I hope that Hollywood makes a big gay love story where neither one of the lovers dies. Or if not Hollywood, some kid with a video camera. In 2008, I’d like to continue the string of sexy dreams I’ve been having about Seth Cohen and Summer Roberts. I want to be fisted by Matt Damon. I hope that in 2008, queer kids will hate themselves less. I hope that for us adults, too. I would like to stop checking my email so much.
I would like more people reading about queerness, more understanding of polyamory, winks on the LRT, brave performances and a bathhouse night for women and transpeople. My wish for the queer community in the New Year is a desire to get involved. I foresee people deciding that it’s time to pay back; we do this by remembering the obstacles we’ve overcome and decide to make it easier for the next generation.
I hope that society figures out that all people need access to the basic necessities, regardless of difference or state of health. I want my opinion to exist independent. I want to see the rates of HIV infection go down instead of up. I want to see the world from perspectives other than my own, so that it’s upside down, sideways, aslant. And I want to go to Argentina. Viva la Edmonton Queer Renaissance!
My wish is that smart decisions be made about downtown Edmonton, and that the warehouse district becomes a walkable, café-strewn, indie shop-laden maze. Maybe this is too much to ask from a bourgeois urban queer in the throes of a city obsessed with strip malls. I want to be okay with farting in public. I would really like to see the year where there is no need for a pride parade, because we will all be accepted. I want Pizzaway. I want to go to San Francisco.
I want the queer community in Alberta to riot in the streets and reclaim the radical past of the movement for queer liberation NOT assimilation. I wish for queer spaces and queer organizers to lay plans for a rowdy future that is safe and accepting for us while maintaining strong politics, inclusivity, sexual positivity, wicked kink and avid knowledge of queer histories.
As a two-spirit man I would like to see more education done about two-spirit people (even if it has to be me). We are a proud people with a proud past. I want amazing great people to stop leaving Edmonton.
To have a successful and meaningful resolution to my harassment and discrimination grievance and Alberta Human Rights Commission complaint. To go to the gym more often, to have more sex, to stop trying to make my life take an unnatural shape, to let go but these don’t matter because I don’t really believe in resolutions. I would like to find out where I don’t fit. I’m going to work less, and take more time for my friends, and for nurturing my soul.
I want a job that means more to society than getting somebody their coffee, DVD or jeans ... way more. I wish us a reflective year when we reflect on the decade since our rights to freedom from discrimination became Alberta law, where we see where we have come from, and plan a future where our cultures thrive. I want to see comprehensive sexual health education for all people including sexual minorities.
Resolution: to come to terms with my boyfriend being a transman and accept that I’m still queer, no matter what. To volunteer with Youth Understanding Youth, support Camp Fyrefly, get involved with one of the Team Edmonton sports groups, volunteer or even send story ideas to Gaywire and Queermonton. My wish for 2008 is that the community rallies around itself, support itself, take pride in who we are and help build the institutions needed to provide even the most rudimentary support to our youth and our closeted brothers and sisters.
To mark the 10-year anniversary of the Vriend decision in 2008, the Alberta government officially “write” sexual orientation into the province’s human rights statute. I want all schools to be safe for kids to come out in. I want to stop thinking so much. I want them to make an all male version of America’s Next Top Model. I want a queer bar to open up in Edmonton, not just another gay bar. Edmonton Queers challenge fate: no more hate in 2008!
One night of amazing sex without hearing that nagging inner voice shouting, “be careful, be careful, be careful.” I would like to be the voice for the muted. I want to stop trying to find myself and instead just be comfortable being myself.
The above is a collection of queer resolutions, confusions, convictions, fears, needs and hopes. It is an attempt to give voice to our collective identity. It is who we are right now.
No comments:
Post a Comment