UPDATED: Just A Victim Of Circumstances?

Fate can be cruel. It is not unheard of to be going about, minding one's own business, when a person of unknown provenance accosts you and demands a photo with you. Results of such encounters can vary.

There was, one may recall, an incident in 2002 when the Mayor of Toronto shook hands with a member of The Hell's Angels.

Mel faced some criticism for that encounter, but claimed he had no idea that the outlaw biker gang dealt in drugs, guns, and violence.

Just a victim of circumstances.

No serendipity was involved in the disgusting picture of former PM Stephen Harper shaking hands with quasi-dictator Viktor Orban of Hungary. For this, he made no apologies, and at least owned up to the fact that the handshake was intentional as he advocates closer ties with him.

But the case of Pierre Poilievre, or, as I like to call him, PP, is a whole other category. Photographic misfortune stalks him. One remembers the time he posed with Jeremy Mackenzie, founder of the Diagolon group, during the former's leadership campaign.

PP's explanation:

“Over the course of my campaign I have shaken hands with literally tens of thousands of people at public rallies. It is impossible to do a background check on every single person who attends my events,” Poilievre’s campaign team said in response to Global News’ request for comment on Aug. 20.

“As I always have, I denounce racism and anyone who spreads it. I didn’t and don’t know or recognize this particular individual.”

And now that the prime ministerial aspirant has doffed his glasses and donned makeup, his photographic presence is in even greater demand:

But again, poor PP is just a victim of unfortunate circumstances:

A spokesman for Pierre Poilievre said Mondaythe federal Conservative leader does not agree with the message of “straight pride,” after he was photographed with a man wearing a T-shirt bearing those words.

Sebastian Skamski said Poilievre had been posing with “hundreds of people” at the Calgary Stampede on Saturday when he was photographed with an individual “without reading what was written on his shirt.”

The bright green T-shirt featured the symbols for men and women that are often posted to the doors of public restrooms.

It said, “Thank a straight person today for your existence,” in black capital letters, with “straight pride” written at the bottom.

Skamski said that “Poilievre does not agree with the message displayed on the T-shirt,” adding that Conservatives are working to build a country where everyone is free to be themselves, “regardless of their sexual orientation.”

PP's lapses are alarming to some; however, I suspect they are very loud dog whistles to others. 

Circumstances, fate, or character revelation? You decide.

UPDATE: Dean Blundell has his interpretation that aligns with mine. 

 

UPDATED: A Lesson For All Of Us

Some 'religious' people will undoubtedly find this teaching from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hard to accept. 

Republicans have good reason to fear this woman, because her ability to cut through their BS is a master class in the art of political engagement. She absolutely understands how to sell a values driven argument and her honesty, integrity and passion spills out from every point she eloquently makes. #DemsAct #DemVoice1 #wtpBLUE #ONEV1 #FAM46

UPDATE: If you go to the six-minute mark in the following, I think you will find a perfect example of the kind of misconduct AOC is railing against:

Apparently the video is no longer available on YouTube, but here is a link to the story and video.

By Any Other Name

Perhaps it is because I experienced a small amount of peer-bullying as a student. Perhaps it is because I experienced a large amount of both physical and psychological abuse from my teachers, as did many of my fellow students. It was, after all, the Catholic school system, where mistreatment was frequently substituted for the message of love found in the Gospels. Whatever the reason, I ultimately emerged as an adult with much empathy for people being treated badly.

Today's post is about the recent disgraceful behaviour of adults claiming to be parents at a meeting of the York Catholic District School Board on the issue of range the Pride Flag. Here is a brief video  capturing some of the disruption that occurred:

This kind of ugly behaviour has no place in our society, and I am hardly alone in that sentiment. Today, I am taking what is for me the unprecedented step of reproducing in toto a Toronto Star editorial whose points I think most would find a hard time disagreeing with. That will be followed by two pieces expressing letter-writers' views on rabid homophobia. 

Make of all of it what you will:

A shameful scene unfolded recently outside a meeting of the York Catholic District School Board when adults purporting to protect Ontario’s children proved instead to be a direct threat to their well-being.

How else to describe a group of adults, many of them presumably parents of school-aged children, who turned up at the meeting to loudly oppose the possibility that the board will fly the rainbow flag in support of LGBTQ students in June?

