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Happy Thanksgiving, folks! I’m on my way over to the turkey sacrifice right now, practicing my J-Lo“It’s Turkey time, y’know, gobble, gobble,” voice, and today I’m just going to remind you about all the great things to be thankful for.

For example, e-stim afficionadoes will be thankful that Taser International is now recommending that police “aim lower” than the chest when using taser devices. I’m just going to squirm a bit in my seat thinking about that and seque to something less ridiculous.

More importantly, we can all be thankful to live in a country where we can be free to be out and proud and unafraid of targetted violence (at least most of the time). Matthew Sheppard didn’t have that luxury, and today is the eleventh anniversary of his death. New York’s Tectonic Theatre Project has created a sequel to their chilling docudrama The Laramie Project called The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later which debuts tonight in staged readings at 125 theatres around the world, including right here in Toronto. Studio 180, who debuted the original Laramie in Toronto, is hosting the reading tonight at Bread and Circus (299 Augusta Ave, 8pm). Admission is by donation and proceeds go to the 519 Community Centre.

Rob Salerno is a playwright and journalist whose writing has appeared in such publications as Vice, Advocate, NOW and OutTraveler.

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