AppsScraps

Right, so happy (yawn) Pride everyone!

Another year, another silly spectacle of gaydom’s wild and wacky filling the street. I just don’t know about Pride. I mean, I’m out to any and everyone I know: work, friends, family, strangers even. But it’s just such a non-issue to me, really.

Does it mean I won’t go down to Church Str to honour the men and women who paved the path before me? No.
Does it mean I don’t believe Pride provides an outlet for up-and-coming gay folk to feel accepted? No.
Does it mean I won’t attend the farce of a parade that reinforces stereotypes, does more harm than good for the gay cause and fails to represent me as a small ‘c’ conservative male? Yes.
Does it mean I thoroughly detest the sad gym bunny culture, ripe with its steroid-riddled, self-obsessed, clubbing lads and frozen-in-time 70s men wandering the streets in chaps? Hell yes!
Does it mean I believe our cause is better served by integrating into mainstream one person at a time rather than continuing to wail that we’re a special population? Yes.
Does it mean I turn a blind eye to the continued harassment we receive and incidents of gay-bashing that (sadly) still occurs? Damn no! And anyone who thinks this doesn’t know me very well!

In the end, I see it this way: the fact I am gay represents the tip of my left pinky finger in terms of the whole person I am …. there is just sooooooooo much more to me than who I happen to sleep with. Yet, seems everyone wants to make the tip of my left pinky EVERYTHING about me. Well, it’s not. Being gay is way down on my list of self-definers: well after son, brother, uncle, lover, friend, humanitarian, triathlete, chef, writer, quality manager … then, maybe, gay man.

(rolls eyes)

Anyway, G and I did wander down to Church on Saturday to meet up with D&D for our annual Pride brunch, which was good fun as always. D2 is a brilliant artist and I hope to have a few of her originals in my collection one day! After brunch G and I wandered up Church to see the sites (i.e., HALs [hot asian lads] for me; HWGs [hot white guys] for G).

1) D&D; 2) Church Street festivities

The Four Season’s Centre for the Performing Arts
With our (yawn) Pride duties out of the way for another year, we headed over to the new Opera House that Jack Diamond built at Queen and University to take a tour.

The new building is gorgeous! OMG! … I can hardly wait to land another role and get on that stage! The craftsmanship in the main hall is beautiful – lots of natural wood, individual a/c and heating for each seat, perfect sightlines for each of the 2000 seats, stunning Venetian plastering. It is like WOW!

B&Gs
Saturday night we attended a fabulous bbq at our friends, B&G’s. Both Tennis Star Suzie and G&S were also in attendance. The boys did a super job and put on a scrumptious party. It was lovely sitting on the patio watching the stars pop out and the lights throughout the city come on.

1) G&S go for the appetizers; 2) nighttime arrives; 3) Tennis Star Suzie

Sunday’s food: roasted red and orange pepper soup
You’ll remember I made this last week in preparation for my parents arrival. We served it on Wednesday night and it was so yummy!