Wow! What a great long weekend we had in Vancouver. And the weather was picture perfect for the Pride Parade on Sunday afternoon. Riaz, Dawn, Michel, Greg and myself got to take part in this year’s parade. We saw SO many viewers and handed out thousands of our BT fans (which came in very handy since the weather warmed up!).
Here are a few photos from Sunday’s Pride Parade. Hope you had a Happy Pride! We’re looking forward to next year’s parade!
Breakfast Television is gearing up for the Vancouver Pride Parade this weekend! Dawn, Riaz, Michel, Greg and I will be walking the route along with many others. And we can’t wait! Give us a wave! And Happy Pride!
Over the long weekend, Michel and I got the chance to host the finale show of Vancouver’s Gay Top Model. It was an awesome night featuring performances, music and fashion! Nine young men strut their stuff down the catwalk at River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond. But in the end, only one would emerge the winner.
Congrats to Todd Johnston who was given the title “Vancouver’s Gay Top Model 2011″ and all the other models who took part. This was an awesome fundraiser for an amazing charity called “Friends for Life” — which does some very important work in our community. The organization is always looking for volunteers, and you can find out more information through the website.
Dawn and I had an awesome time in Whistler for WinterPride! And we got a chance to talk with our friends Rob and Karen from the morning show on Mountain FM in Squamish. Here’s our chat from this morning!
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Dawn and I are heading up to Whistler on Sunday afternoon to help kick off WinterPRIDE! It’s the 19th year of the event and stretches over 8 days at Whistler. It’s one of the largest gay and lesbian ski weeks in the entire world, attracting more than 2500 people each and every year.
If you’re interested in taking part — check out gaywhistler.com
We’re live in Whistler Village on Monday morning from 6-9 with lots of fun things planned! See you then!
Perhaps I should start calling my blog ‘Web Guy’s Picks of the Month’ with the rate I’m posting at.
The good thing is I’ve got GOLD for you. The bad thing is, there was so much to choose from that I encourage you to leave my blog right now, go to BT Bites and scroll through the videos, because I missed a lot of great stuff.
Let’s get started:
Who doesn’t remember, or love, the Hulkster, Hulk Hogan. Riaz caught up with him and had a few words.
Let’s talk sex. If you’re having it, are you happy with it? Well here are 5 tips to make it even better.
Speaking of sex. Kyle Donaldson was the lucky guy who got to host this SPCA segment with two amorous male dogs. VERY FUNNY!
Last week was PRIDE. Gay or not. It’s was time to celebrate our differences and our similarities. We had a guest panel on the show that was not only very informative, but funny as heck.
I’ve never seen it, but I hear the show Walking With Dinosaurs is amazing. We had a baby T-Rex on BT. And if the show is anything like this, I’ll pay a lot of money to see it.
Last, but not least is a little tune dedicated to all the dad’s, sung by Great Big Sea’s Sean McCann. Unfortunately I missed his performance at the Railway Club, but I was really impressed with this one.
Hope you enjoyed these. Have a great rest of your week.
On Friday’s BT, I’m going to introduce you to Sara Davis Buechner. She’s an amazing pianist who’s performing at the Queer Arts Festival in Vancouver on Friday night. Sara is a master piano instructor at UBC, tours the world performing her music, and has had an incredible life full of ups and downs.
You can catch her performance of words and music at the Roundhouse Community Centre on Friday night at 7:30. Tickets are $15-25 at the door.
The Pride Parade is one of the biggest events in the city every single year, with hundreds of thousands of people lining the streets of downtown Vancouver. But this year’s parade, sounds like it’s going to be VERY different.
Entrance requirements are being tightened for businesses and organizations wanting to take part. Companies are being asked to include their annual income on their application form. And the entrance fee is apparently more expensive. But the biggest change you’ll notice, is the lack of marchers taking part. That’s because they’re not allowed. This year — only floats are allowed to be entered in the Pride Parade, which many people argue, takes away from the event.
The recession certainly isn’t helping these businesses and organizations, either. With the higher entrance fees and pricey cost of creating a float, many groups will probably have to sit out this year. But hopefully, it doesn’t take away from one of the best events we see in Vancouver.
The other night, I had a chance to present an award at Vancouver’s Next Gay Top Model. This is an amazing fundraiser which raises money for the Friends for Life Society.
Hundreds of people packed into Celebrities nightclub in downtown Vancouver for the big finale. In the end — the final four were narrowed down to Fraser, Toban, Rob and Riley. But Fraser edged everyone out to come away as the big winner.
Earlier in the week — we had all of the four finalists on Breakfast Television for the “Citytv Challenge.” And Rob was named the winner. So I went to the show to present Rob with his award. He’s going to come back on Breakfast Television this Tuesday morning for a chat about the competition. And he’ll also do the weather with Dawn.
Check out some photos from the event. For more pictures — visit Shane Oosterhoff’s website. He’s done some amazing work.
The 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler — are the very first games to have a Pride House catered towards gays and lesbians who are taking part in the Olympics and watching the competitions, too.
While there aren’t any specific numbers on gays and lesbians competing in Vancouver and Whistler — there are many of them. But not all of them are publicly “out” with their sexuality. And that could be for a number of reasons. They’re not ready to take that step. They fear it could potentially damange their chances in judged competitions. They fear rejection from their colleagues. And in many countries taking part in the 2010 Olympics, homosexuality is outlawed.
The Pride House is a venue for everyone to feel welcomed and accepted at the Olympics. And it’s been a very popular venue in Whistler. It’s going to stay up and running in both Vancouver and Whistler until after the Paralympics end on March 21st. Then there are plans to continue this legacy at future Olympics — like in London in 2012. For more information on the Pride House — visit this website.
I had a chance to talk with Mark Tewksbury the other day. He is most famous for winning the Gold Medal for Team Canada back in 1992 at the Summer Olympics in Barcelona. But when Mark was competing — he was holding back a very deep secret. Mark is gay. And he didn’t tell anyone for fears it would affect his chances at owning the podium. Mark went public with his sexuality in 1998. And is a huge advocate for gays and lesbians competing in sports. We ran some of my interview with Mark this morning on Breakfast Television — and also showed you the Whistler Pride House. Take a look at one of my live segments from this morning.
I’m off to Vancouver for a couple of days. But will be live once again in Whistler on Monday morning — as we look back at the Closing Ceremonies. And look ahead to what’s next for this community.
Have a great weekend! And enjoy what’s left of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler!
