#TOpoli Dipshit of the Day: @TrusteeSam Sotiropoulos, grubby little homophobe

I know, I know. Been a while. Excuse the shit out of me for having a life.

Anyway, anyone following #TOpoli knows what Mayor Stupid and Brother Dumbfuck have been up to recently. It's not as if they matter to the city's governance any more, given that Toronto Council has done the only sensible thing and neutered them, but unfortunately the verbal vomit continues to stream unabated from their pieholes to be licked up by their drooling base.

To wit: consider Mayor Stupid's *cough* subtle wink *cough* to the remaining homophobes still polluting the gene pool. He's never gone to a Pride parade, he says, and he's not going to change. Whoop de do. Not even bothering to lie about going to the cottage any more. (Probably unique for the Fords, whose default setting is to bullshit no matter what the subject matter.) And, with the unique predictability of flies landing on shit, along comes Brother Dumbfuck to insist that the Ford boys aren't homophobes — they just get all icky at the sight of "buck naked men."

And if that's not clear enough, witness Rob Ford's hissy fit about the Pride flag at City Hall's ceremonial flagpole. It shouldn't replace the Canadian flag, he sputters (it didn't). It's about patriotism and supporting the athletes, he says. Yeah, sure, Rob. I mean, dozens of other flags have adorned the ceremonial flagpole, but only when the rainbow flag goes up does Mayor Stupid object and pretend it’s all about the Canadian flag. Right.

So why are we wasting oxygen and electrons on this pathetic civic cancer? Well, could it possibly be that it's part of his "brain trust's" re-election strategy? You know, get the bigots and mouth-breathers all het up about the Ho-Mo-Sekshuals and Les-Beens? Again, no great insight there.

Enter TDSB Trustee Sam Sotiropoulos. True, not that many people pay attention to school trustees, at least not to the same extent that they watch city council. Well, Sammie's decided he wants to change all that, so he's been popping off about his own obsession with buck naked men. (Maybe he and Dougie need to get a room or something. God knows they spend enough time thinking about it.)

https://twitter.com/kristynwongtam/status/432758606283292672

Well, not surprisingly, Sambo's been called out for this and other stupidities. This is a guy who makes policy about education, mind. And his response — surprise! — has been to play the victim card, and insist that people are trying to stifle his freedom of speech, and bullying him, and being all "homosexist" and everything.

Deep sigh.

For starters, this isn't a free-speech issue. There is no right not to be criticized. You don’t get to silence people who disagree with you. You can say whatever you like, but if you say stupid and hateful things, you don’t get a free pass. Calling you on your ignorance isn't censorship. Let's move on.

Sammie then doubles down and bleats that he's against ALL forms of discrimination, and what about the poor white kids of Canadian descent?

Oh, dear. Here's where it gets a little, you know, "nuanced." (Protip to Sambo: don't go looking that up on Urban Dictionary. It'll just bring you more grief.)

To insist, as Sammyboy disingenuously does, that all forms of discrimination and exclusion are equal, and have an identical impact and merit equal condemnation, is to ignore decades — centuries, even — wherein gay people have been marginalized, victimized, attacked and even murdered by straight people. Or wherein people of colour have been marginalized, excluded, exploited and lynched by the dominant class — i.e., straight white males. It’s the height of ignorance, and a well-established far-right trick, to get the oppressors to see themselves as victims.

And his obtuse and wilful disregard for these historical truths can’t help but raise questions about his motives (not to mention his role as an educational official, but we’ll leave that alone for the moment). What, exactly, is he trying to accomplish by repeatedly braying about naked men at Pride parades, if not to sound the same homophobic dog whistle recently slobbered on by the fuckhead brothers? Not to mention singling out the only openly gay member of Toronto Council for this bullshit?

Sam is a nobody. And he’ll continue to be a nobody, regardless of what happens at the next election. The lesson here is, as we’ve seen, another illustration of the toxic Ford effect, and a consistent poisoning of public discourse. With their transparent nod to the knuckledraggers and their desperate and pathetic attempts to rally the drooling remnants of their base, the fuckhead brothers have given an implicit licence to other bottom feeders to come out of the woodwork and ooze their hatred and ignorance all over everything. And that’s the most insulting and dehumanizing thing of all — that our LGBT friends have to listen to this shit All Over Again.

