T/W for violence.

RIP

Q.

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia — A prominent Canadian LGBT activist and journalist was found beaten to death outside a popular gay bar in Halifax early Tuesday morning.

Raymond Taavel, 49, the former editor of the LGBT magazine “Wayves” and former co-chair of PrideWeek Halifax, was found bleeding and unconscious outside the Menz & Mollyz bar in Halifax at about 2:30 a.m. by a passerby who called authorities.

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Raymond Taavel

Constable Brian Palmeter, a spokesperson for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Halifax, told LGBTQ Nation that according to witnesses, Taavel and another man were accosted by an individual outside the bar.

One witness told police that he saw a large man attack two smaller men, one of whom fled as the attacker slammed the other man’s head into the street. Two other witnesses told police the attacker used homophobic slurs during the beating.

Palmeter said Taavel died at the scene as a result of his injuries.

A police K-9 unit was used to track the assailant to a nearby alley where he was hiding behind some trash cans. Andre Noel Denny, 32, is scheduled to appear in Halifax Provincial Court Wednesday on a charge of murder according to Palmeter.

Denny is a psychiatric patient from the nearby East Coast Forensic Hospital who failed to return to the facility after a one-hour leave. He is one of three patients who did not return to the hospital Monday. One of those patients is still at large.

Capital Health, the private organization that runs the hospital, told LGBTQ Nation that it has launched an internal review into the matter and will not make further comment pending the outcome of that inquiry.

The CBC reported that Denny was sent to the facility after being found not criminally responsible on a charge of assault causing bodily harm in Sydney.

In court documents, the man is described as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. He is also described as being grossly psychotic with a history of aggressive impulsivity and unpredictability.

Tributes to Taavel have been expressed by scores of Halifax citizens and fellow activists shocked by his murder. “I think I have the same sense of shock as everyone else who is connected to the community,” says Kevin Kindred, of the Nova Scotia Rainbow Action Project.

“It’s incalculable, he was such a beautiful spirit,” says Halifax activist Hugo Dann.

“Anyone who got involved in gay rights in Halifax, knew Raymond. Raymond took his knocks, but he never stopped smiling and he never failed in kindness. That’s the loss that will stick with me because he was unfailingly kind … I think people will want to go out, to be together. I don’t think our community ever hides,” Dann said.

By Melanie Patten, The Canadian Press – 23 hours ago

HALIFAX — It was a not-so-secret side of seafaring chronicled in private snapshots: male sailors, dressed in beautiful gowns, stockings and heels, mugging for the camera.

Others made up as showgirls, revelling in the culture of being openly gay at sea that’s now the focus of an exhibit making its North American debut at a waterfront museum in Halifax.

“Hello Sailor! Gay Life on the Ocean Wave” will open to the public Thursday at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. It is adapted from one created by National Museums Liverpool in England.

The U.K. component focuses on the life of gay sailors, particularly men, on board passenger and merchant ships beginning in the 1950s.

U.K.-based researcher Jo Stanley says decades ago, when homosexuality was illegal in Britain, many homosexual men chose to go to sea where they could be open about their sexuality in a welcoming, liberal environment.

“One of the great things about sea life is that it’s very (accepting); you can be all kinds of unusual,” says Stanley, who travelled to Halifax for the exhibit’s launch.

“There is kind of no such thing as ‘normal’ at sea, so there was that sense of freedom.”

Stanley co-authored a book on the subject in 2003 after hearing stories from female stewards of men who preferred shopping over brawling. Several years later, Stanley’s work became the focus of an exhibit at the Merseyside Maritime Museum in Liverpool, where it remains on permanent display.

On some ships, Stanley says the vast majority of stewards were gay men who were open about their sexuality. While there were likely deck officers, captains and other high-ranking officials who were also gay, they couldn’t risk their jobs by coming out.

But for the others, particularly the waiters in the dining room, relishing their sexuality was anything but subtle.

Men cavorting around in brightly coloured feather boas and stilettos wasn’t an unusual sight. Some would borrow jewellery and shoes from female passengers. There were light-hearted drag shows and nighttime performances of musical theatre. Gay sailors even had their own secret language they could use to communicate with each other around straight men.

Men who were unsure about their sexuality were drawn to the seafaring life.

“It was their university, in a way,” said Stanley, who comes from Halifax, England.

“But I think most of them were attracted to the fact that it was a fun job. It involved travel, it involved partying around, there was lots of solidarity. It was the ideal job to do if you were a gay man.”

Passengers were also very accepting, in some cases specifically requesting a gay steward. Stanley recalls the story of a female passenger who, upon catching a steward trying on her mink coat, quipped that he looked better in it than she did.

But most of the men who openly cavorted in women’s garb while on the ship hid the fact they were gay when back on dry land.

Some of the sailors had wives and children waiting for them back home. Stanley notes that in some cases, wives knew of their husband’s dalliances at sea, but figured it was best if their spouse cheated with another man than a woman.

The exhibit also includes Canadian research into the lives of gay men and women on a variety of vessels, including navy ships. But the research shows the Canadian experience was vastly different from the vibrant gay subculture that existed on ships sailing from the U.K.

Museum curator Dan Conlin suspects there are a few reasons for that, including the fact that Canadian vessels tended to be smaller with fewer crew members.

Frank Letourneau, a former navy lieutenant who was forced out of the military in 1979 for being gay, says he had no illusions about what seafaring life might be like.

“There was certainly no conscious awareness on my part that this was going to be a paradise for homosexuals, nothing like that at all,” says Letourneau, who is featured in the exhibit.

Even in foreign ports, Letourneau, who wasn’t openly gay at the time, says he joined his fellow officers at strip bars and other “things that straight men do.”

He suspects a few members of the ship’s company were also gay. But if they were, they didn’t talk about it.

“There was no clique,” he says. “There was no comparing notes.”

The exhibit will remain on display at the Halifax museum until Nov. 27.

Conlin says he’s interested to see the public’s reaction given the subject matter, but he’s hopeful it will encourage discussion and educate people.

When the exhibit first opened in the U.K., it was met with mixed reviews, though most have been positive.

“I think it’s a really vivid, powerful and moving look into a world that people are reluctant to talk about,” says Conlin.

“We all find it somewhat irresistible to explore a new world that we don’t know about it. And much of it is really fun and interesting, and a very expressive and colourful world.

Copyright © 2011 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.