WHAT IS APPROPRIATE AND WHAT IS NOT, ANYMORE?

WHAT IS APPROPRIATE AND WHAT IS NOT, ANYMORE?

In recent days, two incidents have crossed my bow that had to do with the concept of what is or is not appropriate, in the public purview. It made me wonder what has happened to any standards of acceptability or unacceptability. Let me explain.

In the first incident, a Calgary man on a recent tour of the Senate was told to remove a shirt that displayed his support for the oil and gas industry. William Lacey, a chief financial officer for Steelhead Petroleum Ltd., wore a shirt which said “I (heart) (maple leaf) OIL & GAS” during a tour of the Senate. He was swiftly taken aside by security and told to either wear the shirt inside-out or leave.

“The security guard looked at me and said: ‘Excuse me sir, I'm going to have to ask you to remove that shirt.’ And I looked and him and I said: ‘Excuse me?’ And he said: ‘Yes, you're going to have to remove that shirt because some people may view that as being offensive,’” Lacey was told the Senate prohibits political messages in the building, including those on clothing.

His response what that the logo on the shirt was not a political message but simply a supportive statement for the industry in which he works. He judiciously turned the shirt inside out and was allowed to continue his tour. A simple solution to a non-issue. At least in my mind.

My second incident occurred when I chose to drop in to a Gay Pride Festival that was recently held in Calgary. I was curious as to what would be on display. There were about two thousand people at the venue, many curiosity seekers like myself, genuine supporters, and hundreds of members  of the LGBT community.

The festival comprised about 100 acres with three beer gardens, several musical stages, dozens of food vendors and numerous information booths from various social agencies. The LGBT participants were decked out in their rainbow paraphernalia with flags, banners, wigs and enough unusual costumes that the event seemed to be a pre-Halloween or Masquerade Carnival event. There was a lot of milling about and the LGBT participants seemed to be pleased and proud to display their individuality and uniqueness.

Everything was fine, until I saw THE sign! A sign that caused me to stop cold for a moment. On a two by three foot cardboard sign held skyward on a stick, I read the message “Love is Love”, and just shrugged. Then the woman carrying the sign turned it around and I read “ Don’t kill animals, eat pussy”. I am a pretty tolerant individual, but the latter sign made me angry.

The sign was totally inappropriate to be paraded about in a public park where there were numerous young children also in attendance. I thought it was completely unacceptable and pondered if my 12 year old granddaughter had been with me and asked what the sign meant, how would I explain it. I think that the woman(?) holding the sign should have been made to remove it, if not by the police who were “chaperoning” the event, but more appropriately by the LGBT community itself.

If the LGBT community want to continue to appeal for tolerance, acceptance and understanding, then they had better clean up their act. If someone thinks that a sign on a t-shirt that says “I love Canadian Oil and Gas” is offensive, the second sign was not only offensive, but disgusting and totally unacceptable! We obviously no longer have standards of what is socially appropriate and acceptable. Very sad, indeed! How do you feel?