[TossYourJacket]

Seriously, I don't understand the argument that gay people (or anyone) deserve to be yelled at by anyone, especially over a megaphone.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Seriously, I don't understand the argument that gay people (or anyone) deserve to be yelled at by anyone, especially over a megaphone.

What I do find not so funny is how that whole "free speech" argument only got applied to LGBT people. I mean replace that with Orthodox Jews raised earlier and things aren't so free-speechy anymore, is it?

AoD

 

[Richard White]

The city needs to crack down on it. If they cannot get rid of them at least give them a designated space for them to "preach". If they don't like it too bad.

 

[Northern Light]

So you have lost the argument...when you go with the Nazi crap

In general, I agree that the comparison with Nazism is made too frequently and too frivolously.

However, in this case, it's actually on point.

Someone being homosexual isn't a choice (obviously one can choose to behave however, but the nature of one's orientation is largely biologically determined)

That being the case, speaking against someone essentially existing at all; and clearly deriding them as being inferior simply for being born is very much of nazi-ilk.

Hitler's Germany condemned people not on merits, but on biology, and birth-right.

Someone behaving in the same fashion earns the comparison honestly.

I am loathe to police speech in most circumstances, or to do so w/maximum force of law; but where that speech is public, both wrong (intellectually) and hateful; such that it illicits discrimination and may foment violence; I think there is room to be fairly 'discouraging' of such speech.

 

[Richard White]

Before we go too far down the rabbit hole can we please try getting this back on topic?

We have gone from people shouting at Yonge and Dundas to comparing it to anti-semitism. I shudder to think where else this could go.

 

[TheSix]

So you have lost the argument...when you go with the Nazi crap

How so? I'd love to hear your explanation on how it is any different when looking at the persecution and murders of the LGBT+ community across time (which is still happening today).

 

[P23]

If you are annoyed by people yelling about their personal beliefs on the street, imagine how I feel when I want to read the forum about buildings and here's some stupid crap about nazis.

 

[condovo]

^^^ ...and when looking at the persecution and murders of the Jewish community across time, which is still happening today (ie, UK, France, Pittsburgh, Poway, Jersey City, Monsey, recent incidences at U of T and McGill, etc., etc...)

As a member of both communities, I feel it's important to bring awareness to both.

I don't believe in shutting down speech, even when I know the speakers essentially want me dead. In this case, I think there should be a designated area for it in Dundas-Square.

Also, let's not forget there's a lot of other anti-social behaviour happening related to addiction and mental illness, which is crying out for a visible police presence and more harm-reduction.

 

[salsa]

Before we go too far down the rabbit hole can we please try getting this back on topic?

Dundas Square bad. Anyone disagree?

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

If you are annoyed by people yelling about their personal beliefs on the street, imagine how I feel when I want to read the forum about buildings and here's some stupid crap about nazis.

Only if it is in ALL CAPS!! I mean, that's an allegory of the issue isn't it?

AoD

 

[Richard White]

Only if it is in ALL CAPS!! I mean, that's an allegory of the issue isn't it?

AoD

I say let them play Songs of the South on the display screens and let them be.

 

[WeirdFishes]

If you are annoyed by people yelling about their personal beliefs on the street, imagine how I feel when I want to read the forum about buildings and here's some stupid crap about nazis.

"Annoyed" is an understatement.

Imagine wanting to read this forum about buildings and you read something about how your are less than equal, don't deserve the same rights and are better off dead? That's what it's like to stroll through Yonge Dundas Square for the LGBT+ community.

 

[Johnny Au]

I say let them play Songs of the South on the display screens and let them be.

Oh, and Birth of a Nation too. It's a classic.

 

[Richard White]

Oh, and Birth of a Nation too. It's a classic.

Hmm.... maybe the movie entitled "A Serbian Film"

 

[jje1000]

There needs to be a limit on free speech.

Meh, as Christopher Hitchens says, free speech laws are a rod for your own back- and that one shouldn’t take refuge in the false security of consensus.

Just post a police officer or two nearby, if things get pushy, then have them deal with it.

Anyways, I wonder what sort of impact the physical gentrification (screens + redevelopment) and the simultaneous civic de-gentrification (increased rowdiness) is going to have on YD Square’s place in the urban psyche?