I'm happy with the result.

Here's the clip:

Where are all the gay characters on Canadian television?

I have a piece up on the National page of Xtra.ca today, which is the culmination of nearly three weeks of hard work. It was an enormous challenge to assemble all of the various parts of this article, and yet in the end, it all managed to come together.

For starters, contacting the various networks was difficult in and of itself because I kept getting passed between so many different people that my deadlines had lapsed twice before I finally tracked down figures from everyone. And once that was done, trying to find someone to comment on the significance or causes was even more of a challenge. Apparently there is virtually no one in Canadian academia who can comment on gays and lesbians on television. In the end, however, one of my fellow journalists suggested I talked to Brad Fraser and arranged an introduction, and Fraser turned out to be almost perfect to talk to. I was also glad that I could use some of my notes from my previous article on Jeff Geddis and Sophie and incorporate them into this piece.

Overall, despite the headaches and frustrations, I'm incredibly proud of the piece, and I hope it garners some attention.

Gay seniors in Quebec get funding

I have a piece up on the national page of the Xtra.ca site today about funding for gay seniors in Québec. I had done an article with Bill Ryan for Outlooks over a year ago, so it was good to pick up on an old contact and see that the issue of gay and lesbian seniors was evolving. I'll also confess that the head of the Québec Lesbian Network gave me the name of the film she was sending out to those residences, but I wasn't able to catch it because it was in French, and while my French is okay, I wasn't able to decipher it. The two provincial governments that I spoke to - chosen because that's where Xtra has outlets - were also quick to respond and get back to me (which is always a plus), though I will have to say that their websites are unfriendly for media contacts.

De La Salle works towards its first gay-straight alliance

My second piece in the current issue of Capital Xtra is about a student's difficulty in establishing a Gay-Straight Alliance in her French public high school. This story very nearly made it into the previous issue, but I ended up holding off while waiting for one of the meetings to take place, to know what kinds of developments might happen. Well, so much for that - after the meeting took place, the school board's communications person kept insisting that everything was still up in the air, and that there wasn't really a story. We ran with the story as is, without the school board's input, and there may yet be a follow-up once they finally make some more definitive progress.

Pride Cornwall cancelled for 2009

Of the two pieces I have in the current issue of Capital Xtra, the first is about the current woes facing Cornwall Pride, which has had to cancel their 2009 festivities. I've been dealing a lot with Pride issues in my journalism career, so on the one hand, it was a fairly easy piece to write, and on the other hand, it was disappointing to hear that there are some serious issues in the various queer communities around the country. I'm hoping that by next year, I won't have to report on the outright demise of these cities' Pride organisations.

Liberals pass resolution to end gay organ donor ban

I have a piece on the national page of Xtra.ca today, which stems from the Liberal convention over the weekend. Thanks to my contacts, I was able to get a copy of the resolution itself (after party spokespeople didn't call me back), which kept me on track to be able to speak to several MPs after Question Period today. I've been getting to know MP Rob Oliphant thanks to our many post-QP chats (which often show up on my Hill Queeries blog), so it was great getting to speak to him for a story. I'm only disappointed that I didn't get to speak to anyone from the Young Liberals, but there is the possibility of updating this story if they get back to me by tomorrow.

Thoughts From the Hill - May Edition

The May issue of Outlooks is now widely available, and I have my usual Thoughts From the Hill panel therein, this time looking at issues relating to our immigration system. I was largely motivated for this piece after the coverage I have been doing on the various aspects of our immigration system of late, particularly with respect to gay and lesbian refugees, but I hadn't much heard from my usual political panellists on the issue yet, so I took the opportunity. There is likely to be more coverage on this issue still to come, as the Citizenship and Immigration Committee examines the issue of appointments to the Immigration and Refugee Board, and I've been following those proceedings to a certain extent.

You can read this month's panel in Outlooks' print edition, or in the online edition, which you can download in .pdf format here. (The panel can be found on page 13).