Witness the Future

Never would I have expected to witness the future in a Disneyesque ski resort in Québec, but I think I did.

The day had started in Montréal with our time in that city winding down. We spent the morning touring the very impressive Canadian Centre for Architecture building and at the end of our tour were given a brief lecture by Claudine Ouellette, president of the Québec Coalition of Gays and Lesbians. OK, so I’ll admit I started out very disinterested in whatever she had to say. The last thing I wanted to do was spend my time in Montréal being lectured by a Québec nationalist who repeatedly referred to Québec as a ‘country’ which of course it isn’t. But by the end of the day, I was thinking about her observations and how relevant they are in my life.

Ouellette was lecturing us on the status of Québec gays in 2000, and specifically on movements to extend full legal recognition to gay couples in the province. I’ve made it abundantly clear in my online editorials just how I don’t support the notion of gay marriage so I wasn’t really all that interested in being lectured how wonderful it was that gay couples were almost equals here. What caught my attention was when Ouellette drew a direct link between the repeal of sodomy laws back in the '60s with society today. By any measure, gays in Québec are probably the least oppressed gay people in North America. Ouellette was acknowledging that getting rid of anti-sex laws over three decades earlier had been essential in changing public perceptions and thus allowing for serious changes in provincial laws in 2000. She pointed out that the people of Québec just didn’t think the gay thing was that big a deal, especially in light of societal shifts in the way people related. For example, Québec has one of the smallest marriage rates in the world and she attributed this to changes in values and sexual prohibitions, directly related to the repeal of draconian laws such as the sodomy law.

So what has this got to do with my night in the Laurentians mountains? Good question. Well, a great deal of what happened is lost in a blur of too many bourbons and Cokes, but I remember enough. Five of us, all men, went out to locate any bar in this resort village, Mont Tremblant. Indeed we got together initially to plot how we could escape this place. We had two nights up here and Tremblant was definitely not where we wanted to be. A very ‘family’ resort, the village couldn’t have been more than a decade old. I had been hoping we were visiting an authentic ski resort, but this place had all the authenticity of Universal Studios.

We ended up deciding to wash away our boredom in a bar and located one of only two bars in the village. This one was virtually empty when we arrived; thus assuring that suddenly Tremblant had a homosexual hangout!

At some point in the evening, probably after my third drink, we began to realize that all the music we were listening to was disco! Were they doing this in our honor? No, we had stumbled into ‘Seventies Night’ on Mont Tremblant and who better to add to the moment than 5 homosexuals -– all old enough to have heard the tunes when they first were spinning in gay discos! Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor, Sister Sledge –- they even brought out Olivia and John singing Grease.

When the young boys (drinking age here is 18) took to the stage to gyrate and tease us all with their hot bodies (OK, so they were more than likely trying to attract the girls in the crowd), lip-syncing to the tune of the great fag songs of the seventies, I was suddenly a convert to the glories of a holiday on Mont Tremblant.

As we stood there all horned up as this particular red head moved his ass above my head to the tune of ‘Greased Lightning’, I turned to one of my fellow homo’s and said, "This kid probably doesn’t have a clue about this, but he is behaving this way as a direct result of gay liberation." He could comfortably stand on a stage in a small village bar, dressed in a skin-tight shirt and jeans, bumping and grinding as the sex object he was, because the social movement to alter the rules governing sexual expression had succeeded in penetrating the larger culture.

At some point in the evening, we managed to involve 4 straight guys in our little party. These men were salesmen for audio products and were at the resort to attend a conference. We hugged, groped, and flirted for over an hour.

"The biggest difference between you guys and 4 salesmen attending a convention in the States is that you would have killed us by now in the States," I told them. These guys just didn’t seem to mind they were being courted by a bunch of men. Indeed one of the salesmen confessed he had tried cock before and had decided he preferred pussy. His boss, sitting next to him, didn’t seem to flinch at this revelation.

