This month marks a milestone for us - our 7th anniversary of publishing GayCalgary and Edmonton Magazine.  While Steve and I get a lot of the credit for the work we do for the community through the magazine, it should not be overlooked that we have a solid team of writers and contributors to thank for ensuring there is always something interesting and personally relevant to read each month.

Personally, I think one of our biggest strengths is the flexibility we’re able to offer to our customers, without compromising reliability to our readers.  Not many magazines are willing or able to do this, but it is something we do in order to accommodate and respond to our community in a more effective manner.  It may mean a slightly less polished product than if we spent weeks focusing on the aesthetic details of our page layouts, but we feel it is a reasonable trade off in order to remain functional, useful, and current.

I’ve often commented in my Publisher’s Column that some months of the magazine appear to have a coincidental “theme” to them, in that articles from isolated writers all seem to touch on a common topic.  (Well, it’s apparent to me anyway, since I proofread every article from our freelance writers.)

This month definitely has strong overtones regarding homophobic bullying.  From all the mainstream media coverage regarding LGBT teen suicides, it is understandable that this would be something heavy on everyone’s mind.

Just recently, Steve attended his 20 year High School reunion, and an open house at his old school.  This brought back many memories for him of the adversities he faced while growing up.  While wandering the halls of St. Mary’s High School, he pointed out the room that used to be his office, as he did extra-curricular work with computers beyond anything his teachers knew how to do.  I get the sense that this was his sanctuary, where he could escape from the students that might otherwise be tormenting him.

Unfortunately in his case, some of the teachers were also the problem.  He has shared with me some pretty shocking stories about the sordid affairs of even the adults at his school – his catholic school. 

As for myself, I never got the impression that I was perceived as being gay while I was growing up, yet nonetheless I seemed to attract a number of bullies in my time.  I grew up in Marlborough, which is often considered a rough part of town (perhaps not quite as rough as Forest Lawn).  I’ve always been something of a scrapper at heart, which brought me to put on a good show of defiance without ever actually resorting to fighting.

In fourth grade I was tormented by an African-American kid in my class, surprisingly someone I had been friends with only the grade prior.  Seemingly out of nowhere he became very angry toward me, and punched me in the stomach for no reason one day while the teacher wasn’t looking.  Although I immediately went to the teacher for help, I was made to feel small for not being able to stick up for myself.  So when this continued, the next people I went to for advice were my parents, who were good parents, but similarly took the approach that I needed to work this out on my own.  In particular, my dad’s advice was a little counterproductive in that he encouraged me to hit him back.  Though I wasn’t prepared to do that, my show of retaliation was enough to deter this particular bully.

Later on I encountered some of the neighbourhood bullies who were several years older than me.  One decided to beat me up for stepping outside of the crossing lines while crossing the road – this time, my parents and the school did take action.  Another bully lived a few houses down the alleyway from me, and would try to beat me up when I wasn’t attempting to maintain a shaky friendship with him, in which I often ended up getting victimized in other ways.

My point is that, every bully that I can recall dealing with had personal problems of their own.  The parents of the African-American kid were going through a divorce, the guy at the crosswalk was known by my school to be learning disabled and have emotional problems, and the kid down the alleyway had a father that was in jail.  So it’s all very well to say that we need to punish bullies for acting the way they do, but getting to the root of the problem is not as simple.  When you punish behavior that their parents encourage or reward through the example that they set, you can end up with children who are even more confused and frustrated – maybe even close to suicide themselves.  Certainly I’m not saying the “blame the victim” approach is valid, but I don’t think that blaming and punishing the bully is enough either.

October 2010

Last month we had a booth at Edmonton’s Taboo: Naughty but Nice Sexy Show, which in previous years has occurred after Calgary’s show, instead of before.  A clever idea brought new life to our booth, and helped raise close to $1500 toward the charities of the Imperial Sovereign Court of the Wild Rose.  We are excited to bring this concept to Calgary’s Taboo show this November 11th to 14th.

The idea is quite simple really.  We created a banner to hang in our booth that looks like a cover of our magazine.  The frame is there with a background pattern, but the cover model is you!  In Edmonton, people had their choice of being photographed with any available combination of drag queens and leather boys for $4 (which included an electronic copy of the photo sent to them by e-mail), and we were able to provide 4”x6” prints at $1 apiece, on the spot.  Additionally, many of the photos were placed on our Facebook page (with permission) for people to tag themselves and their friends.  All in all, it was a lot of fun, and everyone ended up getting something of value out of it.

If you have the opportunity of visiting the Calgary Taboo show this year, make sure you stop by our booth to say “hi”, and perhaps get your photo done.  Visit our website and enter to win free tickets to the Calgary Taboo show.

Halloween was its usual crazy gauntlet of events, though for once I remained in Calgary while Steve covered Edmonton; since I’m the one with the car, it is usually the other way around.  However, since we had our sights on 9 different Halloween parties happening in Calgary on the Saturday, having that car was the very reason had to I stay in town.  Check out our Queer Eye feature for Halloween photographs from Calgary and Edmonton.

This Month

A major event in Edmonton that you shouldn’t miss this month is Exposure Festival, running from the 12th to the 21st.  This is an opportunity to catch a show with MtF comedian Ian Harvie, who appears on our cover.  See the article on page 10 for more on Exposure, or page 60 for our interview with him.

We’re also launching a new feature this month, entitled “A Thousand Laughs”.  It’s a monthly challenge that encourages you to participate in capturing and sharing humorous pictures of things in our province.  Go to page 59 for a full explanation of the rules and requirements for participating, and keep that camera phone handy!

Finally, we’d like to congratulate the Twisted Element on their 6th anniversary, which falls on November the 11th.  At time of press we weren’t able to confirm any details regarding an Anniversary party, but nonetheless it is a milestone that we hope they take time to celebrate in some way.  Furthermore, we would like to congratulate the Texas Lounge on their 23rd anniversary, which they are celebrating on the 24th of this month.

Magazine

I’m taking this moment to officially introduce a variation of our logo that we have been using in certain places for the past year.  The abbreviation to “GC&E Magazine” makes it ideal for use on things like T-shirts, where individuals may wish to sport our brand without outing themselves.  It has already appeared as a watermark in our 2010 media kit, and on our magazine cover backdrop at the Edmonton Taboo show, but we want our readers to be familiar with it as we may be applying it to more uses in the near future.  For the time being, it is not meant to replace our rectangular “GayCalgary and Edmonton Magazine” logo, however the similarity in colour and style should make it appear synonymous.

There’s something else new about our magazine this month that you may have already noticed: in several places, including in ads, the appearance of a small square containing a triangular or dotted pattern in colour or black and white.  This is an exciting new complementary feature we are offering to advertisers with half-page ad spots or larger.  They are called “Tags”, and they are a way of making even the print version of our publication interactive in the electronic world.

If you have a SmartPhone or iPhone with a data plan, take a moment to visit http://www.gettag.mobi in your mobile web browser, and follow instructions to download and install the free Microsoft Tag Reader application on your phone.  This application will enable you to use your phone’s built-in camera to scan the tags in this magazine, and instantly link you to websites, vCards, and other information.  Give it a try and you’ll see what I mean.  It’s really quite amazing, and offers a whole new field of possibilities for ourselves and our advertisers to engage readers.