February 11, 2025 • 18 mins
EPISODE ONE – Genesis
“Without heartbreak how can we know joy, without protest how can we know celebration.”
Playwright, performer and content producer at Pink Triangle Press, Daniel MacIvor, leads us through the journey of creating the inaugural PTP Pink Awards, an LGBTQ+ Activist Award Ceremony and Toronto Awards Ceremony celebrating LGBTQ Advocacy.
We re-visit moment-making highlights of the night with MC’s Drag Race Royalty Queen Priyanka and Virgin Radio’s Shannon Burns. In part two2, Daniel’s guest is queer business leader Sara Fromstein from Pink Awards presenting sponsor Deciem. Sara talks about Deciem’s unorthodox approach to corporate advocacy engagement and the personal and holistic way that model came to be, and how the holistic partnership with Deciem and PTP came together for this LGBTQ event.
Queer Joy is a seven part podcast celebrating the 2024 Pink Triangle Press Pink Awards.
The PTP Pink Awards are a national pay-it-forward celebration of queer excellence where community champions choose changemaking charities from the queer community to uplift and amplify. In 2024 we celebrated champions writer/actor/producer Elliot Page, musician/composer Jeremy Dutcher, activist Latoya Nugent, athlete Marie-Philip Poulin, musician/composer Rufus Wainwright and our legacy award winner philanthropist Salah Bachir. Join host Daniel MacIvor where he shares unforgettable moments from the awards and interviews where he sits down for honest and insightful conversations with our Champions and their chosen charities. Experience Queer Joy with Daniel MacIvor, some true queer Champions and our PTP Pink Awards with host Queen Priyanka
Pink Triangle Press formed in 1971 as a collective to publish The Body Politic – a monthly newspaper that is regarded today as a game-changer in the queer media landscape. And in 1984 as an offshoot of The Body Politic PTP formed Xtra Magazine, more focused on social life and culture, lighter fare, available free in bars. And when The Body Politic closed its operation in 1987 Xtra took over as PTP’s main publication mixing arts and culture coverage with harder news stories. There were print editions published out of Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa. In 2015 Xtra moved entirely online where it continues the legacy of the original publication with award-winning journalism that strives to be – as its banner proudly states – queering the conversation. Check them out at xtramagazine.com.
#podcast #queer #awards
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:04):
Congratulations to all of our champions and their Changemakers tonight.
Also, major love and joy. I'll hand it over one more time to
the Queen Priyanka, which, I don't know if you notice, you were one
of the very first people I came out to back in our college
days. Did you know that? Actually? Yeah! What the fuck?
(00:26):
That's actually crazy. I was literally about to come up here and give
you a shoutout for everything you do for lesbians in media.
You are so amazing and so iconic. And I have me to thank.
Thank you. Well, thank you, everyone. Appreciate it. Make some noise for
(00:46):
Shannon Burns, everybody! That's crazy. Oh my God.
Welcome to Queer Joy, the PTP Pink Awards 2024. My name is Daniel
MacIvor, and this is Episode 1, Genesis. What you just heard was the
(01:09):
closing exchange between the two hosts of the inaugural Pink Triangle Press
Pink Awards. Literal angel on Earth, Shannon Burns from Virgin Radio and
CTV's eTalk. And drag race royalty, HBO star, recording artist, and Canadian
icon Queen Priyanka. When we realised we would need co hosts for the
event, we reached out separately to Priyanka, who we knew as the superstar
(01:31):
that she is, about hosting from the main stage, and to Shannon,
who we knew as someone from the queer community who was doing excellent
work in the mainstream to handle the red carpet and the from the
floor lift. But it wasn't until we were finalizing details with Shannon
that we found out that she and Priyanka had gone to school together
and were friends. Well, that was certainly perfect. It was a lovely reminder
(01:52):
of how our community works. It's relational, and about connectivity and
communion. It is a village. That's what it felt like that night in
the room at the Pink Awards. The whole community showed up:
Activists, artists, athletes, business people, philanthropists. It was a
lot of people who at one time probably felt outside, who could look
(02:12):
around the room and feel very inside something.
