The Second Pride War

"I've got these queers right where I want 'em..."

Just over a year ago, I wrote a piece called “Why Pride” in which I argued 2 points related to the 2010 Pride celebrations in Toronto. In brief, they were:

1. Pride should distance itself from aggressive political messages that are not its own, specifically the messages related to Israeli/Palestinian relations promoted by QuAIA.
2. Pride should make better use of their its platform by de-emphasizing the naked, gyrating party and trying to put more media spotlight on their core messages of acceptance and openness.

On one of those two points, the one dealing with Queers against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA), I feel somewhat validated by the events of the past few months. Pride did distance themselves slightly from QuAIA which was enough (at the time) to get the wolves at City Hall to back off their bull-headed pledge to pull Pride’s funding. But more than that, it put the focus of this year’s parade back squarely where it belongs, on the continuing day-to-day struggles of LGBTQ peoples in Toronto. Even the flap over the absence of Mayor Rob Ford from the parade was at least centred on the idea that a leader of the people of Toronto should represent all the people of Toronto, especially those who have been marginalized.

On the second point, concerning the emphasis on crazy fun over strong political messaging, I was quite wrong. I failed to grasp the power of an event where people can be themselves, even if only for an afternoon. I can see now that Pride allows those who perhaps spend much of the year couching their real feelings and personality to break free. In that way, the parade is both precious and beautiful and the way in which it creates spaces where people can feel completely comfortable IS the broader political message. I’d overlooked that in the past and I’m relieved to have seen the error in my thinking.

With that mea culpa humbly managed, we must return to the business of the day, which again is centred on QuAIA and the continued funding of Pride by the City of Toronto.

On the July 4^th edition of the John Oakley show, we were treated to an incomprehensible exchange between city Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti and XTRA writer Andrea Houston. After the dust settled on the largely comical endeavour, we were left with a clear signal that the right-wing faction on Council would be renewing its quest to defund Pride and that they’d once again be using QuAIA as a wedge.

Sadly,  Houston mishandled her opportunity, spent far too much of the interview calling Mammoiliti names and worse, she confused the messaging about whether or not QuAIA had actually marched in either the main Sunday parade or the Dyke March. So intent was Houston on making hay out of Mammoliti’s silly videotaping stunt that she allowed him and his accomplice, John Oakley, to frame the conversation entirely around defunding Pride on the grounds that the festival had somehow broken a promise to sideline QuAIA.

Only near the end did Houston clearly state that QuAIA had not marched in the Dyke March or the Sunday parade, but by that time the damage was done. Mammoliti had successfully re-launched his campaign to defund Pride and the pro-Pride contingent was left looking both petty and incapable of providing a compelling argument against defunding.

This morning’s AM radio spectacle was the opening salvo in the war to kill Pride. It was the Fort Sumpter of what’s sure to be a long and painful struggle against the forces of the ignorance and fear. Do not for a second underestimate the importance of what transpired on this morning. Mammoliti used a friendly forum to firmly established his message and the Pro-Pride contingent came off as though they weren’t taking any of this seriously.

So let’s stop fucking around, ‘cause this is serious. And while it might be good Twitter fun to take pot shots at Mammoliti for his perceived pervy behaviour, it’ll get you exactly nowhere with the AM radio crowd. And guess what, you need the AM radio crowd. Sorry.

If an effective defense of Pride is to be mounted in the coming months, it must, in my opinion, accept the following 3 statements:

1. There has never been a persuasive argument for defunding Pride. If ever you are presented with an argument, it will be a bad one. If ever you encounter a person making such an argument, they will not be able to back it up. The whole notion that the city should not fund public festivals is weak and easily attacked. But knowing one is righteousness does not assure victory. In fact, it often guarantees the opposite.
2. If Pride is to survive it must distance itself from QuAIA and by extension, it must also concede that arguing for Pride in the context of Freedom of Expression is not an effective method of convincing Mayor Ford’s base of Pride’s benefits. They don’t care. They should, it’s horrific that they don’t, but they don’t. That was proven this year and last in reference to QuAIA and Pride and it was really fucking proven at the G20. Please, I get how horrible this statement is and what it says about Canada in the 21^st century. But you to deal with reality of reality’s terms. And today, these are the fucking terms.
3. Pride and its supporters must set the terms of the debate with the anti-Pride contingent, they must be willing to focus on issues that might appeal to that contingent and they must strongly resist the efforts of the Mayor and his cohorts to engage them in a debate about QuAIA or any related topic.

