Lucas Morneau, Queer Newfoundland Hockey League (QNHL), 2021–ongoing. Courtesy of the artist.
Introducing the Queer Newfoundland Hockey League trading cards!
Collect all the cards for a complete set! Check out the stats on your favourite players and see whether your stars align.
Established in 2021, the QNHL blossomed out of Queer ecologies buried under centuries of sentient bedrock. Embracing the hidden crystalline-glistening glow of Queer culture across the province, QNHL teams have become the nesting grounds for Queer sovereignty, unabashed gayety in the name of sport, and all that the 2SLGBTQIA+ world has to offer. Like the mighty shift of tectonic plates when the world came out, the QNHL rumbled unheard for many centuries until the ocean floor split open, revealing a glowing chasm through which this glittering masquerade gushed to the surface.
The true origins of the QNHL are a bit of a mystery. The only sure thing is the QNHL is Here, it’s Queer, and it’s not going A N Y W H E R E !
Now that your lips are wet with anticipation let’s meet some of the charismatic QTs honing their hockey skills on the ice and unleashing their Queerest quirks off the ice.
NAME: Siobhan O’Connell
PRONOUNS: they/she; IM. GORGEOUS
TEAM: Ferryland Fairies
HOMETOWN: Ferryland, NL
POSITION: Goalie
SUN: Aquarius. I’m such a classic Aquarian. I bestow water and life upon the lands! Splish splash, babies!
MOON: Scorpio, the original sexy and mysterious brooding bitch.
RISING: Pisces. IYKYK.
ABOUT ME: Me = this, other than the hair:
There she sat with her extraordinary stark white face, a weirdly shaped skull, kind of cubist and long, with raven black hair. I adored her because she was a mask. This, combined with her sensibility, literary and scrupulous, made her essentially Aquarian to me, an endless revolving door.
My ancestors hail from the land of fairies and shamrocks, crossing the seas long ago; they docked in Iceland where my great great great great great great great nan learned the art of speaking to húldufólkin—the hidden people. This skill keeps me light on my feet, feisty with my stick, and goal-oriented. If I don’t want your goal in my net, it won’t be happening. If you don’t read astrology: my sun, moon, and rising mean I’m a little airy, pretty watery, and very, very mysterious and sexy. The fairies are always with me. I’m like the icebergs that drift into harbour in Ferryland—there is more to me than you can see or could ever imagine! I will blow your mind with my magnitude.
CURRENTLY READING: Nevada by Imogen Binnie and How Far the Light Reaches by Sabrina Imbler. This shit is luminous, trans, enby, genderqueer, revolutionary prose.
CHERISHED ITEM: My very first cassette tape, The Lion and the Cobra by the one and only Sinéad O'Connor, Rest in Power.
ANTHEM: “Nothing Compares 2U” by (duh) Sinéad O’Connor; I’m kind of into Enya too, can’t help it, what can I say.
POKÉMON ALTER EGO: Ninetales or Dragonair; so elegant, like moi.
Lucas Morneau, Queer Newfoundland Hockey League (QNHL), 2021–ongoing. Courtesy of the artist.
NAME: Roísín Fagan
PRONOUNS: she/her, they/them, dead/undead
TEAM: Fogo Island Fag Hags
HOMETOWN: Old Perlican, NL
POSITION: Left Wing
SUN: Capricorn
MOON: Cancer
RISING: Cancer—ooof, a complex queer goth starscape. A sea goat-stubborn, softy Cancerian water baby with a double Teflon shell.
ABOUT ME: BOO! Pronounce my name wrong and I’ll curse you. I’m known across the league for my killer slapshot, a skill that was brought to me when I was hagged. The Old Hag came to me in the night once, only once. It was, as the tale goes, dark and stormy, wind howling, rain pelting the diamond-shaped panes of my bedroom windows. I awoke to find her, this Old Hag, sitting on my chest, weighing me down, heavy, choking me. The ghost woman was no relative of mine, but she was hot and leather clad, kind of like someone out of a fantasy. At first, she just glared at me, squatting on my chest. But then she rose, one black thigh-high patent leather stiletto boot on my chest, the heel a needle above my heart. Her arm transmogrified into a hockey stick, and she started to thwack me as if my head were a puck she was slap-shooting into the net. Over and over and over she hit my head; I had whiplash from the force of it. I woke the next morning and signed up for the team. Come to think of it, that Old Hag might have been the genesis of my hi-domme alter ego.
CURRENTLY READING: On Hell and Minerva the Miscarriage of the Brain by Johanna Hedva
CHERISHED ITEM: The ashes of all my cats and my handmade rosary with beads of obsidian, black onyx, and a figure of Inanna in place of Jesus.