The night was like our community, a place where nobody ends up by
accident. And let me tell you a little bit about how I ended
up here. In my regular job, I'm a playwright and performer and sometimes
screenwriter and filmmaker. But since 2022, I've been working as a creative
content consultant and producer at Pink Triangle Press. I'd been aware of
(02:37):
PTP since I arrived in Toronto from Nova Scotia in the early '80s. PTP
had formed in 1971 as a collective to publish the Body Politic,
a monthly newspaper that is regarded today as a game changer in the
queer media landscape. It was a paper of protest and unapologetic demand
for queer liberation. And in 1984, as an offshoot of the Body Politic,
(02:58):
PTP formed Xtra Magazine. More focused on social life and culture,
lighter fare, available free in bars. And when the Body Politic closed its
operation in 1987, Xtra took over as PTP's main publication, mixing arts
and culture coverage with harder news stories. There were print editions
published out of Toronto, Vancouver, and Ottawa. And in 2015, Xtra moved
(03:20):
entirely online where it continues the legacy of the original publication
with award winning journalism that strives to be, as its banner proudly
states, "queering the conversation." Check them out at xtramagazine.com.
Because I had known about the important work of PTP through the Body
Politic and had much interaction with Xtra Magazine over the years through
my work in Canadian theatre and film, I was even on the cover a
(03:43):
couple of times, I was really excited when the opportunity came about to
work with PTP as part of their expansion into advocacy. My job was
to make content that would build bridges inside the community and help to
frame the community for the mainstream. Of all the work I did,
the thing I'm most proud of was helping to produce the inaugural PTP
Pink Awards in November of 2024. So, what are the Pink Awards?
(04:07):
Well, I'm going to let Priyanka tell you about how they work.
Hi, everybody, my name is Priyanka. What's my name? Priyanka! That's right,
motherfuckers. Tonight we are celebrating. Here's how it's gonna work. We
have our five amazing champions. And each champion has chosen a changemaker,
(04:31):
an organisation or charity that is meaningful to them, that they believe
deserves to be talked about and supported. Now, some of these changemakers
have been making change for a while, and some of them are brand
new baby changemakers. But either way, everybody needs to be talked about.
And not only talked about, there's cash and money too.
(04:53):
I played a stripper in a music video directed by D. W. Watterson. So,
if you do want to throw dollar bills at me and donate to
charity tonight, I'll take it. We love Priyanka. So, the basic foundational
idea is "pay it forward." The champion was awarded the opportunity to award
the title of Changemaker. There had been talk for some years at Xtra in
(05:16):
the editorial department about awards to celebrate queer achievement, but
nothing ever really landed. And then when Jennifer McGuire came on as managing
director in 2022, she and PTP CEO David Walberg revisited the idea.
And Jennifer suggested the "pay it forward" element, and things really coalesced
around that. On the night, David described the context for the awards like
this (05:36):
We find ourselves in a moment where it's very clear how ignorance
and fear can so easily be weaponised against our community. That weaponising
has become a political tactic for those who are determined to impose their
limited worldview on all of us. At Pink Triangle Press, we continue to
fight the fight with the work of our committed journalists at Xtra and
(05:59):
beyond. But it's also clear, as we expand our focus into advocacy with
and for our community, that there's a need to push back against fearful
public narratives, to create space to celebrate good and positivity in the
community, and to share that with the world.
And our response in pushing back with positivity against hateful rhetoric
(06:22):
is here tonight, the Pink Awards. This is our space for celebrating queer
achievement and queer joy. The queer achievement that was celebrated was
twofold. First was that of the Champion, an individual in the community
who, through good works, uplifted the community. This year it was writer,
producer, actor Elliot Page; musician, composer Jeremy Dutcher; activist
(06:46):
Latoya Nugent, athlete Marie Philip Poulin; and musician, composer Rufus
Wainwright. Each of our champions chose a charity who spoke personally to
their concerns and were also doing good, uplifting work in making change
both for and in the community. As Priyanka so delicately explained,
the Changemakers were awarded cash and also exposure via social media and
(07:08):
this very podcast series. Coming episodes will focus on each of those champions
and their chosen Changemakers. It's hard to find the words to describe the
night. Heaton Dyer, who was the Chief Growth Officer at PTP,
sent an email the next morning talking about how "movements are made from
moments, and the event had been a movement making moment made up of
(07:30):
a series of exquisite moments." And it's very important to note the date.