Pride meets all the requirements of the Respect for Taxpayers model. It provides good return on investment, it’s pro-business, it provides a service to a segment of Toronto’s population and it’s a shining example of a Public Private Partnership. These are our weapons. They’re clear, they apply to all public festivals and they focus on issues of economic development over social politics. In short, they’re coffee shop topics. That’s why they’ll work.

If the numbers I’m hearing are correct, the 2011 Pride celebrations have generated $13 million for business owners in the City of Toronto. That’s a 100x return on the City’s investment. Supporters of Pride should be publically thanking the City for their wise economic investment in Toronto business owners and for their continued focus on the economic development of the city in these tough times.

That’s not enough, you say? Alright, well how about citing Pride as an example of a PPP. No one loves PPP more than the Mayor and his cohorts. Hell, that’s how we’re going to pay for the whole city, right? Private businesses chip in their share of the Parade funding and they get advertising and naming rights in return. No one is asking the City to fund the parade all on their own, just to maintain their share of a successful PPP.

And as to these claims that Pride should be self-supporting; well economic stimulus is a lost leader. If Ford and Co. don’t believe that, just cite their pals in Ottawa who’ve given away millions of dollars to boost small business owners. The city’s just keeping in step with their ideological brethren and for a fraction of the federal sum. Again, Pride supporters would do well to praise the City at every opportunity.

Finally, Pride and its supporters should follow Mammoliti’s argument and frame this as a debate about the funding of festivals in general. Show the people of this city how their modest investment of tax dollars is paid back to small business a hundred-fold. Show them how big festivals like Pride, Luminato, Caribana and Nuit Blanche are key economic drivers and important sources of stimulus in depressed economic times.

Yes, I understand that the debate about Pride isn’t about the money for Ford, Mammoliti and any of the other scared, bigoted people who currently inhabit the halls of power in Toronto. For them, it’s about not wanting to fund a gay event. But tragic as it may be, that doesn’t matter. Ford wasn’t elected by passion and he can’t be defeated by passion. He was elected with consistent messaging. You need to convince Ford’s base in order to get his support. The methods for motivating his base aren’t a secret, so use them.

There is absolutely no benefit derived from launching personal attacks on the very people who control the purse strings to which Pride is desperately beholden.

“Hey, you’re a dirty homophobe…now see the error of your ways and give me some money.”

This is flawed logic, based in fantasy and only those blinded by self-righteousness would bother to use it. Make no mistake; this is going to be a war. And if the supporters of Pride continue to fight it indignantly, they will lose. Pride is too vital for its defense to be left to those who think shouting down the other side is an effective debating technique.

We have to do better and be better; that’s the only way it’ll get better. This isn’t about appeasement; it’s about fighting the enemy using their own weapons against them. It’s strategy over passion, reason over emotion and finally, Pride over prejudice. This isn’t a battle the forces of good can afford to lose. The death of Pride would be the social equivalent of dropping a bomb on the city. All of the hard-won advancements in universal rights would be wiped out and worse, it would give the purveyors of fear all the momentum they’d need to start chipping away at the rights of other minorities and eventually, everyone.

This is the time for mind over heart. So get your head into the game.

POSTSCRIPT:

I’ve seen other people make arguments like this only to be told that straight guys shouldn’t be telling the LGBTQ community  how to conduct their affairs and/or defend their festival. Well, fuck you. A festival of this kind can and should be just as important to a straight man like me as it is to a member of the LGBTQ community. Either we’re all in this together or we’re not. Make up your fucking mind, already.

I’m here for you all the way. I’d love to get on the radio and engage with Mammoliti or Ford or any of them. I’d love to shower them with praise for their funding of Pride and all the other festivals that make this city great. I’d give my left nut to see their faces when they’re put in a position where they have to argue against Conservative-style stimulus.

Unfortunately, I don’t think anyone’s going to be asking me to do that. So it’s up to you, Pride-friendly media of Toronto. You really need to get over your righteousness and start talking to the people who matter. Namely, Ford supporters. It’s only your very existence that’s at stake. 

The Art of the Possible

Politics is the art of the possible.

