by PATRICK LEJTENYI

For the past couple of years, the Pink Panthers, a Montreal-based radical queer group, has been challenging conventional wisdom about the gay community with a blend of art, politics, action and humour. At Divers/Cité 2003, they distributed anti-ad kits (condoms and lube to protect the brain from advertising geared at the gay community); on St. Valentine's Day 2004, they dumped fake barf on the doorsteps of several prominent Gay Village establishments, including porn stores, to protest the commodification of gay sex; at Divers/Cité 2004, they staged a die-in to protest, among other things, the silence surrounding gay conjugal violence and body fascism, and later congratulated themselves for getting kicked out of the gay and lesbian marriage expo. Most recently, they and their "Sodo-mobile" - a van with a papier-mâché pink panther buttfucking a man in a business suit on the roof - tried to invade the Conservative Party's Montreal convention, blocking the entrance and kissing delegates.

This year, they may or may not stage some kind of action at Divers/Cité, says an uncharacteristically coy Panthers rep, but will be holding two film nights to launch their Politically Erect DVD compilation of 19 shorts, produced in conjunction with local film collective Les Lucioles. The first showing of excerpts will be at le Lounge (1285 Amherst) at the Revolting Queers documentary night, hosted by similarly-minded radical queer group the Ass Pirates, on Thursday, July 28 at 6:30 p.m. The second, official Montreal launch will be Sunday, July 31, at la Sala Rossa (4848 St-Laurent) at 10 p.m., for $10.

The compilation's highlights include bits on the Pink Bloc at the 2000 World Bank/IMF protests in Prague, a beautifully animated and scored (if somewhat simplistic) explanation of globalization, a 1971 interview with members of the Front de libération homosexuelle and an anthropological look at the Bonobo, pygmy chimpanzees inhabiting the forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo who use sex rather than violence to resolve aggression and hierarchy.

"We've sort of adopted the Bonobo as an unofficial mascot," says "Minoune," a 24-year-old Panther who, like all Panthers, requests anonymity as their actions may have repercussions at the community and law enforcement level.

"We've wanted to spread queer theory for a long time," she says. "We want to break the isolation many feel by broadcasting to the public." Queer theory, she explains in brief, revolves around three basic points: the first is the questioning and breaking down of the "binary" gender and sexual orientation categories; the second is a strong anti-capitalist bent; the third involves questioning the "Rainbow" of gay culture, with its emphasis on buff young hairless white men.

The Panthers are also growing. Minoune, one of the original founders, say the core has doubled from five to 10, but at the Conservative convention they were joined by about 70 fellow protesters.

Nevertheless, the Panthers say they aren't anti-Divers/Cité per se. "It's neither good nor bad," says Minoune. "But we question it a lot. The community groups are hidden from it, and it makes so much money for the city. We have our critiques. But we'd rather laugh at it than participate in it."