Rob Ford and Pride

[adma]

You know what, being gay is just like being left-handed, if you really don't discriminate it. There is nothing to be proud of for liking the same sex, just like there is nothing to be proud of for liking the opposite sex, and not to mention to show your butt and genitals to celebrate it. Let the gay people just be ordinary people, just like how you treat those who are left-handed or lactose-intolerant - I am sure that's how they prefer. Do you really think a gay person likes to hear "wow, you are gay, that's fantastic. I love gay people" as some kind of support?

Such logic is to "gayness" as this is to urban architecture.

(thought I'd get a little closer to kkgg7's presumed homeland than my usual French Quarter invocation)

 

[Torontovibe]

Then why did he boycott the flag raising event at City Hall, right beside his own office, on a day he was in his office, last year.

And how can anyone be so ignorant to question whether he is homophobic after all the anti-gay comments and actions he has done over the years.

Sure, I can understand why he might not want to go to the parade. But I don't see how that's an issue, given how clear he has been about his anti-gay beliefs.

I don't see why people feel the need to condone the actions of this bigot.

It's funny how all these Ford supporters keep overlooking this. They keep making references to Ford just wanting to be with his family at the cottage. (Nothing wrong with that, right?) If they continue to ignore the facts and just play stupid, they are no better than Ford. For a gay guy to play this game, is deplorable and certainly no friend to the gay community. With friends like that... Nothing is worse than a smug, self-righteous, self-hating homosexual.

Ford is a homophobe, he has made that quite evident.

 

[ssiguy2]

I know. ISN'T IT F******* AWESOME?!?!?!!!!

Oh and there's nothing worse than a gay guy who is proud not to go to pride. Not because of theor beliefs, but because they are always insufferable and insist on telling you about it every chance they can
No one cares you don't like it.

Actually I can tolerate a lot of things but your foul mouth isn't one of them.
To everyone else who can engage in intelligent conversation without hurling insults and using profanity........My point is that if he doesn't want to go then he doesn''t have to regardless of being the mayor or not.
I also back him up if for no other reason than he will not be guilted into going by The Star or the politically correct. Personally I think it would be offensive to know that someone showed up at any event that they didn't want to go to or didn't support but went because it was politically advantageous.
Ford is a lot of things and I don't like the guy personally or as a mayor but atleast in this one area he can't be accused of being a hypocrite.

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

Actually I can tolerate a lot of things but your foul mouth isn't one of them.
To everyone else who can engage in intelligent conversation without hurling insults and using profanity........My point is that if he doesn't want to go then he doesn''t have to regardless of being the mayor or not.
I also back him up if for no other reason than he will not be guilted into going by The Star or the politically correct. Personally I think it would be offensive to know that someone showed up at any event that they didn't want to go to or didn't support but went because it was politically advantageous.
Ford is a lot of things and I don't like the guy personally or as a mayor but at least in this one area he can't be accused of being a hypocrite.

Soooo, what I read into this is that you back up our homophobic Dear Leader who neglects his duties as Mayor of this city, even though you don't like him? Did I get that right? Where's respect for the taxpayer in all of this? If, let's just say, a quarter of the participants and observers of the parade are from the city of Toronto, he's therefore disrespecting 250,000 tax paying residents along with not carrying out his duties as prescribed. (I love throwing out the bullsh*t "respect for the taxpayer" tagline out there when it plays against him!).
I'll reiterate, I'd rather him not show up at this point, but at least read the Official Proclamation at the beginning of Pride Week at Nathan Phillips Square.

Duties of The Mayor (partial)

The role of the Mayor as the head of council is to:

* Act as chief executive officer
* Provide information and make recommendations to Council with respect to Council's role in ensuring that administrative policies, practices and procedures and controllership policies, practices and procedures are in place to implement the decisions of Council and in ensuring the accountability and transparency of the operations of the City, including the activities of the senior management of the City
* Preside over (chairs) meetings of council so that its business can be carried out efficiently and effectively
* Provide leadership to council
* Represent the City at official functions, and
* Carry out any other duties under the City of Toronto Act, 2006 or any other Act.

The role of the Mayor as chief executive officer is to:

* Uphold and promote the purposes of the City
* Promote public involvement in the City's activities
* Act as the representative of the City both within and outside the City, and promote the City locally, nationally and internationally; and
* Participate in and foster activities that enhance the economic, social and environmental well being of the City and its residents

Full duties of Council and The Mayor can be found HERE

 

[Urban Shocker]

He should, at least, walk out into the square, raise the Pride flag, and walk back into his office. 10 minutes at the most.

There's free food. That ought to lure him.

