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JasonParis said:
So in a nightmare scenario, the Village could soon be losing Play, Lola, Fuzion and Alto.
Click to expand...

Plus Crews/Tango and O'Grady's, to my mind mostly a loss for it's patio.
 
Interesting. Perhaps we should submit the validity of RF's mayoral candidacy to a similiar test of "hate speech" on the basis of his previously recorded musings on air. If the city shouldn't fund an event on the basis of "hate speech" it certainly have no business of being lead by a leader engaging in the practice of such.

AoD
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
Interesting. Perhaps we should submit the validity of RF's mayoral candidacy to a similiar test of "hate speech" on the basis of his previously recorded musings on air. If the city shouldn't fund an event on the basis of "hate speech" it certainly have no business of being lead by a leader engaging in the practice of such.

AoD
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Here, Here!!!
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
Interesting. Perhaps we should submit the validity of RF's mayoral candidacy to a similiar test of "hate speech" on the basis of his previously recorded musings on air. If the city shouldn't fund an event on the basis of "hate speech" it certainly have no business of being lead by a leader engaging in the practice of such.

AoD
Click to expand...

Here, Here!!!

check out some of his quotes here:

http://www.stoprobford.ca/whats-wrong-with-rob-ford
 
DC83 said:
Rob Ford trying to pull Gay Pride funding. Claims Toronto Pride spreading 'hate msgs'

http://www.xtra.ca/public/Toronto/Hate_speech_rhetoric_threatens_Pride_Toronto_debate-10001.aspx
Click to expand...

I would put the blame on the organizers of PRIDE for allowing the participation of such a divisive group. "Queers against Israeli Apartheid" have no place in this parade and PRIDE should not have allowed this protest group to hijack and threaten funding for the parade. I do believe that there is a place for protests in parades however they must be relevant to the local community (e.g. protesting bathhouse raids, police abuse, G20 etc). Middle east politics have no place in a PRIDE parade.

They not only risk loosing funding from the city but I bet their corporate sponsorships will take a hit since no major corporation wants to be involved in this type of controversy.
 
^^ Yet had they not let them in last year, they would have been sued for discrimination..
kinda catch22'ish, no?

I was not supportive of the AIAG, infact I booed them last year. No matter where they stood during the parade, complete silence. Everyone was aware of their unwelcomeness.
But you need to understand PRIDE's hands were tied.
 
Ugh, this again. Evangelicals tend not to be critical of Israel because they understand its importance in the upcoming rapture. They have no love for Israel or Jews at all. In their world their eyeballs will be burned out of their sockets just as those of the homosexual and other assorted sinners/non believers. But Israel needs to exist if Jesus is ever to make the second act.

Anyway, that is what is at the core of the funding controversy for Pride and our PM and FatRob. Oh that an a convenient excuse for bigots to profit form the festivities (which go on with or without funding) without getting their hands dirty and scoring points with their bigoted constituency.

I think that group is misguided, but they have every right to march. Pride historically hasn't been a fest for straight people to bring their kids downtown so they can introduce them to diversity but a political festival/parade. And they certainly aren't a hate group or hate speech. I'd really love to see FatRob pull funding citing that reason and watch the legal shizz fly.
 
Just released… The City has concluded that the term “Israeli Apartheid” does not violate its own Anti-Discrimination Code.

http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2011/ex/bgrd/backgroundfile-37384.pdf

Good news in the sense that Rob Ford can't deny Pride funding based on this as his own staff found it isn't discrimination. Therefore, he’ll look like a homophobe (which is likely what he is).

Bad news in the sense that Pride Toronto will continue to have diminished funding, QAIA will continue to march and it will increasingly be about who has the bigger contingent (pro-Israel vs. anti-Israel) and not about Pride.

For the first time in my adult life I won't be at Pride this year and I'm happy about that. It's over for me.
 
Yes, when the mandate shifts from affirming/celebrating LGBT lives and rights to these sorts of niche political gestures the whole thing has been derailed, imo. Besides, is the QAIA protesting the homophobic apartheid that exists across the middle east outside of Israel? All of this starts to get a little murky which only underscores that maybe these things should be debated/protested elsewhere so that Pride can focus a little better on its mandate... partying!
 
1. Rob Ford couldn't find Isreal (or the Middle East) on a f#@!ing map; his motives are totally anti-gay which plays very nicely with his suburban supporters (yes, I know, not all suburbanites are anti-gay, blah, blah, blah).
2. The building of condos along Church will end Church as gay-central and any nightlife (gay or straight) it currently has. Especially since these condos probably won't have cafés, pubs or retail at their base.
3. The patio behind Crews was a great patio and it's a shame that NIMBYs often get their (petty) way. Downtown NIMBYs are the worst.
4. Crews charges cover? WOT! That's laughable, really. It's even divier than Woody's for crying-out-loud (even post-revamp). Lol.
 
I'm actually glad that Pride has a bit of spark to it again. Though I used to go in the early 1980s, when it was a much smaller event and practically everyone there either knew or had slept with everyone else, I must admit that I drifted away from it from the mid-80s until the mid-00s - a time when it was corporate as all get-out. In those very early days it was an event for 'out' men and women who celebrated the political implications of their sexual orientation, at a time when discriminatory laws needed to be changed and yet the vast majority of gays and lesbians were of little use in that respect since they were in the closet and aware of the social ( i.e. bars, clubs, baths ) implications of being gay at best. With QAIA, regardless of what one thinks of their position, we appear to have returned to Pride as a primarily political event.
 
Ahh, yes. The 80's. When everybody was banging everyone else. I've heard this said before. More often about the 70's. I had either the luck or misfortune of hearing about this new virus before graduating from high school and while still a virgin. So I never did enjoy this period of bliss that my luckier friends still reminisce about. But Pride in those first few years I went(1987,88,89) was very magical. A strong sense of togetherness and actual pride. It was terribly exciting and full of great hope for the future. Maybe it was the time or maybe it was my youth but it has changed now. Honestly it doesn't feel the same because there are so many straight people there. Either to join the fun/to sell the food/to set up the stages/for security/to oogle at the outfits etc.. This is terrible to say but it is the straight folks who make it feel less special. It is like any other event in the city. It could bloody well be Taste of the Danforth. What felt so amazing in 1989, for me, was that I for the first time could just relax and be myself because I was surrounded by thousands of gay people. Thats what I needed from Pride and that's what I feel we have lost.
 
Couldn't agree more. Hadn't been in years and got quite a culture shock the last time I went. The crowd where we were dancing was largely straight and full of bratty drunk chicks and their obnoxious boyfriends. The spirit of Pride was absolutely gone as far as I new it. Again, may just be nostalgia on my part? And US's point about the loss of politics is a good one but I just don't know how these particular politics relate to Pride per se. It just feels opportunistic and divisive where Pride years ago felt like a comming together of a community with a common goal.
 
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