November 7th, 2024, just two days after the November 5th American election
that had seen 77 million Americans vote for a leader who clearly did
not support the interests of the marginalised, and whose party targeted
the most vulnerable in our community as scapegoats in a battle of fear
(07:53):
mongering, disguising a class war as a gender war.
And perhaps naively, many of us did not see it coming.
We chose to dream that hope, that kindness, that change was the clear
option. And as a result, we were shell shocked. That was very much
the underlying feeling in the room that night. For the majority there,
it was the first time we had gathered as a community since the
(08:15):
5th. But so often it is in these moments of defeat that we
lift our eyes and see our community. Our crushing disappointment framed
those moments that Heaton referenced. Elliot's moving speech to the Alberta
based trans right organisation, Skipping Stone; Jeremy's celebration of
2 Spirited People of the 1st Nation; Latoya embracing the literal pay it
(08:36):
forwardness of the event in her speech; and Rufus singing his anthemic,
brokenhearted "Going to a Town" for the first time since the election. *singing*
I'm going to a town that has already been burnt down.
I'm going to a place that has already been disgraced.
(09:03):
I'm gonna see some folks who have already been let down.
I'm so tired of America. We'll revisit that indelible, heartbreaking moment
in Rufus' episode. That's the thing about Queer Joy. It's made up of
(09:26):
many things, including healthy doses of heartbreak and protest.
More on that after this. The 2024 PTP Pink Awards was made possible
(09:49):
by the generous support of our sponsors, and we are deeply grateful for
the generosity of our title sponsor, Deciem, the Abnormal Beauty Company.
Thanks to Sara Fromstein and the entire Deciem team.
Hi, this is Queer Joy, the PTP Pink Awards 2024, and I'm Daniel
(10:11):
MacIvor. As we touched on before the break, if we're going to talk
about queer joy, we're going to talk about heartbreak and protest.
The people at Pink Triangle Press understand that notion well. Having reported
and activated through the first wave of queer liberation in the 1970s,
amid the devastation of the beginning of the AIDS crisis in the '80s and
'90s, pushing forward the fight for marriage equality through the 2010s,
(10:35):
and now facing this clawing back of rights we are seeing in the
current rise of conservatism, these are the moments that make our community.
And as queer people, we understand that joy is earned and complex,
comprised of tears and laughter, and kindness and fight, and first and foremost
found in community. And community was the central feeling at the Pink Awards
(10:55):
in November. The name of this episode is Genesis, which reflects the fact
that 2024 was the inaugural event. And so we've been talking about how
we got here, and key to getting here has been sponsorship.
Pink Awards sponsorship is expressed in group table sales, individuals bidding
in the silent auction, media sponsorships, award sponsorships by corporations.
(11:16):
But the first step toward actualising the Pink Awards was in acquiring a
title sponsor. And the organisation who came on early and enthusiastically,
without whom the event would never have happened, was the beauty company
Deciem. This is Sara Fromstein, Deciem's Director of Belonging and Social
Impact, speaking that night at the awards. It is my pleasure to be
(11:39):
here on behalf of Deciem, the Abnormal Beauty Company. You might know us
as the ordinary skincare, but we have a very
distinct history with why we're here today. A few years ago,
we lost our founder Brandon Truaxe to mental illness as a result of
him feeling like he did not have a place where he could belong.
(11:59):
He had spent his life trying to perform and be somebody that he
never felt he could be. And as a result, we lost him.
And today we are here for Brandon. We are here for all of
you. We are here for our communities, and more than ever to say,
"F*** you!" to anyone that is going to continue to get in our
way of advancing our queer agenda. Sara's presence on stage at the awards
(12:29):
very clearly spoke to a new idea of corporate sponsorship. In her sleeveless
pink gown and proudly displayed tattoos, her presence was at once elegant
and queer, and her message was heartfelt and personal.