How else to describe adults who appeared to hurl insults at those in favour of flying the flag? In a video clip shared widely by various news outlets, shouts of “shame” and “devil incarnate” were hurled at an advocate on the pro side of the flag debate. The scene became so tense police were called and security reportedly escorted some of the spectators away.

Some of these spectators may argue that their objection wasn’t specifically to the Pride flag itself but to what they believe it stands for: in their minds, the corrupting of children who are allegedly too young to learn in school about the diversity of gender and sexuality.

To this odious notion we say: no one is too young to learn that gay, transgender and non binary people exist, just as no one is too young to learn that cisgender, heterosexual people exist. Queer people are not by their mere existence sexually explicit.

 To meet a queer person, to learn what transgender means, to be read a picture book by a drag performer is in no way being exposed to the intimate details of a person’s sex life. This belief is not only nonsensical; it is derivative of hateful, age-old myths about queer people as a perverse influence on children.

It is also derivative of a certain brand of anti-LGBTQ politics we commonly associate with the United States. But if last week’s events at the Catholic school board in York Region teach us anything, let it be that Canada is not immune to public displays of hateful rhetoric. These displays may be less common here but even in small doses they are potent. And it is up to all of us — Catholic school board officials and community members alike not to be complacent in the face of them.

It seems a reminder is in order about why Pride celebrations are necessary in schools. Flying the Pride flag isn’t a hollow act of virtue signalling; it is an official declaration of support for marginalized kids who desperately need it.

 

Dispute at Catholic board meeting over Pride flag, April 27

The group of taxpayers of the York Region Catholic School Board, whose homophobic words and gestures reduced a group of LGBTQ students at the board meeting to tears, have surely provided a very good argument for defunding Catholic schools in the province.

Surely the promotion of such vicious and harmful hatred under the protection of acceptable religious teaching in Catholic schools should have no place in a publicly-funded school system in Ontario.

Joanna Manning, Toronto

When I read this article it reminded me of many of the vitriolic rants in American media that I have seen, directed at advocates of peaceful, progressive change.

What kind of adults would bully and belittle young students, especially those who have most likely experienced serious harangues for parts of their lives?

Because this was a Catholic school board I’m assuming these people consider themselves “Christian.” Outrage and horrible behaviour over the raising of a flag to show acceptance and respect for young people does clearly not reflect Christian beliefs.

These people should remember that Catholic education is paid for by all taxpayers and governments that condemn. this behaviour.

John Morton, Toronto

Hatred, intolerance and bigotry, by any other name, are still hatred, intolerance and bigoty. 

UPDATED: Live And Let Live?

I generally abide by a pretty simple philosophy: don't bother other people. By that, I don't mean  we should not be involved in other people's lives in a positive way; I simply mean that we should not feel compelled to share opinions that serve no constructive purpose. For example, if you don't care for the fact that some may have an orientation different from your own, or a skin colour that is not white, just keep it to yourself. The world really is not thirsting for your views.

Today, of course, thanks to the ubiquity of corrosive social media, far too many see it as their mission to criticize and denounce others who don't meet their 'standards'. For reasons known only to themselves, they believe they are in possession of the key that unlocks the door labelled Truth. It amazes me, for example, of how many claim to know the mind of the deity and take it upon themselves, with Taliban-like ferocity, to try to dictate standards of behaviour. One look at the furor that has ensued from the repeal of Roe Vs. Wade amply illustrates that fact.

But perhaps I digress. What has prompted this post is an ugly incident that occurred recently aboard a bus in Hamilton. The perpetrator, a man named Chris, is pictured below.

Although no longer available, I watched the entire video in which Chris, an obviously unhinged, intolerant hatemonger, unleashed a barrage of his bile on two young HSR passengers, and later made a racist suggestion to a young man of South Asian descent.

In the video, Chris is sitting on an HSR bus headed toward Gage Park's Festival of Friends. He had also livestreamed at the festival for the past few days.

"I don't know what this goofball, weird, transformer looking fool is laughing at," Chris says, pointing toward a passenger seated in front of him.

"Does anyone love you?" responds the rider, seemingly in defence. 

Chris could be heard mocking the people he is filming, asks the rider what their pronouns are and insults the rider some more.

