Interesting piece on how the gentrification of Montreal's Gay Village is being dealt with by the community it grew up around. Sounds familiar eh!
July 29th, 2004
hour.ca
Why many Montreal queers are decamping from the land of the rainbow flag
In recent years, Montreal's Gay Village has undergone a facelift. Thanks in part to ample funding from the city and the growth of gay businesses and gay tourism, the strip along Ste-Catherine that was once known as a seedy part of town has been dressed-up in colourful rainbow drag and transformed into a chic night spot - home to fancy restaurants, bars, big clubs and cafés.
Yet amidst this campaign to improve the image of the Village, it seems more and more of Montreal's queer constituents, events and social services are carving out a space for themselves outside this officially sanctioned space.
Miriam Ginestier, for example, has been hosting the city's most successful monthly lesbian/bi event since 1997, Meow Mix, far from the Gay Village - at Sala Rossa these days, on St-Laurent at the corner of St-Joseph. This is no small feat given the tendency for lesbian spaces in Montreal to have a high turnover rate and to fall into obscurity. Ginestier admits that the dyke scene in Montreal is underground and fickle, but she still finds it surprising that there's not a single dyke bar in the Village today.
"There's a general tendency for women's events to happen outside of the Village. There is a huge queer and lesbian community living in the Plateau and Mile-End. Meow Mix is a queer neighbourhood hangout and an alternative dance party for people who don't necessarily want to do the club thing."
Despite being approached on several occasions by Village bars willing to host her show, Ginestier is resolute that Meow Mix is an art-party neighbourhood event. "I'm not into the club aesthetic. Our events tend to require venues with a stage, and the Village doesn't have a lot of those. For all its queerness I find the Village scene very homogenous, with some exceptions."
The Anti-Capitalist Ass Pirates, a group of radical queer activists who adamantly oppose the consumer-driven nature of the Village and mainstream gay culture in general, have also since last year been hosting an increasingly popular free monthly queer event in the Plateau/Mile-End area. Founding member Challes says she and many people she knows have little interest in pursuing activities in the Gay Village.
"The Village has been invented over the past long while by the business owners in the Village. Everything there is so expensive! In other parts of Montreal, queer activities and people are supported by communities that are made up of folks who don't necessarily identify as gay, but are open and welcoming. For me a big part of queer identity is that it is a bunch of identities mixed together - I do things outside the Village that are a part of other cultural facets of the city too."
As a response to the corporate takeover of Divers/Cité and as a one-year celebration of the formation of the Ass Pirates, the crew will be hosting a Gay Shame Games event this year the week after Pride. Like all Pirate parties, this one will feature outrageous costumes, music, videos and performances by local queers. The event will be taking place on the Plateau at The Ballroom, on Laval, north of Mont-Royal.
"I can't help but think that it's because services and the social scene in the Village are not meeting the needs of many queer communities," says Sarah Blumen, co-ordinator of Project 10, a Westmount centre that works with Concordia's Dragonroot Centre for Gender Advocacy and provides support, information and services to gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and transsexual youth, as well as those who are questioning their sexual orientation and gender identity.
"Not only Meow Mixes, but free queer-friendly medical clinics such at Head and Hands, the extensive library at the Dragonroot and amazing drop-ins at groups like Project 10 are all located outside the Village."
Peter Flegel, the executive director of Black Youth in Motion (whose youth drop-in centre is located in Little Burgundy at 3007 Delisle), also feels that the Gay Village has its limits when it comes to queer black residents of the city. He's been trying to instigate a project to address the realities and needs of black queer youth in Montreal.
"The places in the Village are open, but they do not give an adequate space for black youth to express themselves. There is a visible minority and black youth present at Village events, but they tend to be valued for their exotic contribution rather than real representation. When I think of who is in a position of power and who the decision makers are in the gay community... black people are totally absent."
Although Flegel acknowledges the need to have a visible black queer presence in Montreal so that they can feel free to "express themselves the way that they actually are, rather than having other people speak for them," he maintains that due to financial, time and resource limitations his organization is consequently limited in their ability to do just that.
Meanwhile, all three levels of government are enthusiastically promoting the Village, allocating large sums of money to events and institutions that are located there and trumpeting the open and accepting, not to mention diverse, climate of Quebec to lure gay tourists to Montreal.
It leads Flegel to believe that the main interest of the government in the gay community is economic or "the pink-dollar factor."
"Certain gay events are very lucrative. That's why you see the government funding things like Divers/Cité, because it is a cultural event that brings in gay money through tourism and so on. But the organizations that are working more on social issues addressing the gay community aren't making money and therefore don't get the support.
"This is problematic, because on the one hand the government is benefiting from the community, but at the same time they are not adequately contributing to helping the community deal with some of the issues it faces."
