How people can shout from the roof tops that they are "proud" of this display is beyond me.
A little shame would be order.
Posted on 06/22/2002 8:58:55 PM PDT by Black Powder
Won't proclaim gay pride day
Edmonton's homosexual community plans to file a complaint with the Alberta Human Rights Commission because Mayor Bill Smith declined to proclaim today gay pride day.
"You can't discriminate based on sexual orientation," Edmonton Pride Committee spokesman Murray Billett said yesterday.
"The mayor has done this by denying the proclamation."
Smith said yesterday he didn't want to comment much about denying the proclamation because of the threat of legal action.
But he did give his primary reason.
"I'm a Christian Catholic and it goes against my personal belief," said Smith.
Today, roughly 1,000 people are expected to participate in a gay pride parade that starts at noon near Jasper Avenue and 111 Street. The parade ends near Jasper Avenue and 119 Street.
"We wanted to read the proclamation (today)," said Billett. "I honestly thought he'd give us the proclamation this year."
That's because of recent changes the province introduced to same-sex legislation and the group's belief Smith would've changed his tune, he said.
Billett added the Edmonton Pride press release about Smith denying the proclamation and the organization considering legal steps wasn't supposed to be sent out until Monday, after today's parade.
Billett said someone leaked it.
"(The Monday release) was so we wouldn't have to deal with the controversy during the weekend," he said.
"We wanted to have our celebration."
Adult child of heterosexuals, so try not to be judgmental.
;-)
I stopped in a bar once at the west end of Calgary a few years ago while traveling all over the Canadian Rockies. I got into a conversation with a couple of guys about a baseball game on television, and when they heard that I was a visitor from the U.S. they asked me (suspiciously) what I was selling up there. When I told them I was simply on a long vacation, they became fascinated and we spent four hours talking about western Canada, the U.S., and a whole bunch of things.
It turned out one of the guys owned the place, and they asked me to spend a few days with them and their familes up at his cabin on Sylvan Lake for their annual August get-together. Then they asked me my name. They're great friends of mine to this day.
As the night wore on we were occasionally interrupted by a loud argument going on between two intoxicated guys in the corner of the bar. They would speak quietly, then louder, then would be shouting at each other until one of them would grab the other and they would wrestle on the floor for about two minutes. Then they would get up, brush themselves off, and go through it all over again. This happened about 7 or 8 times over the course of an hour.
When I came back the next day, I asked the owner what had happened to them.
"Oh, everything turned out all right," he said, "They got into a real loud argument and fight right before closing time, and I was about to call the police. But then they got up, agreed that no matter how much they disliked each other at least they weren't homosexuals, and decided to go to a park downtown and look for gay men to beat up if they caught them in the bushes."
OK, plenty of room for helium there and there and there.
How people can shout from the roof tops that they are "proud" of this display is beyond me.
A little shame would be order.
But...but... wouldn't the issuance of such a proclamation be discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation?
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