Queer at the Hospital
In the middle of November, around the time of the boil-water advisory and the heavy snowfall, I had emergency abdominal surgery. I had never been in the hospital before. But all of a sudden there I was at VGH, IVs everywhere, blood transfusions, painkillers, Salisbury steak for dinner, the whole deal. For six days.
Read the full column here.
Category: Queer Life
Sarah on Sounds Like Canada
Shelagh Rogers interviewed the editor of Nobody’s Mother, Lynne Van Luven, and two contributors, me and Sadhna Datta, on Sounds Like Canada. You can hear the interview by going to this page and scrolling down to November 20. The interview runs about 50 minutes and is more like a discussion among the four of us. Shelagh Rogers wrote the foreword to the book.
The Lost Inside Joke, Xtra West #346, November 22, 2006
Something has been bothering me lately and it’s that L-word. No, not the skinny women on TV but the word “ladies.” All the irony seems to have gone out of it.
Read the whole column here.
Dykes and Small Dogs, Xtra West #344, October 26, 2006
I had always been an outspoken small dog hater, but in that moment everything changed. I fell in love with all small dogs and started to think of them as symbols of queer pride.
Read the whole column on the Xtra West website.
Nobody’s Mother
This anthology is coming out in November from Heritage House. It’s a collection of essays by women who do not have kids. I have kind of a bitchy piece in it. Click here for the invitation to the launch.
Why Editors Have No Friends FRIDGE MAGNETS
These wee 2″ square fridge magnets debuted at Word Under the Street 2006 and sold fast. The drawings were originally published in Geist magazine No. 58. Want some? They are $2 each and $10 for a set of 6. If you are in the Vancouver area I can get them to you. If not, email me and we will work it out.
I Want To Be An Old Lezzie, Xtra West #342, Sept 28, 2006
I’ve been thinking a lot about old dykes ever since my friend Arleen’s 60th birthday party. (I was going to say “older” dykes, but then I read this great thing by Old Lesbians Organizing for Change. They use “old” instead of “older” to “refute the lie that it is shameful to be an ‘old’ woman.”)
Read the whole column on the Xtra West website.
Help! It’s A Naked Breast, Xtra West #340, Aug 30, 2006
It doesn’t take a lot of deep thinking to understand that the right of women (and other folks with breasts) to be topless is a queer issue, that it’s part and parcel of our larger fight to be out and proud. That women who are trying to cool off or breastfeed or feel the breeze on their skin–or women whose outfits just look better with exposed breasts–should be able to go ahead and take their tops off.
Read the whole column on the Xtra website.
Don’t Get So Comfortable, Xtra West #338, August 3, 2006
I know I should be happy to live in a city where many people tolerate and sometimes even celebrate queers. But there’s something disturbing about how comfortable the thousands of straight spectators are at the Pride Parade. They seem to think it’s just another spectacle–and I’m not sure we’re telling them any different.
Read the whole column on the Xtra website.
A Trip to the Gynecologist, Xtra West #337, July 19, 2006
You think of yourself as this great big out and proud dyke. Your family and everyone at work knows you’re queer and you hold hands with your girlfriend in public and people stare at you and you don’t care. Then one day you find out that you have this problem with your uterus. It’s not life threatening or anything, just serious. Serious enough that you have to go to a gynecologist.
Find out what happens next on the Xtra website.