Full Story Source: http://www.hour.ca/news/news.aspx?iIDArticle=3768
July 29th, 2004
hour.ca
Why many Montreal queers are decamping from the land of the rainbow flag
In recent years, Montreal's Gay Village has undergone a facelift. Thanks in part to ample funding from the city and the growth of gay businesses and gay tourism, the strip along Ste-Catherine that was once known as a seedy part of town has been dressed-up in colourful rainbow drag and transformed into a chic night spot - home to fancy restaurants, bars, big clubs and cafés.
Yet amidst this campaign to improve the image of the Village, it seems more and more of Montreal's queer constituents, events and social services are carving out a space for themselves outside this officially sanctioned space.
Miriam Ginestier, for example, has been hosting the city's most successful monthly lesbian/bi event since 1997, Meow Mix, far from the Gay Village - at Sala Rossa these days, on St-Laurent at the corner of St-Joseph. This is no small feat given the tendency for lesbian spaces in Montreal to have a high turnover rate and to fall into obscurity. Ginestier admits that the dyke scene in Montreal is underground and fickle, but she still finds it surprising that there's not a single dyke bar in the Village today.
"There's a general tendency for women's events to happen outside of the Village. There is a huge queer and lesbian community living in the Plateau and Mile-End. Meow Mix is a queer neighbourhood hangout and an alternative dance party for people who don't necessarily want to do the club thing."
Despite being approached on several occasions by Village bars willing to host her show, Ginestier is resolute that Meow Mix is an art-party neighbourhood event. "I'm not into the club aesthetic. Our events tend to require venues with a stage, and the Village doesn't have a lot of those. For all its queerness I find the Village scene very homogenous, with some exceptions."
The Anti-Capitalist Ass Pirates, a group of radical queer activists who adamantly oppose the consumer-driven nature of the Village and mainstream gay culture in general, have also since last year been hosting an increasingly popular free monthly queer event in the Plateau/Mile-End area. Founding member Challes says she and many people she knows have little interest in pursuing activities in the Gay Village.
"The Village has been invented over the past long while by the business owners in the Village. Everything there is so expensive! In other parts of Montreal, queer activities and people are supported by communities that are made up of folks who don't necessarily identify as gay, but are open and welcoming. For me a big part of queer identity is that it is a bunch of identities mixed together - I do things outside the Village that are a part of other cultural facets of the city too."
As a response to the corporate takeover of Divers/Cité and as a one-year celebration of the formation of the Ass Pirates, the crew will be hosting a Gay Shame Games event this year the week after Pride. Like all Pirate parties, this one will feature outrageous costumes, music, videos and performances by local queers. The event will be taking place on the Plateau at The Ballroom, on Laval, north of Mont-Royal.
"I can't help but think that it's because services and the social scene in the Village are not meeting the needs of many queer communities," says Sarah Blumen, co-ordinator of Project 10, a Westmount centre that works with Concordia's Dragonroot Centre for Gender Advocacy and provides support, information and services to gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and transsexual youth, as well as those who are questioning their sexual orientation and gender identity.
"Not only Meow Mixes, but free queer-friendly medical clinics such at Head and Hands, the extensive library at the Dragonroot and amazing drop-ins at groups like Project 10 are all located outside the Village."
Peter Flegel, the executive director of Black Youth in Motion (whose youth drop-in centre is located in Little Burgundy at 3007 Delisle), also feels that the Gay Village has its limits when it comes to queer black residents of the city. He's been trying to instigate a project to address the realities and needs of black queer youth in Montreal.
"The places in the Village are open, but they do not give an adequate space for black youth to express themselves. There is a visible minority and black youth present at Village events, but they tend to be valued for their exotic contribution rather than real representation. When I think of who is in a position of power and who the decision makers are in the gay community... black people are totally absent."
Although Flegel acknowledges the need to have a visible black queer presence in Montreal so that they can feel free to "express themselves the way that they actually are, rather than having other people speak for them," he maintains that due to financial, time and resource limitations his organization is consequently limited in their ability to do just that.
Meanwhile, all three levels of government are enthusiastically promoting the Village, allocating large sums of money to events and institutions that are located there and trumpeting the open and accepting, not to mention diverse, climate of Quebec to lure gay tourists to Montreal.
It leads Flegel to believe that the main interest of the government in the gay community is economic or "the pink-dollar factor."
"Certain gay events are very lucrative. That's why you see the government funding things like Divers/Cité, because it is a cultural event that brings in gay money through tourism and so on. But the organizations that are working more on social issues addressing the gay community aren't making money and therefore don't get the support.
"This is problematic, because on the one hand the government is benefiting from the community, but at the same time they are not adequately contributing to helping the community deal with some of the issues it faces."
Full Story Source: http://www.hour.ca/news/news.aspx?iIDArticle=3768
I do hope that no Candian gay event is ever canceled.
ReplyDeleteWe US boys wouldn't know how to spend our Thanksgiving and other major weekends if it wasn't for blowouts in Montreal and Toronto.