Canada’s Senate Banking Subcommittee is busy hearing submissions for and against Bill C-10, controversial proposed Canadian legislation which will prevent federal tax credit allowances to television and film productions that are deemed “against public policy” or “standards.” Given the amount of damaging fallout and rage from Canada’s film, television and other creative industries that has […]

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And we return to the noir future of Sybil X…
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He half-sank to the ground as I propped him up, eyes pinpoints of fear and hatred as I applied the gun to his right nostril. His breath was rancid whiskey-tainted, and staccato in the sudden silence:
“Where is he, Marcus?”
“Can’t you guess, dear? And by the way, […]

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In the New York Times Book Review, Stephen Koch has written a superb essay on gay actor Noel Coward, and how he served as a spy on behalf of Great Britain during World War II. As we approach Anzac Day, it’s important to remember that some of our lesbian and gay forebears served with pride during […]

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Unbelievably, the Australian Christian Right pressure group Festival of Light is trying to strong-arm Channel Nine over its excellent, meticulously detailed drama-documentary, Underbelly, also screened here on TV3.
Granted, kids should not be watching, unless under strong parental guidance- which is why it’s scheduled at 9.30 pm on Sundays here. Not in Australia, apparently, where Channel […]

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When one thinks of predatory examples of ordained clergy in New Zealand, Graham Capill tends to pop up with monotonous regularity. However, not all clergy sexual predation occurs against children. In one current Quebec case, a Catholic priest is alleged to have raped a seventeen year old maid in a parish church, over forty years […]

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Ed Wood is reknowned for his absolutely diabolical movies, but was an equally awful pulp fiction writer.
In 1953, Wood had filmed the excellent if quirky Glen or Glenda?, a plea for tolerance of heterosexual cross-dressers. Unfortunately, ten years later, Glen Marker, his hero in that movie, seems to have gone off the rails, and went […]

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Kitten Power has written a beautiful tribute to Mahinarangi Tocker, and what she meant to her as a lesbian on her own blog. My perspective is slightly different, because, like Mahina did, I also live with depression.
She did many of us who also live with depression a great service when she appeared on the “Like […]

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While reading an excellent article about the use of medical cannabis derivatives for treatment of chronic and long-term degenerative diseases, including cancer and HIV/AIDS, I was once more galled at the inhumane barriers established to prevent its palliative use.
In the United States, Nevada, Colorado, California and Oregon have technically decriminalised the use of medipot, and […]

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I know I mentioned this kitsch disasterpiece in my earlier blog on comedy gay ‘psychic’ Jeron King Crisswell, but I recently had a chance to access the entire script, and it is absolutely faaaaaaaabulous in terms of its LGBT (and feminist!) subtexts.
Here’s an exegesis. As the film opens, Brad and Janet- oops, Bob and Shirley […]

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The Australian Labor Party seems reluctant to repeal the Howard administration’s federal anti-euthanasia legislation, which was passed almost a decade ago, to steady antagonism from the centre-left of Australian politics.
One would expect Queensland to tow Kevin Rudd’s party line on this, and current Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has ruled out any intermediate future euthanasia reforms […]

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