 

[DSC]

Marcus Gee in the Globe says it very well:

After a winter of bruising defeats at city council, things were starting to look up for Mayor Rob Ford. Responding to an obvious need to change the channel, he was talking up the more appealing parts of his program and his record, from economic development to a cleaner city to his successful drive for concessions from city unions. Then on Wednesday, with a touch that only he could manage, he changed the channel right back again.

His decision not to attend the annual Pride parade on July 1 is a reminder of the worst aspects of his mayoralty: the stubbornness, the refusal to take in other perspectives, the failure to grow in the job and become mayor of all Torontonians instead of just the champion of his own base.

Mayors and senior politicians of all stripes have been going to the parade for years. Their attendance is important not only because Pride is a popular and lucrative city festival, drawing hordes of visitors and bringing in millions of tourist dollars. It is important as a signal that the gay community is an accepted and integral part of the city whose motto proclaims “diversity our strength.”

Mr. Ford’s snub of Pride Week last year was one of the sourest notes in his mayoralty. It was where his troubles began. Things had been going swimmingly for the mayor before he went off to his family cottage for parade day and skipped every other event of the festival, a boycott in everything but name. They have been rocky ever since.

Why the mayor would want to renew last year’s Pride controversy is a mystery. Even if his family cottage weekend is sacred, or he simply feels uncomfortable about going to the colourful parade, it would be the easiest thing in the world for him to help raise the Pride Week flag at City Hall or show up at one of the many other events over the course of Pride’s 10 days.

He says he’ll have to check his schedule. Really? It’s only two months till the festival starts. Friends of Pride have been coaxing the mayor for weeks to commit to some kind of appearance. They have been excruciatingly patient and polite.

Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam, who represents Toronto Centre-Rosedale, the ward that includes the Gay Village, says she wants to find an event the mayor would feel at ease attending. She even invited him to meet a “respectful and representative” group at a private reception. “Please let me know if this is an opportunity you would be interested in exploring,” she wrote to him on Feb. 7, adding that “I am open to hearing your thoughts.” She says he has never responded.

The very least he could have done is say that while he can’t make the parade for family reasons, he fully supports the event and its aim of full inclusion of the gay community. Nothing doing. His silence leaves the unpleasant impression that he disapproves of Pride, or worse. It is not a suggestion the country’s biggest city can afford to leave hanging.

For modern mayors of Toronto, going to Pride is part of the job. David Miller went. Mel Lastman was reluctant at first, but went and had a blast. Brian Burke, the tough-guy chief of the Maple Leafs, marched in tribute to his late son, who was gay.

If Rob Ford refuses once again to have anything to do with Pride, it will be a blot on his mayoralty and an embarrassment for the city. Even his brother Doug is urging the mayor to attend some part of it. Let’s hope he comes around and finds a way to go.

 

[doug]

Personally I think it would be offensive to know that someone showed up at any event that they didn't want to go to or didn't support but went because it was politically advantageous.
Ford is a lot of things and I don't like the guy personally or as a mayor but atleast in this one area he can't be accused of being a hypocrite.

The fact that he showed up to Pride 2010 to hand out flyers and campaign, yet won't acknowlkedge it now that he's 'in', makes him nothing but a hypocrite....that you seem to support.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

ssiguy2:

Maybe he isn't homophobic at all but just doesn't like the Pride parade and what it represents? Maybe he, like millions, find it a totally offensive spectacle that looks more like a sex event than "pride" parade. Maybe he doesn't like the idea of seeing men in chaps or a bunch of narcassitic idiots thrusting their hips in their underware?

Geez, of all the groups that participated in the pride parade, how many actually made it look like a sex event? I can only think of a handful of orgs/floats. What's so sexual about say PFLAG? Or the Unitarian Universalists? From the sound of it, I think you just projected the most sexualized images (from TV or the Sun) and branded the entire parade as a Sodom and Gomorrah fest, which it isn't. And besides, what's so sexual about the umpteen other Pride events that have nary any sexual component?

Maybe he only wants to go to events {and sponsor them} that are welcoming to all ages as parade is no where to take anyone under 18. Maybe he doesn't want to go to an event where the things that takes place would be illegal for any other part or community in the city?

And yet, he would have no problem showing up at a hockey game where there are fights? BTW, this whole "law" thing never kept him from breaking any himself - multiple times at that. Seriously.

I know many gay people who avoid the Pride parades like the plague, myself included. I and they don't want to be associated with such a lewd spectacle which does the gay community much more harm than good by reinforcing to every one that gays really are weird and sex obsessed with little decency and even less taste.

