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Retire old tires
The Regional District of the Central Okanagan will host four passenger tire drop-off locations Oct. 24 and 25 in Kelowna and Lake Country. See story A5.
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LGBTQ activist makes Kelowna home Kathy Michaels kmichaels@kelownacapnews.com
Chevi Rabbit is a striking new addition to the UBC Okanagan campus. Dark bob, perfect makeup and impressive posture make the 27-year-old a stand-out. That and the fact he is “gender fluid” in a city that is only starting to appreciate its LGBTQ community. Rabbit, who moved to the Okanagan in September, currently identifies himself as a gay male, although his appearance is distinctly feminine. One day he hopes to make the transition to be a woman because, in his words, he can’t see himself ever being an old man. “That’s why I like the term gender fluid
Homophobic harassment at Alberta university leads hate crime victim to relocate to the Okanagan. best… because I think you could be straight and gender fluid, or gay and gender fluid. It just means that you don’t get stuck to any gender norms,” he said. Discussing gender appears to be easy and uncomplicated for Rabbit, who through personal strife became a spokesperson for Alberta’s trans community—something he sees himself doing in Kelowna one day, too, if his voice is wanted. “I was gay bashed,” he said. “I used to
not be able to say it … I was in therapy for almost a year and on different medications for anxiety, but now I’m off and I can talk about it.” Rabbit was a University of Alberta student in 2012, when he says he was targeted in an attack near his campus dorm. “They were yelling at me, cat-calling me, I think, and I turned around and said, ‘thank you,”’ he said, echoing words laid out in countless Albertan news stories. That’s when Rabbit thinks the three men who were harassing him realized he wasn’t a woman. They shouted some homophobic slurs at him and then one assaulted him.
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