OK, kiddo! Here are all the fantastically amazing posts tagged with Pictou

County Flag Pole Has Great Potential For Evil

February 6th, 2008

Flag Pole Conspiracy

Nova Scotia’s Pictou County Council is afraid. They’ve got a flag pole outside their administrative building and it’s causing grave concern for councilors. County Warden Allister MacDonald explains:

If the gay community came and said “fly my flag,” we, under human rights, would have to fly everybody’s flag. It could be the Nazi party or the bikers; it could be anyone. And, from what our understanding is, you either fly everybody’s flag [...] or you put a policy in that says “these are the flags we’re going to fly.”

Now, no gay rights group has actually asked the folks at Pictou County to fly the rainbow stripes. Nevertheless, the council has found itself amidst a lengthy and controversial flag banning discussion. Apparently, if a gay rights group ever were to request raising a flag on their pole, the Nazi party wouldn’t be far behind—or, at least, that’s what their understanding is.

Frankly, I don’t think their understanding is very understandable.

In the event that a totalitarian political party from wartime Germany requested to fly their flag in Pictou County, Nova Scotia, there would be no problems refusing their request—what with the unforgivable crimes against humanity and all. But I don’t think the councilors in Pictou were afraid of Nazi flag requests in the first place. They’re afraid of contention.

You see, if a gay rights group were to request that a rainbow flag fly on the administration building’s pole, there would be dissenters in the council—just like there were in Truro. To justify a “no” vote, these dissenters must explain their discomfort with gay people. Unlike explaining one’s rationale against requests from totalitarian regimes of the Third Reich, however, explaining discomfort with gay people would be met with criticism. Rather than face such criticism—or, better yet, the roots of their discomfort—the councilors would rather ban flag-flying requests altogether.

It’s not a particularly honorable stance—and particularly when no flag requests have been made in the first place. As Councilor David Parker put it:

Other municipalities fly these flags routinely of various groups to support their cause and their beliefs and I don’t have a problem with that. We’ve had no policy for 128 years. We’ve had no problem until it became a problem in one person’s mind.

Well said, David.

The Editorialist’s Wacky Perspective

October 26th, 2007

Editorialist

Slap reader Sheena writes in with a gem from out East:

A columnist from the Chronicle Herald, Peter Duffy, wrote [an article] about a speaker’s panel of gay and transgender youth at a sex-ed conference hosted by the Pictou Children’s Aid and the Pictou Sexual Health Centre, formerly Planned Parenthood.

Not only did the speakers not know the media would be present, but they asked Duffy not to include their pictures or names—which he did. As a result, Duffy’s article outed one of these youth to his entire town.

Ah, how editorialists love to flaunt their ignorance. If only Petey were the exception, not the norm!

The Chronicle Herald, sadly, doesn’t have an online copy of this masterwork for posterity, which is too bad. Petey starts off with some comedic preamble about not knowing which pronouns to use to describe transgendered people, and then describes, in great detail, his personal anguish experienced during the talk. He describes gender transitions as “mutilation” and “the stuff of nightmares,” and peppers the article with delightful interjections such as: “[this] makes me queasy,” “I’m still squirming,” “I feel positively ill,” and finally “I feel really sad for many of today’s young people.”

But really, most of what you need to know about Petey’s position is from his first statement: “I’m mistaken. Or am I? One thing’s for sure, I’m definitely confused.”

Honestly, I don’t really understand cross-gender identify either. But passing judgment over something I admit I don’t understand would be foolish. These speakers were courageous enough to share their experiences, and when they say they’re happier having gone through those experiences, who would I be to question their feelings?

But then, sensitivity, self-education, and exploring other viewpoints aren’t really prerequisites to being a journalist, are they?