Fair enough, Cervaise.
I admit I haven’t gotten around to seeing the movie yet (I hear there are cowboys in it, and honestly, I don’t care what those people do, as long as I don’t have to see it 
), so I was speaking a little more abstractly than the OP.
My brother who is in Calgary is again’st gay couples having children because the kids would be tormented when others found out. I find this disturbing for two reasons: 1. That in this day and age kids will still be taunted for something like that. 2. That they should restrict a gay couple’s rights because others are too homophobic to handle it.
BTW, is this wrong? I was listening to a sportscaster complaining about a hockey game saying “I haven’t seen guys holding that much since Brokeback Mountain”.
Meh. I think you’re overstating your case here. Sure, the Stampede dwarfs everything else (it’s a ten-day drunk – who can’t get behind that?), but you’ve got the Folk Music Festival, the Film Festival and several multi-culti events through the year that are popular and growing. We’re still talking a city with a population of “only” a million here, and is undergoing growing pains. Which is not to say there isn’t a redneck (but friendly version of it) element to the city.
That is the best description of Calgary - ever!
Here in Calgary, some of the population is from even more redneck small towns and they bring their prejudices with them, I am not suprised any more to hear about the reaction of your coworker.
This is the land where cowboys are sacred, money comes from oil, there are jobs a plenty, and there will never be another bust again (At least that is what people say - )!
As for the soulless pile of concrete, downtown is a hollow-core at night, and major events have been scaled back (like the folk & carifests), but we have a pretty good indie & punk music scene, and 17th Ave to counter balance the emptiness of downtown, but for anyone under 18, it is not much better than a small town for things to do, so there are problems with youth drinking, vandalism & violence.
I think Calgary needs to focus more on the core, apartment buildings and growing into a more metropolitan city before additudes will change here. Our population is nearly 1 million, but the beltline area outside downtown is barely populated compared to the sprawling suburbs .
The growing pains have just begun - we’re in for some big changes in the next 10 years due to the unsustainibility of continued urban sprawl, and it will be nice to see how this city matures from an over grown hicktown to a metropolitan centre, and to see the additudes change along with it.
It was headed up Guy Agenda, so you might have misfiled it.
[QUOTE=featherlou]
I’ve been in Alberta for over 15 years now, and I mostly like it just fine, but it is a redneck haven, and every once in a while I get reminded of that. We were discussing “Brokeback Mountain” at work one morning this week, and I mentioned how it sounded like a very good movie, and my male co-worker made a clear point of stating how he would not be going to see it; to paraphrase him, he doesn’t care what THOSE people do, but HE doesn’t need to see it. It always startles me when I leave these boards and go out in the real world and people are just so damned … ignorant is the best word, I guess.
This isn’t the first time I’ve run into this kind of attitude, from apparently nice, normal people, who just have a touch of the homophobia. Of course, the king of all the Alberta Homophobes, Ralph Klein, is leading the way with his stance on gay marriage and how he plans to opt Alberta out of an
:rolleyes:
…so
do you think he is Jack or Ennis? :dubious:
Well there are a lot of rednecks here in B.C. too …
But I think someone doesn’t have to be a redneck to be a homophobe.
My dad is a retired English teacher who prides himself (ridiculously) on his open-minded attitude. One of his former students is a lesbian (gasp!) with whom he keeps in touch (way to go Dad you crazy openminded bastard you!).
But he refuses to see Philadelphia (to quote him “I have no interest in that subject although I’m sure it’s a good movie”), or Brokeback Mountain (“I’ve heard good things about it but it’s not something I’m interested in”).
Whatever Dad … He doesn’t mean westerns, he doesn’t mean legal dramas, he means he doesn’t want to be reminded that there are homosexual men on this planet.
No wonder my gay cousin refuses to come out of the closet with our family. :rolleyes:
I grew up in rural Saskatchewan, amongst a bunch of Catholic farmers. Trust me, I know rednecks when I see them. I guess I am one, in a weird Liberal way.
I live in Prince Albert proper now, and it isn’t that much more civilized. But we are finally getting Brokeback Mountain this weekend! I think we’re only getting it because of the Oscar nominations. Walk the Line has been playing since November, and they just took out Narnia, so you can tell how movies go here. Oh, and we got a Quizno’s!
Like it’s any different here in Ontario. Contrary to popular belief, Canadians are pretty split on this issue. I doubt Alberta’s really all that much different.
Why slag Alberta when there’s people across the country who don’t like gay marriage?
