I did not write this column—you did. Like last year, my final article for 2008 is a collage of hopes, wishes, resolutions and convictions written by people from the community.
Against some wise people’s judgment I have not included the names of contributors because I want the words to be read as if they are ours, as if any one of us could have, and did, write them. I want us to be able to glimpse what other people need and desire without attaching identity or personality. This column is an experiment, an attempt to see us collectively and revel in our differences, complexities and commonalities.
Wishing and wanting ...
I want love, endless summer bike rides, for work to not feel like work, good food with good friends, making fun happen, to start a cabaret/metal/techno band, and make it through school at the same time. I want to somewhere, somehow find a way forward from what George W Bush did to our world, and I want to do gay men’s sexual health programming. I don’t want tolerance, nor acceptance but appreciation in 2009 for who we are and what we do as queer folks!
I want greater (self-) acceptance as a bisexual man. I want to learn how to tactfully suggest that the three of us get it on. I want to make auto-erotic art and show it shamelessly. I wish for the same thing I wished for last year: a major Hollywood motion picture where queers get to be the lead characters ... and live.
My wish for everyone is a new sense of responsibility and empowerment to realize Obama’s great promise. As much as we would all like a leader to bring us the world we want, what the grassroots organization that brought Obama to power shows is that the real work is ours. Find a person or place that needs you, and help. One person, one place at a time. Use what you’ve got.
I want to find a place where the size of the average vehicle isn’t offensive. I want to win. My wish for 2009 is that we stand on guard against complacency and fight for equality wherever and however we can.
For the people in my community, I wish safety and love, for my daughter, more friends who think it’s cool to have two moms! I want a husband and children and I want my sex-radical, bathhouse-loving, queer-self not to view that as a capitulation. My wish for everyone is the “power of now” and taking the presence everywhere you go, and a Merry Christmas!
I wish that people were more honest with themselves. My wish for the queer community is that human beings’ need to explain or rationalize individual differences fade. We should be who we are without needing an explanation.
I want to enjoy myself in 2009, I have recently relocated here and I think that getting a Canadian man may help (maybe not help) me feel like Canada is my home. I wish that the LGBTTQI community will be cognizant of the discriminatory practices and work towards making everyone feel equal.
With the world in turmoil, it’s important to focus on what’s important—family, friends, love, laughter and patience. Pursue your dreams and don’t put things off as if you’ll be coming back to them later, because you won’t. Lastly, we need to be good to ourselves.
You gotta give ‘em hope
I hope for more arts funding and/or a government bail out for ME, I mean, c’mon, I’m in debt too.
I hope the US closes Guantanamo Bay—permanently. I hope we can learn to accept ourselves for who we are and to accept there will be a difference of opinion. My biggest hope would be to see a “real” democratic renewal in Alberta that offers some hope to the over 60 per cent of Albertans who do not vote for the Tories.
As a 2Spirit person it is my hope that more education takes place about 2Spirit people. The homophobia and discrimination of 2Spirit people on and off reserve needs to stop. We have a rich history and that history needs to be taught and respected.
I hope to completely give up swearing and I wish you would try too. I hope to limit my drinking, recreational drug use and casual sex. And I hope other queers do, too. I hope $50 a barrel oil brings stability back to Alberta.
Can the minister in charge of human rights tell us if his government still opposes rights for sexual minorities, as it did 10-plus years ago, and if not, why can’t that policy change be reflected in the human rights code?
As we approach the new year, my wish is that we may identify the poles within ourselves, and recognize these opposing forces as integrally balanced within a much larger context, a much larger ecology: the Earth. The Self.
In 2009, I resolve to create amazing things, practice compassion, love openly, fuck responsibly and refuse to engage in destructive behaviour. V
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