Queer Canadian Suggestions?

[c9]

c9: "Who's your favourite queer Canadian?"

leapfish: "You."

c9: "Who's your favourite famous queer Canadian?"

leapfish: "nihilicious. He's more famous than you."

c9: "More famous than nihilicious."

leapfish: (blank stare)

I'm writing a series of little snippets for Wayves on queer Canadians. Any suggestions on who I should include? So far (just started yesterday) I have Svend Robinson, Mark Tewksbury, Ashley MacIsaac, Scott Brison, and k.d. lang. My next person is Rufus Wainwright, but I want to have a diversity of occupation, not just lawyers/politicians and singers. Help!

Update: Small world. Rufus Wainwright performed a song for, and was in, my childhood best friend's first movie, Tommy Tricker and the Stamp Traveller.

Comments

[iambic-cub.livejournal.com]

Scott Thompson!

Kids In The Hall probably did more good and more bad for the gay image in Canada than all the rest of these combined.

[c9.livejournal.com]

Cool, thanks!

[miket61.livejournal.com]

Scott Thompson was my first choice, too.

[p00kster.livejournal.com]

-Andre Boisclair
-Designer Guys!
-Douglas Coupland
-DSquared designers and countless others...
-Timothy Findley
-Rick Mercer (I've heard this a few times... I think it's true)
-Lots of professors, but not really famous

[c9.livejournal.com]

Rick Mercer - it is in fact true.

Cool, thanks. Wayves is Atlantic Canada focused, so I'm trying to make sure I include as many Easterners as I can.

[jamincan.livejournal.com]

Incidentally, one of the score of new hosts of 22 minutes is also gay, Gavin Crawford, the redheaded one. Aside from that, here's a convenient list from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:LGBT_people_from_Canada.

My personal selections would have to be Timothy Findley, Irshad Manji, Bruce LaBruce, Scott Thompson, and Blake Harper. None of these are necessarily the most famous or most important gay Canadians, but they're certainly more interesting than the usual suspects in my opinion.

[leapfish.livejournal.com]

Are there any famous Canadian lesbians??

[heartovmidnight.livejournal.com]

Sook-Yin Lee, Tegan & Sara ...

[leapfish.livejournal.com]

That's it? Three? Maybe if they left their houses more often...

[heartovmidnight.livejournal.com]

My former next door neighbour is a lesbian too, if she counts. :)

[heartovmidnight.livejournal.com]

Tomas Schramek, ballet master of National Ballet of Canada
Savoy Howe, Olympic silver medalist (boxing)
Mark Tewksbury, Olympic gold medalist (swimming)
Betty Baxter, captain of the canadian olympic volleyball team in 1976
Enza Anderson, Canadian drag queen and political gadfly
Brent Bambury, Canadian journalist for CBC
Michel Marc Bouchard, Canadian playwright (Les feluettes)
Dionne Brand, Trinidad and Tobago-born Canadian lesbian writer and filmmaker
Maggie Cassella, Canadian comedian
Wayson Choy, Canadian novelist
Candas Dorsey, Canadian science fiction author
Marc Hall, Canadian student and activist
Michael Hendricks, Canadian gay rights activist, half of first couple to legally marry in Quebec
Tanya Huff, Canadian author
Jeffrey Kofman, Canadian journalist at ABC
René Leboeuf, Canadian gay rights activist, half of first same-sex couple to legally marry in Quebec
Sook-Yin Lee, Canadian tv personality, former MuchMusic VJ
Ann-Marie MacDonald, Canadian author and playwright
Irshad Manji, Canadian journalist, author, and "Muslim Refusenik"
Glen Murray, Canadian former mayor of Winnipeg, Manitoba
Peter North, Canadian born adult-film actor who predominantly appears in heterosexual porn
Brian Orser, Canadian silver medalist at both the 1984 Winter Olympics and the 1988 Winter Olympics
Jane Rule, Canadian author
Emmanuel Sandhu, Canadian figure skater
Shyam Selvadurai, Canadian novelist (Funny Boy)
Tegan and Sara, Canadian singer/songwriters and sisters

[c9.livejournal.com]

I found that same list you did, but which ones would *you* suggest?

[heartovmidnight.livejournal.com]

Personally, all of them because they're all important people to Canadian history.

Recognition wise ... Mark Tewksbury, Tanya Huff, Sook-Yin Lee, Peter North, Brian Orser, and Tegan and Sara.

[joecdn.livejournal.com]

Svend???!? I dunno, he's sort of lost credibility in my mind...he's a lawmaker who essentially breaks laws, which is a bit odd - and then claims that he's standing up for some sort of right, or striken with some sort of mental illness...

Ummm...who else though?

My friend Robert Ploughman might be good. He's from Newfoundland - the first RCMP officer to come out in depot. He's also on the website famousandgay.com - go check it out. Anyways - he's here in Vancouver now - pretty good friend of mine.

-Libby Davies (also an NDP politician - MUCH more credible then Svend)
-Tim Stevenson (BC politican, current Vancouver city councillor - also an ordained United Church minister).
-Ted Nebbeling (former Liberal Cabinet Minister in the BC Legislature. First cabinet minister in the world to marry his same-sex partner)
-David Furnish (is he still Canadian??)
-Marc Hall (the student who challenged his school and won to take a boy to the prom)
-Marc Leduc (gay boxer - won silver in Barcelona)
-Real Menard (Bloc MP - although would he consider himself Canadian??)
-Peter North (although he's in denial)

ummm...go from there LOL

[c9.livejournal.com]

a) Regardless of what he did, he's still a queer Canadian, right?
b) I don't recall him saying anything other than "I'm sick," and "I'm sorry," and then immediately resigning. What sort of right would he have been supporting?

Haha - nice list. I'm trying to gather as many non-male and Atlantic Canadian names as I can for this. Finding gay white men is pretty damn easy. :)

[-kissyfur-.livejournal.com]

Dennis Envoldsen...best gaynadian actor ever! :)

[nihilicious.livejournal.com]

Is that your friend Dennis? Is he famous?

More famous than me?

[-kissyfur-.livejournal.com]

That is the Dennis of which I speak. He is a trifle more famous...but it's friggin close. I am excited for New Year's chez toi! :)

[whobunkyboo.livejournal.com]

Are you sure Libby Davies is gay? Hasn't she been married forever and ever? (Not that the two asre mutually exclusive, but...)

[c9.livejournal.com]

The Internet certainly thinks she is, in multiple places. But I personally have never met her. :)

[whobunkyboo.livejournal.com]

By God, you're right! And I was right too: Libby was married for a long time to fellow Vancouver politician Bruce Erikson, now deceased. Her current partner is a woman named Kimberly.

[nihilicious.livejournal.com]

In your piece on Mark Tewksbury, make sure to mention that he's totally my best friend and secret lover now.

There's a site for famous LGBT Canadians that I could find, except I'm on dial-up now.

Jane Rule.

[c9.livejournal.com]

Are Jane Rule and Ja Rule the same person?

[nihilicious.livejournal.com]

With enough alcohol, yes.

[bcboi.livejournal.com]

Justin Trudeau. *sigh* I always thought and wished...but apparently not.