For that matter, as long as people treat each other as equals and don’t discriminate, why is it wrong if someone doesn’t care to see movies about gay people? Aren’t we being just a tad intolerant in our tolerance with all the comments about ‘rednecks’ and homophobes?
I’ve got nothing against gay people. I was a photographer at the wedding of two gay friends, right here in (gasp!) Alberta. But I have no desire to see Brokeback Mountain. It just doesn’t interest me. In fact, I could make a very long list of movie subjects that don’t particularly interest me. For example, I’ve never seen Fried Green Tomatoes. Probably never will. Doesn’t interest me.
As for gay couples adopting children - I think it should be acceptable to point out, without being accused of being a homophobe, that one of the problems children have growing up in a gay household is that they do not get to have role models of both sexes. They also don’t get to see how a traditional married couple interacts, solves disputes, etc. This probably isn’t a good thing. I grew up without a dad, and I think I missed a hell of a lot. I never learned how to fish, or how to fix a car, or how to shave, or any number of things little boys generally learn from their dads. It made me more awkward growing up, more self-conscious, and left big gaps in my knowledge that I had to learn on my own (or not learn and suffer the consequences). So I think that, all else being equal, the best environment for a child to grow up in is one of traditional marriage with a mother and a father.
Of course, not all else IS equal. I’d rather have a kid grow up in a gay family where everyone treats each other with respect and good humor than in a traditional household with an abusive alcoholic Dad or something. But if I were in charge of an adoption agency, and therefore put the needs of the child first, I’d start with married couples of opposite sexes before I’d go down the list of gay couples, just like I’d give the married couples preference over singles who wanted to adopt.
Last week I was thinking of starting a thread with almost this exact same title. I’m in Edmonton though, not Calgary.
I have a part-time job where I do medical history questionnaires with people who are applying for life insurance. There’s all the typical questions like who your family doctor is, what other health practitioners you’ve seen recently, a whole big list of health conditions that we ask about, family medical history, smoking, drug use, participation in hazardous sports, etc…
So last week, I’m talking to this gentleman on the phone, and I ask him if he’s ever been diagnosed with anemia, hemophilia, blood disorders, HIV/AIDS or any immune system disorders. His response? “I’m not gay” in a shocked tone of voice.
Yup. That 's all he said. Nevermind that I wasn’t only asking about HIV, but several other conditions that, as far as I know, aren’t especially prevalent in homosexuals. And also the level of ignorance he’d have to have in 2006 to assume that only gay people get HIV is kind of mind-blowing to me.
I look back at the top of his questionnaire, and of course he lives in SmallTown in southern Alberta, near Calgary.
OK. He’s shown that he’s ignorant. And homophobic. But I guess he heard the HIV = gay stereotype in the 80s and never let go of it. And apparently it’s shocking that I’d ask him a standard medical history question that includes HIV, because his voice over the phone is so manly I must psychically know he’s not gay and this is insulting to him.
Whatever. I don’t comment, and I move on with the questionnaire.
Then a few minutes later I’m asking him if he’s ever been a smoker. Yes he has. I ask if he still does. He confirms this. I ask the quantity of cigarettes he smokes. Out of the blue he makes an angry snarky remark that “I guess now gays are out of the closet, but smokers have to go in.”
Dude. W.T.F. I literally couldn’t say anything for a second or two. But I ignored his comment and carried on with the questionnaire. I only hope that he didn’t think I agreed with him. I’m kind of kicking myself that I didn’t call him on it - not that I would get into an argument or anything, but I wish I said something along the lines of that not being professional or relevant to the topic at hand.
Okay, you’re bitter that smoking is less socially accepted than 50 years ago when you were a kid. But why the hell drag your homophobia back into the conversation? Is your outrage that gays exist so all-consuming that in your Cro Magnon brain you associate it with everything you dislike?
First thing I do when the questionnaire’s done is I hang up is say “sometimes I really hate living in Alberta.” Now, I haven’t said anything on my end that indicates what he was talking about. But within half a second my co-worker say “Redneck, huh?” Yup. Pretty easy to figure out I guess.
No, just critical. If we were being intolerant we’d be calling for their arrest or something.
What makes you think there’s a specific way traditional married couples interact and solve disputes, and what makes you think that way is different for gay couples?
But all else is not equal, as you point out immediately afterwards.
I should hope you’d support your official decision with more than anecdotes concerning your childhood in what my grandmother quaintly calls a “broken home”.
My cousin, who’s gay and as it happens also an Edmontonian, has two children. One was fathered by a male friend of hers who was only too happy to oblige, the other was arrived at through artificial insemination. If you worked for Social Services or whatever they’re called now rather than ran this hypothetical adoption agency, would you make efforts to have their children confiscated and put up for adoption so they can be raised by a nice straight family?