"You're deflecting because nobody gives a s**t about you," the rider responds to Chris in the video.

Chris tells the rider to "get off the bus and say that to me" before threatening to hit the rider and making more transphobic comments.

"If you're a man, I'll smack you out," he says in the video.

Chris then starts to insult another rider for the next minute or so of the video.

He then looks at a third rider, who is a person of colour, and makes a racist comment, suggesting the rider "go back to Pakistan."

As Chris begins to exit the bus, he accuses one of the first two riders of kicking him.

"Do it again, motherf****r," he says as he holds a clenched fist to the face of one of the riders.

"I'll kick your f***ing head off," he says while exiting the bus and starts walking into Gage Park, swearing some more.

The video is hard to watch, but what especially bothered me, in addition to the vituperation, was that no one else on the bus (an older woman, a young woman and the South Asian) did anything to stop this attack. While one does not expect heroics, the very least they could have done was to inform the driver and insist that Chris be put off the bus. If that failed, I would have taken his picture and called the police after telling him to stop.

I am by no stretch a hero, but intervening in a situation like this should be our default position as responsible citizens. Full stop.

UPDATE: I am happy to cite a CBC report about an arrest being made by Hamilton Police in the above incident.

On Wednesday afternoon, the police service said officers arrested 41-year-old Christopher Pretula, charging him with assault and utter threat.

The police service is also applying to lay a hate crime charge.

"We recognize the impact hate has in our community.... We continue to encourage people to come forward to report in order for police to investigate and charge accordingly," police spokesperson Jackie Penman told CBC Hamilton.

"Reporting is an important step in addressing and rooting out hate in Hamilton."

They Are Not The Exclusive Domain Of Republicans

They being intolerance and homophobia, as this exchange at the Iowa Democratic caucus makes clear:

More From The Land Of Nod

Warning: The following contains hateful messaging from the land of the free and home of the brave:

Reminder to All “Straight” Men Who Selflessly Devote Their Lives to Thinking About Gay Men Having Sex:

Remember to turn our app off in church. Our servers can't handle that much traffic.

Thanking you in advance,

Grindr Tech Support pic.twitter.com/QpEe75yPUQ

— Mrs. Betty Bowers (@BettyBowers) June 15, 2019

Something Wicked This Way Comes

There can be no doubt now that true evil resides in the White House.

A leaked copy of a draft executive order titled “Establishing a Government-Wide Initiative to Respect Religious Freedom,” obtained by The Investigative Fund and The Nation, reveals sweeping plans by the Trump administration to legalize discrimination.

The four-page draft order, a copy of which is currently circulating among federal staff and advocacy organizations, construes religious organizations so broadly that it covers “any organization, including closely held for-profit corporations,” and protects “religious freedom” in every walk of life: “when providing social services, education, or healthcare; earning a living, seeking a job, or employing others; receiving government grants or contracts; or otherwise participating in the marketplace, the public square, or interfacing with Federal, State or local governments.”

The draft order seeks to create wholesale exemptions for people and organizations who claim religious or moral objections to same-sex marriage, premarital sex, abortion, and trans identity, and it seeks to curtail women’s access to contraception and abortion through the Affordable Care Act. The White House did not respond to requests for comment, but when asked Monday about whether a religious freedom executive order was in the works, White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters, “I’m not getting ahead of the executive orders that we may or may not issue. There is a lot of executive orders, a lot of things that the president has talked about and will continue to fulfill, but we have nothing on that front now.”

For anyone to favour these measures shows them to be a willing, perhaps even eager, participant in an evil that has rarely reared its head so egregiously in modern times.

The Christian Wrong

That, I humbly submit, should be the new name for the Christian right. They are wrong and depraved morally, ethically, theologically and humanly. It should be a source of collective shame that they are part of our species, as the following clip from Rachel Maddow's show makes clear:

In Memory Of ...

H/t The Toronto Star

UPDATED: Unfiltered Hatred

I don't feel completely right posting this video in which a hatred-spewing 'Christian' pastor, Stephen L. Anderson of the Faithful Word Baptist Church, offers his evaluation of the Orlando massacre. However, we cannot turn away from such evil ranters; their malignity only grows if left unchallenged and not held to account.

