Issue link: http://publications.winnipegfreepress.com/i/1404944
12 | SEPTEMBER 3 -12 PRIDE AFTER THE PARTY'S OVER VIRTUAL PRIDE 2021 RUNS FOR 10 DAYS IN SEPTEMBER, BUT REAL PRIDE HAPPENS 365 DAYS A YEAR. SOME IDEAS AND EVENTS TO KEEP IN MIND POST-FESTIVAL. Apprendre et grandir ensemble, ça nous regarde TOUS. e DSFM is Proud to celebrate our diversity. Happy Pride Week to all! www.dsfm.mb.ca CLASS ACTION Participants can expect a lot of stimulating discussion during McNally Robinson Classroom course When We Were Twinks: A Queer Herstory of Canada. Writer Greg Klassen and filmmaker/artist Noam Gonick have joined forces to present classes starting Oct. 7. The idea for the course arose when Klassen participated in an Indigenous cultural and historical sensitivity workshop and read Canada's history from an Indigenous perspective. "I found it very moving. It also made me realize that perspective is everything and that I had never really examined the arc of Canadian history from a queer perspective." Gonick researched the LGBT Purge as a design finalist for the National LGBTQ 2+ monument in Ottawa, and the so-called fruit machine that was used to identify gay men will be one topic of discussion. "We're also looking at the case of a man tried for having gay sex in Regina in 1895 who was ultimately released, because he was a member of the Anglican church and had so much support from the 'pillars of the community,' " Klassen says. An activist since he came out in 1984, Klassen, who grew up Mennonite, says Manitoba's queer history and human rights' struggles will be part of the focus, and participants will be invited to share their own history. "Both Noam and I 'joined' Winnipeg's gay scene in the 1980s, so we're familiar with that time, which of course was harsh with the advent of AIDS and police brutality to gay people," Klassen says. "But what's been fascinating to me is to discover that it was actually easier and freer to be gay in Winnipeg in the 1940s and '50s. There were quite a few known places to hang out. It was only once gays started to organize and demand our rights that violence and misinformation escalated." Four two-hour classes will be conducted via Zoom on Thursday evenings in October. Learn more and sign up online at McNallyrobinson.com/classes.