It's a Wrap, a Rainbow Wrap!

Well, everyone, that's it for another year of --

TRANSLESBIGAYAPALOOZA!

Full of both tragedy and triumph, 2016 Pride will never be forgotten. But as always, we will survive! And if that's not a cue for the Greatest Gay Anthem of defiance against hate and discrimination, I don't know what is. So let's all belt it out together at the top of our lungs, shall we? (First, however, a word of warning: this video contains scenes of disco roller skating.)



Thank you to everyone who read my posts and commented this month. I appreciate all your thoughts, questions, opinions and confidences. I'm sending each and every one of you a big MWAH!

Because as they say --

Rainbows Everywhere!

In the comments on my last post, Guillaume of Vraie Fiction spoke of the British police officer who proposed to his boyfriend while marching in London's Pride Parade on the weekend -- if you haven't seen it already, here's the video of that wonderful moment!

He Loves the Stars AND Stripes, Dammit!

By now, lots of people have heard about the persistent and increasingly mainstream campaign to have Captain America come out as bisexual.

Poor Steve Rogers! His tragic and thwarted love for Peggy Carter . . .

. . . is matched only by his tragic and thwarted love for Bucky Barnes.

Okay, I grant you there's a certain amount of subtextual interpretation going on here but the situation is crystal clear to anyone with good Gaydar!

Recently, however, Marvel chose to have Captain America come out as a lifelong Hydra agent instead because that's somehow, you know, more believable . . . .

But once that whole ugly smear campaign gets derailed, then surely it's only a matter of time until Cap kicks his closet door clear off its hinges, right? Right?

Keeping my fingers crossed for a happy ending!

My Fashion Plate Days

Last week, The Captain at To Baldly Go posted about his new flat cap and how it's the only kind of hat that looks good on him. I empathize with his post a great deal because I too look terrible in hats. Except for flat caps and fedoras -- those styles I can absolutely rock! Yes, I know they're both technically men's hats. What can I say?

All this started me off down memory lane back to the days when I used to wear a grey tweed flat cap all the time. It was the late 1970s and I was a young student at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg.

Along with this cap, I always wore my union label, Canadian made GWG blue jeans. Alas, my butt never looked quite so good in them as this --

My hiking boots were one-size-too-small cast-offs from my sister --

And I paid the inordinate price of $15 to buy a green army satchel from Army & Navy Surplus in which to carry my books. In those days, this was the absolutely must-have accessory for cool university students. It was the only time in my life that I was up-to-date with a fashion trend, LOL!

I got an old brown work shirt with long sleeves from my Dad . . .

. . . which I wore unbuttoned over a t-shirt with this logo on it (except the beaver was dressed like a Mountie). Hmmmm, "Beaver Patrol" -- too subtle?

Yes, I was a walking, talking, Baby Dyke stereotype, but I'll have you know I never wore plaid! By gawd, I had my standards.

Freedom to Pee with Privacy and Dignity

People should be free to pee in whatever bathroom corresponds to their current gender expression. The profoundly ignorant idea that trans people pose a threat to women and children in bathrooms is vicious nonsense. Trying to force people to pee in a bathroom corresponding to their former, outdated gender identity is stupid and cruel. It only serves to set up trans people as visibly and conspicuously out of place and therefore vulnerable to verbal or physical battering at the hands of bigots and bullies. And that, I believe, is actually the true agenda of this ridiculous bathroom law movement -- to humiliate, punish and endanger the dreaded and feared trans "outsider."

In Canada, this issue is alive and well too -- not so much concerning adult bathroom use, as in the USA, but concerning which bathrooms trans kids should use at school. It is even more reprehensible, in my opinion, to abuse trans kids in this manner. And such bigoted policies equally commit child abuse against cis kids too, simply by teaching them that their proper response to a trans classmate should match that of the school authorities. Adults need to smarten up.

So before I start frothing at the mouth, let's just end this post with a little musical number, shall we?

Happy Fathers Day!

For various reasons, my father is always on my mind in June.

Fathers Day is a big part of it, of course. But June is also my Dad's birthday month. When he died in the spring of 2004, he was just shy of his 80th birthday.

Also, the final round of the Stanley Cup playoffs take place in June these days. Hockey was my Dad's favourite sport. He always watched Hockey Night in Canada on TV every Saturday night, just as he had listened to it on radio ever since the Great Depression when he was a prairie farm boy. My father never played hockey (or any other sport for that matter), but he loved the game passionately.

My Dad taught me the rules of hockey and how to watch it. Apparently certain Americans find hockey hard to enjoy because it's difficult to see and follow that tiny, speeding puck on the TV screen. In the 1990s, FOX network even created a "glow puck" that generated a big on-screen blue/red streak (depending on the puck's speed) in an effort to make it easier for those viewers to follow. Canadians laughed that ridiculous puck right out of the NHL, eh?

So here's the simple but effective secret that every Canadian knows and that my Dad taught me -- don't even waste your time trying to watch the puck, just watch the players. You can tell where the puck is by where the players are headed or congregating, since they're chasing it. And if someone scores a goal, you'll know it by how they all celebrate. That's how you follow the game!

But I really shouldn't make fun of Americans because of the "glow puck." No, it's the Brits who truly suck at trying to figure out what's going on in hockey, as in this tongue-in-cheek clip!

HRH's Annual Pride Post

Hello everyone, Her Royal Highness the Cat here, back once again from THE AFTERLIFE to share my ANNUAL PRIDE POST with everyone! Usually I focus on cats and dogs but this year I'm branching out to OTHER creatures as well. Fair is fair!

But let's commence with a kitty cat coming out experience, shall we? As you gay cats know, things may start off a LITTLE CONFUSING --

But don't fight it, kitty. LOVE IS BEAUTIFUL! Follow that rainbow!

And now, here's a truly MODERN fairy tale --

And a LOL for all my PRAIRIE friends --

BIRDS have their own Pride Parade too --

Strut your fine-feathered stuff, GIRLFRIEND!

Well, this is KIND of a bird, I guess --

And finally, don't think we don't know what you're REALLY up to, Homophobic Duck Dynasty Jerk!

HAPPY PRIDE, EVERYONE!

Coming Out as Bi