Having a
gay old time

It’s (almost) all queer fun for local
busybodies Kate Lamothe and Nora Rohman

UP WITH PINK BLOCS: Nora Rohman and Kate Lamothe

by LINA HARPER

When it comes to queer organizing in the city, especially when it comes to queers having safe fun, Kate Lamothe and Nora Rohman have got it covered. As queer community organizers, they like to keep their options open—kind of like their non-monogamous relationship to each other.

Rohman, 21, took over as the main event organizer for Faggity Ass Friday parties last January, a monthly event that benefits Head & Hands’ Sense Project, a series of sex ed workshops. The dance parties have become staples in queer Montreal’s diet, and Rohman loves the harried pace. She’s even got time to fit in a sexuality major and contributions for CKUT radio show Audio Smut.

“I don’t want to put my energy behind fighting for marriage and fighting for being in the military, because I don’t want to invest into those things,” she says. “I would rather put my energy into organizing around issues that affect me and my community.”

Her partner Lamothe, 25, is a self-identified transsexual who is emerging on the Montreal queer landscape as an important figure in community organizing. She was Queer Concordia’s first trans president in 2007, helped found the Against the Wall Collective—a kink party for women-identified and/or trans-identified folks—writes smut pertaining to transfolk and performs spoken word on local stages.

The ladies started becoming more active in Montreal with 2006 and 2007’s Pervers/Cité event, an alternative to Divers/Cité’s perceived over-corporatized, depoliticized gay pride week. They organized workshops, crashed the pride parade and essentially became queer renegades.

When it comes to uniting action with theory, or mixing pleasure with politics, Lamothe says they’re all intertwined. “With my performance art, or with Against the Wall organizing, there is such a long, storied history of transwomen being shoved out of women-only spaces. It’s important to recognize that context when you’re trying to actively change the ways things work,” she says.

And although they both have their own individual projects, the pair often comes together behind the scenes—they were both, for instance, founding members of the Against the Wall collective. Lamothe wants to see queer activism move towards different issues. “I would like to see a stronger queer presence at events that aren’t necessarily queer... more pink blocs, as they’re called. I want to see queer organizing take on a broader scope to try and intersect with other folks who are fighting similar but different oppression... [for example] security certificate hearings.”

The next Faggitys are Jan. 23 and Feb. 20. Check out againstthewallmontreal.wordpress.com for more.