[NEWS] Five LGBTQ links: Pride Toronto, Christophe Honoré, Sarah Schulman, HIV/AIDS, Fun Home, movie

• The radical queer group Anti-69 opposes this year’s proposed theme of Pride Toronto celebrating the 50th anniversary of decriminalization of homosexuality, on the grounds that decriminalization did not go nearly far enough.
• The Guardian looks at French director and writer Christophe Honoré, and his efforts to recover the queer memory of HIV/AIDS at its worst in France.
• them shares the arguments of author Sarah Schulman that the representation of HIV/AIDS in popular culture, in Rent for instance, not only underplay queer agency and organization but omit stories of queer survival.
• Daily Xtra shares the story of Melanie Woods of how Fun Home helped her find herself.
• them looks at how Mary Queen of Scots and The Favourite do a great job of sharing stories of queer love and resilience despite the odds from the early modern period.

[URBAN NOTE] Seven Toronto links: 1 Yorkville, Davenport Village, Meridian, homelessness, Pride, art

• Urban Toronto notes that 1 Yorkville is nearing completion.
• Urban Toronto notes the plans for the massive redevelopment of Davenport Village, north and west of Dupont and Lansdowne.
• The Sony Centre is now going to be called Meridian Hall, thanks to the Ontario credit union of the same name buying the name rights. blogTO reports.
• This story of a tenant who was deprived heating by her landlords’ neglect is appalling. I hope things get fixed quickly for her. Global News reports.
• Declan Keogh reports in NOW Toronto that the funding problems of Pride Toronto are linked to the police ban enacted in 2016.
• This Nicholas Hune-Brown feature at Toronto Life about the crisis of homelessness in Toronto is terribly compelling in sharing these stories.
• This Toronto Life feature on the installations on the seventh floor of the Hudson’s Bay makes this place very visit-worthy.

[NEWS] Five LGBTQ links: Atlanta. My.Kali, cross-dressing, Glennda Orgasm, Pride Toronto

• This Guardian Cities article asks, rhetorically, if the LGBTQ community of Atlanta has a problem with racism.
• VICE tells the story of pioneering Jordan-based LGBT magazine My.Kali, the first in its country.
• Taylor Hosking at VICE writes about how cross-dressing on Hallowe’en, for her as a queer cis black woman, was a perhaps unexpectedly powerful experience.
• Mark Simpson praises Glennda Orgasm, the drag journalist persona of his friend Glenn Belverio. Is it time for her to come back?
• Florence Ashley argues at NOW Toronto that Pride Toronto is too corporatized to be salvaged, and that it would be best to start fresh.

[NEWS] Five LGBTQ links: #ScienceDaddy, Tumblr, Pride Toronto, Canadian Pride Citation, SF leather

• them interviews</u. Troy Lee Hudson, the engineer working on NASA’s InSight Mars who has gone viral as #ScienceDaddy, letting him talk about Mars and about being an out scientist.
• Stefanie Duguay at The Conversation writes about how the new Tumblr ban on NSFW content will harm young LGBTQ people, by depriving them of community and information.
• Rinaldo Walcott at Daily Xtra makes the case for downsizing Pride Toronto to better fit community needs and desires.
• The Canadian federal government has created a new Canada Pride Citation, available to present and past LGBTQ employees of the federal government, including many who were persecuted for their sexual orientation. Global News reports.
• them reports on how gentrification in the leather community in San Francisco impacts the wider city.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Port Lands, High Park beer, #tunnelofglam, Toronto Pride, refugees

• The project of building a new river valley in the Port Lands, at the mouth of the Don, is a breathtakingly bold vision. The Toronto Star reports.
• The High Park Zoo will be getting its own brand of beer. (Will the capybaras feature? One hopes.) blogTO reports.
• Toronto will be getting a sparkling tunnel at Yonge and St. Clair, Instagram-ready already with the hashtag #tunnelofglam picked out. blogTO reports.
• Kristyn Wong-Tam writes at NOW Toronto about why now might be time for Toronto Pride, to ensure its independence and security from threats, to break free from restrictive funding sources.
• Perhaps 40% of the people making use of Toronto shelters for the homeless are refugees or asylum claimants, a new report suggests. CBC reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: #topoli, The Matador, Union Station, police at Pride, gun violence