ANTHEM: I know technically I already shared Hedva, but their album Black Moon Liliith in Pisces in the 4th House is the Queer death metal of my dreams. O Death, o Death!
POKÉMON ALTER EGO: Misdreavus, because I absorb and eat fear! But also, Hexpert, because witch.
Lucas Morneau, Queer Newfoundland Hockey League (QNHL), 2021–ongoing. Courtesy of the artist.
NAME: Dick Butt
PRONOUNS: he/him
TEAM: Dildo Dykes
HOMETOWN: Dildo, NL
POSITION: Forward
SUN: Taurus, some stubbornness in there.
MOON: Virgo. Yea, a bit stubborn.
RISING: Libra…and indecisive.
ABOUT ME: I’m a classic Dildonian, a little Dildo dilly, born and raised in the tip at the bottom of Trinity Bay. Just a little Dildo dilly. I’m posted as forward in most games, but really I’m a switch, thanks to Johnny Bottoms and his groin injury back in ’69, errr or was it ’96? The poppers must be doing a number on my brain cells. Anyway, when Bottoms left the team, that’s really when I started to get deep into the game. I like to shake it up, experience things from all sides—up, down, here, there, top, bottom, you know the drill. I’m versatile, a nicer way to say indecisive!
CURRENTLY READING: Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor and listening to/reading Holy Soul Jelly Roll by Allen Ginsberg. Please master, please master, please! Ginsberg writes right up my alley, can’t get enough.
CHERISHED ITEM: My signed copy of I LOVE DICK by Chris Kraus.
ANTHEM: What can I say…I’m predictable and indecisive. “Chaise Longue” by Wet Leg and “Baby Got Back” by Sir Mix-A-Lot.
POKÉMON ALTER EGO: Weepinbell, because, have you noticed, this guy is just a giant hole!
Lucas Morneau, Queer Newfoundland Hockey League (QNHL), 2021–ongoing. Courtesy of the artist.
NAME: Fanny Ryder
PRONOUNS: they/them
TEAM: Port Union Pinkos
HOMETOWN: Bonavista, NL
POSITION: Left Wing
SUN: Cancer—yes, it’s true I look feisty, but I’m an archetypal Cancer sun; I cry every five minutes, so emotional. *sighhhh*
MOON: Sagittarius, and actually I’m all Gemini Saggi energy underneath that Cancer sun-screen!
RISING: Virgo; where’d you think the Ryder part came into play?! LOLOLOL.
ABOUT ME: Fanny’s my name and fanny is my game! HAHAHA. I’m a serial winner, but I don’t like cereal or wieners. I’m also wicked punny with the dad jokes! As left wing, I remain on the periphery or sidelines during the game, which is where my flamboyance and gregarious nature come in handy. Fanny is never peripheral! This is my secret weapon, as is falling on my fanny… you try to figure that one out.
CURRENTLY READING: A Sand Book by Ariana Reines and CUNT-UPS by Dodie Bellamy.
CHERISHED ITEM: Complete DVD set of all seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer plus the movie, for good measure.
ANTHEM: Dancing on My Own” by Robyn and *BONUS!* because of my astrology, Gemini by Princess Nokia.
POKÉMON ALTER EGO: Cloyster, because giant grinning vulva! With a little side of Lickitung, because 6-foot long tongue!
The italicized section included in this piece is from Chelsea Girls by Eileen Myles (1995).
Lucas Morneau (they/he) is an interdisciplinary artist and curator living in the Siknikt region of Mi'kma'ki — Sackville, New Brunswick. Born and raised on the island of Ktaqamtuk (Newfoundland), Morneau completed their Bachelor of Fine Arts at Memorial University of Newfoundland's Grenfell Campus in 2016 and completed their Master of Fine Arts at the University of Saskatchewan in 2018. Morneau was the winner of the BMO First Art Award for Newfoundland and Labrador in 2016, the Cox & Palmer Pivotal Point Grant in 2018, and was shortlisted for the Scotiabank New Generations Photography Award both in 2018 and 2021. Morneau is also the recipient of multiple grants from the Canada Council of the Arts, ArtsNB, and ArtsNL.
Maeve Hanna (she/her) is a queer writer of settler descent, grateful to be living in Piktuk, Mi’kma’ki (Pictou, NS), the sacred and unceeded territory of the Mi’kmaw, the site of the controversial Northern Pulp mill. Now shuttered, the mill had been illegally dumping untreated effluent waste into A’se’k (Boat Harbour), a tidal estuary central to Mi’kmaw life for centuries. Maeve has pursued studies at York University, University of Leeds, UQÀM, and University of Manitoba on location in Iceland. Over the last decade, she has been publishing art criticism nationally and internationally.