After the awards, I spoke with Sara at her office in Toronto and
asked her about the Deciem difference in their relationship to her advocacy
work. Trying to find a way to work inside advocacy in the corporate
(12:51):
world, trying to bring those things together, I feel it's very challenging.
What do we need to do? I'm not asking you to call out
anybody else's practice. What is it that we're missing? What is it that
we need to do to get past doing something so it looks good? So
it's good on a report? Yeah. I think for Deciem, this goes far
(13:12):
beyond any kind of DE&I initiative. This goes beyond anything that we want
to do to make sure that we have beautiful reports that we can
put out into the world. Those things should really be the afterthought because
you're doing the good work. Our story at Deciem is also one that
is quite unique. We are a Canadian organisation that was founded just over
(13:35):
11 years, so almost 12 years ago now here in Toronto.
So, Treaty 13 land where we occupy. And one of the things that
our founder Brandon Truaxe wanted to create was a community for people to
come together. And for him, it was his chosen family. Brandon had spent
his life in the closet. Brandon had spent his life hiding who he
(13:57):
was. He actually changed his name from his birth name to have more
Anglo names so that he could succeed in the business world.
Devastatingly, we lost Brandon to mental illness a few years ago,
and as much as he disrupted the beauty industry, we owe it to
him to continue on his legacy and disrupt these power dynamics that are
(14:17):
at play, that are causing people to feel like they have to hide
who they are. So, what I'm hearing is it's personal.
It's about finding the personal in the work. Yeah, sure, it's capitalism.
That's a system. We don't necessarily have to identify as capitalists,
but that's the system we're in. We work in it and this is
what we do. It's profit driven. The personal doesn't have to
eliminate profit. Yeah. I think, again, our situation isn't one that corporations
(14:43):
typically go through. A lot of this was born directly from the grief
process. I report directly into our co founder, Nicola Kilner, who is also
Brandon's best friend and started this organisation with him. And so she
was grieving and had to step into the role as CEO and co
founder. So, a very unique journey had to take place there where she
was grieving the loss of her best friend, but also having to step
(15:06):
into his shoes as he was acting as CEO. And it was something
she had never wanted to do. And I think putting those two together,
it made her realise that there's a real lack of kindness and empathy
in leaders. Kindness and success can go hand in hand. And we've seen
it. I think for the last four years especially, there's been an overwhelming
(15:31):
amount of business success because of kindness and empathetic leaders. To
your point, it's a capitalist system. If we've got to be in it,
how do we make it as inclusive as possible so that everyone gets
to participate in what comes from that? Because that's the big barrier,
and people are just going to keep trying to fight to keep others
out. We need to make sure that we're calling them into the conversation
(15:53):
as much as possible, and everyone gets to benefit from this system that
we can't escape. I love what you said in your speech about the
queer agenda. I know you were being cheeky, but I love the idea
of it. It makes me think about how queerness in the broadest sense
is about breaking the pattern to "queer the conversation," as PTP puts it.
(16:13):
And I feel like that's the thing the mainstream really needs to embrace
to break the pattern, to queer it. Yeah, I love how you put
that, "to queer it." And I think that's exactly what needs to take
place. To be queer, it takes a lot, and I'd love to see
a day when it doesn't have to, but it takes a lot of
courage, and you go through a lot of hardships to be able to
(16:36):
really be in, lean into who you are as a full person.
That's kind of where what I look at with the queer agenda.
I also see it, as we kept saying that night, "queer joy."
There is so much to celebrate and so much to continue to celebrate
as we wave our flags and continue to be proud of who we
are. And I think that that's a big piece of that agenda as
(16:58):
well. So, let's do it and spread it as much as possible.
Let's make that our agenda to spread joy and kindness. Well,
what we've been talking about here on Queer Joy is that our joy
is also made up of heartbreak and protest. I love that.
You just gave me full body chills, actually, with that analogy to like,
the two they are. They go hand in hand, and see jokes all
(17:21):
the time about my trauma made me funny, but it's like my trauma
also gave me my joy. It gave me the ability to see the
light, as Rufus would so beautifully say too. "To see the light,"
and as they say, "without the darkness, there is none." Without heartbreak,
how can we know joy? Without protest, how can we know celebration?