• Otto von Bismarck

Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.

• Winston Churchill

I’m not a giddy person by nature. Sure, I’m happy enough. Well, happy enough for someone with my particular temperament. Which is not to say that I’m unhappy, but rather to say that I’m not terribly demonstrative or given to…well…giddiness.

But today’s news that the Federal New Democrats are planning to step up to the plate and defeat the government had me on cloud nine. Not only had the party I’d once supported and have recently maligned risen to its promise and refused to offer any further assistance to the corrupt and contemptible (both objectively and legally) Conservatives, but they’ve also presented us with an opportunity to reverse 10 years of political ennui in a mere 30 days.

Like so many others, I immediately took to the facebook-twitter-blogosphere to express my joy over our likely election. Not surprisingly, my happiness was met with the usual Conservative memes: namely, “elections don’t change anything”, “elections are too costly” and the crème de la crème; “elections are too risky”.

If you feel like you’ve been addressing these arguments for a long time, you have. Cynicism has become the predominant symptom of our current governmental reality. And rather than rise above it, we’ve not only allowed it to fester, but we’ve also allowed our representatives to use it against us. The Conservatives haven’t been in power for 5 years because their better, they’ve been in power for 5 years because they convinced us to stop worrying about who’s in power. Through endless media assaults, the Harperites have convinced a great number of us to believe that as long as everything is mostly OK, why should we bother worrying about who’s in office?

VoteTO: The Home Stretch to Nowhere

So here we are in the final week of the campaign. In 6 long days, this campaign of 2010 will become our 4yr. hangover when whichever of these dopes we elect will take their turn fucking over one part of the city or another. Probably several at a time. Bumbling, blustering Rob Ford will take great pride in teaching downtown residents a lesson in much the same way Joe Pantalone will ignore the 50% of the city or so who evidently don’t give a shit about public transit or bike lanes. Smitherman…well, he’ll piss off everyone equally. The left will self-righteously attack him for lying about being a progressive. And because he’s a Liberal, he’ll inevitably infuriate the right with a graft scandal or two.

You wish we had a 4th option? Well, so do I. But the job of Mayor of Toronto is a sucker gig and the really smart people don’t fall for a sucker gig. And no amount of bullshit ballot ranking systems are going to fix that. You want to attract talent, you have to make the job worth having.

While pondering my unenthusiastic support of George Smitherman (read my quasi-endorsement) I’ve come upon a few revelations that I’d like to share with you tonight.

VoteTO: A No Humble Opinions Endorsement

No matter where I go, my heart is always in Parkdale.

In some ways, this election has been the easiest ever for downtown, progressive types like me. Not only has there been an obvious target for our righteous rage, the apparent lack of a clear alternative has allowed liberal progressives to lazily wallow in depression and negativity while avoiding the difficult work of supporting a particular idea and by extension, a candidate as well as the painstaking work of defending their choice to others.  This campaign is all negativity; from the leading candidate on down to his most ardent detractors. Negativity is so very simple because it’s purely reactive. Your opponent says or does something and you react. And thanks to Twitter and Facebook, you don’t even have to leave the house to be on the reactionary bandwagon.

To be fair, I’ve not only been on the Anti-Rob Ford bandwagon, at times I’ve been pulling it forward with my teeth. I’ve taken pot shots, at various times I’ve wished violence upon Rob Ford and/or his supporters and I’ve engaged in brutal arguments with good friends about the mental capacity of Ford’s supporters. And to be clear, in general it’s been great sport. Ford is not only an easy target, he constantly provides you with new material. A fact which makes attacking Ford a very hard habit to break. Truly, were I not deeply concerned about Ford’s chances of winning and the untold damage his mayoralty would do to our city, I might be inclined to keep the blinders on and hammer away on Ford until judgement day…or the election.

Your Weekend Action Items – Sept. 17, 2010

Here’s the transcript from a segment called “Your Weekend Action Items” that I do every Friday morning on CKUT FM 90.3 in Montreal.

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Here we are in the third week of September.

The leaves are starting the change, students are getting over their frosh week hangovers and slowly we’re all getting used to our “normal” lives. Fall is here, my friends.

But hey, it’s not all bad. Fall clothes are the nicest clothes, right? You can wear that sexy jacket or those new leather boots without worrying about being too hot. And sure it rains, but you’re too busy to be outside all day anyway. Fall is working time.

