Happy Pride Weekend to Everybody!

When gays and lesbians took one day this year to celebrate their lives in Moscow (after that city's bigoted mayor tried to stop them), they got attacked by neo-Nazis and other bigots and Moscow police did almost nothing to help. In fact, they let the neo-Nazis go and instead arrested many of the gay marchers.

Pride marchers in Jerusalem got stabbed by a Jewish Orthodox nut in 2005. This year, Jerusalem police had to arrest another extremist religious nutbar who was carrying a small bomb near Jerusalem's Pride parade.

If we needed any more proof of the evils of extremist religion, we got it. Any religion that inspires you to take this kind of violent action against your fellow men and women can only be described as toxic.

One must never buckle under and give in to these kinds of hateful threats. I congratulate those who are brave enough to show their pride despite such evil bigotry present in their own city and country.

We have it so lucky here in Canada. Our beautiful reputation of support and openness is now paying off tourism-wise at a time when we really need it.

I will be out celebrating this weekend with my partner. If you're in the Toronto area and have never attended a Pride parade, I suggest you consider coming downtown on Sunday afternoon to Bloor and Yonge - you will have loads of fun, I promise.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

Isaiah Washington fired from 'Grey's Anatomy'

I'm not a regular watcher of the ABC drama 'Grey's Anatomy.' But I got acquainted with the show last fall when the controversy involving actor Isaiah Washington blew up into the open.

Washington got into a physical altercation on the set with show star Patrick Dempsey in which Washington apparently uttered the words, "I'm not your little faggot like T.R."

'T.R.' was of course Washington's co-star on the show, T.R. Knight.

T.R. Knight, an affable and attractive actor, who seems like a very nice guy as far as I can tell, felt compelled to come out of the closet publicly as a result of the incident. "I hope the fact that I'm gay isn't the most interesting part of me," Knight said at the time.

Washington faced no reprimand for the altercation. Months later, backstage at the Golden Globes, he uttered the homophobic slur again in response to a question on the incident. In front of his co-stars including Knight and the international media, Washington waltzed up to the microphone in response to a question on the backstage fight and said he never called T.R. a 'faggot.'

To deny he used the slur, he used the slur.

A huge public backlash ensued. Calls for Washington to be fired from the show got very loud. Washington went into major damage control mode. He apologized profusely. He even went to some kind of rehab program.

I don't know about you, but I've never heard of any kind of anti-homophobia re-hab program. Washington's frantic response was impressive, but unconvincing.

If a co-worker of mine had gotten into a violent confrontation in my workplace and uttered "I'm not your little faggot like Matt," I can attest that the workplace would have been sufficiently poisoned so that continuing to work professionally would be greatly challenged.

Washington's actions no doubt poisoned the workplace environment for T.R. as well as the rest of his castmates. He simply had to go.

Today, ABC made it official. Isaiah Washington won't be returning to the show next season.

His statement sent out today through his publicist seems to confirm the man's strangely irrational mindset (which got him into this mess in the first place) is still anything but cured.

"I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore," is all Washington has to say with regard to his departure from the show.

He's not going to take it anymore? What does that mean? I don't know about you, but this statement conjures up images of Washington returning to the Grey's set in the near future with a machine gun. I certainly hope not, of course.

'When Tolerance Becomes Dangerous'

An excellent article appears in the Toronto Star today by Farzana Hassan, president of the Muslim Canadian Congress, entitled, 'When Tolerance Becomes Dangerous.'

In it, Hassan makes a simple but often forgotten point: in our rush to accommodate various conflicting minorities, we frequently abuse, "the principle on which pluralism is based – one that acknowledges diversity, but after an agreement has been reached on what is civil, just and compassionate."

Over the last few months we've seen increasing conflict over the acceptance of cultural practices at odds with mainstream Canadian culture, especially in Quebec.

I've been conflicted myself on this very issue. As a homosexual, I'm a minority and will always be vulnerable to the impulses of the majority, rational or irrational. I used to buy into the philosophy of cultural relativism, where no one can assume that the culture in which they live is superior to any other. This was the basis of queer liberation in my mind: sure most people are heterosexual, but I'm not. The standards by which you judge yourself as heterosexuals cannot be applied to me as my experience and my sub-culture is fundamentally different.

But I've moved away from this kind of thinking in recent years. By this argument, I cannot criticize other cultures or religions that would oppress, even kill, gays and lesbians in other parts of the world. I would have no moral leg to stand on when criticizing the terrible homophobia on display in Russia recently, for example.

Instead, I think I now agree with much of what Hassan and many others argue. We must respect pluralism, and to do so that means we acknowledge diversity, but only after all show respect for what is civil, just and compassionate.

I also liked one of Hassan's last points in her article: "Last but not least, as we proceed with a redefinition of cultures and societies and the place of multiculturalism in them, let us not forget to invoke the compassionate elements of religion that foster love, peace and understanding, as well as forgiveness for transgressions."

Just because organized religion can be used in the most heinous and inhumane ways, we ought not throw the baby out with the bath water.