{"id":21029,"date":"2011-06-27T09:38:48","date_gmt":"2011-06-27T13:38:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=21029"},"modified":"2011-06-27T12:38:06","modified_gmt":"2011-06-27T16:38:06","slug":"lorinc-maybe-it-doesn%e2%80%99t-get-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/06\/27\/lorinc-maybe-it-doesn%e2%80%99t-get-better\/","title":{"rendered":"LORINC: Maybe it doesn\u2019t get better"},"content":{"rendered":"

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There\u2019s an arresting scene near the end of Milk<\/em>, the superb biopic about San Francisco supervisor and gay rights pioneer Harvey Milk, in which Sean Penn (who plays Milk) takes a call from a despondent teenager in a middle-American town. Struggling with his sexuality and terrified of his father\u2019s violent temper, the young man has contemplated suicide but reaches out to Milk for help and inspiration.<\/p>\n

In his tragically foreshortened career, Milk, a supremely courageous figure, met many young people in such dire circumstances. In their name, he set to work building a safe, inclusive urban community for gay men and women (and indeed for anyone who\u2019d felt marginalized by society). Milk offered these desperate kids a chance at an open, and therefore honest, life.<\/p>\n

With all the hoopla around Pride Week, it is easy to forget that the LGBT ghettos in San Francisco, New York and Toronto trace their roots to this kind of clustering of sexual outcasts. They began with bars where the doormen didn\u2019t ask questions, rooming houses with landlords willing to look the other way, and stores, like Milk\u2019s Castro Street camera shop, whose managers didn\u2019t shun gay customers.<\/p>\n

Most importantly, these communities served as islands of refuge for thousands of young people ostracized by the family members whose support they needed most. It\u2019s not an accident that Sister Sledge\u2019s 1979 pop hit \u201cWe are Family\u201d became one of the anthems of the gay rights revolution.<\/p>\n

This backdrop seems to have been lost in the controversy over Mayor Rob Ford\u2019s decision to shun Pride Week. On the surface, the political geography of this conflict appears to be a confrontation between powerful and outspoken factions (Church Street vs. Ford Nation). When Ford is chastised for choosing not to attend, we\u2019re told he\u2019s turning his back on an important constituency and passing up an opportunity to build bridges. He\u2019s the mayor of all the people, half a million of them will attend the Parade, ergo he\u2019s forsaking his political responsibilities.<\/p>\n

All true, but Ford\u2019s message here, conscious or not, is about so much more than just the partisan politics of Pride parades.<\/p>\n

By conspicuously choosing the company of his (presumably heterosexual) family, Ford has telegraphed an unambiguous message to teenagers trying to sort out their identities. And that message is, \u201cDon\u2019t come out, because I don\u2019t want to know who you really are.\u201d It is a turning of the back, and surely evokes the rejection these kids anticipate in the wake of the dreaded conversation with Mom and Dad.<\/p>\n

Last fall, when Torontonians fell into the wormhole of the strangest municipal election in recent memory, sex columnist Dan Savage launched what would quickly become the It Gets Better<\/a> project. He sought to offer a lifeline to LGBT teens contemplating suicide in the face of harassment at school and at home.<\/p>\n

Many prominent entertainers, community leaders and educators have embraced Savage\u2019s campaign, offering themselves up as examples that life does, in fact, improve after the misery of high school and insular, conservative communities.<\/p>\n

Yet it also gets better because cosmopolitan cities like Toronto and San Francisco sustain vibrant gay and gay-friendly neighbourhoods that provide new homes, accepting families, safe streets and renewed futures to those young men and women who are fleeing from intolerance.<\/p>\n

So here\u2019s my question: if you happen to be a teen who is gay and torn and scared, what did Rob Ford (and Ford Nation) just say to you?<\/p>\n

Photo by Ryan<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s an arresting scene near the end of Milk, the superb biopic about San Francisco supervisor and gay rights pioneer Harvey Milk, in which Sean Penn (who plays Milk) takes a call from a despondent teenager in a middle-American town. Struggling with his sexuality and terrified of his father\u2019s violent temper, the young man hasContinue reading “LORINC: Maybe it doesn\u2019t get better”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4051,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,2],"tags":[17870,3128,426,17872,469,227,576,6695,17871,7423,19],"class_list":["post-21029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-neighbourhoods","category-politics","tag-dan-savage","tag-harvey-milk","tag-mayor","tag-mom-and-dad","tag-new-york","tag-rob-ford","tag-san-francisco","tag-sean-penn","tag-sex-columnist","tag-supervisor","tag-toronto"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLORINC: Maybe it doesn\u2019t get better - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/06\/27\/lorinc-maybe-it-doesn\u2019t-get-better\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"LORINC: Maybe it doesn\u2019t get better - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There\u2019s an arresting scene near the end of Milk, the superb biopic about San Francisco supervisor and gay rights pioneer Harvey Milk, in which Sean Penn (who plays Milk) takes a call from a despondent teenager in a middle-American town. 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