express brings you our own version of family – contributors, colleagues and community stalwarts – together to wish you all a very merry Christmas.

Toby Steele – Owner of DNA Bar

When I look back on 2011, the defining moment for me came in January, when I walked down Auckland’s K’Road and saw a massive gap in the market. This was when I decided to take on the DNA Bar project – a bar that would appear to a different demographic than what was out there.

One of the biggest things for me this year has been the consultation on the Auckland Pride project. We managed to get a lot of things done during Rugby World Cup year and we’re looking forward to consultation gearing up again in the New Year. Getting a big GLBT festival back in Auckland will be a huge thing for the community.

This Christmas is doubly exciting for me – for the first time in 12 years I’ll be spending the 25th with my family in Northland, and we get to spend it with the family’s first grandchild; my niece whom I will spoil rotten! In the past, Christmas has meant more work and getting other people off on their holidays, but this year there’s going to be a lot of family and a lot of love!

Curvaceous Dee – gayexpress.co.nz contributor

There have been some great anniversaries to celebrate this year – not only 25 years since Homosexual Law Reform (hooray for being able to fuck legally), but also 35 years of the Auckland Women’s Centre, and 500 issues of express! Not only were these all defining events at the time, but absolutely so now as well.

For Christmas this year, I’ll be travelling down to New Plymouth with my civil union partner and my niece, to spend time with my father’s side of the family. And trying to avoid getting sunburnt! I joke that Christmas is actually Giftmas, but it’s really about quality time with people you choose to be with. Most years we have “waifs and strays” at our place on both the 25th and 26th of December – people come by as they escape other commitments; hang out and take it easy and just have a relaxing time. It’s a good way to be.

This is great, but my Christmas wish is that I could be with all my partners for the day, instead of having them in Melbourne, Auckland, and scattered hither and yon!

Alan Granville – Co-owner of Urge, Bear New Zealand organiser

We’ve had a lot of very positive things happen in the community this year, but I think the Asia Pacific Outgames in Wellington back in March was a huge boost. It was great – not just for the community in Wellington, but for the whole country. The organisers and volunters deserve all the plaudits they have got. For ourselves personally, one of the biggest goals we’ve achieved has been establishing Bear New Zealand as a fixture in the gay calendar and putting Auckland on the bear map.

This year, like every year, Paul and I will be heading down to Waiuku to see Paul’s folks. Then its back to Auckland where we have an “orphans’” Christmas with all our friends who don’t have family locally. It’s normally a very big piss-up! Then its back at the bar as Urge is open Boxing Day. Christmas is a great get-together time with all our mates, but it is also a sad time for me personally as it is the one time of year that I really miss my home in Ireland. It’s more poignant this year following the death of my father, so I wish I was home for my Mum.

My Christmas wish from an Urge point of view is that it would be great to see people hitting the bars and clubs more in 2012! From my own point of view, it would be to stay healthy and hang onto what’s left of my sanity… and win the lottery, of course! Photo taken with Paul (left).

Vaughan Meneses – OUTLine general manager

The most overwhelming and defining event this year was the superbly organised and run Asia Pacific Outgames in Wellington, in particular the conference. It was the best conference I have had the pleasure of attending and there seemed to be a resurgence of positive dialogue and strengths based action stemming from it. As an organisation there have been three very special moments: 1. Celebrating the Topp Twins as our patrons; 2. Being supported by the Families Commission to consult with Queer families; 3. Having a hugely exciting and significant project around mental health funded. And being Miss Russia in QWU was also a blast! There are also exciting times ahead with our voices being heard – we will see the trans community grow and strengthen, the needs of older GLBTI people will start to be more widely recognised, there will be even greater support for and between community based groups within the community.

Clinton and I will be with my 13 year old son and 15 year old nephew and heading to Vinegar Hill for New Year and then a few nights camping at Uretiti. The key themes are cheap, fun and relaxing! Christmas always means eating, drinking and being a big Mary!

My Christmas wishes are for cures for two diseases that kill us: HIV and bigotry. Oh, and on a personal note, a way of staying fit that does not require effort or exercise no matter what you eat or drink. Photo taken with Venus Mantrapp and husband Clinton.

Leif Wauters – express contributor

Although there are always a slew of historic moments around the world a few stand out to us in Oceania. First up there was the Outgames and related conference on the mental health of the community, which was quite defining for the GLBT community. Secondly there has been the plummeting popularity of Australian PM Gillard, who could potentially serve to benefit the GLBT community if she and her party get drummed out of office, especially with the polls in the country turning more and more positively towards legalising gay marriage. Finally, coming up for New Zealand will be the benefits reaped from the change in stance for HIV positive immigrants with Kiwi partners. This could improve so many lives that have lived in stress and fear for too long. Next year I hope to see more youth participation in the building and improving of our community, especially in areas of volunteerism with the hope that the up-and-coming generation will realise that although a wage is important, giving time to the world around pays back in amazing and untold ways.

This year, Morris and I will be enjoying Christmas week in Sydney, then partying it up in Lismore for another fantastic addition of Tropical Fruits. The meaning of Christmas has changed somewhat for me since moving here – it now means it’s hot instead of cold, but it reminds me of the most valuable things in life – the lives we touch both through friendship and love. I’m not a big shopper, but I give as much as I can with my heart and time.

