What Would Mr Rogers Say? ©

Recently the Gay community here has been complaining to the city that since they revamped a section of down town they didn’t make it visible recognizable, in essence and according to their spokesperson “a gaybourhood”.
Now, I have nothing against gays.
Two of my best friends are gay and one who is “A” sexual.
I’m still trying to figure that one out. I think it means he is a masturbator and doesn’t need anyone.
I have 9 gay friends but the way I see it is they are not gay but my friends.
I always thought the gay people wanted to be treated as equals with the same privileges and to be accepted in society on the grounds that they were good people and who gives a fuck what happens in the bedroom.
I asked my friend Kim, who is gay, what she thought about this.
She said she didn’t care, that it’s the work of the hardliners.
The seven block stretch that they want designated as a gaybourhood has 7 or 8 businesses owned by gay people that are open in the day except the restaurant/bar.
85% of the people that live there are not gay and many are not too happy that their area might be called The Gaybourhood.

The question I have to ask myself is why should they want to segregate themselves from the rest of the population.
Gays have struggled to be equal by getting the right to marry and its benefits. The right to be treated the same as everyone else, as you should and much more.
So why the need to create a gay zone?

Then they pointed out that there is a Little Italy and a China Town.
There are no signs saying that.
You drive through a section of town and I don’t care what city you live in, if there are 2000 Chinese people walking around and one white person.
You are in China town or you have been shanghaied to China.
It’s just where a lot of ethnic peoples moved to when they came to Canada.
Italians lived near Preston St.
The Chinese moved to Somerset St
They did this so they could be near people they could understand.
Today 40 years later the whole area is mixed with both and many more other nationalities.

So is there going to be a mass exodus of gays throughout the world and come to Ottawa? Is there going to be a gay invasion?
I doubt it.
So why bother getting your own separate area when 40 years from now you’ll right back where you started from, mixed in with the rest of us.
The gay community has lots of disposable money.
They have two incomes and most are childless.
I think this is a trap to get the money away from these people.
Most Chinese shop at Chinese stores for their needs and many Italians do the same.
Mostly is because of their cultural roots, but are not all people gay or not from the same cultural groups.
Money, it’s all about money.
Immigrants moved into these areas because of need, help or just to feel at home in a new country, but this I think is a ploy for money.
The gay community is a huge untapped source of money that has just now been recognized and is going to be exploited now.
I see it already in travel agencies that cater only to gay people.
I asked my friend if she uses them and she said it’s cheaper to go somewhere else.

Well I know it’s going to be an interesting set of events that will be happening. I know people in that area won’t want to say they live in The Gaybourhood and the people who want the area named as such won’t let to go.
I guess in the end, money will decide it all.
Just like it decides, how most of us live.

Personally: “The Neighborhood” has a nice ring to it.

Have a nice day


Walker