I Think Jason Kenney is Gay
Posted in Unfounded Speculation
on March 7th, 2010 by
Stephen DeGrace
Topics:
Gay Stuff
.jpg "Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration ...")
Apparently that comment was too radical to approve, although many comments were approved openly calling Jason Kenney a bigot or worse. So apparently, according to the supposed bastion of liberalism, the CBC, saying that someone is a bigot is non-actionable fair comment, but saying that someone is gay is a slander beyond the pale.
Incidents like this should serve as a reminder that gay rights are not as firmly entrenched in our society as we would like to believe, and haters like Kenney can still get their hands on the levers of power to try and erode the equality of gay and lesbian Canadians. But let's forget about that for now and look at the specific incident and what it says about Kenney.
The details of the incident are damning. First of all, equality for gays and lesbians, including marriage rights, is a very important fact about Canada which is very different from the situation in the countries the majority of our immigrants come from. So the department responsible for preparing the new edition of the study guide added a concise section on the status of gays in Canada. The document was sent to the minister's office for review and this section, and apparently no other, was nixed. When pressed for an explanation, all Kenney would say is that the document can't be "encyclopedic," as though this extremely unusual social situation in Canada were a triviality unworthy of even a mention.
Then to top it off, Kenney later flat-out lied about having the section on gay rights removed from the guide.
Granted, Kenney is a long-time outspoken opponent of gay and lesbian equality, and the Conservative party is filled with haters, but my strong first impression was that this is coming from somewhere deeper than just anti-gay ideology. I have suspected Kenney of being a closet homosexual since back during his days as the Official Virgin of the Canadian Alliance, and this incident only strengthens my impression. I think a straight man, however homophobic, would not go out of his way the way Kenney did to remove the reference, particularly when there was no political gain to be had from it. A straight man would not scan through the document zooming in on gay references with laser-like precision, either. Kenney did say he left in a reference in a photo caption to the sexual orientation of Olympic swimmer Mark Tewksbury as evidence he didn't have it in for gays, but to my mind that just underlines Kenney's particular interest in the topic that he could still rhyme off every passing reference to gays in the guide.
As I said above, this is all classic self-hating closet-case behavior. The icing on the cake is that Kenney is by his own admission a 40-year-old virgin (older than that, now!) and does not plan to have sex until he gets married (presumably to a member of the opposite sex - it really takes forty years to find the right gal, Jason?).
If it weren't for his recent hijinx where he showed himself to be a lying, passive-aggressive bigot and weasel, I might find a perverse sort of honour in Kenney's stance. He certainly had honesty and integrity in his beliefs, WRONG though they may be... but I think that this episode just goes to prove that not all points of view are equally valid, there is such a thing as absolute truth and better and worse representations of it. The fundamental perverseness and lack of integrity of the anti-gay position is ultimately morally corrosive, as is the tissue of lies that a closet-case like Kenney needs to weave to maintain a relationship with the world even if he refuses to marry for expedience. No matter what lengths you go to to try and hold an untenable position with integrity, the lack of internal integrity of the position itself will always get you in the end.
And it is with that in mind that I, as a humanitarian, am offering Jason Kenney some advice. Sweetheart, while the gay male world is not the evil place you imagine it to be, it does, however, happen to be composed of men, and therefore tends to be focused on things like youth and beauty, which you, being a man, if you were honest with yourself, could no doubt appreciate. I hate to be the one to tell you this, but you're not getting any younger, and you're definitely not getting any prettier. You've already wasted the best years of your life and pissed away the happiness and fulfilment you could have had on false and meaningless religious convictions. Before you fritter away what's left, you might want to reconsider your position. And, also, get to the gym.
Comments:
There are 5 comments on this item.
On April 4th, 2010
Stephen DeGrace
wrote:
Hi Emilia,
Thanks for your comments! Since no one pretty much reads this blog, it's really nice to get a bit of reaction to be article :).
