A few weeks ago I was sitting in Woody’s witnessing the absolute wonder that is the Ladies of SAS drag show and had what I think was a religious experience. Not only was I soaked with holy water during the ferocious trio’s incredible gospel segment, but while Mahogany Browne, Tynomi Banks and Nicolette Brown danced around the room in perfect choreography, costume and attitude, I was lifted. I floated above the crowd of gnarly bears, hunky students, twinked-out tarts and your basic — and my favourite — everyday ’mos and saw a group of men (I chose to ignore the women during this out-of-body experience) together in a room having a great time. I also witnessed one of the city’s greatest drag shows, something to be proud of.

“This is the kind of shit guys need to know about,” I yelled.

I was just happy to be gay and in Toronto at that moment, and I find that happens a lot lately. This joy and its presence in so many scenes across Toronto is the kind of thing I want to share with fab readers — fab will no longer be the “gay scene magazine,” but the “gay scenes magazine.” There is so much happening in every corner and I plan on using the magazine’s incredible pool of writers, designers, photographers, interns and our OCG (obsessive-compulsive grammarian) copy editor.

Many years ago I moved to Toronto, a fresh and naive li’l homo, to complete a journalism diploma and intern at fab under then-editor Mitchel Raphael. I’d never been part of something so titillating, gay, dedicated and detail-oriented.
I slaved away over listings, getting just the right dirty word in wherever I could. I wrote my first-ever cover story with walking-queer-Toronto-encyclopedia and hair-care advocate Drew Rowsome about sports in the city and always kept in touch with the fab crew.

After a few years of wild dancing, DJing and promoting, I became the Tunes columnist and thought all my gay journalistic dreams had come true. fab has always been part of my existence and is about to swallow an even larger part of it as I move into the role of editor. I’m extremely honoured to be in this position and don’t take it for granted. I know a thing or two about Toronto’s scenes, but I know even more about the amazing men in this city (Hi Mitchel! Hi Matt! Hi Drew!) and plan on showing off all of them — clothed, naked or otherwise — and as much as possible. Homo realness.