Radio personality and Toronto Sun columnist Jerry Agar writes about the issue most commentators have danced around: the Gay Pride Parade features elements that the mayor of the city of Toronto (or any mayor) might not want to be involved with:
Are the streets of the city an appropriate place for public nudity and for throwing condoms to kids in the crowd? Portions of the parade look like Hustler magazine on feet, making it more suitable for an indoor venue.
Yes, I know, that is only a “small portion” of the parade, but it is the part that gets all the coverage, so Pride has to wear it, so to speak. What message am I supposed to be receiving? That gays are mainstream and just like the rest of us?
Furthermore, there is the shooting of spectators and participants with water guns, an act that Mayor Mel Lastman joyfully took part in a decade ago but about which he seems utterly clueless; it doesn’t take much imagination to understand the symbolism.
