the infamy of post-mo

The Grid, June 9. “Dawn of a new gay.” So, I wrote this story on my experiences as a born-and-raised gay man living in Toronto in 2011. It’s not perfect, but it can be great if you let it. The response was unreal. The comments were out of this city - literally, as far as Oz. The debate went on for follow-up after follow-up (mostly calling for my head). The aftermath proved that every story is unique and there is no one way to be gay. More importantly, gay individuals are still struggling to be accepted in Toronto, the land of same-sex marriage and tolerance and cultural diversity. Let’s change that. Seriously. I’ll be doing my part, and if you cared enough to comment on this article or write your own responses, I hope you’ll do more than just sit behind a keyboard dishing out insults or posting the latest celeb penis leak. I’m not saying my views have necessarily changed (I mean, it’s my story at the end of the day and I can’t change that), but I’ve become much more aware and committed to creating a city where everyone feels as comfortable as I do - gay or straight, male or female, white or rainbow-coloured. There will always be assholes out there, but to them, I say, fuck you. We’ll show ‘em.

THE FOLLOW-UP: Read The Grid’s response to why they published me here, find the reader letters here and hear my commentary on the whole thing on CBC’s Metro Morning radio show here, a week after the piece was published. Google the rest, it’s worth a read. 

*NB: I don’t know if I’ll ever talk about this again, but I do want to note that the guys in the photos had nothing to do with the piece; it was finished long before the concept became what it was. The Grid interviewed the guys independently of my piece to see if they could find any parallels, and those were the responses you saw in print, separate from what I wrote and the experiences I collected. It was not the other way around. The similarities you see between my piece and their responses weren’t calculated or deliberate - it is what it is. And they’re interesting. So please treat those boys kindly. They’re a great bunch of men.