OK, kiddo! Here are all the fantastically amazing posts tagged with Xtra
Vandals Target Gay Community Newspaper
Xtra, a gay community newspaper published by Pink Triangle Press and distributed nationwide, has been targeted by vandals in the Toronto area. Several distribution boxes have been spray painted with homophobic slurs, glued shut, turned upside down, filled with garbage, and set on fire.
This isn’t the first time the publisher has been hit by homophobic vandals. “This has been going on since 1993 or 1994,” noted Ted Hawkins, a distributer for the newspaper. “It seems to be a crazy homophobic group that has a vendetta for our magazines,” he said.
Sounds like a costly problem. My suggestion: Make the boxes look like adorable, fluffy kittens with big, watery eyes. They’ll meow softly and paw at your legs each time someone takes an issue. Don’t get me wrong: Violent homophobes are probably just as likely to burn kittens, but it should look sufficiently horrifying that witnesses would be more likely to report it.
Just an idea.
Refugees, Flags, Censorship, and Constitutionality
Let’s do the follow-up thing today:
- Alvaro Orozco, the refugee who was denied Canadian citizenship because he didn’t look “gay enough” is still facing deportation to Nicaragua where homosexuality is illegal. The application to re-open his case was dismissed, but there’s still a chance he could file a standard application for immigration from within Canada on humanitarian grounds. Sadly, pretending to be gay to obtain refugee status is not uncommon, but the circumstances under which Orozco’s application was denied were downright silly.
- Niagara Falls officials have replaced the Pride flag that mysteriously vanished less than four hours after its raising ceremony. Thankfully they have “some ideas” to make sure this one stays put. At the top of the list: piping in Kylie Minogue to create an appropriate anti-heterosexual radius.
- The City of Ottawa has adopted policies ensuring that Capital Xtra, a gay community newspaper, cannot be censored from city community centres. The paper was removed from a public facility after Greg Evans, a local man, complained that his son could have seen it at basketball practice. Though the paper’s censorship was illegal, I can attest to the dangers of gay community newspapers: The last time I picked one up, I got a paper cut.
- The federal conservatives’ scrapping of the gay-friendly Court Challenges Program has turned out to be illegal. According to a report by the official languages commissioner, removing public funding to challenge unconstitutional laws violated Officials Languages Act. The government, in the interests of transparency and accountability, has not responded.
Well, have a great weekend kiddos!
Gay Publisher Vandalized Again
Poor Capital Xtra. The popular gay community newspaper just can’t get a break from vandalism. In the past few years, their distribution boxes have been spray painted, covered in slurs, bolted shut, robbed, illegally removed from public facilities, and now burned!
Over the Victoria Day long weekend, a vandal set fire to some of the magazine’s distribution boxes, ruining about 80 issues and damaging the metal and plexiglas.
In response to the continued defacements, the magazine has started a “very informal” adopt-a-box program. Each of the adorable purple boxes will get a reader volunteer to check up on it from time to time. As with real children, adoptive parents are to report back if their baby gets spray painted, covered in slurs, bolted shut, robbed, illegally removed from public facilities, or burned.
- Vandals set Capital Xtra boxes on fire [Capital Xtra]
Ottawa Illegally Pulls Gay Newspaper Distribution
Won’t someone please think of the children!?
An Ottawa city councilor is out to ban Capital Xtra, a weekly gay community newspaper, from being distributed in public after a father complained that his son saw an ad for a gay chat line at a local community centre. An ad! How awful!
The paper (which has already been the victim of mass-theft and defacement) was immediately pulled from the centre’s display case, and now the city is mulling over bylaws to prevent its distribution elsewhere. Greg Evans, the father, is encouraged by the city’s actions, but was pretty shaken up: “I sat there looking back and forth at the pictures and words at the kids’ basketball practice, and I thought, ‘this is wrong!’”
Gareth Kirkby, the editor of Capital Xtra, is furious:
Capital Xtra is not an adult publication. It is a community newspaper. The municipal government has no business restricting the content of community newspapers.
We at Capital Xtra are tired of being labeled obscene, or adult material, or even pornography. [...] It’s time city hall acknowledged that queer individuals, couples and families live throughout the city, use the full range of city services, and have the same rights to access their community newspaper of choice as is enjoyed by straight families.
Rusell Zinn, a lawyer for for the paper added that there are serious legal issues with the city’s actions, saying the paper’s removal “is not only illegal, but highly offensive to the city’s gay and lesbian community.”
As for the shattered family: There’s no word yet on how gay Greg’s son turned after seeing the ads, but—just to play it safe—he’ll probably subscribe to the Ottawa SUN, where his children can view ads for straight chat line, dating, and escort services.
- Gay publication Xtra peeved at centre censor [Ottawa SUN]
- Action Alert [Capital Xtra]
- Rights versus ‘wrong’ [Ottawa Citizen]
Crazy Vandal Attacks Gay Publisher
Poor Capital Xtra—the weekly, non-profit gay newspaper is being attacked again! Just one year after a 47-year old man was fined for bolting the publisher’s distribution boxes shut with power tools, dousing them in brown paint, and spray-painting “HIV” and swastikas on them, the paper’s distribution channel has been targeted again. This time, thousands of copies of the paper are being stolen from Ottawa’s downtown locations.
Gareth Kirkby, the managing editor of Xtra, invited the vandal or vandals to seek other channels for their message:
What is not right is for them to impose their views on our readership by restricting access to the papers. We have challenged them to write a letter to get it off their chest. We’ll even give them a column if they want.
In the meantime, readers are welcome to read Xtra online, or seek alternate publications for their news, such as, oh… I don’t know—Slap Upside The Head!
Uh, incidentally, I was at home at the time of the thefts. I don’t live in Ottawa. That’s pen ink on my fingers, not newsprint. My beautiful Xtra mosaic ceiling was assembled from issues donated by recycling centres. This interrogation is over!
- Gay weekly complains of hate crimes again [Ottawa Citizen]