• Christopher Hume at the Toronto Star is entirely right to note that conventional politics will not build the Toronto we dream of, here.
• Local club The Matador is up for sale. NOW Toronto reports.
• Urban Toronto shares some photos from the never-ending reconstruction of Union Station, here.
• Toronto Police will be allowed to walk in 2019’s Pride parade. CTV reports.
• Lucas Powers at CBC News has a compelling long-form feature looking at the slow recoveries of survivors of gun violence in Toronto.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: police, Downsview Park, Harbourfront, U-Pass at U of T, Jollibee

• The Toronto Police Service was claiming as recently as four months ago that, contrary to community concern, there was no serial killer at work in the Village. How are they to believed, especially when police chief Saunders lies about people not approaching the police with their concerns? Why should it be marching during Pride this year? The Ottawa Citizen preserves the truth.
• Tess Kalinowski suggests that the impending departure of Bombardier from Downsview Park might lead to the regeneration of that neighbourhood, over at the Toronto Star.
• That the Harbourfront Centre, despite its prominence, is apparently unable to pay $C 1.4 million in rent and back taxes to the City of Toronto is alarming. The Toronto Star reports.
• The rejection by University of Toronto students, in a very recent vote, of a subsidized U-Pass for the TTC surprises me. I suppose if they live downtown and don’t want access to the rest of the city that might be a partial explanation, but still. The Toronto Star reports.
• Justine Torres writes at NOW Toronto about the importance of the Jollibee opening for her, as someone of Filipino background.

[NEWS] Five LGBTQ links: monogamy study, The Ritz, Toronto police, safe dating, Inkollo

• A viral study claiming young gay men overwhelmingly prefer monogamy turns out to have used very poor data-gathering techniques. Slate reports.
• Drew Rowsome takes a look at The Ritz, a 1977 mainstream film that made use of gay culture and bathhouses. How does it read nowadays?
• The Toronto Police Service has made an application to Pride Toronto to walk, as a contingent, in this year’s parade. This year may not be the best year for that. CBC reports.
• This safe date app designed for queer men of colour by a Toronto group is timely. It’s just sad that it’s needed. NOW Toronto reports.
• Hornet Stories links to the online art, at Instagram, of gay comics artist Inkollo.

[NEWS] Five GLBTQ links: gay Toronto musicians, Roy Moore, police, churches, Pride Toronto

• The Huffington Post has a nice list of some of the more high-profile LGBTQ musicians in Toronto from the 1960s on.
• The virulent homophobia reported of Roy Moore’s supporters is upsetting, but not surprising. Global News reports.
• While it is nice that Church and Wellesley is getting four dedicated neighbourhood police officers, some wonder whether these resources could be better spent elsewhere, in mental health for instance. Daily Xtra reports.
• VICE reports on a new app, Church Clarity, intended to help queer people find queer-friendly churches.
• The deficit of a half-million dollars reported by Pride Toronto, revenues dropping perhaps a consequence of last year’s controversies, is obviously not good. The Toronto Star reports.

[NEWS] Seven queer links, from parades as resistance to apps to out schoolchildren

• NOW Toronto shares photos of the Pride Toronto parade.
• blogTO notes that, in a recent ranking, Toronto is one of the best cities in which to not be straight in the world.
• Bloomberg notes the importance of gay pride parades, as self-assertion and resistance, in the age of Trump.
• Kevin Ritchie’s cover article for NOW Toronto looks at the successes and innovations of drag in the era of RuPaul’s Drag Race.
• VICE looks at the extent to which gay life has been transformed by the culture of the app.
• If all it took for Germany to move towards same-sex marriage was to introduce Merkel to a nice couple … well done. The Los Angeles Times reports.
• Laurel Gregory of Global News looks at research into children who have been out throughout their school years. I can scarcely imagine.