There's really no comparison between the Conservatives and the Liberals on the issue of gay rights, though. Tom Wappel is certainly a low down sack of shit. He's also on the *fringe* of his party. Tom Wappel never got near any Liberal cabinet - the closest he ever achieved to respectability was as a critic (ironically, for immigration) in the early 90's, which he managed to flub by taking extreme positions. Whereas, Jason Kenny is a cabinet star, is talked about as a possible leadership contender, and represents very much the mainstream of his party.
The Liberal party is a big-tent party with at most a watered-down ideology compromised for the realities of seeking power, and the Conservatives have part of their roots in such a party, so you get all kinds in both camps... but taken as a whole, the two parties are miles apart on gay rights. I think that would be much clearer if the Conservatives had a majority and felt less need to muzzle their huge social conservative caucus. Forget about gay marriage, there is a significant proportion of the Conservative party which would be in favour of recriminalizing homosexuality.
And frankly, I'm sick and tired of jackass self-hating closet cases like Jason Kenney heaping shit on gays, regardless of their political affiliation or lack thereof. I'm not saying his record is all bad in every area of his work, or that the Conservative party is all bad, for that matter. Certainly a more conservative tilt on immigration (ironically, in part to protect our liberal society from being flooded by illiberal newcomers- c.f.the Netherlands) is probably long overdue in Canada. But regardless, there is no way in hell he deserves a pass for his anti-gay actions, nor does the Conservative party in any way deserve to receive a pass for what Kenney's actions say about them as a group.
On the whole, I want to see Kenney go *down*.
On April 5th, 2010 Emilia wrote:
You by the way are not the only person who's speculated that Kenney might be gay. I myself remain agnostic on the issue... but if it turns out he is he should be remembered as the biggest hypocrite in Canadian politics.
On April 5th, 2010 Emilia wrote:
Here's some of the speculation I've run into:
http://canadiancynic.blogspot.com/2010/03/what-fuck-is-jason-kenney-babbling.html
http://queer-liberal.blogspot.com/2008/09/that-creepy-little-jason-kenney-guy.html
On April 20th, 2010 Emilia wrote:
As a (heterosexual) woman I understand your apprehension about illiberal immigrants coming to Canada - and they don't have to be Muslim; I once dated a Lebanese Christian man whose views on women made Sigmund Freud look like a radical feminist. Also, I have to commend the Netherlands for putting their foot down and insisting that immigrants to the country embrace Dutch values. I understand the Dutch pride themselves on being tolerant, but there should be a limit to "tolerating the intolerant."
In fact, though I don't share either his gender or his sexual orientation, I find the late Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn an inspiration. RIP, Pim.
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On April 4th, 2010 Emilia wrote:
The last sentence made me laugh. I have to scan articles on Jason Kenney, so I once absentmindedly remarked that Jason Kenney was a "chubby dub" within earshot of my two-year-old daughter. So now whenever I have to read over my articles on Kenney and say the name "Jason Kenney" out loud my daughter screams, "Chubby dub!"
I can't say whether Kenney is gay or not, and frankly, to me it really doesn't matter that much. However, I just want to say that even if he is, family values hypocrisy is hardly the exclusive domain of the Conservative Party. Remember Tom Wappel? He was the self-styled "family man," opposed to same-sex marriage, abortion, and what not but later took up with a (female) staffer. Well, he was a Liberal, not a Conservative.
Finally, and this might be a bit jarring, but even if I don't for example share Kenney's views on same-sex marriage (I joke I don't have any particular problem with gay marriage in particular, just with the concept of marriage in general), I do think he's made some sensible decisions regarding immigration. Again, even in that arena I don't approve of everything he's done, but for example, reforming the refugee system is in my view a must. I mean it's a bit of a joke that people from a democratic country like the Czech Republic are coming here claiming persecution back home. And I agree with Kenney that the refugee system needs to be reformed, even if I might not agree with 100% of the changes he makes.
So this is my take on Kenney.