LEVY: Carney's "queer" Pride does not represent the gay community
Sue-Ann Levy writes, "Judging from the backlash to Carney’s use of the word, most of us who are lesbian or gay hate the word 'queer.'"
Prime Minister Mark Carney—with his usual forced smile— raised the latest bastardization of the Rainbow flag last week, wishing all “queer” people a happy Pride season.
The intersex-inclusive flag with a big purple circle is the latest variation of a flag which represents people with not just different sexual orientations but different gender identities and gender expressions.
The use of the word “queer” — once a derogatory slur used by bigots — is now a radical buzzword and symbolic of how far the pronoun radicals have moved the lesbian and gay identity to 2SLGBTQI+ to take in anyone who is not sure they are a man or woman or who identifies as another creature.
Judging from the backlash to Carney’s use of the word, most of us who are lesbian or gay hate the word “queer.”
I do.
Carney called the latest flag a “beacon to all those who are not yet free.”
Ironically, when he claimed Muslim values are Canadian values, he neglected the fact that a large percentage of Islamists are homophobic and do not embrace same-sex relationships, let alone marriage between two men or two women.
Yet if I were a betting person, I’d say it was a veiled comment to further accentuate his false narrative that has convinced many gay people I know not to venture south of the border.
It’s completely a lie and totally irresponsible.
We had no issue in Florida all winter—just like my wife of soon to be 17 years has no issue living in Canada.
We are not oppressed. We are not banned from events or looked at with disdain for being a same-sex couple. We are not told at the 11th hour where the events will be held for security reasons. We have all the rights of heterosexual couples.
I should qualify the ban part. Because I am a Conservative lesbian, Pride officials once informed me, while I was writing for the Toronto Sun and exposed their money troubles, that I did not deserve a seat at their table.
I got the last word, however and not only exposed their sorry finances but responded with an open letter in the Toronto Sun.
If I had to say in 2026 whether I feel more comfortable being gay in Canada, or being Jewish, I would answer without a second thought, GAY.
Can you imagine a gang running down Church St screaming “Kill the Dykes”, or “Queer people are Sexual Deviants” or “Go Back to Europe.”
The gang would be stopped and arrested within minutes.
The media, the activists and social media influencers would excoriate them online.
But for the past nearly three years, my community and I have put up with all of that.
Just since I returned from Florida, I’ve been called a baby killer, someone who supports the alleged genocide in Gaza, a roach, a rat, scum — all in public.
The genocide lie is proof that if one repeats a lie often enough, it will become true.
We have been harassed at our places of worship and synagogues, including mine, and shot at.
What do our synagogues have to do with the war in the Mideast?
Think for a moment. If there were security risks for the gay community as there have been for Toronto’s Jewish community, how would gays feel about finding out the venue of an event only hours before?
I can only imagine if the Islamist radicals turned up at the 519 Community Centre or marched down Church St. with ugly signs that called for killing gay people, they’d be removed from the street within minutes and charged by the police with hate speech.
If I dressed up in a wig, wild makeup and 10-inch heels — as those uninformed Drag Queens for Palestine suffering from suicide empathy do — and did a Jewish Lesbians Islamic Homophobia event, I’d find myself out of luck finding a venue to dance and perform. And probably charged.
If the homophobic Islamist radicals marched through the Gay Village with hateful signs or stopped the Gay Pride parade shouting calls to send gays back to Europe, there would be zero tolerance from the police and our leftist mayor.
It may sound outrageous and surreal, but this is exactly what my community has faced for three years, while activists, politicians and most police who turn the other way, turn a blind eye and do nothing to support us.
Their indifference — and Mayor Olivia Chow’s outright anti-Semitism — has only emboldened the Jew haters and radical Islamists more.
So during Pride season, let’s think about all of this.
In our crazy, mixed-up country, my rights as a married lesbian are respected without question.
As a proud Zionist and even prouder Jew, I am a pariah.
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