- by Shea Angus
It is no secret that I have been a stalwart of Conservative circles for the last decade of my life. I attended the meeting that selected Bill Walker to be our PC Candidate here in Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound to succeed Bill Murdoch. I eventually attended school in Ottawa where I began working for our former MP Larry Miller up until his retirement last year.
However, last year was a turning point for me and my association with the Conservative Party.
I had been in contact directly with one of the organizers of the Owen Sound Pride Parade because it was my hope to bring a delegation of Conservatives from our area to participate. Politically speaking, the Owen Sound Pride Parade was an easy event to sell to people on the right. It was family friendly and inclusive of the police and had avoided some of the controversy that other parades were plagued with.
That is why I was incredibly disappointed when it appeared that our new candidate, Alex Ruff, and our Board of Directors would not be willing to participate in the event in any official capacity. As that reality became clear, I submitted a message to the President of the Board that I would not be standing for re-election and that my time with the Conservative Electoral District Association (EDA) was over.
I then gathered a group of friends and some other Conservatives to attend the Parade with me. The Conservatives that did attend with me were there in no official capacity and we watched the Parade go by before we joined in and followed them to their final destination.
I was extremely disappointed to see that every major political party was represented at the Parade except one. I was ashamed to see that the Catholic teachers had a presence there, but the Conservative Party did not.
I was pleased though that I had two prominent local Conservatives join me that day. I can only hope that the future of our local Conservatives will be brighter with people like them involved.
One of my friends that did attend with us had recently come out as gay and this was his first Pride experience as an openly gay man. I know being there to share that moment with him had a lasting impact on us all. But what this whole situation showed me was why it was so important for me to add my voice to this cause. Given my political history, many people were surprised to see me there. I wanted to articulate why I was there and this is what I wrote:
I support the Pride movement because people should be free to love who they love and be who they are. I cannot imagine being ashamed about who I love. I cannot imagine being afraid to be who I am, because it might disappoint my friends or my family. I can’t imagine being one of the people brave enough to declare who they are only to be rejected by their mom and dad as a result.
Thanks to my Dad I always had a strong interest in history, particularly around WW2. That is how I learned about the heartbreaking story of Alan Turing. If you don’t know who that is, I hope you take the time to read beyond this to learn more about this man. Turing was a hero. Hailed as the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence, Turing and his team developed the method and technology to crack the Nazi Enigma Machine during the Second World War. Estimates like this are hard to make, but at the upper end it is estimated that his work shortened the war in Europe by more than two years and saved over 14 million lives. Turing was an integral part in the Allied victory during WWII and our world could have been very different if it weren’t for him.
A few years after the war, Turing’s house was burgled. Through the course of the investigation, Turing admitted to being in a relationship with another man. He was charged and convicted for “gross indecency” and offered a choice between jail time or probation on the condition he undergo chemical castration. He accepted probation and chemical castration. Two years later Turing died at the age of 41 with the official cause of death being labeled a suicide.
As heartbreaking as that story is, Turing was just one of many who suffered similar or worse fates for simply being in love. What is even more heartbreaking is that today there are over 70 countries that still have laws criminalizing homsexuality.
I don’t have all the answers and I know these parades represent different things to different people. But for me, this is really quite simple; Love between consenting adults is not the business of governments to impede, punish, or criminalize. People have lost their families, friends, dignity, and their lives because they didn’t love “the right kind of people”. In our country we only recognized the right for them to marry 15 years ago.
So when people ask things like why there are no straight pride parades, or why people need a parade to be proud of who they are, ask them how many countries would see them executed for being straight. Ask them about Alan Turing and why he was apparently driven to suicide after saving millions of lives because he loved another man.
Ask them what it is like to be afraid to tell their parents who they are dating because they may never talk to them again because of it.
Being in love is the greatest feeling we are capable of experiencing. If showing my support helps someone to realize that they don’t need to be ashamed or afraid of being who they are and experiencing love, I can think of nothing better that I could do with my time.
Members of the LGBT community have been some of humanity's most brilliant minds, our most beautiful artists, our most important heroes and some of our finest people and it is important that we live in a world where we reward their artistry, bravery, and their existence with the same love and compassion we would want for ourselves.
Never be afraid to embrace and be proud of who you are. Don’t be afraid to love yourself or to love another. I’m proud of all the progress that has been made, but I will never forget how far there is to go, or about the people who suffered because we weren’t where we needed to be.
“We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done.”
― Alan Turing ?????