On the face of it, all this may not sound especially enlightening, I’ll be the first to admit. Just a bunch of drunks having a good time while on holiday. But what was ultimately revealing was how it appeared we were finally in a little corner of the world where sexuality was allowed to express itself in the fluid fashion it really can be. That a bunch of guys could sit around and talk about cock and pussy and not feel threatened, but indeed be stimulated by it was hopefully an indication of where we might be one day.

So what is the point to all this? I figure what we experienced on Mont Tremblant could exist in Québec only because three decades earlier the sodomy law was repealed and a society began to change its attitudes about sexual expression and behavior. Sometimes I fear that the American gay movement is actually destroying the very elements of human sexuality that allow straight and gay men to play all the time with each other. Clearly, it has had that impact in too much of the USA as the gay movement forces people to fit into yet another box rather than seek to liberate us from our boxes. But the difference between what has happened in Quebec and what is happening in the USA may be a simple decision to embrace our diversity in our desires and urges, not deny them.

Just my two cents worth.


[Cruisemaster note: These journal entries are normally placed online weekends. I make no promises, however, about getting them posted regularly. This is a real road trip and sometimes my 'field research' gets in the way of writing down what I discover along the road.]

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Cruisemaster
cruisingforsex.com

[This message has been edited by Keith (edited August 23, 2000).]

Dear Keith,

AMEN BROTHER!!!!!
Just to be precise:
- all sexual acts between adults were legalized in Canada in 1969 (Prime minister Trudeau : "the State has no place in the bedrooms of the nation")
- Quebec gays got protection in the provincial Bill of Rights in 1977 (and stated as sexual ORIENTATION, not "lifestyle", thank you very much!).
- Though it's not in the canadian Charter of Rights explicitly, the Supreme Court treats it as if it were.

Two more reason for our openness :
- a tradition of huge families, 10-12 kids, so often 2 gay and 1 lesbian siblings;
- and I don't care how straight you are, when it's February, 50 below, and the nearest girls are 100 miles away, your cabinmate Big Jacques the lumberjack starts to look pretty fucking good!

Your 2 cents are worth gold, Keith.
I hope you had fun in Oklahoma!

Randy

And all this time I thought you were just another computer geek, roadtripping cockslut.
Love your observations and hopefully we here in the states will be able to live like our sisters to the north!!

Keith: Thanks for the insight into the relation between legislation and behavior. Question: Doesn't New Orleans offer that type of mutual cohabitation between the cultures? Could the multicultural history of N'awlins (like Quebec) more than specific legislation explain the tolerance for difference? As a resident of the Crescent City, you're in a good position to comment.
Incidentally, I'm going to experience Southern Decadence next week first hand (hopefully multiple hands and dicks).
Finally, I'm waiting with bated breath for your Come-Blow-Us, Ohio recounting.

[This message has been edited by Columbus Exiler (edited August 23, 2000).]

[This message has been edited by Columbus Exiler (edited August 23, 2000).]

To Columbus Exiler:

The connection between these two places (Quebec and Louisiana) is France of course. And I'm sure that is a significant reason southern Louisiana is a very different place compared to any other American region. Alas, northern Louisiana is Baptist and that keeps things in check.

French speaking people do seem to have a different perspective on life and even though French culture has virtually disappeared from day-to-day life in New Orleans, much of the 'behavior' that people enjoy about that city is directly related to the French influence.

As for legislation in Quebec, the changes in sodomy laws back in the '60's were Canada-wide (as Randy reminded us), though no province has responded with more diligent social change than Quebec. Ontario and British Columbia are trying, but it has so much baggage from the English. This may help explain why the province of Quebec is so determined to preserve its uniqueness.

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Cruisemaster
cruisingforsex.com

[This message has been edited by Keith (edited August 23, 2000).]

Keith,

Thank you for your remarkable and insightful statements. You're quite "on the money" in everything you wrote. The French do have drastic different outlook on life. Just look at one of the basics of life: food. Compare the attitude of food between the French and Americans and you'll discover how different they are from us. They "live to eat" and enjoy life; Americans just "eat to live."

Thanks for your hard work for us cruisers. We really appreciate it.

Cheers!