Flying Ingnorami
Tonight I had the privilege of being part of a live-audience taping of MTV Canada’s 1 Girl 5 Gays.
The atmosphere was so alive, so welcoming, so warm. Smiles, laughter, some cliched tears from Philip (as always), but it was still such a positive space.
Not even 10 minutes later did I walk into this conversation: “Fuck, don’t touch me, especially around here. I’ll punch him in the fucking balls.” This was said by a City of Toronto worker with Ontario Provincial Police presence - I assume to supervise the working site, because these City of Toronto workers are incompetent. Clearly. The “especially around here” he was referring to was the Toronto Gay Village, more specifically Church Street. It’s never right to assume, but you can only imagine what he was talking about. I saw his face and his uniform: picture those dirty, beardy, smokers in a City of Toronto get-up working late nights and fixing the problems no one else wants to because he didn’t graduate high school, chased pussy instead, drinks and smokes all day and night and makes fun of gays because he still thinks it’s cool like 20 years ago when he was in high school.
As I continued to walk down the street after interrupting the conversation, the two police officers on duty and the one other City of Toronto worker that I could spot said absolutely nothing. Not to say they were encouraging the conversation, they could have remained silent because they knew how stupid this guy just sounded.
I continued to walk to my apartment thinking about what a fucking idiot this guy was and the reason why it was bothering me so much was because of where I had been 10 minutes prior. In a room full of flaming homos, straight allies and awesome people making fun of each other for being who they are, praising each other for accomplishments, singing happy birthday to a complete stranger, applauding someone just for saying something. It was such a bright and embracing atmosphere that for me to walk home and hear this idiot say such things is just a moment you have to stop and remind yourself that in a growing queer-positive society, he is now the outcast.
