Saturday, February 20, 2010

Vancouver's Pride House Offers Safe Haven for Gay, Lesbian Olympic Athletes

"...you’re not going to have an active Olympic athlete come out in the peak of his or her career until they feel it’s safe to do so. If they perceive that their career is threatened, they’re just not going to do it.”
- Jennifer Breakspear, Executive Director of Qmunity, which hosts Vancouver's Pride House

Dave D'Alessandro writes:
(VANCOUVER, British Columbia) So about five of us were lounging around the TV at a gay hangout called Pride House on the west end Friday, when the mayor suddenly walks in.

No, that’s not the start of a cheeky joke, it’s actually a summary of how we spent our day.

Vancouver Mayor, Gregor Robertson was there because that’s what you do when you’re a progressive politician who made his money selling organic juice and still rides his bike to work when weather permits: You embrace whatever constituency will hug you back.

It would seem like he’s got enough to do with a city of two million people and the Winter Olympics in his front yard, but he seems like a guy who can multitask.

Oh, they also told us just 12 hours earlier, in this very same club, Stephen Colbert showed up. He took a look at a poster in the hallway advertising the “International Day Against Homophobia,” which depicts two male hockey players kissing, with a caption that reads, “Shocking? For Who?”

Colbert, we’re told, exploded in mock outrage: “This is an Atrocity! Disgusting! Deplorable!” he boomed. “How dare you put this on your wall! It’s missing an ‘M’ — it should read ‘For Whom?’” READ MORE

Stephen Colbert at Pride House Vancouver



MORE COVERAGE
  • Stephen Colbert Is 'Queen For The Day' At Olympic Pride House
  • Gay man verbally and physically harassed at the Olympics
  • Vancouver's Games: Gayest Olympics Ever
  • Olympic Stud of the Day: Alexandre Bilodeau
  • Five ways the 2010 Winter Olympics are getting their gay on