My big Christmas wish is for my residence visa to be approved and for the process of settling into my kiwi existence to continue comfortably. That and more quality chances to dance in our community! Photo taken with husband Morris (left) and Hannah JV.

Kita Mean – Up-and-coming drag diva

Looking back on this year, as a community we have been consistently expanding. Seeing more and more people becoming out and proud members of society is absolutely heartwarming. Celebrating a quarter century of law reform, the GLBT community is finally starting to have its voice heard without having to scream over the masses.

In the year to come I hope to see the community coming together as one, with tolerance, respect and love toward each other, strengthening the community internally. We all share a special bond, a bond that some people will never understand but united WE stand.

I will be spending Christmas this year working hard, loving those around me and indulging in a bit of love in return. This is the season when we get a chance to stop and think, and be grateful for those around us and for those we have had the honour of being around in the past. If I could have one wish come true this year I would wish for a worldwide understanding and tolerance of others. And if that couldn’t come through I would settle for a lovely man and a new wardrobe. Ahh, a gurl can dream!

Miss Ribena – Drag diva at Family Nightclub

I really love the annual events that happen in Auckland. I always enjoy heading along to the Big Gay Out in the sunshine with the community. It’s this big, beautiful picnic that everyone enjoys and I just love it. The after-party is always a huge deal as well – filled with colour, diversity and a lot of happy people. I also went down to Gay Ski Week this year – even though the original outfit went under, the guys who put together events with just a few days’ notice was great. I’ve also loved going on the Pink Flight too.

I’m looking forward to 2012, especially at Family. We’ve seen a lot of changes at the bar this year – the opening of Clock and Swallow, the revamped smoking area for all those dirty fag hags outside and the bar’s new look! Next year we’ll be pulling together new events and having a great time doing it.

I’ll be in Auckland for Christmas this year. I’ve got a gig on Christmas Eve at the Cozzie Club, then the next day I’m having a bit of a sleep in and then a brunch – plenty of meat and a spot of bubbles! Then later it’s dinner at a friend’s apartment.

Miss Phloss – Queerlesque creator and entertainer

I think New York leagalising gay marriage was the biggest thing for me in 2011 – it really made the world wake up and be more aware of GLBT issues; it was so noticeable in mainstream media here and internationally. Watching the news was amazing – so many, many happy, teary, feel good moments. It was so heart warming to see couples I aspire to be like – still together and in love in their 80s and beyond! Will New Zealand be next?

I’ll be spending Christmas with family this year. I’m glad to say that this year my family are much more open to my being gay than last year. I think having a parent who has or has had cancer makes families closer when they really realise what is important. I’m very happy that my dad will be out of hospital this Christmas! Christmas will be a celebration of that, and that I made it through another year with my sanity still intact and my friends and family around me. Christmas brings the promise of rest and preparation for a New Year and the adventure it might bring. What better way to spend this awesome period than with people that love you?

This Christmas I wish that my Nana who passed away this year could know how much I love and miss her and that she is still my inspiration to be daring, courageous and caring! I love you Nana!

Amie Wee – express writer / sex blogger

There have been a huge number of highlights over the course of 2011, but for me, a personal highlight was going over to Sydney and having my mother want to be an active part of Mardi Gras with me. It made me so happy to realise she was no longer just putting up with my sexuality – she wanted to understand it and celebrate it. Beyond that, Queerlesque because it re-imagined the staleness of the scene and brought together people of all varieties. It was the first GLBT event I’ve been to in Auckland that had a community/all inclusive vibe to it, rather than feeling very “gay OR lesbian”. I am really looking forward to seeing Queerlesque grow and diversify. It has the potential to bridge the gap that I think currently exists in the community. Not all of us gays are techno dykes you know!

I’m a bit nervous about Christmas this year because it’s the first one in years that I won’t be with my family. In exchange, I plan on surrounding myself with my kiwi family and fast tracking my way to a 3-5 day food coma. Christmas will always mean good food and good people, but it will also mean wishing to find a cage of half naked, 1950s redheaded Playboy centrefolds cat-fighting for my attention underneath the Christmas tree.

Steven Oates – MC extraordinaire

I guess the election has been a defining event for us in that it really does highlight how diverse the GLBT community is. We are voting in all directions this year and not so much united behind one party. The Asia Pacific OutGames showed us that Wellington puts Auckland to shame in some respects – they put on a fantastic international event and we can’t even pull together any sort of small GLBT festival. I love how the bears stamped their paw prints on the social calendar even more this year. HIV is unfortunately an event every year. Do we have the strength and self worth to turn the tide next year?

Next year we can look forward to more of the same and more opportunities. I always love Big Gay Out and Out In The Square. We need to realise our potential and become masters of our own destiny so to speak. We can make anything happen if we just get over ourselves and get on with it.

I’m an atheist but Christmas is really important to me as it is when all the family makes the effort to be together for a good catch up. It’s also a time of year to reflect on the year that has been and to start focusing on the year ahead. It’s also really the start of summer, which is a bit cruel when there is so much food about just before I head to the beach!
As for my Christmas wish – everyone wants world peace and health for all, but something more achievable? I wish people would see the bigger picture. We live in an amazingly beautiful country where so much is possible. We just need to stop being our own worst enemies and give ourselves permission to succeed and be happy.