Just as 2009 was coming to a close, Canadian gay magazine NOW made a small note about Toronto City Councilor Adam Giambrone, who took office at age 26 in 2003 and became the Council’s youngest member. The magazine called him gay. That was sort of a big deal, given Giambrone announced he’s going to run for Toronto mayor. Only problem? NOW got it wrong.
Not that Giambrone was put off by the claim.
It all started when NOW‘s Enzo Di Matteo published the listicle “Five Fearless Predictions for 2010,” which originally read:
(It’s since been updated to read “gay-positive.”)
But in the aftermath of the wrong call, Di Matteo is now using his mistake to discuss the whole “Should being called gay even be a bad thing?” angle. We all know the answer to that one! He writes in a follow-up:
For the record, Giambrone’s not gay. He has a female partner. Her name is Sarah and she works for the provincial government. Full stop. End of story.
On a slow news day it should have been a footnote. But it wasn’t. Yes, news that Giambrone’s not gay made it clear across the country, thanks to CTV, Canwest and Sun Media.
Why did certain elements of the (predominantly conservative) media decide to turn it into fodder for the day, helping to put Giambrone, who’s never felt the need to define himself, in the awkward position of having to?
I have to ask: gay, bi, straight – why should we care?
But when the person in question happens to be setting up a run for mayor that is freaking out the powers that be just a little, all the spilled ink in the mainstream makes more sense. What better way to undermine his chances?
Let’s face it. We may be a decade into the 21st century, but the G-word still carries a fair bit of negative baggage – maybe not in the city core, but certainly anywhere east of Vic Park and north of the 401.
(Screenshots via)
P
NOW isn’t a gay magazine. Was that an intentional error?
UnionSt
NOW magazine is a progressive magazine and is co-owned by a queer, staffed by plenty of queers and written by even more queers. If they thought Adam was a homo they meant well by it.
Giambrone is NOT owed any kind of apology since being called gay is by no means an insult.
The issue that’s lost in all this is that the other Mayoral candidate – the REAL GAY – is not progressive and is supported by many from our Canadian right wing parties (things are significantly different up here in Canada where we’re all gay married and frankly it’s all a little boring now so our right wing parties are doing their best to pull in the money gays into their fold and, sadly, their strategy is working).
Giambrone has done plenty for the LGBTQ community up here and has been a tireless advocate for years in our fight for rights. It was an honest mistake.
Unfortunately the corporate anti-progressive press up here slapped the story on their front page in an effort to slam Giambrone and the story received more attention than it should have.
Alexandre
Excuse me? If Di Matteo is now saying why should it matter if a person is Gay, Bi, or Straight, then why did he feel the need to label this guy as “Gay” in the first place? Hypocritical. It shouldn’t be a big deal, for either side. Why does the gay community feel like it can barge in on other gays or supposed gays, and then gets worked up when the heterosexual run media does the same thing.
TommyOC
Whether we think it’s right that being mistakenly labeled “teh gay” is considered a bad thing is immaterial. All that matters is that for many people the world over, being thought of as gay is enough evidence for them to vote for the other guy. And that’s poison for a politician and he has the right (and some would say, obligation, to deny it). Of course, if Giambrone *were* gay and denied it still, then that’s a different story.
But with the evidence provided, Giambrone is completely in the right to refute the label. And he’s also completely in the right for encouraging his denial to be spread in the press as far as possible.
And since he’s making sure his claims of not being gay isn’t an affront to his gay-friendly political stances, it’s the best political move for him to do so.
And for this one time, we gays should understand the larger picture and shut up about feelings that shouldn’t be hurt in the first place.
Greg
Frankly, all this criticism is WAYYYYY over the top. The article was written from a positive perspective and everyone needs to calm the eff down. This is blatant Sensationalism and it’s working, unfortunately.
re: TommyOC The issue isn’t whether or not Giambrone refute’s the label (If I remember correctly, he has a transgendered sibling). The issue is whether or not NOW a magazine should be held accountable for misrepresenting Giambrone even after they corrected AND addressed the issue (albeit quite snarkily).
While the media has called for some rediculous [i]mea culpa[/i], Giambrone has called for no sort of apology. That should be the end of the story. The “victim” says, “Fuhgeddaboutit!” so frigging FORGET ABOUT IT!
David
Adam’s response was great. We need more Mayor Adam’s.
Franco
I live in Toronto, this is a mute point here, and it wouldn’t affect his chances for the mayor of Toronto if he were gay. The article from NOW — a liberal mouthpiece of a paper here in Toronto that has very little credibility — was a simple mistake from a publication that has continually demonstrated little research or fact checking when publishing their articles. Winnipeg had an openly gay mayor for years and George Smitherman has been out forever, and Toronto is an extremely gay friendly city. Trust me, a revelation that Giambrone is gay would not freak out the powers that be.
Ted C.
I live in Toronto. The idea that being gay would affect Giambrone’s chances is ridiculous. Are you aware that the favourite to win, George Smitherman, is openly gay?
http://www.torontolife.com/features/george-smitherman/
Dan
Uh huh. Suuure you have a girlfriend who lives in Canada! We understand. Wink wink.
Kevin
@DAN read the whole article…or learn some basic geography
Toronto is in Canada…this is an article about a Canadian politician. SO yes, his girlfriend does live in Canada, as does he.
That being said, I live in Toronto and think highly of Giambrone. I really don’t think sexuality will much of an influence in the mayoral election, the city just doesn’t care. As DiMatteo hilariously and accurately wrote, that shit don’t matter til you hit E of Victoria Park and N of 401
B
While someone seemed to have truncated what Giambrone said, from what little that was shown, his main concern seemed to be making sure people didn’t think his girlfriend had a gay boyfriend and would thus be in a relationship that was not likely to work well.
tony72
Kevin-
Dan who posted immediately b4 you was making a joke, not being geographically ignorant.
From Avenue Q…if you’re not out (and live in the US), pretend you have a girlfriend in Canada. Problem solved.
Anyway Giambrone is not gay, but 2 potential front-runners for Toronto Mayor are- George Smitherman & Glen Murray…as was the drag queen that came in 3rd a few years ago.
Houston’s got us beat tho– recently becoming the first major North American city to elect an opening gay mayor.
I take back eveything I ever said about Texas being the land of homophobes.
Lukas P.
Does it seem that this is making a bigger splash as a news item outside of Toronto than in that beautiful city?