Halifax Pride recently put out a press release to promote the upcoming OUTBid!, their annual auction to raise funds for Pride festivities.

Well, they pulled a pop culture doozy this time.

This year you can bid for a date with Big Brother Canada cast members Emmett Blois and Andrew Monaghan.

The event is hosted by Eureka Love, and the doors open at 6pm this Thursday down at the Harbourfront Room at Casino Nova Scotia. As well as the aforementioned dates, there are lots of other prizes available. Check out the Facebook event page for more details.

Although the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia is tomorrow, May 17, this evening will see a rally take place at Grand Parade.

This year's theme is Our Bodies, Our Health, Our Rights. Speakers at the rally, which kicks off at 6pm, include The Raging Grannies; Gabe Saulnier, from Healing Our Nations; and many more individuals and groups speaking on everything from trans rights to the gay blood ban.

For more information, check out the Facebook event page.

Keeping in the same vein, prideHealth and the Aids Coalition will present Health Impacts of Homophobia and Transphobia at the IWK Health Centre. It features a panel discussion with Jacqueline Gahagan, from Dalhousie School of Health and Human Performance; Ellen Taylor, with the Atlantic Centre of Excellence for Women's Health; Sheena Jamieson, from the YouthProject; and Chris Aucoin, with the AIDS Coalition of Nova Scotia.

For more info, check out prideHealth's poster.

In collaboration with the NSCAD Queer Collective, Halifax Pride recently put out a call for submissions as organizers are looking for the 2013 Halifax Pride visual artist. The artist's work will be exhibited during this summer’s Queer Acts Theatre Festival, be featured in the 2013 Pride Guide, as well as on tickets to various events during Halifax Pride. The deadline for submissions is May 15.

For eligibility criteria and more, check out Halifax Pride’s guidelines on their website.

As well as looking for artists, Halifax Pride is also looking for submissions for events for this year’s Pride Guide, as well as entries to the parade and booth for vendors and organizations at the Community Fair.

For more information on all this and more, check out Halifax Pride’s website.

Later that evening, hundreds of people would stand on the street where he was found, remembering who he was and what he stood for.

In light of the first anniversary of that event, Halifax Pride is asking Haligonians to remember Taavel by placing rainbow flags in their windows, an echo of last year’s happening.

“In organizing this we weren't looking to do something that was a media event, or an event at all really,” says Adam Reid, Halifax Pride's communications coordinator. “We want to give people a way to mark the day, express their grief, celebrate Raymond's life and hopefully find some comfort. People were so touched by the number of flags that sprung up around town last year following Raymond's life, we wanted to replicate that moment and the comfort it brought people.”

Reid notes that there will also be gatherings held at Menz Bar and The Company House between 5 and 7pm, “so people won't feel alone in their grief.” He expects that “many people will just want a hug and someone to talk to.”

When asked about the ongoing and much-delayed trial for Andre Denny, who stands as the accused in Taavel’s death, Reid says, “We're really just focused on celebrating and remembering the friend we lost.”

You can find out more at the Facebook event page.

After a fun-filled evening where a student group resurrected Halifax's queer history with a party at The Turret, the NSCAD Queer Collective is holding a roundtable discussion on safe, queer and trans spaces, as well as the challenges faced by those looking to create those spaces, from both internal and external forces. The event takes place this evening, Tuesday, April 2.

In an email to Down East, a spokesperson for the collective said, "The discussion will be a round table on the concepts of safe space, queer space and community accountability. Together we'll talk about the rhetoric of 'safe space' and what challenges we face as a community in trying to construct safer queer spaces. We have several local organizations lined up to speak about the work they do to create safer spaces for queer and trans* folk!"

An example of the internal challenges that these spaces face is represented in a historical project put on by the collective. During The Turret's heyday, local artist Rand Gaynor painted a mural, an image that certain members of the community took umbrage at, and covered it in graffiti. The NSCAD Queer Collective has brought back the mural, along with the graffiti. The mural's resurrection is also part of the Khyber's 125th anniversary.

For more information on the roundtable discussion, check out the Facebook event page. 

Halifax Pride's annual Fancy Gay Dress Party is almost here.

The event this year will feature Elizabeth Chiu as host for the evening, along with Ian Mullan and Quartet La Corde providing entertainment. The party is a fundraiser for Halifax Pride's upcoming events throughout the summer. For more info, check out the FB page.

The Youth Project is gearing up for a great fundraiser this coming May.

Called Strike out Homophobia, the event will help raise funds for the Youth Project's various services, outreach and education programs, and more.

You can sign up either as a team or as an individual if you are looking to participate and raise funds through social media forums and more. You can also sponsor individuals and teams.

For more information, check out the Youth Project's website.

Author, activist and gender theorist Kate Bornstein has cancer.

However, there is a silver lining in this diagnosis: it is treatable.

So Bornstein's friend Laura Vogel has started a GoFundMe page to help with medical expenses.

"The treatment plan that gives Kate the best chance of beating cancer is incredibly expensive," says Vogel. "Kate has spent the past thirty years helping the rest of us Stay Alive—now it’s our turn to give back.  Let’s HELP KATE BORNSTEIN BEAT CANCER AND STAY ALIVE!"

Donations can be made in various increments, from $5 ranging all the way to $10,000. The page was created on March 20 and in less than three days has raised more than $60,000 to help pay for Bornstein's treatments.

"Kate, or Auntie Kate as so many of us affectionately call her, has helped so many people surmount the trappings of social pressure, bullying, and oppression that so often lead to suicide," Vogel writes in a blog post. "Kate has helped thousands of people choose to 'stay alive,' as she puts it. So, when she told me that she wouldn't be able to follow the treatment plan that her doctors said was her best -- and only -- hope for beating cancer, it broke my heart. I was sad, confused, and outraged. And then I remembered: we can fix this problem; we can make Kate's treatment plan financially possible."

Bornstein's book, A Queer and Pleasant Danger, tells her story of living as a Scientologist. Check out her interview with Xtra, posted in August of 2012.

It's a great week in Halifax to be queer and help out at the same time.

Last year's host, Heidi Petracek.

Fundraisers like this are a big deal for the ACNS, since the money raised constitutes a large portion of their annual budget. All the funds raised at this event help people here in Nova Scotia by providing programs and services for those living with HIV/AIDS as well as those most at risk.

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On Friday, the second annual Masqueerade will be taking place at the Atlantica Hotel.

The event is open to all university and college LGBTQ+ students and allies in the HRM for this dance party, featuring drag performances by Kristi Davidson and friends. This all-ages, wet/dry event is selling tickets by each LGBTQ+ society on HRM's various campuses DalOUT, NSCAD's Queer Collective, Kings Pride, SMU-Q, NSCC's Diversity Club and Mount Pride Watch. Doors open at 9pm, with performances taking place from 9:30 until 10:30pm. Dancing and a photo booth afterward.

For more information, check out the Facebook event page.

A few months ago, Down East told you about the unfortunate hiatus that Eureka Love's talent show, 5 Minutes of Fame, was forced into.

Looks like there is a little bit of light at the end of that tunnel, and it leads straight to Saint Mary's University.

This Friday, Eureka will be back on the mic, along with 10 acts strutting their stuff on the stage of the Gorsebrook, on Saint Mary's University campus.

The event is being put on in conjunction with SMU-Q, Saint Mary's queer society. The show goes from 9pm until 11pm. For more information, check out 5 Minutes of Fame's Facebook page.