A Canadian mayor is fighting back against a Pride organization that has persisted in a years-long crusade against him and his remote township for refusing to issue a “Pride month proclamation” — as the tiny town has become a flashpoint in culture wars over LGBTQ issues.
The dispute centers around Emo, Ontario — a township along the American border directly north of Minnesota, which in 2020 refused to oblige a local group’s request to formally declare June as “Pride Month” and fly a Pride flag.
Today on Pansexual and Panromantic Pride Day, everyone deserves to feel seen, respected and supported—no matter who they love. Create a world where everyone feels proud to be themselves! #PansexualPrideDay pic.twitter.com/4sZjulnJjs
— HHS.gov (@HHSGov) December 8, 2024
LGBTQ2+ activists have literally made Emo Township Mayor Harold McQuaker pay for daring to stand up to them.
Although the Northern Ontario municipal leader vowed not to honour a $5,000 fine the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO) levied against him for comments surrounding town council not approving a motion to approve Pride month, he wasn’t given a choice.
h/t Patti Jo & Mauser
There is a tiny rural township in Ontario, Canada, just over the border from the US state of Minnesota, that glories in the name of Emo. Emo has a population of just 1,300, and until fairly recently was known (though not by many) for its picturesque waterfront park, its annual Rainy River Agricultural Fair and its catch-and-release fishing tournament, the Emo Walleye Classic. It looks idyllic, with simple straggles of wooden houses and vivid verdure bordering the enormous Clearwater Lake.
In 2020, Borderland Pride asked the township of Emo, Ont. (pop. 1,300) to proclaim Pride Month and fly the Pride flag. In a 3-2 vote, the council declined. It was a petty decision; Pride proclamations are generally considered pro forma, and Emo’s refusal was a bad look for a township seeking to attract business and newcomers.
In fairness, Emo only had four such requests that year, two of them from Borderland Pride. This was a far cry from the 1990s, when Hamilton and London discriminated against Pride by excluding it from similar resolutions passed for everyone else.
Do LGBTQ2S+ tourists have a green book-like system for staying safe while traveling in these politically precarious times? They don’t have one. They have many.
In recent years, there’s been an outpouring of specialized blogs, cruise and tour operators, and booking sites for accommodations. There are organizations that certify the support of transport operators, destinations and special events. And there are watchdog groups with eyes on the laws and customs of the world.
It’s past time for the gay community to wake up to the widespread, insidious politicking and ideological capture that has infiltrated the once-proud movement that sought to liberate same-sex attracted people and welcome them with open arms into broader society. I’m talking, of course, about Toronto Pride, the local manifestation of an annual commemoration of the Stonewall riots in New York City in 1969, which was first instituted in the Big Apple in 1970 and spread across the border in 1981.
An Ottawa elementary school was missing 80 percent of its students during its scheduled “Pride” flag raising ceremony earlier this month, a local pro-family activist has said.
Speaking to LifeSiteNews, Muslim pro-family activist Kamel El-Cheikh said that on June 4, teachers and staff at Michaelle Jean Elementary School in Ottawa, Ontario were baffled when 591 out of 738 students (80 percent) were missing from the school’s LGBT “Pride” flag raising ceremony. The reported absences coincided with Campaign Life Coalition’s 2nd annual National ‘Pride’ Flag Walk-Out Day.
h/t XC
The media is not reporting this story.
Mainstream media outlets have highlighted (and even exulted in) the massive growth of Americans embracing a “LGBTQ+” identity in recent years. They have routinely acknowledged that this shift is heavily tilted toward teens and younger adults.
Often more muted is another observation: that by huge margins these increases have been disproportionately driven by those embracing bisexual identities. Further acknowledgment that this explosion in bisexual identity among the young has been heavily driven by females, not males, tends to be even more subdued.
Liberal cabinet minister Seamus O’Regan is gay!
OK I know this isn’t a profound revelation. It’s been common knowledge for quite some time and O’Regan hasn’t made a secret of it. Despite being a rather avid political watcher, I didn’t know O’Regan’s sexual orientation. I doubtless ran across references to it over the years but it never really stuck in my memory because you know what? It doesn’t matter.
I didn’t fight so that I should be celebrated for an entire month every year just for my sexual orientation.
For those of us who, back in the day, were serious campaigners for gay rights, for the social acceptance of gay people, and for same–sex marriage, the larger objective was always clear: once gay people, after years of debate, disagreement, dissension, and discussion, managed to achieve our goals, we would drop politics, move on, and enjoy the fruits of our victory. In other words, we would happily take up our place as fully equal citizens and go on with our lives. Victory would mean no more need for Gay Pride marches or rainbow flags or for such phenomena as Gay Pride Month, which, as it happens, is now in its first days and which I, for one, am already sick of. (Somehow, it feels to me as if both Gay Pride Month and Ramadan come along every few weeks, not once a year.) The whole point of the gay movement was to reach a point at which we were no longer demonized, no longer subject to arrest just for being who we were, no longer exposed to public name-calling even when we were behaving ourselves in the most civilized manner possible, no longer singled out constantly in a multitude of unfair and unpleasant ways just because of our sexual orientation. The idea was for our identity as members of a despised minority to fall away as much as possible, and to be recognized – and either respected or disliked, based on our own merits – as individuals.
The mind boggles, reels, and whirs at the speed with which the LGBTQ agenda has swept across America.
We saw it flex its muscles in the rapidity with which same-sex marriage became legalized. But Obergefell v. Hodges was only the start. Less than a decade since that historic ruling, society has flipped from where certain sexual behavior was stigmatized to where it is now celebrated and endorsed, even by the government.
Pride Toronto is repaying just over $505,000 in grant funding after an accounting firm found the organization could not prove that it completed several projects despite receiving $1.85 million from the federal government.
In a statement sent to CBC News, Pride Toronto Executive Director Kojo Modeste said the organization is repaying $505,504 total to the federal department of Canadian heritage.
This comes after KPMG, which was hired by the organization in 2021 to review its compliance with agreements for three federal grants, found that documentation was lacking.
One of the most ignored passages in legislative history is this phrase in the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967: Taxpayer-funded media outlets should observe “strict adherence to objectivity and balance in all programs or series of programs of a controversial nature.”
Yet a new Media Research Center study finds PBS’s flagship NewsHour program aired nine times more coverage in favor of the left-wing “woke” position on so-called “LGBTQ” issues compared to more traditional positions. Over the seven-month period of March 1 through September 30, 2023, supportive coverage almost wholly dominated the “debate,” if you could call it that: 172 minutes for the left vs. 19 minutes for the right. That’s 90.2% supportive coverage for the side pushing “identity” issues.
On August 29, a CNN headline went viral: “Two men in Uganda are facing separate charges of ‘aggravated homosexuality,’ an offense punishable by death under the country’s controversial new anti-gay laws.” The clarifying community note attached to the tweet provided important context: “One man is accused of having a sexual relation with a disabled man, the other of a sexual act with a 12-year-old child. Both are charged with ‘aggravated homosexuality,’ defined as same-sex relations with someone who is HIV-positive, a child, an elderly person, or disabled.”
Consider the difference between the narrative provided by CNN and the reality behind the headline. Now consider the fact that the mainstream press has been doing this for years—and the impact that has had on the public perception of many issues. They’re doing this to us on purpose.
