About

Hi! Nice to meet you! My name is Andrea Zanin, otherwise known as the Sex Geek. I’m a gender-fluid queer-kinky-poly gal living in Toronto, Canada, and I spend a lot of time travelling around to other places too, most notably my former hometown, Montreal. I have a stupidly long CV of all the community activism, consulting, studying, reading, writing and teaching I’ve done on a wide range of topics related to alternative sexuality over the past eight years or so - among other things I’ve given over 65 workshops on a wide range of topics - but I’ll spare you the gory details. Suffice it to say that sex-geekiness is my passion, my life, and the most frequent fodder for my excessive and overflowing desire to write. I’m glad you found me… thanks for reading!

You can reach me by leaving a comment here or writing to me at veryqueer3 at yahoo dot ca.

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Okay, you really want the CV? Here are some choice bits of it. Seriously, the whole thing is waaay too long to post here.

Brief bio

Andrea Zanin, a.k.a. Sex Geek, pretty much writes and talks about sex all the time unless she’s eating, sleeping or having it. She lives in Toronto and is an organizer, educator and writer within the queer, polyamory and BDSM communities, as well as being an active trans ally. She frequently speaks about alternative sexuality for universities, colleges, sex shops, community groups and conferences in Canada and the States. Andrea also comments on alternative-sexuality news and politics in a variety of media including the Montreal Mirror and Dykes on Mikes (CKUT 90.3FM), as well as obsessively blogging at http://sexgeek.wordpress.com. On the side, she writes erotic fiction and pursues her studies in the field of sexuality. She can be reached at veryqueer3 at yahoo dot ca.

Current and recent stuff

• Co-organizer of An Unholy Harvest - Canada’s first weekend for women and transfolk of leather in over a decade, which took place in Ottawa from October 5 to 7, 2007. Workshops, play parties, film screenings and more! (More info here.)
• Speaker and workshop facilitator on various sexuality-related topics at colleges, universities, alternative sex shops and conferences. Check out my Workshops page for more info.
• Founding member and Board of Governors member for the Unholy Army of the Night, Montreal’s leatherdyke group (2003-present). (More info here.)
• Film writer for Image+Nation, Montreal’s international queer film festival (as of 2007), and for Inside Out, Toronto’s gay and lesbian film festival (as of 2008).
• Occasional guest host and interview subject with Dykes on Mikes radio show in Montreal, CKUT 90.3 (2005-present).
• Regular contributor of queer news articles to the Montreal Mirror (2005-present). A couple of my favourite recent articles are here and here.
• Soon-to-be contributor of news articles to the Xtra!, Toronto’s queer newspaper.
• Writer of short fiction and magazine articles. Recent publications include the article “Notes from Outside the Gender Spectrum” in Other Magazine (issue #12, summer 2007) and erotic short story “The Butch, the Boy and Me” in Violet Blue’s anthology Lust: Women’s Erotica, from Cleis Press (spring 2007).
• Organizer and facilitator of Montreal’s Queer Ladies’ Reading Society (for the bent and bookish), a reading group for dykes and other queers of the female (or thereabouts) persuasion (2000-2007).
• Book reviewer for CanadianLesbianLiterature.ca (here) and NoMorePotlucks.org (here).

Recent past stuff

• 2006-2007: Consultant for GRIS (Groupe de recherche et d’intervention sociale), a group which provides anti-homophobia talks in schools; my mandate was to advise them during their process of expanding their mandate to include bisexuality.
• 2005-2007: Founder and senior organizer of CinéKink, Montreal’s monthly BDSM/fetish film and discussion series.
• 2000-2006: Senior organizer of Tip of the Tongue, Montreal’s social group for lesbian and bi women.
• 2000-2006: Hotline listener with Gay Line, Montreal’s listening and information line for GLBT people and others; served three terms as president (2001-2004) and two as a past-president executive board member (2004-2006).
• Safety monitor at Toronto’s Pussy Palace all-women’s bathhouse event (June 2006) and San Francisco’s Bang 4 the Buck all-women’s play party (February 2007 and April 2008), in addition to regular safety monitor duties at Unholy Army of the Night events in Montreal.
• Organizer of Gay Line’s 30th anniversary event, “30 Years of Queer,” (June 8, 2006), a catered eight-member panel presentation featuring queer community historians and activists giving an overview of Montreal’s queer history. Attended by 200 or more community members and covered by the Montreal Gazette, the Montreal Mirror and CTV.

If you’re interested in my workshops and speaking gigs (past, present and possible), take a look at the Workshops page!