Proud! Out Loud! Award Winners - 2008

The 2008 winners of the GayVancouver.Net (Gay Vancouver Online) Proud! Out Loud! Website of the Week. Our award highlights some great websites in Vancouver and around the world.

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Our 2008 Award Winners

Providing food for more than 9,000 people each week the Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society feeds more than 9,000 people each week in Burnaby, New Westminster, Vancouver and the North Shore.

At the Dr. Peter's AIDS Foundation, they are helping to rebuild lives shattered by HIV/AIDS, addiction, mental illness, poverty, and discrimination because of gender and sexual orientation.

Help AIDS Vancouver provide comfort and joy this season! You are your group can make an in-kind or financial contribution and your donation will be used to provide holiday groceries for people living with HIV/AIDS in our city.

A Loving Spoonful is a volunteer-driven Society providing free, nutritious meals to people living with HIV/AIDS in the Greater Vancouver. Each week for over 19 years A Loving Spoonful have delivered 1200 frozen meals and over 250 snack packs to men, women and children who are primarily homebound with AIDS.

This week we recognize Fighting Chance Productions who not are not only presenting The Laramie Project locally but are creating a huge amount of awareness against homophobia with the potential visit of Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church to protest against the show.

First it was the Canadian federal election. Then two Vancouver by-elections. Now it is time for the local civic elections. While Vancouverites may be a tad election weary on November 15th we now the opportunity to elect a new Municipal government. GayVancouver.com (Gay Vancouver Online) endorses Gregor Robertson and Vision Vancouver team. It is time for a change in City Hall. But whichever way you may vote in the end, the important thing is to get out and exercise your democratic right.

With the announcement that Vancouver will host the 2011 North American Outgames we thought it only appropriate to highlight GLISA - Gay & Lesbian International Sports Association who has has the overall responsibility for the Outgames worldwide.

This fall is a busy time for Vancouverites with some going to the polls three times in two months. Those in the Provincial Vancouver-Burrard riding will participate in a provincial by-election on Wednesday, 29 October 2009. GayVancouver.com endorses Spencer Herbert the NDP party candidate for Vancouver-Burrard. It is time the arrogance of Gordon Campbell and the Liberals is put to an end. British Columbians deserved better and we believe Spencer Herbert is the best choice to do so.

With the Canadian federal election on Tuesday, 14 October we at GayVancouver.com are putting aside our apolitical stance and are endorsing Dr Hedy Fry - Vancouver Centre Candidate (Liberal). It is imperative that we work together to ensure the defeat of the Conservatives and Lorne Mayencourt. While we admire the work of Michael Byers for the NDP and Adriane Carr for the Green Party we feel Dr Hedy Fry with her fifteen years of experience in Ottawa as the MP for Vancouver Centre she is best suite for continuing her job for the GLBT community in Vancouver Centre and beyond.

A mixture of film, visual arts, performance and workshops, the GFest - gayWise LGBT Arts Festival is an annual queer arts festival in London, England presenting the work of LGBT artists in a creatively safe, stimulating and artistically challenging manner.

Has anyone else noticed that there seems to be a lot of gay blogs coming out (no pun intended) of the United Kingdom? Is it that queer Brits are so prolific or perhaps, like Canada, it is just so darn dreary most of the time outside that everyone takes to their computers and blogs? Whatever the reason, we found another winner - The Seafront Diaries - the recorded life events of Jason, a thirty-something gay guy from Brighton.

It seems like only yesterday that we welcomed our annual two weeks of summer here on the West Coast and to think we are already planning our ski getaways. The Greater Vancouver Gay & Lesbian Ski & Snowboard Club can help with your plans! Check them out before you head to Whistler this season!

This week we salute all the organizers and volunteers that help to make the annual AIDS WALK for Life such a huge success. In 2007 the Walk raised over $410,000 which allowed the organizing groups to help over 4,400 members. This year consider sponsoring a walker or you can donate directly to the AIDS WALK for Life.

Hurry, before summer is really over! Head on over to the Vancouver Outdoor Club for Women and check out all of the group activities. The group says they've been around for 25 years and involved in many outdoor activities such as hiking, kayaking, camping, bird watching and all types of seasonal sports.