I will warn you, though. It is not easy listening to such obscenity:



UPDATE: Anderson's hateful screed, I see, has been taken down by for violating YouTube's policy on hate speech. If you want to read some of what this despicable pastor said, you can do so here.

Burn, Baby, Burn

Click hear to learn about pastor Rick Scarborough's plan to defend 'traditional marriage.'

Would it be wrong of me to offer this 'man of God' some waterproof matches?

A Sanctimonious Dick

People sometimes wonder why I am so hard on right-wing evangelicals. Perhaps the sanctimonious dick in the following video will clarify why:

FOX Carolina 21

Sunday Sermon

As a special service for those of you who missed attending your house of worship today, I offer the following two orators for your discernment. You will notice a common theme as they discuss the impending wrath of their very strange, intolerant deity:



You will have to click here to 'enjoy' a fiery rant by someone named Rick Wiles, who seems theologically tuned in to Pastor Pat's frequency.

Pastor David Berzins Is A Disappointed Man

It seems that one of Berzins' fellow pastors does not hold with putting LGBT people to death, a fate another right-wing crazed evangelical named Steve Anderson enthusiastically advocates.

The pastor in question asked to have his congregation’s listing removed from Anderson’s church directory, a decision which Pastor David Berzins of Word of Truth Baptist Church condemned as the act of a traitor to his faith, even though the offending clergyman is a personal friend of his.

Here is Berzins in full rhetorical fury:

Why Do I Mock Pat Robertson And His Kindred Brethren?

This is why. I have to say, I've never seen the old fella go on such a protracted tear before:

The Great Thing About the Extreme Right Wing

... is that their egregious stupidity is self-evident:

Dr. 'Chaps' Strikes Again

Needing a break from discussing the sleazy world of politics, now seems an opportune time to turn to the sleazy world of Satan.

Always on the lookout for the ploys of the wily one seeking souls for his sulfurous kingdom, Dr. Chaps (a.k.a. Gordon Klingenschmitt) warns us about one of his diabolical stratagems:

Not That Anyone Asked

...but the always reliable Pastor Pat tells us there is really no reason to worry about the 'gay problem' for reasons he makes clear below:

Some Days, It Is Very Hard To Resist The Demon Of Despair

Gordon Klingenschmitt, a.k.a. Dr. Chaps, as unhinged a 'reverend' as you are ever likely to encounter, has been elected to the Colorado House of Representatives. A man who brags of having once tried to rid of woman of the "foul spirit of lesbianism" through an exorcism, you can click here to read about a few of his more 'colourful' observations.

Or perhaps you might like to watch this video in which he offers a novel interpretation of Martin Luther King's famous speech:



Or maybe this will be more to your liking:



I suppose there are many in Colorado very thankful for the fact that they can now legally purchase and use marijuana. Everyone deserves respite from the madness that now engulfs them.

Gay Pride: A Proviso

Yesterday I wrote about the considerable pride that we should all take in the progress we are making as a society, World Pride in Toronto being a sterling example. However, as Star letter-writer Blair Bigham of Toronto points out in today's edition, there is still room for improvement:

Political stripes aside, Ontario (population 13.5 million) elected the first gay premier in Canada. Other than Iceland (population 300,000), no other people has elected a gay leader.

The fact that Kathleen Wynne’s sexuality was not even an issue throughout the campaign speaks to the equity and inclusivity Ontario offers. What a place for gay people to grow up in.

And yet, despite living in one of the most gay-friendly places on earth, I learned being gay was wrong long before I learned it wasn’t. Still today slurs are thrown my way by strangers, words are chosen carefully in new social settings, and there is the perpetual evaluation of every person I come in contact with, a super-subconscious Gestalt judgment about how welcoming they would be if they “could tell.” Like the annoying buzz-hum of a wonky fluorescent bulb, barely noticeable, but oh so persistent.

The constant stress that we face here, rarely acknowledged because it shames us that we can’t just accept ourselves, cannot compare to what people feel elsewhere. Minority stress affects me, and surely as an Ontarian I have it better than nearly everyone else.

So while I offer Ms Wynne and all of Ontario accolades for making history and demonstrable progress, I pause to think of the rest of the world, and check my privilege. If anything, it recommits me to spread the amazing agency I have as a gay person in Ontario with those elsewhere and take nothing for granted.