Related posts:

• Just how fucking stupid are Ford supporters, anyway? | #TOpoli
• Via @cityslikr: #Fordfest, integrity, and the slow but steady fouling of the public sphere | #TOpoli
• Mayor Stupid on the Danzig shootings

Tiny Tim and Brother Dumbfuck? That's a marriage made in ... um ...

Quick, pick the smartest one in the room.

Oh, sure. This should work out just fine. 

Couple more guys who are a real credit to the badge | @TorontoPolice #G20

Sergeant Michael Ferry and Sergeant Douglas Rose.

Unnecessary and excessive force (in normal everyday language, police brutality) in the arrest of journalist Ryan Mitchell. (Not that it would be any less disgusting if he weren't a journalist, but, well, you know ... Sean Salvati, Adam Nobody, Dorian Barton, John Pruyn, Lacy McAuley, Gabriel Jacobs ... Christ, do I have to do this again?)

One Town's War on Gay Teens | #uspoli #lgbt

One Town's War on Gay Teens | Politics News | Rolling Stone:

"Asked on a radio program whether the anti-gay agenda of her ilk bore any responsibility for the bullying and suicides, Barb Anderson, co-author of the original "No Homo Promo," held fast to her principles, blaming pro-gay groups for the tragedies. She explained that such "child corruption" agencies allow "quote-unquote gay kids" to wrongly feel legitimized. "And then these kids are locked into a lifestyle with their choices limited, and many times this can be disastrous to them as they get into the behavior which leads to disease and death," Anderson said. She added that if LGBT kids weren't encouraged to come out of the closet in the first place, they wouldn't be in a position to be bullied."

'via Blog this'

This is from the fetid fever swamp otherwise known as Michele Bachmann's home district.

Why this tumorously stupid woman and her comrade-in-bigotry Rick Santorum aren't pelted with eggs, targeted with rotten fruit and/or tarred and feathered for daring to open their pieholes in public is beyond me, but hey -- it's not my country.

But can we please, for Christ's sake, stop confusing their ignorant, stupid, hateful superstition with Christianity? I mean, I don't claim to be a biblical scholar, but I can't remember anything about Jesus counselling his disciples to bully, harass and abuse LGBT kids to the point of suicide.

Have I reiterated the need to sandbag the border recently?

Related posts:

• Same-sex marriage blows up in Harper's face | #cdnpoli #lgbt
• Lt. John Pike, UC Davis Police: Little Eichmann of the Day
• Detroit hate rally, via Arizona News ...
• The Catholic school system needs to get its hands out of our pockets

Why do I do this to myself?

Just Couldn't Leave It Alone, could you.

All this Catholic-school business reminds me of a Mel Brooks moment

I'm sorry, I just can't help it sometimes.



It's probably not the most famous or best-remembered scene from Blazing Saddles (and in truth, it's got a lot of competition), but in light of the Catholic school system's way of dealing with gay and lesbian students, it seemed apropos.

Related posts:

• LGBT students run into a wall at the Toronto District Catholic School Board
• The Catholic school system needs to get its hands out of our pockets
• The day they turned the Charter of Rights into toilet paper

The Catholic school system needs to get its hands out of our pockets

And that's just for starters.

The travesty that took place this week is common knowledge by now. Activist Leanne Iskander, who's got more courage in her little finger than most people have in their whole bodies, has been threatened with disciplinary action if she continues her advocacy for gay-straight alliances.

Evaluating Mammoliti, redux | #PrideTO #TOpoli

But let's at least give the guy a chance to speak for himself.

Yo, Georgie? You want to tell us what you think your video proves?

Related posts:

• On second thought, Rob, stay at the cottage | #PrideTO
• How to hold them accountable: let them embarrass themselves | #policeaccountability
• 'Respect for Taxpayers' is a load of crap

On second thought, Rob, stay at the cottage | #PrideTO

The whole idea of Mammoliti at the Dyke March just seems ... wrong.

Live tweets from the CCLA's G20 hearings

Anyone who still thinks the cops are here to serve and protect should follow here ...



And here as well.

Best blogpost of Hallowe'en 2010

Sorry, friends, but this time the prize has to go to our southern brethren at Down With Tyranny.

This is some scary shit.

More Sun readers speak ...

Link here. Who knows, they may actually leave this charming stuff online.

Another Sun reader speaks

Res ipsa loquitur.

Link here. Isn't it inspiring, the way Rob Ford brings out the best in people?

