There’s only so much homophobia the media can get away with these days without having to issue a hasty apology. But when it comes to reporting on trans issues, stories about ’sex swaps’ and ‘pregnant men’ are still depressingly mainstream. What effect does this kind of attention have on a minority that is already contending with higher than average rates of violence, unemployment and street harassment?

If you haven’t had a long wait at the dentist lately, you might have missed a story in tabloid magazine Closer from June 2009 titled ‘Sex Swap Shock: “I was a hunky Becks lookalike but I starved to become Posh”’.

The article describes 29 year-old Chrisie Edkins’ transition from male to female, and the title sets the tone for what follows. Edkins is referred to throughout by male pronouns and by her male birth name, which she no longer goes by.

“They said, ‘We think before you looked a bit like Beckham and now you’re a bit like Posh, and we’d like to get some photos and have you tell your heartwarming story,’” says Edkins, who agreed to be interviewed for the piece because she hoped her story would inspire to other trans women.

“But they’ve insulted me every three lines and made me look like an idiot and like Victoria Beckham is my idol.”

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We’re less than a month away from Pride Week in Toronto, which kicks off with the Dyke March — also known as the Saturday when thousands of half-naked queer women take to the streets between Church and Yonge.

Lately, I’ve been wondering if this mass shedding of clothes isn’t really about celebrating our sexuality and glorying in the freedom of Pride, so much as a rebellion against the minefield that is lesbian fashion.

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Coming out is a near-universal queer experience. The coming-out story recurs again and again in queer cinema: it’s our version of the coming-of-age tale. But where the traditional narrative and reality diverge is at the assumption that coming out is something that only happens once in a lifetime.

In the movies, the quiet boy starts dating the football star or the misfit girl starts dating the cheerleader, everyone at school finds out, somebody tells the parents, and after some drama the whole experience is over. Television tells us that you can’t have a satisfactory same-sex relationship until everyone is out of the closet — take Dana on The L Word, Kevin’s actor boyfriend Chad on Brothers & Sisters, or David from Six Feet Under as examples.

But what happens after you leave home, and have to come out to your college roommate? Or your first boss? Or your second boss? For most of us, the process of coming out lasts our entire lives, and every new situation offers an opportunity to jump back into the closet.

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Protect those peepers (and do it with style)

If there’s one accessory you can’t get through the warmer months without, it’s a good pair of shades. If, like many of us, you’re prone to misplacing yours on buses and restaurant tables, you might be best served by the plastic $20 variety. But if you’re looking for something classier, check out these top picks from Darren Pelcz, head stylist at eyewear boutique Spectacle (752 Queen W., 416-603-0123), who says the theme this summer is the bigger, the bolder, the better.

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Queer people spend a lot of time thinking about labels. Picking one that fits, reclaiming offensive ones to alter their meaning, trying to avoid them entirely. Lately, I’ve started to worry about acquiring a label I never selected for myself: gay journalist.

I just finished an internship, and I’m returning to the freelancer’s constant search for work, so I’ve been looking back over my portfolio and wondering: when editors read through my clippings, do they see reviews, news pieces, and columns, or do they see reviews of gay books, gay news, and a column about queer politics? I didn’t set out to be a professional lesbian. I haven’t decided yet what sort of journalist I want to be when I grow up so I want to keep my options open, but I worry that the more queer-themed writing I do, the more the label starts to stick.

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Lemon Tree opens with the Israeli defence minister moving in next door to a widowed Palestinian woman, whose house lies on the border between Israel and the West Bank. The Secret Service promptly order that Salma’s lemon grove be uprooted for fear that terrorists will seek cover among the lemon trees, and the film follows Salma (Abbass) and a sympathetic young lawyer (Suliman) as they fight the order in the Israeli courts.

The film, by Israeli director Eran Riklis, is relentlessly sad. There are no moments of tear-jerking tragedy; instead, Salma’s grief lingers over every character and scene. Her walled-off lemon trees wilt and droop as the case drags on, and her defiance is finally so futile it only serves to highlight her powerlessness. The case becomes complicated by the growing sympathy of defense minister’s wife (Lipaz-Michael) for the Palestinian woman next door. The two never meet, but their shared glances are loaded with meaning. When the minister’s wife tells the press “there is a lemon grove between us,” it is clear she is not speaking literally.

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Patrick Marber’s Closer follows four people through various dating configurations, affairs and dramatic breakups, conveyed through a series of short scenes several months apart. The star-studded 2004 film adaptation was nominated for two Oscars; now Alumnae Theatre have brought it back to its stage roots.

Alumnae’s production is slick and entertaining, but it suffers slightly from miscasting. Steven Burley as Larry is too physically slight to be as imposing as many of his scenes require, and often when Larry’s true bullying nastiness should be most apparent, we see him only as a victim. His softness of manner and of accent also mask the class tension we are meant to perceive between him and Anna, and oblique references to this are never fully explored.

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Last week an 11 year-old from Massachusetts called Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover (right) hanged himself after enduring daily taunts at school, many of which were homophobic. This comes, as this press release from the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network reminds us, just over a year after the murder of 15 year-old Lawrence King, who was shot by another student because of his perceived sexual identity.

In an age where queer people are protected by various anti-discrimination laws all over North America, why are we still failing to extend these freedoms and protections to our youth? Among queer teens in the US and in Canada, suicide is the number one cause of death. We can do better.

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Walking The Tightrope, the most recent production by British playwright Mike Kenny, is ambitious children’s theatre. The story follows a young girl, Esme, who visits her grandfather soon after her grandmother has died. At a loss to explain why Nana Queenie won’t be joining them this year, Grandad Stan tells Esme that Queenie has gone to join the circus. The lie becomes gradually more elaborate, until the real circus comes to town and forces him to reveal the truth.

The play walks its own tightrope between being lighthearted and energetic enough to keep the kids interested, and giving its subject matter the emotional weight it requires. Employing a popular device in children’s entertainment, the actors double as storytellers and keep things moving by narrating their actions. Repetition also keeps us tuned in to the central theme — that change is inevitable and part of life — which emerges as the take-home message for younger audiences.

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