(17:43):
And it seems to me Deciem's success as a business and as an
employer comes down to, as Sara puts it, the fact that they grew
the company from grief, founded by a dreamer born as Ali Roshan,
who became a complicated man called Brandon Truaxe, who pushed back brilliantly
against the beauty business but could never find his sense of belonging
in his own life. And then heartbreak, and then protest. Dropping f bombs
(18:07):
in a pink gown while sponsoring an event that celebrates queer achievement
in an uncertain, fearful world, literally creating from heartbreak and protest,
queer joy. Thank you, Deciem, for your foundational support in realising
the Pink Awards. Thank you for being a light under the door.
We'll be talking more about the light under the door in Episode 2. Please
(18:29):
join us for Elliot Page and Skipping Stone. Thanks to our presenting sponsor,
Deciem, the Abnormal Beauty Company, along with category awards sponsor
BMO and media sponsors iHeartRadio, the Globe and Mail, and Everything Podcasts,
and to our publicists, Rocket Promotions. I'm Daniel MacIvor. Thanks for
(18:49):
listening. Queer Joy is a production of Pink Triangle Press.
Congratulations to all of our champions and their Changemakers tonight.
Also, major love and joy. I'll hand it over one more time to
the Queen Priyanka, which, I don't know if you notice, you were one
of the very first people I came out to back in our college
days. Did you know that? Actually? Yeah! What the fuck?
(00:26):
That's actually crazy. I was literally about to come up here and give
you a shoutout for everything you do for lesbians in media.
You are so amazing and so iconic. And I have me to thank.
Thank you. Well, thank you, everyone. Appreciate it. Make some noise for
(00:46):
Shannon Burns, everybody! That's crazy. Oh my God.
Welcome to Queer Joy, the PTP Pink Awards 2024. My name is Daniel
MacIvor, and this is Episode 1, Genesis. What you just heard was the
(01:09):
closing exchange between the two hosts of the inaugural Pink Triangle Press
Pink Awards. Literal angel on Earth, Shannon Burns from Virgin Radio and
CTV's eTalk. And drag race royalty, HBO star, recording artist, and Canadian
icon Queen Priyanka. When we realised we would need co hosts for the
event, we reached out separately to Priyanka, who we knew as the superstar
(01:31):
that she is, about hosting from the main stage, and to Shannon,
who we knew as someone from the queer community who was doing excellent
work in the mainstream to handle the red carpet and the from the
floor lift. But it wasn't until we were finalizing details with Shannon
that we found out that she and Priyanka had gone to school together
and were friends. Well, that was certainly perfect. It was a lovely reminder
(01:52):
of how our community works. It's relational, and about connectivity and
communion. It is a village. That's what it felt like that night in
the room at the Pink Awards. The whole community showed up:
Activists, artists, athletes, business people, philanthropists. It was a
lot of people who at one time probably felt outside, who could look
(02:12):
around the room and feel very inside something.
The night was like our community, a place where nobody ends up by
accident. And let me tell you a little bit about how I ended
up here. In my regular job, I'm a playwright and performer and sometimes
screenwriter and filmmaker. But since 2022, I've been working as a creative
content consultant and producer at Pink Triangle Press. I'd been aware of
(02:37):
PTP since I arrived in Toronto from Nova Scotia in the early '80s. PTP
had formed in 1971 as a collective to publish the Body Politic,
a monthly newspaper that is regarded today as a game changer in the
queer media landscape. It was a paper of protest and unapologetic demand
for queer liberation. And in 1984, as an offshoot of the Body Politic,
(02:58):
PTP formed Xtra Magazine. More focused on social life and culture,
lighter fare, available free in bars. And when the Body Politic closed its
operation in 1987, Xtra took over as PTP's main publication, mixing arts
and culture coverage with harder news stories. There were print editions
published out of Toronto, Vancouver, and Ottawa. And in 2015, Xtra moved
(03:20):
entirely online where it continues the legacy of the original publication
with award winning journalism that strives to be, as its banner proudly
states, "queering the conversation." Check them out at xtramagazine.com.