This way to Authoritarian Avenue

(Photo by Jonas Naimark)

I've written at some length about the need to assert control over the way the story of the G20 summit is told. It's not going to be easy, given the institutional and political imperatives interested in spinning last weekend's events as a bunch of black-clad anarchist thugs trashing our peaceful city, yada yada yada. That doesn't make it any less important, however.

Just so we're clear: this isn't a story about a bunch of world leaders / political hacks / meat puppets for the corporate string-pullers getting together and agreeing on a whole bunch of things that'll make our lives a lot more painful. And it's not a story about a few morons breaking windows. And it's not a story about how thousands of riot cops couldn't protect a handful of cars, much as I'd like it to be about that.

No. This week's story has been about the corporate / state security apparatus using our fundamental freedoms for toilet paper. It's about people being locked up for hours without water, without being allowed to go to the bathroom, packed into cages like animals. It's about homophobic slurs and threats of sexual violence. It's about thuggish behaviour by people who know they can get away with it, because the mechanisms designed to ensure accountability are laughably weak.

View Larger Map

Last Sunday evening, my partner and I rode our bikes eastward on Queen toward Spadina. We were held up at Queen and Cameron, about a block west of Spadina, by a wall of bike cops, backed up by a phalanx of more heavily armed officers from various police forces. We could see by looking eastward that the intersection of Queen and Spadina was completely cordoned off, so we pulled up and just watched. As we waited, we watched the facial expressions change on the cops confronting us; shoulders straightened, muscles tensed, batons brandished openly. The front line of bike cops started herding us westward, ordering us to move back, buzzing their bike buzzers and pushing us. We all complied, but you can only move as fast as the guy behind you, and that wasn't quick enough for the officers pushing us westward, and they began shoving us. I couldn't help but wonder whether they were doing it because they figured they could, that their uniforms amounted to a licence to push people around?

Theodor Adorno's description of the authoritarian personality may provide some insight, but ultimately it pales in comparison to some of the stories emerging from the weekend. As it happened, while we were being shoved westward along Queen, several heavy-duty unmarked vans pulled past us to discharge the heavily armed tactical squads, and that was our cue to get the hell out of there.

Lisan Jutras' account of being caught in the kettle is required reading for anyone who wants a first-hand account of what was going on at Queen and Spadina Sunday night, and despite being caught in the rain and not allowed to leave for hours, she was one of the lucky ones.

Tommy Taylor's account of his arrest and detention is mind-blowing. Hours without water or a chance to pee. Homophobic slurs. Abuse of disabled prisoners. At the conclusion he, like hundreds of other people, is released without being charged. It seems apparent that the police knew they'd have a hard time making charges stick, but in the meantime, hundreds of people were abused, threatened and deprived of the basic rights we normally associate with living in an open society. Got a problem with that? Go complain. There are avenues for that, Dalton McGuinty assures us.

And then there are the accounts of people who were actively beaten, threatened and abused. Lacy MacAuley was arrested outside the makeshift gulag on Eastern Avenue. Her story sounds like something from behind the Iron Curtain. Amy Miller talks about cops threatening to gang-rape her.

In a few weeks, or perhaps months even, there may be an inquiry. Findings will be announced. Wrists will be slapped. Tuts will be tutted. And eventually, if we're lucky, someone will decide that the police - Toronto, OPP, ISU, RCMP, York, Halton, Montreal, Sudbury, Barrie, and anyone else who was invited to the party - had absolutely no justification for treating people the way they did. Feel better now? If you want to complain, there are established channels. Uh huh. Good luck with that.

This needs to be hammered on, repeatedly, all the more so because the MSM are getting tired of it. There's an implicit assumption that our attention spans are, well, limited. Yeah, yeah, there were a lot of smashed windows and burning cars, and maybe the cops overreacted, but there were a lot of smashed windows, and - oh, look! Something shiny!

And that's the dynamic that the corporate / state security apparatus is counting on. The more distracted / cowed we are, the easier it is for them to keep doing this to us. Yes, it's inexcusable how people were treated, and it shouldn't have happened, but by the time these processes wind their way to the end, people will have forgotten. In the meantime, the association of protest and activism with all the negative connotations continues, and the mere act of stepping outside your door becomes risky, unless you're planning on doing anything more than being a good little consumer / producer.

So, part of the narrative that needs to emerge from this weekend is: let's just keep in mind how fragile our fundamental freedoms really are. It's become pretty clear that those charged with serving and protecting us, and those who control them, don't think they count for much.