Inside Story (Queer Toronto) February 6, 2008 - Andrea Zanin, otherwise known as the Sex Geek on her wordpress blog. Describes herself as a gender-fluid queer-kinky-poly gal living in Montreal, Canada. She was up in the Big Smoke on Tuesday January 29, 2008 and attended a talk given at the Gladstone Hotel, which she says "seems to be the location of choice for all sorts of interesting events, many but not all of them queer" (just the kind of ratio I like.) "This one was part of a monthly series of talks put on by Java Knights (a queer public forum), and it was a panel discussion entitled “The Future of Queer Neighbourhoods in Toronto.”
Zarin: "It started at 7, so I walked in around 7:15, fully expecting to be one of the first people to arrive. Not so. The place was packed and I found myself sitting in the hallway so as not to rudely interrupt the goings-on by walking in partway through. This was my first lesson in Toronto event etiquette: these folks start shit on time. Yikes! None of that lackadaisical “Montreal time” stuff, where people show up whenever they please and things get started when the room feels full enough. Duly noted!"
Zarin: "Dr. Catherine Nash, a queer geography professor from Brock University (who was in the audience, rather than on the panel, and oddly enough, whose name I caught but whose face I did not), had some of the night’s most interesting stuff to say. She kicked off her comments by talking about the “slippage between the terms ‘gay and lesbian’ and ‘queer’”, and how this indicates a parallel “slippage in politics that is reflected in the development of new queer areas.” Her point was that of course the nature of community residential and business space will change as the community itself changes. Among other things she mused about her own position on the board of directors for a queer neighbourhood association.
[Editor's comments:] There is some interesting comments from readers at the end of Zarin's article. One from Michael F. Paré, one of the guest panelists, who said: "I would have like to have seen more business types from the traditional village at Church and Wellesley, just about every big name person and community leaders was invited, with connections to Church and Wellesley, but they all refused to be on the panel. Go figure?"
Reference sources: Toronto Star - Somewhere beyond the rainbow and Java Knights queerwestvillagetoronto.blogspot.com/2008/01/are-traditional-gay-enclaves-pass-panel.html
Read Andrea Zanin's full article From gaybourhood to queer diaspora http://sexgeek.wordpress.com/2008/02/04/from-gaybourhood-to-queer-diaspora/
Zarin: "It started at 7, so I walked in around 7:15, fully expecting to be one of the first people to arrive. Not so. The place was packed and I found myself sitting in the hallway so as not to rudely interrupt the goings-on by walking in partway through. This was my first lesson in Toronto event etiquette: these folks start shit on time. Yikes! None of that lackadaisical “Montreal time” stuff, where people show up whenever they please and things get started when the room feels full enough. Duly noted!"
Zarin: "Dr. Catherine Nash, a queer geography professor from Brock University (who was in the audience, rather than on the panel, and oddly enough, whose name I caught but whose face I did not), had some of the night’s most interesting stuff to say. She kicked off her comments by talking about the “slippage between the terms ‘gay and lesbian’ and ‘queer’”, and how this indicates a parallel “slippage in politics that is reflected in the development of new queer areas.” Her point was that of course the nature of community residential and business space will change as the community itself changes. Among other things she mused about her own position on the board of directors for a queer neighbourhood association.
[Editor's comments:] There is some interesting comments from readers at the end of Zarin's article. One from Michael F. Paré, one of the guest panelists, who said: "I would have like to have seen more business types from the traditional village at Church and Wellesley, just about every big name person and community leaders was invited, with connections to Church and Wellesley, but they all refused to be on the panel. Go figure?"
Reference sources: Toronto Star - Somewhere beyond the rainbow and Java Knights queerwestvillagetoronto.blogspot.com/2008/01/are-traditional-gay-enclaves-pass-panel.html
Read Andrea Zanin's full article From gaybourhood to queer diaspora http://sexgeek.wordpress.com/2008/02/04/from-gaybourhood-to-queer-diaspora/
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