Rating: NNNNN
Best Activist
SYRUS MARCUS WARE
We don’t have space to list all the ways Marcus-Ware puts his art and activism together, but here’s a few. He helps coordinate the youth council at the AGO, and showed work in last year’s memorable trans-positive art event I Represent at A Space. He’s active with the organization PASAN, devoted to improving the conditions of people in conflict with the law who are HIV-positive, and currently is passionate about 81 Reasons, the group trying to stop the establishment of a new super-jail for youth.
Best drag queen
DONNARAMA
The hardest working showgirl in town, also known as Vincent Pincente, makes her own props — what drag queen uses props any more? — schleps her own sets and mixes her own music into her story-filled performances. Did you see her on the news as Barbra Streisand? She looked more Streisand than Streisand.
Best event that isn’t Pride
INSIDE OUT
www.insideout.on.ca
Hard to believe the city’s queer film festival is 17 years old. Harder to believe that it’s still going strong, given that queer films are nudging their way into the mainstream and so many gay and lesbian filmmakers want their movies screened at TIFF and prefer not to be ‘labelled.’ Still, if you want to see the future of queer cinema, check out Inside Out’s shorts program. Great lineups for cruising, too.
Best store
GLAD DAY BOOKSHOP
598A Yonge Street, 416-961-4161, www.gladdaybookshop.com
In business since 1970, Glad Day was Canada’s first queer bookstore, has the largest collection of gay and lesbian titles in the city and stocks novelties and videos as well. Nowadays just about every bookstore has a gay and lesbian section, but we honour Glad Day especially because it’s taken the censorship hit so many times and had to foot the bill for it, too.
