Where Have All The Good Gays Gone?
In light of recent local events, I have one simple question for Toronto's gay community.
A few months ago, I volunteered as a moderator for a community meeting at the 519 Center in Toronto. During the meeting numerous matters of concern were brought forward: Pride is becoming too corporate, accessibility issues are being ignored, and of course the incredibly public spat around the “Israeli Apartheid” group and their involvement in the Pride parade was mentioned. In fact, it dominated the evening’s discussion.
The hate and anger in that room was palpable, and by the end of the night I realized that one theme encapsulated my entire three hour experience –the gay community in Toronto is tremendously divided.
I left that evening feeling completely deflated and disappointed.
The massive gay rights movements of earlier decades have clearly passed us by. At times, however, I feel that the current generation of LGBT youth and the community at large have forgotten where we were at one point in history, and the progress that has been made because we were all unified in our efforts to make our lives better.
This is why I shook my head this morning when I read this story that happened right here, in Canada… in Toronto… and in my own neighbourhood.
If there was a time (once again) for a (still) marginalized community to find a reason to come together and demand continued change and more awareness, this is it.
Last year, we witnessed a host of teen suicides in the USA; some of those unfortunate losses of life were sparked by homophobic comments. All of them with one obvious connection: the struggle to confront society, our families, and our friends (you know, the one every single gay and lesbian individual goes through) was too much to overcome.
Again, right here in Toronto, there have been recent stories that at first glance seem harmless, even humourous, but they have the capacity for much greater consequences.
A world away, in Uganda, a devastating event occurred with a relatively quiet reaction from gay men and women around the globe.
To the gay men and women involved with organizing Pride events right here in Toronto: let’s stop hating and arguing with one another. Let us get past the debates on who gets the right to march in which parade. Collectively, let us decide to drop the meaningless bullshit, and turn our efforts to tackling a much greater cause.
My question is really quite simple. For a group of individuals that have been so often marginalized, humiliated, and ignored… at what point did it become so easy for us to lose track of the real threat(s) to the safety and wellbeing of our community?