Oh yes, your expertise in the gay community. So much so that you are actually familiar with the gay scene when you are a kid - see this thread:

http://urbantoronto.ca/forum/showthread.php/15790-Gay-Toronto-in-the-1970s

AoD

 

[JasonParis]

Ford is a homophobe, he has made that quite evident.

Indeed, let's see from this list I made last year...

• Made uninformed remarks about AIDS being "pretty-much" a gay disease
• Has voted consistently against all AIDS-prevention money
• Has voted consistently against all Pride funding, when anyone with a brain knows it brings the city far more than it costs
• Endorsed Minister Wendell Brereton in Etobicoke for Councillor and shurgged his shoulders about the blatant homophobia on Brereton's website
• Referred to being gay as a "lifestyle choice" during the campaign
• Refused to participate in any of this year's 10-day Pride events when some were a mere 50-steps from his office door
• He's the first Toronto Mayor in 18 years to not participate in Pride and wouldn't listen to the advice of his inner-circle, his brother and even the Toronto Sun on the matter.
• Has consistently said he doesn't believe in equality in marriage rights (which thereby means he supports homosexuals not being entitled to the same rights/responsibilities as heterosexuals)
• Made disparaging and uniformed remarks about transexuals
• Lied about his long-standing family tradition of going to the cottage for Canada Day when he was handing out flyers at Yonge & Alexander and Church & Carlton last year during Pride/Canada Day weekend.
• When asked directly by a reporter if he was a homophobe, he mumbled something under his breath that nobody could hear and refused to clarify. If any question should be simple to answer, especially in a city with a huge gay population, yet still a signficant number of "gay bashings," this would be the one. Instead, mumbles.

Rob Ford may not be hiding in the bushes outside Buddies with a baseball bat, but on some level, the Mayor of Toronto is a homophobe.

 

[SP!RE]

I, for one, am very glad he's not attending Pride this year. It's very clear he wants nothing to do with it, so good riddance. Last year I thought he should be there because it's such a big tourist draw and a big event for our city, but it's not like Rob Ford is a good representation of this city anyway. Pride will represent Toronto much better without him .

 

[Tewder]

Maybe he isn't homophobic at all but just doesn't like the Pride parade and what it represents? Maybe he, like millions, find it a totally offensive spectacle that looks more like a sex event than "pride" parade. Maybe he doesn't like the idea of seeing men in chaps or a bunch of narcassitic idiots thrusting their hips in their underware? Maybe he only wants to go to events {and sponsor them} that are welcoming to all ages as parade is no where to take anyone under 18. Maybe he doesn't want to go to an event where the things that takes place would be illegal for any other part or community in the city?

Maybe the mayor of New Orleans doesn't like looking at flabby knockers but I bet he sure as hell drags his beads out to Mardi Gras!

And since when are a mayor's sensibilities so fragile? Nobody's asking him to hike his legs up and take one for the team. Good grief, if you can't stomache a Pride Parade are you really cut out for office?, are you really cut out to represent everybody in your jurisdiction?? 'Cause if not you have absolutely no business being in office.

Maybe, just maybe, he actually has some taste and doesn't want to lend support to what many find to be a revolting display?
I know many gay people who avoid the Pride parades like the plague, myself included. I and they don't want to be associated with such a lewd spectacle which does the gay community much more harm than good by reinforcing to every one that gays really are weird and sex obsessed with little decency and even less taste.

You ssiguy have the choice not to go, but you my dear are not the mayor. It's part of his job and his duty to the city, and he is being derelict in his responsibilities quite frankly in not going... or at the very, very, very, very least in not attending the freakin' flag pole ceremony. His position is indefensible, and shame on you for trying to defend it on the squishy grounds of 'taste'. Feck you!

Do you really think a gay person likes to hear "wow, you are gay, that's fantastic. I love gay people" as some kind of support?

Yeah dude, there are lots of young gay kids who would like to hear those things. If you believe otherwise then you are completely ignorant of what it is to be gay in this world... which when I think about it is what makes me so sick about Slob Ford and his bully mentality.

 

[gristle]

Maybe the mayor wants a secluded time at his cottage in order to make greater contact with his wife?


Yes, inneundo included.

 

[siskie]

I think he has the right to do what he wants. Your family should always be the #1 priority.

 

[Lenser]

The longer this drags out, the shabbier Ford's "family" excuse looks to me. He's just notoriously stubborn and it's fairly obvious that he's uncomfortable appearing even remotely gay-friendly in the public eye - for whatever reasons. Marcus Gee has it right - the guy is his own worst enemy and he's an embarrassment to the office of Mayor.

Respect for taxpayers indeed - the man should show some respect for the position he's holding. Right now he's acting like a giant, hideously spoiled baby.

 

[Josef]

Grow up, "kkgg7"