The Odyssey will not be moving to Denman and unless we all take the time to send a quick email, it will be going going gone at the end of April. The Odyssey was the first real gay bar I visited. It's the first place I saw male strippers. It's also the first bar I felt "okay to be gay" in. It's where we launched "Seminal: The Anthology of Canada's Gay Male Poetry". It's also the club where I got to participate in the filming of a music video for the first time (love you Destineak).
That's a lot of firsts and probably not even all of them. Here's a note from manager Will McGuire. Take some time and send an email to city council.
As most of you know, April 9th City Council rejected our application to relocate THE ODYSSEY to Denman St.
Unless
something is done NOW, The Odyssey WILL be closed April 30. Ironic as
we are currently the *busiest* GAY club in the city. Our application
for relocation was denied by the same people who kicked us out of our
current home. If you want the O around long enough to find a new
place... get your anger flowing please...
If you don't feel the
rage yet, or don't see how this affects you, try this on... a sitting
Councillor compared the loss of THE ODYSSEY to the loss of his father's
favourite CHINESE RESTAURANT-- he was sad for a while, then he just
found another one. This was an actual arguement made by our elected
officials. No other Councillors, including openly gay Councillor
Woodsworth, took issue with this comparison. This indication of how
trivial City Council views issues important to our community should
SERIOUSLY offend you.
Understand that City Hall has NO incentive
or requirement to extend our stay on Howe St. unless they are FORCED to
by a massive amount of external pressure. That's YOU GUYS. GET ANGRY
ABOUT THIS. It's the only way we stick around. Tell City Hall "YOU made
this mess... YOU kicked us out... YOU denied our attempt to move... so
YOU need to let us stay where we are until we find a space that YOU
deem "appropriate". It doesn't matter if you've sent 600 emails to
council already... Do it today. And then again tomorrow. And the next
day. Until the City stands up and takes notice of what's happening to
our community.
Do it now. The 40+ staff members of the Odyssey
who have been fighting this for a YEAR now can NOT pull this off alone.
If you want more than 1 1/2 gay clubs in Vancouver, WRITE/CALL NOW.
TALK ABOUT THIS. And stay tuned for more ways YOU can have a direct
impact on Vancouvers LGBT Cultural Landscape.
Write: mayorandcouncil@vancouver.ca today and contact Will via facebook for more ways to help out.
We have 3 weeks Vancouver. Please wake up, take notice, and take charge of your community before it's too late.
