“We’re excited about some changes we’ve made” said NSRAP Chair Kate Shewan. “In response to calls to make the awards presentation more accessible to the community from which they spring, we’re going back to our roots with a Turret Club-style community event. Also new this year, we’re accepting nominations until October 17, making it easier for returning students to participate in selecting the honourees."

MSVU researchers are looking for LGBT individuals 60 years and older (or a few years younger as well!) to participate in confidential focus groups in the HRM for research about end-of-life preparation. We invite people with varied experiences (e.g., you don't need to have engaged in specific end-of-life preparation activities, we are interested in hearing about what might make it challenging for people to do these kind of things as well).

Can you make videos? Would you like to win $100 or $250 and be Nova Scotia famous?  Here's your big chance!

"I am so inspired by the history of the Turret Club (which operated between 1977 and 1983) is because it was a 'community-run' gay and lesbian social space ...  the only gay bar of its kind at the time: a social space run for and by members of the gay and lesbian community. The Turret used discos to fund the political work of the Gay Alliance for Equality (GAE), simultaneously creating a venue for political work, meetings, film screenings, cabarets and other vital points of contact for the queer community." - Emily Davidson

Fringe Review: My Funeral: the Dry Run: "It was my pleasure to be part of the standing-room-only crowd queuing to attend Jane Kansas' autobiographical joyride 'My Funeral: the dry run', an Atlantic Fringe show I highly recommend ... this profoundly comedic monologue runs under an hour, which seems to fly by, [and] spans a lifetime."

"When promoting LGBT issues internationally we should try to situate ourselves in the political, social, and economic context in order to prevent our efforts from misfiring. Acceptance of LGBT people doesn't happen overnight, can't be forced upon a population, and isn't just handed down by enlightened politicians- it happens through a prolonged debate and struggle within a society."

                                     - John Hutton         

"Ramona Westgate, the chair of the Pride Committee, arrived very shortly thereafter. She informed me that I could not stay there and continue the conversation and if I wanted to talk to her about it I had to move away from the table. Basically it seemed that I had no right to talk to people at the Tel Aviv tourism booth in any critical fashion. I found this an infringement on my freedom of speech."

- Activist Gary Kinsman in open letter to Halifax Pride.

Other moments that stood out for me: a breathless, tender story of gay love at first sight (we don’t hear enough of these!); the prayer of a young man to his Creator, begging to be changed; the heartbreaking grief of a parent for a lost child; the deliciously comic reasoning of why the male G-spot is where it is.

Doug Melanson is comfy on the big sectional couch in his Fairview living room. He's in a black T-shirt and jeans, and lovely two-tone sneakers. His trimmed beard frames a square face with pink cheeks that will look like Santa cheeks in a few years, but for now only the beard is grey; his eyebrows and hair are a rich black.

Travel Gay Canada and Protean Strategies are conducting a major Canadian study of LGBT consumers. And we need your help.

Your opinions are important, and we encourage you to participate by completing our online survey at:

http://www.mystory2014.ca/

The survey will take about 20 minutes to complete, and your name will be entered into a draw for a chance to win $500, or one of several VIA Rail travel vouchers. As well, with every completed survey, we will be make a $1.00 donation to help stop bullying.