But take some comfort, brothers and sisters, in knowing that we all have to go back to work.

Down the road in sleepy old Ottawa, even the political class is about to resume their duties; which of late have included yelling at each other, threatening elections, backing down on those threats and then yelling at each other. That might sound like business as usual and perhaps it is. Occasionally, I like to reminisce about a time when Members of Parliament conducted themselves with a bit more composure. It’s certainly hard to imagine a barnstorming gorilla like John Baird existing in the time of Mackenzie King. And if he did, he certainly wouldn’t have been recognized as “MP of the Year” by a certain national rag of a magazine. But hey, maybe I’m languishing in nostalgia. It wouldn’t be the first time.

With Parliament set to resume, it only seems fitting that this week should be an ALL CANADA, ALL NATIONAL ISSUES edition of the Action Items.

Harper’s Crime

Note: The following is an excerpt from a piece I’ve been working on for a long time about regionalism and separatism in Canada. The rest of the piece hasn’t been coming together, but this section neatly sums up my feelings and I’d rather not let it sit unread in the middle of a chunk of less successful writing. -josh

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Stephen Harper’s greatest crime is stoking the fires of regionalism in this country. Remember that this is the same guy who spent years in the house accusing the Liberals of a Quebec bias. Well you see his true colours now. Stephen Harper is without a doubt to the West what Gilles Duceppe is to Quebec. He’s got the same chip on his shoulder and the same sense of entitlement born of the same victim complex. Those attitudes breed regionalism and regionalism is and always has been the greatest threat to our massive and fragile nation. You may not be a fan of Pierre Trudeau but he had a unique ability to identify this threat and he attacked it wherever he could, most famously in Quebec. He didn’t fight the separatists because they sought independence; but rather because they sought to reward Quebecers for thinking small by embracing isolationism. The Conservatives play the same game; rousing their base while casting the rest of us aside. It’s somewhat ironic, actually; for someone who so gleefully mocks the separatists to be so like them.

Josh gets flamed, Bigtime.

Hey folks. I got a comment on my post “The Self-Righteous Front” this morning and I was going to list it as trash and move on, but it’s so angry and so filled with vitriol that I didn’t feel like I could deny you the honour of reading a real, old school internet flame.

So here’s the diatribe, unedited from “Mr. Freedom”. Oh, one more thing before we get to this little missive. I hate it when people flame using an alias, so I Googled the author and thought you might like to know that…

…Mr. Freedom is actually NEVILLE A. ROSS of Toronto. He’s a bit of an artist who loves comic books and Star Trek. He likes Star Trek so much that the only 3 people he follows on Twitter are Wil Wheaton, Levar Burton and Leonard Nimoy (and he calls me a man-child). He’s also into photography and cosplay. Comments for Neville can be directed to solex10@hotmail.com

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Hey Josh, I see that you love to kiss cop ass and suck on cop dick; do you love to get fucked in the bum by cops, too? Do you love to kiss and lick cop pussy? Are you a lover of brainwashing by the semi-neoconservative MSM? It seems that you do, because all I see here is the rant of an out of touch, socially, politically and (dare I say it) emotionally stunted man-child who will kiss the ass of anybody in power just to live and survive-that’s what this rant of yours looked like to me.

<i>NOTHING</i> in this rant looked, or sounded like, you had any inkling of what the protesters (not the Black Bloc) wanted to say to the world. Nothing sounded as if you had <i>any</i> idea of the issues the protesters were on the streets trying to bring to everybody’s attention. Instead, all I see here is an immature nobody who’s taken his talking points from Rex Murphy, Bill Riley, Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Makin, and every other neoconservative bully with a big mouth and small sexual member. It also sounds like the typical North American sheep who vote and pay taxes, consume like there’s no tomorrow and who only knows what’s on <i>Canadian Idol</i>, and what’s happening in the NHL playoffs/Super Bowl/Grey Cup/NCAA championships, plus whatever’s playing a the local multiplex or what’s going on with the latest celebrity.

I could be wrong about this, and if I am, please let me know. But so far, what I read above is what I’ve described you as.

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So there it is. I might make a habit out of showcasing the most hate-filled comments I get here on the blog. The only question I have in response is…what’s MSM??