What we can learn from Schitt’s Creek

Gender issues in Hamilton are more interesting now than at any time in recent years

When I received an invitation from a group called “Body and Soul,” to come and speak about the complexity of 2SLGBTQ+ issues in Hamilton, I knew it would be an interesting conversation. Self-described as, “women of a certain age,” the group has been meeting weekly for over 50 years at St. James Anglican Church in Dundas, though members come from beyond the church walls and encompass a range of age and experience.

Described in Hamilton Public Library’s Red Book as a “women’s group which meets for light exercise, speakers and programs of interest,” Bev Hayden, one of the organizers, says the description is still true 50 years later, but with a few tweaks.

“It started as an outreach group for moms and tots. We didn’t work in those days, nor have cars.” They originally had babysitters and a person to lead exercises, but now the children are grown and they exercise to Richard Simmons tapes. Despite those changes, they are clearly interested in staying relevant.

I’d already visited them once before when they wrote to say they wanted information on the “correct language to use and a brief outline of the different groups” in the 2SLGBTQ+ initialism. Not long into our time together, someone who could have been a founding member asked, “What is pansexual?” I wondered if she had been watching “Schitt’s Creek.”

“Schitt’s Creek” is a hilarious, multi-award winning, CBC show with one of the first pansexual characters to ever appear on television. David Rose is played by Dan Levy, the show’s co-creator with his reallife father, Hamilton-born and raised, Eugene Levy, who also plays his father on the show, Johnny Rose. While most of the over 30 awards are for the comedic and acting talent of each of the actors, including Catherine O’Hara (Moira Rose), more importantly to me are the Dorian and GLAAD Media awards for the representation of LGBTQ characters in the show. One of the unique features of “Schitt’s Creek” when it comes to the queer folks in this little town is the absence of any homophobia.

So, you might still be asking, what is pansexual? When David, an effeminate presenting character whom one might assume is gay, is asked whether he prefers red wine (men) or white wine (women), he has a brilliant reply.

“I do drink red wine. But I also drink white wine. And I’ve been known to sample the occasional rosé. And a couple summers back I tried a merlot that used to be a chardonnay, which got a bit complicated … I like the wine and not the label.”

It is an attraction to all people regardless of their gender or sexual orientation. High school students have described their pansexual identity to me as being, “about the heart, not the parts.”

It is important to note, some bisexual people also identify in the same way, open to loving people of all genders, meaning beyond the binary of men and women, so there is some debate around the difference of the terms pansexual and bisexual for some. It wouldn’t be the 2SLGBTQ+ community if there wasn’t a debate about something. (Wink face emoji.)

The Body and Soul women started back in a time when everything was pretty much “gay.” The word lesbian was just starting to be reclaimed after the second wave of feminism. When Canadian folk icon, Ferron, hit the stage with her guitar in 1979, as an out and proud lesbian, she was known as a trailblazer then, just like Dan Levy is now, both using their art to promote messages of healing and inclusion.

You might not have heard of Ferron unless you hung out at folk and women’s music festivals in the ’80s and ’90s. With long-running comparisons to Bruce Springsteen and Leonard Cohen, she’s had a huge influence on two of my favourites, the Indigo Girls and Ani DiFranco. In 1996, she received the OUTmusic Lifetime Achievement Award at the Gay and Lesbian American Music Awards.

This year, on International Women’s Day, Hamilton’s Playhouse Cinema will host Ferron in concert, along with my queer old friend, Kate Reid. Kate is hilarious as she sings stories of her life, like being “The Only Dyke at the Open Mic.” They are also very smart, going for a PhD on how queer folk songs can be used as curriculum tools to teach about gender and sexual diversity. Like Body and Soul, be open to hearing something new!

Deirdre Pike is a freelance columnist for The Hamilton Spectator. She is spending IWD, March 8, at a 3 p.m., matinée listening to the passionate voices of Ferron and Kate Reid. Hamilton’s Playhouse Cinema is located at 177 Sherman Ave. North. playhousecinema.ca