Because I had known about the important work of PTP through the Body
Politic and had much interaction with Xtra Magazine over the years through
my work in Canadian theatre and film, I was even on the cover a
(03:43):
couple of times, I was really excited when the opportunity came about to
work with PTP as part of their expansion into advocacy. My job was
to make content that would build bridges inside the community and help to
frame the community for the mainstream. Of all the work I did,
the thing I'm most proud of was helping to produce the inaugural PTP
Pink Awards in November of 2024. So, what are the Pink Awards?
(04:07):
Well, I'm going to let Priyanka tell you about how they work.
Hi, everybody, my name is Priyanka. What's my name? Priyanka! That's right,
motherfuckers. Tonight we are celebrating. Here's how it's gonna work. We
have our five amazing champions. And each champion has chosen a changemaker,
(04:31):
an organisation or charity that is meaningful to them, that they believe
deserves to be talked about and supported. Now, some of these changemakers
have been making change for a while, and some of them are brand
new baby changemakers. But either way, everybody needs to be talked about.
And not only talked about, there's cash and money too.
(04:53):
I played a stripper in a music video directed by D. W. Watterson. So,
if you do want to throw dollar bills at me and donate to
charity tonight, I'll take it. We love Priyanka. So, the basic foundational
idea is "pay it forward." The champion was awarded the opportunity to award
the title of Changemaker. There had been talk for some years at Xtra in
(05:16):
the editorial department about awards to celebrate queer achievement, but
nothing ever really landed. And then when Jennifer McGuire came on as managing
director in 2022, she and PTP CEO David Walberg revisited the idea.
And Jennifer suggested the "pay it forward" element, and things really coalesced
around that. On the night, David described the context for the awards like
this (05:36):
We find ourselves in a moment where it's very clear how ignorance
and fear can so easily be weaponised against our community. That weaponising
has become a political tactic for those who are determined to impose their
limited worldview on all of us. At Pink Triangle Press, we continue to
fight the fight with the work of our committed journalists at Xtra and
(05:59):
beyond. But it's also clear, as we expand our focus into advocacy with
and for our community, that there's a need to push back against fearful
public narratives, to create space to celebrate good and positivity in the
community, and to share that with the world.
And our response in pushing back with positivity against hateful rhetoric
(06:22):
is here tonight, the Pink Awards. This is our space for celebrating queer
achievement and queer joy. The queer achievement that was celebrated was
twofold. First was that of the Champion, an individual in the community
who, through good works, uplifted the community. This year it was writer,
producer, actor Elliot Page; musician, composer Jeremy Dutcher; activist
(06:46):
Latoya Nugent, athlete Marie Philip Poulin; and musician, composer Rufus
Wainwright. Each of our champions chose a charity who spoke personally to
their concerns and were also doing good, uplifting work in making change
both for and in the community. As Priyanka so delicately explained,
the Changemakers were awarded cash and also exposure via social media and
(07:08):
this very podcast series. Coming episodes will focus on each of those champions
and their chosen Changemakers. It's hard to find the words to describe the
night. Heaton Dyer, who was the Chief Growth Officer at PTP,
sent an email the next morning talking about how "movements are made from
moments, and the event had been a movement making moment made up of
(07:30):
a series of exquisite moments." And it's very important to note the date.
November 7th, 2024, just two days after the November 5th American election
that had seen 77 million Americans vote for a leader who clearly did
not support the interests of the marginalised, and whose party targeted
the most vulnerable in our community as scapegoats in a battle of fear
(07:53):
mongering, disguising a class war as a gender war.
And perhaps naively, many of us did not see it coming.
We chose to dream that hope, that kindness, that change was the clear
option. And as a result, we were shell shocked. That was very much
the underlying feeling in the room that night. For the majority there,
it was the first time we had gathered as a community since the
(08:15):
5th. But so often it is in these moments of defeat that we
lift our eyes and see our community. Our crushing disappointment framed
those moments that Heaton referenced. Elliot's moving speech to the Alberta
based trans right organisation, Skipping Stone; Jeremy's celebration of
2 Spirited People of the 1st Nation; Latoya embracing the literal pay it
(08:36):
forwardness of the event in her speech; and Rufus singing his anthemic,
brokenhearted "Going to a Town" for the first time since the election. *singing*
I'm going to a town that has already been burnt down.