Poetry is a lost art and certainly poetry from the perspective of a gay man is probably even more so. This week we salute Roger N Taber a 60-something gay man living in the United Kingdom and sharing his stories through poetry in Aspects of a Gay Man's Life in Verse.

With apologies to the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) the International Gay Media Database (IGMDb) looks to bring not only gay themed movies to one location but also music, books and games. For those of you like us that are looking to fill the void as the latest edition of the Vancouver Queer Film Festival closes this is a great place to begin your search for good (and bad) queer cinema.

Montreal is Gay ... but we already knew that! One of our all-time favourite cities in the world, this site brings your entire gay experience in Montreal into one simple and handy online reference. Definitely worth a visit next time you consider visiting this truly wonderful Canadian city!

August is always a busy month in Vancouver. First Pride and then the Vancouver Queer Film Festival. In 2008 the Festival runs August 14th through 24th bringing two weeks of queer cinema from around the world to Vancouver. Here is our annual salute to the men and women who put on the Festival each year!

Each year the Vancouver Pride Society hosts our city's celebrations. This is a group of men and women (largely volunteer) that work tirelessly to put on a week long celebration for us all to enjoy. It is largely a thankless job so we continue again this year to say a GREAT BIG THANK YOU to all those involved in making Vancouver Pride 2008 the best Pride celebrations in history!

For the past several weeks we have been highlighting Pride events worldwide (scroll down to see them all). This week we recognize Interpride, the international group that unites and promotes Pride worldwide. As an added bonus, this year's annual Interpride World Conference takes place in Vancouver on 23-26 October!

One of the closest communities across the border into Washington State, but did you know that Bellingham has a thriving gay community, complete with a pride festival each year? Check out Gay Bellingham courtesy of resident Robert Ashworth.

Few people know that there are actually two Vancouver's - one in British Columbia and the other in Washington State. Just before the Portland border, Vancouver, Washington has a lively and active queer community and GayVancouverwa.org is the place to find out all about it!

A little further afield this week, we end up at the University of Calgary - GLASS - their student association for queer students and their allies. Not only does it provide information and support for the queer population at the U of C but also provides details on the University's "Ally" program - something we think that should be replicated at schools across the country.

For some, growing up gay in the Fraser Valley "bible belt" just outside of Vancouver can be challenging to say the least. Imagine how happy we were to find out about the existence of The Pride Network at the University College of the Fraser Valley helping staff, staff and faculty that are identify as LGBT.

A little further afield, this week we celebrate the work of the University of Victoria Pride Collective or UVic Pride providing services, advocacy and events for the queer community at British Columbia's third largest university.

As any of our faithful visitors know we love themes and we're proud to show off some of the great work that our local Universities and Colleges are doing for the queer quality of life on campus. This week we feature SFU Out On Campus offering support and events for the GLBT community at Simon Fraser University.

The Capilano College Queer Students Collective provides support for Capilano College students who are queer, trans or allied with queer and trans causes and goals. Providing a queer resource centre on campus the Collective organizes such things as events and awareness campaigns for the entire student body.

Sometimes I wonder what life would have been like for us older folks if we had support like they do now at universities, colleges and even high schools for queer youth. This week we celebrate along with the University of British Columbia as they celebrate Out Week 2008 at UBC!

Vancouver is home to many world-class halls of higher learning. One of those is the British Columbia Institute of Technology which has an international reputation for producing some of the best technical people in the world. Technically Queer BCIT helps to connect the BCIT queer community. Check them out!

For an island with only 10,000 inhabitants we can't help but admire GLOSSI - Gays & Lesbians of Salt Spring Island Society for being out there, queer and ensuring the GLBT community of this small island are well looked after!

Imagine how thrilled we were to receive a nomination from the place of our ancestral roots! Gay Cornwall is a first class source of information for GLTB people in and for those planning to visit the Cornwall area of United Kingdom.

Canada's largest city has a number of websites for visitors or residents but one of the best guides to Toronto we've found so far is Gay Guide Toronto. Events, business listings, links are combined with some interesting columns as well.

We were a bit surprised at how difficult it was to find information on gay Montreal but after some searching we did find queermonteal.INFO. A good source for info on bars, restaurants, hotels, etc this site is worth a visit for your next trip.

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