"oopsies!" - John Cummins
Background: Soon to be leader of the B.C. Conservative party, John Cummins, in an interview with a radio station said that homosexuality is a choice and the provincial Human Rights act should not expand to include / protect based on sexual orientation. And then – he backtracked and said everyone is has the right to live how they want and EVERYONE is protected under the HRA so why expand it further?
Shocking, I know. Always a conservative pundit making an ignorant comment, usually about homosexuals followed by the realization that a big chunk of Canadians (read: potential Conservative voters) don’t buy into the no-homo approach to politics so they issue a half ass statement regretting a word or two but keeping the overall sentiment of their initial message.
“I don’t really know if it’s a choice or not, actually. Maybe we should leave it to the experts.” Copy and paste that into any “That’s not what I meant” speech by any politician (celebrity, public figure etc…). Because of this, I know this is a ‘tell me something I didn’t know’ kind of news item, but it doesn’t make it any less frustrating to hear about on the basis of the following:
– Every word uttered before, during, and after the remark was made was most likely intentional and purposefully insincere. Vague, fuzzy language keeps the Right adequately happy, while trying to avoid pissing the Left off too much.
– People are still saying ignorant things about homosexuals citing tradition and lack of empirical evidence, causing severe eye-rolling and a lot of “really? again?”s.
But despite the unenlightenment of some, situations such as this highlight the power of public opinion and pressure. Look how protest to the words Cummins initially used pulled him closer to the Centre and farther from his party’s beliefs and perhaps his personal beliefs.
And this aint just a CPC thang. Check this adorable PSA out:
That’s hockey pro Sean Avery. Those who know me are WELL aware of my opinions on what I call ‘hypermasculine sport’ (football, hockey, ultimate fighting and so on…). Heck, even if you don’t, it was the topic of one of my first blog posts on Romi Says. What I find when challenging the notions of heterosexual masculinity in sport, is a lot of people defending their heterosexuality in relation to the sport.
Case and point: After Avery was featured publicly supporting gay marriage, there was an outcry from the professional hockey community and from sports journalists criticizing him for his views. How dare a participant in the manliest, most heterosexual sport on the planet support GAY MARRIAGE?
One sportscaster spat this gem out:
UGHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
this too happened:
But that comment didn’t fly as well as Goddard thought it would. In fact, Toronto’s Sportsnet decided to give him the boot (but cited other factors in addition to the tweet that lead to his dismissal).
And why should these comments fly? It’s 2011, people.
Cummins, Goddard – different people, same dangerous message. I say keep the public pressure on, and figures of influence using their, well, influence because when this stops happening, we lose big time and so do our gay best friends, family, coworkers, neighbors and children.
I’ll leave you with wise words from Sir Charles Barkley:
Romi Says 