I'm going to a place that has already been disgraced.
(09:03):
I'm gonna see some folks who have already been let down.
I'm so tired of America. We'll revisit that indelible, heartbreaking moment
in Rufus' episode. That's the thing about Queer Joy. It's made up of
(09:26):
many things, including healthy doses of heartbreak and protest.
More on that after this. The 2024 PTP Pink Awards was made possible
(09:49):
by the generous support of our sponsors, and we are deeply grateful for
the generosity of our title sponsor, Deciem, the Abnormal Beauty Company.
Thanks to Sara Fromstein and the entire Deciem team.
Hi, this is Queer Joy, the PTP Pink Awards 2024, and I'm Daniel
(10:11):
MacIvor. As we touched on before the break, if we're going to talk
about queer joy, we're going to talk about heartbreak and protest.
The people at Pink Triangle Press understand that notion well. Having reported
and activated through the first wave of queer liberation in the 1970s,
amid the devastation of the beginning of the AIDS crisis in the '80s and
'90s, pushing forward the fight for marriage equality through the 2010s,
(10:35):
and now facing this clawing back of rights we are seeing in the
current rise of conservatism, these are the moments that make our community.
And as queer people, we understand that joy is earned and complex,
comprised of tears and laughter, and kindness and fight, and first and foremost
found in community. And community was the central feeling at the Pink Awards
(10:55):
in November. The name of this episode is Genesis, which reflects the fact
that 2024 was the inaugural event. And so we've been talking about how
we got here, and key to getting here has been sponsorship.
Pink Awards sponsorship is expressed in group table sales, individuals bidding
in the silent auction, media sponsorships, award sponsorships by corporations.
(11:16):
But the first step toward actualising the Pink Awards was in acquiring a
title sponsor. And the organisation who came on early and enthusiastically,
without whom the event would never have happened, was the beauty company
Deciem. This is Sara Fromstein, Deciem's Director of Belonging and Social
Impact, speaking that night at the awards. It is my pleasure to be
(11:39):
here on behalf of Deciem, the Abnormal Beauty Company. You might know us
as the ordinary skincare, but we have a very
distinct history with why we're here today. A few years ago,
we lost our founder Brandon Truaxe to mental illness as a result of
him feeling like he did not have a place where he could belong.
(11:59):
He had spent his life trying to perform and be somebody that he
never felt he could be. And as a result, we lost him.
And today we are here for Brandon. We are here for all of
you. We are here for our communities, and more than ever to say,
"F*** you!" to anyone that is going to continue to get in our
way of advancing our queer agenda. Sara's presence on stage at the awards
(12:29):
very clearly spoke to a new idea of corporate sponsorship. In her sleeveless
pink gown and proudly displayed tattoos, her presence was at once elegant
and queer, and her message was heartfelt and personal.
After the awards, I spoke with Sara at her office in Toronto and
asked her about the Deciem difference in their relationship to her advocacy
work. Trying to find a way to work inside advocacy in the corporate
(12:51):
world, trying to bring those things together, I feel it's very challenging.
What do we need to do? I'm not asking you to call out
anybody else's practice. What is it that we're missing? What is it that
we need to do to get past doing something so it looks good? So
it's good on a report? Yeah. I think for Deciem, this goes far
(13:12):
beyond any kind of DE&I initiative. This goes beyond anything that we want
to do to make sure that we have beautiful reports that we can
put out into the world. Those things should really be the afterthought because
you're doing the good work. Our story at Deciem is also one that
is quite unique. We are a Canadian organisation that was founded just over
(13:35):
11 years, so almost 12 years ago now here in Toronto.
So, Treaty 13 land where we occupy. And one of the things that
our founder Brandon Truaxe wanted to create was a community for people to
come together. And for him, it was his chosen family. Brandon had spent
his life in the closet. Brandon had spent his life hiding who he
(13:57):
was. He actually changed his name from his birth name to have more
Anglo names so that he could succeed in the business world.
