Queer
By Salient | 4 Aug, 2008
Apollo, god of the palaestra (the athletic gathering place for young men competing in the nude), was a renowned lover of young men. But he consistently lost his lovers in a string of accidents. Perhaps his greatest love of all these young men was Hyacinthus, a Spartan prince much desired by the deities. More
By Bobberella McQueen | 14 Jul, 2008
It’s been a long time coming but, having finally read enough Margaret Cho to fuck a Republican in half, I feel comfortable holding an opinion about gay marriage. I’ll admit that it’s mainly hers, but then it’s difficult to have a discussion about gay marriage without referring almost solely to the battle raging More
By Rachael Wright | 7 Jul, 2008
Kia Ora, and welcome back from holidays! I hope y’all ate heaps, got some sleep, and bought all your textbooks at least three weeks in advance. As for me, I spent a good week of my time in the dirty ol’ south, at National UniQ Conference! More
By Bobby Nairn | 26 May, 2008
I had a really gay weekend. I did Spice Girls on Singstar on Friday night, started living with my boyfriend and partied up a storm at the Traffic Light Party on Saturday, and went to the AIDS Foundation Candlelight Memorial on Sunday. It was all pretty glam really. There were lots of highlights, but can I just state for the record that pretty much the best name ever for a Lesbian folk band has officially been taken? More
By Bobby Nairn | 12 May, 2008
I can’t afford any vodka this week. No, not even Red Square. Can’t afford TAB for that matter either. It seems my Sex and the City lifestyle saw a bit too much city over the mid-trimester break, and now I’m getting my comeuppance. So here I am, sitting in my frigid Kelburn flat, resigned to sobriety. More
By Salient | 5 May, 2008
Out on the wiley, windy moors
We’d roll and fall in green.
You had a temper like my jealousy:
Too hot, too greedy.
How could you leave me,
When I needed to possess you?
I hated you. I loved you, too. More
By Bobby Nairn | 28 Apr, 2008
Okay, so there was this one time I went to buy lube from a supermarket downtown. I was pretty nonchalant about the whole thing really, why wouldn’t I be, right? It sat in my basket like all the other groceries, politely awaiting the check-out. When it got there, however, something most peculiar happened. More
By Nicole Skews | 7 Apr, 2008
The whole message of having a Queer Rights officer, a UniQ and a Queer column is that it’s cool to be Queer. We like this. Yes. However, as a ‘breeder’ I am here to remind you that it’s also cool to be straight. Yes I realise that our hetero-centric society reminds you this on a daily basis, but in your queer circles, this is sometimes forgotten. More
By Bobby Nairn | 24 Mar, 2008
As your humble Columnist de Queer and a resident Salient crazy, I try to do my best to indoctrinate the readership with an unquestioning, zombie-like appreciation for all things queer. However, if my lofty elitist references to pop culture shade any sentiment of real worth you’ll know that it’s only because I’ve come down with a bad case of seeking scene approval and constant name-dropping is the only thing that takes the pain away.
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By Salient | 17 Mar, 2008
Never thought you’d make me perspire
Never thought I’d do you the same
Never thought I’d fill with desire
Never thought I’d feel so ashamed More
By Bobby Nairn | 10 Mar, 2008
Even though I find the concept and more so the recognition of a ‘national identity’ a little irksome when I don my stubborn idealist hat, in reality I can’t help but feel a little disenfranchised by the whole thing. See, while many foreigners seem to suggest that New Zealanders are stereotypically laid-back, friendly folk, it doesn’t take a lot of introspection to remember we often freely acknowledge ourselves as a nation of tall poppies. More
By Rachael Wright | 3 Mar, 2008
Avoiding the post-Orientation blues, or; how to find our ‘community’
Kia Ora everyone! I hope Orientation week treated you well, whether you’re a returning student or otherwise. After a week of mayhem, it’s tempting to turn to the pressing task of academics, which some people would have you believe is the point of being at University, but I disagree. More
By Bobby Nairn | 25 Feb, 2008
Hi. I’m Bobby. I want to take you to a gay bar.
If you’re a first year and have spent the last five years in some provincial, single sex prison, you can rest assured that the first XV won’t find you here. All the years you spent at school yearning for people who, like your subversive-queer-self, could think ‘outside the square’ have finally culminated in you being a first year at Vic. So congratulations! You’re finally at university! More
By Pachali Brewster | 15 Oct, 2007
National UniQ Conference: Learning interesting things and meeting attractive people by day, and getting shit-faced by night.
Pride Week. Enough said. Pride Week is the week that you go out 7 nights in a row, and have to drag yourself out of bed the next day in order to get to the next event. Luckily there were few events scheduled during the day this year, but that doesn’t mean we hit it any less hard.
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By Chris Sibley | 8 Oct, 2007
Continued from last week…
Something happened in the midst of this ‘process’…
I started to grow up, to question and to apply the critical thinking. My initial reservations centred around the phrase “change your sexual orientation”, which became increasingly clear to me was a lie. More
By Chris Sibley | 1 Oct, 2007
Aversion Therapy, Conversion Therapy, Reparative Therapy, Transformative Ministries…all various approaches for the alteration of a person’s sexual orientation or more precisely, the changing of a queer person into a fully functional, happy and content heterosexual being.
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By Ivy Robinson | 24 Sep, 2007
What gender are you? How do you know? For most people, this is a bit obvious.
They just are male or female. Me, I’m a bit different. I’m transgendered. I’m female, but was born a boy.
Gender isn’t something most people have to think about, as who they are as a person fits with their body. But for people like me, who we are doesn’t fit our bodies. More
By Pachali Brewster | 17 Sep, 2007
You know how, in some films, the lead woman has a gay best friend? Clueless, Fear, Single White Female, My Best Friend’s Wedding and The Next Best Thing are movies just off the top of my head that feature gay best friends. For some reason, it is assumed that women and gay men get along famously. This column is about the how and why women love gay men, whether they collect them (i.e. are “faghags”) or just really like one in particular (of course not because he’s gay, he just… coincidentally… happens to like men). More
By Salient | 10 Sep, 2007
I’ve noticed (and by noticed I mean have been told) there is a lot of bigoted behaviour going on in the queer community, and I, for one, am against it. Now I’m not trying to be like the Dalai Lama and say ‘love is good’ and ‘hate is bad’ because the word ‘duh’ automatically springs to mind. Rather, I’m urging people to look beyond themselves and become active and junk. Not physically active mind you (who has the time) but perhaps politically active. More
By Pachali Brewster | 13 Aug, 2007
Many people, regardless of orientation, have accused queer culture of being overly occupied with drugs and alcohol. As one of my friends said: “I don’t like it that most queer venues around tend to be throbby nightclubs, where there are people who are absolutely smashed on drugs or alcohol. A nice cafe/pub/bar with people having a couple of drinks whilst listening to music is a much better idea. Which is why I like Kamo over Family.” More
