What Do 'Hot Lesbians' and Tar Sands Oil Have In Common?

FORT McMURRAY, Canada—Adult industry workers are probably well aware of the 100+ degree temperatures they've recently been facing while working in the San Fernando Valley, and the summer's barely under way. Many observers attribute such record high temps to global climate change, which has been brought about in part by the use of fossil fuels such as gasoline and oil, and the recent fracas over the attempt to build the Keystone Pipeline to bring oil derived from Fort McMurray tar sands (also called oil sands) down to refineries in Texas is still ongoing, even though President Obama has refused to give his permission for the pipeline to go forward. But all that bad press hasn't stopped Fort McMurray supporters from trying to sell their city's most valuable asset, and that's inspired a number of Facebook ads from local resident/tar sands activist Robbie Picard, such as the one pictured here. "In Canada lesbians are considered hot! In Saudi Arabia if you’re a lesbian you die!" Picard's latest ad reads. "Why are we getting our oil from countries that don’t think lesbians are hot?! Choose equality! Choose Canadian oil!" Though Picard, who is openly gay, has stated, "It [the ad] was just to strike up a conversation. I find anybody is hot. I think two women kissing is hot. I think that something that is part of the fabric of our city—that we can do whatever we want in our country—that is hot," BoingBoing.net's Cory Doctorow noted, "Picard seems to have missed the fact that you can support LGBTQ rights in Saudi Arabia and oppose the extraction, refinement and consumption of Canada's filthy, planet-killing tar sands." Doctorow certainly seems to have the right idea—about both oil and lesbians.