Devastatingly, we lost Brandon to mental illness a few years ago,
and as much as he disrupted the beauty industry, we owe it to
him to continue on his legacy and disrupt these power dynamics that are
(14:17):
at play, that are causing people to feel like they have to hide
who they are. So, what I'm hearing is it's personal.
It's about finding the personal in the work. Yeah, sure, it's capitalism.
That's a system. We don't necessarily have to identify as capitalists,
but that's the system we're in. We work in it and this is
what we do. It's profit driven. The personal doesn't have to
eliminate profit. Yeah. I think, again, our situation isn't one that corporations
(14:43):
typically go through. A lot of this was born directly from the grief
process. I report directly into our co founder, Nicola Kilner, who is also
Brandon's best friend and started this organisation with him. And so she
was grieving and had to step into the role as CEO and co
founder. So, a very unique journey had to take place there where she
was grieving the loss of her best friend, but also having to step
(15:06):
into his shoes as he was acting as CEO. And it was something
she had never wanted to do. And I think putting those two together,
it made her realise that there's a real lack of kindness and empathy
in leaders. Kindness and success can go hand in hand. And we've seen
it. I think for the last four years especially, there's been an overwhelming
(15:31):
amount of business success because of kindness and empathetic leaders. To
your point, it's a capitalist system. If we've got to be in it,
how do we make it as inclusive as possible so that everyone gets
to participate in what comes from that? Because that's the big barrier,
and people are just going to keep trying to fight to keep others
out. We need to make sure that we're calling them into the conversation
(15:53):
as much as possible, and everyone gets to benefit from this system that
we can't escape. I love what you said in your speech about the
queer agenda. I know you were being cheeky, but I love the idea
of it. It makes me think about how queerness in the broadest sense
is about breaking the pattern to "queer the conversation," as PTP puts it.
(16:13):
And I feel like that's the thing the mainstream really needs to embrace
to break the pattern, to queer it. Yeah, I love how you put
that, "to queer it." And I think that's exactly what needs to take
place. To be queer, it takes a lot, and I'd love to see
a day when it doesn't have to, but it takes a lot of
courage, and you go through a lot of hardships to be able to
(16:36):
really be in, lean into who you are as a full person.
That's kind of where what I look at with the queer agenda.
I also see it, as we kept saying that night, "queer joy."
There is so much to celebrate and so much to continue to celebrate
as we wave our flags and continue to be proud of who we
are. And I think that that's a big piece of that agenda as
(16:58):
well. So, let's do it and spread it as much as possible.
Let's make that our agenda to spread joy and kindness. Well,
what we've been talking about here on Queer Joy is that our joy
is also made up of heartbreak and protest. I love that.
You just gave me full body chills, actually, with that analogy to like,
the two they are. They go hand in hand, and see jokes all
(17:21):
the time about my trauma made me funny, but it's like my trauma
also gave me my joy. It gave me the ability to see the
light, as Rufus would so beautifully say too. "To see the light,"
and as they say, "without the darkness, there is none." Without heartbreak,
how can we know joy? Without protest, how can we know celebration?
(17:43):
And it seems to me Deciem's success as a business and as an
employer comes down to, as Sara puts it, the fact that they grew
the company from grief, founded by a dreamer born as Ali Roshan,
who became a complicated man called Brandon Truaxe, who pushed back brilliantly
against the beauty business but could never find his sense of belonging
in his own life. And then heartbreak, and then protest. Dropping f bombs
(18:07):
in a pink gown while sponsoring an event that celebrates queer achievement
in an uncertain, fearful world, literally creating from heartbreak and protest,
queer joy. Thank you, Deciem, for your foundational support in realising
the Pink Awards. Thank you for being a light under the door.
We'll be talking more about the light under the door in Episode 2. Please
(18:29):
join us for Elliot Page and Skipping Stone. Thanks to our presenting sponsor,
Deciem, the Abnormal Beauty Company, along with category awards sponsor
BMO and media sponsors iHeartRadio, the Globe and Mail, and Everything Podcasts,
and to our publicists, Rocket Promotions. I'm Daniel MacIvor. Thanks for
(18:49):
listening. Queer Joy is a production of Pink Triangle Press.
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