Wow, I did grow up with a dad, and I don’t know how to fish or fix a car. I do not think this hurt me in anyway, nor have I suffered consequences because of this. Instead I learned that hey its okay to have a gay priest, native canadians aren’t just the poor people you see begging on the street, theatre isn’t boring, meaningless or full of homosexuals, figure skating is a sport not hockey’s gay cousin.
I always find it amusing when people say things like I have nothing against gay people, look I took pictures of them getting married, but…
Personally I assume people aren’t homophobic or racist until…
Because this is where I live and what I’ve experienced. I don’t go to work in Toronto and get surprised by intolerance; I get surprised by it in Alberta.
I’m not just talking about a single incidence of one guy who doesn’t want to see one movie; there is an undercurrent here that would make me quite uncomfortable if I were gay. Undercurrent, hell, the premier of this province is openly homophobic, and quite well supported in his intolerance.
Me.
I neither heard nor saw any advertising for the folk or jazz festivals this past summer. I know there’s a folk fest because I have the privilege of living within earshot of Prince’s Island Park; sitting in my living room listening to David Byrne rehearse a few years ago was a pleasure. But I come from Edmonton, which is more or less the same size as Calgary, and there’s always some sort of festival going on there, be it food or music or theatre. Here? Well, the stampede dwarfs everything else.
A friend who recently moved here from Montreal describes Calgary as a place where you make your own fun. I can’t argue with that.
Folk Fest, Jazz Fest, Children’s Festival, WinterFest (coming up very soon I might add), Taste of Calgary, Shakespeare in the Park, International Film Festival and a few more…
The thing is, unlike Edmonton, Calgary festivals aren’t right smack downtown and impossible to miss unless you’ve lost all sense of sight, hearing and smell. You actually have to hunt them down a bit or pay attention to the news (both paper and local). There’s been a few festivals I hear about only after they’re almost done but I try to remember for the next year. Nearly everyone goes by Churchill Park sometime during their day downtown up there, but we hardly go by Eau Claire or Olympic Plaza (not that most of the festivals are there anyway…). At least that’s my experience.
Anyone else hear about the name change of Klondike Days to Capital Exposition? I heard about it from another board I visit and was disappointed at how many people thought the Klondike had absolutely nothing to do with Edmonton.
Edmonton isn’t a fair comparison with Calgary. Edmonton is Festival City. They’re freaky with the festivals.
Way to get the backhanded homophobe accusation in there. Of course, people who aren’t homophobes often have gay friends too. Like me. 'Cause frankly, I really don’t care who you’re attracted to, and in fact I’m very tired of people being judged by their sex, or sexual orientation, or skin color, or what political party they belong to, when the really important things about a person are things like whether they are good people, honest, treat others with respect, keep their word, meet their obligations, raise their children with love and kindness and good judgement, and work hard to provide for themselves and others.
You know, the stuff we never talk about. Instead we’d rather put people in little boxes based on superficial characteristics or the orientation of their sex drive. Bah.
But when we’re talking about the best way to raise children, it’s hard not to escape the fact that a traditional marriage offers children role models from both sexes they are going to have to interact with as adults. And both sexes have unique perspectives to offer. Putting a child in a same-sex marriage deprives the child of the parental viewpoint of half the human race. Therefore, all else being equal, we should have a preference for placing children in traditional marriages rather than with singles or gay couples.
But as I said before, all else isn’t equal. There are many gay couples who are much better prepared to raise a child than many hetero couples. If I were a child welfare agent, I would take all that into account. But if I were left with two candidates that seemed, as far as I could tell, equally prepared to raise a child and had equal temperaments and financial circumstances, I’d give the not to the hetero couple.
Just like if I were left with two equally attractive candidate families, only one was in their 50’s and one was in their 20’s or 30’s, I’d give the nod to the young family. Being young has definite advantages.
Exactly my point.
I live in Kensington. Right on 10th St. I’m sure you know the neighbourhood. You’d think the jazz- and folk fests would get a little advertising around here. I can’t recall seeing any this summer, though.
I don’t even need to attend all these things (although I would attend certain acts here for the Jazz and Folk Festivals). Just the soul they lend the city makes a city a better place to be. They come and go with hardly a blip in Calgary. I know they happen somewhere but you can’t exactly tell from all the excitement in the air, you know what I mean?
Errr…you DO realize that the NDP are socialists, don’t you?