The Christmas Card

The House of Commons has adjourned until January 25th, so the well of political intrigue might be a bit dry for the next few weeks. In the spirit of the season, though, one of the things that stirred up some political watchers this week was a Christmas card. Not the economy, torture in Afghanistan, nor the mess in Copenhagen. No, the issue that had (some) Canadians rushing to the blogosphere was Nova Scotia MP Scott Brison’s Christmas card.

The photo on the front of Mr. Brison’s card is a family portrait. It shows him and his husband, Maxime St. Pierre, posing against the pleasant backdrop of a rural Nova Scotia landscape in the company of a golden retriever. The marriage itself is old news (it happened in 2007) and Mr. Brison has been “out” for several years. Being openly gay has not hurt his political fortunes in the least, and even after crossing the floor to join the Liberal Party, his constituents happily returned him to office.

So what was the reaction to the card? On one side there was a massive shrug: nice card, nice dog, cute couple, get over it. This is exactly the reaction that Mr. Brison says he hoped the card would get. He says that there was no political intention behind it and he looks forward to the day when “this is seen as no big deal”. As for it not being a political statement, he is either incredibly naïve or a little bit disingenuous. It may not have been intentionally political (i.e. a stunt), but it is difficult to believe that a man as intelligent as Mr. Brison did not see the potential for controversy. Perhaps he is a better person than me, for if I were in the same situation I would savor the opportunity to poke a bigot with a metaphorical stick – which brings us to the other responses.

The comments section at CBC online and the Halifax-based Chronicle Herald were remarkably civilized, but that may be because those comments are pre-moderated. Over at the Globe and Mail, however, they opted to shut down the comments section on that particular story due to “hateful and homophobic remarks”. This is one of the most noteworthy aspects of the story. Censorship has a way of drawing much more attention to the object being censored than if it had just been ignored in the first place. Although I would certainly not agree with hateful and homophobic remarks, they say much more about the person making them than they do about the target. I tend to agree with Voltaire on this one: “I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it”. Of course there are limits to free speech and the owners of comment boards typically make clear the type of comment they are not willing to publish. Perhaps a more effective way to take out the trash from online commentary would be to eliminate the ability to post anonymously.

One of the most interesting things to emerge from the message boards was the offense taken by those who were called bigots by other posters (and Mr. Brison) for their various strong objections to the holiday missive. According to one dictionary, a bigot is “one who is strongly partial to one’s own group, religion, race, or politics and is intolerant of those who differ.” By that definition, the homophobes aren’t the only bigots to frequent the comment boards. Those falling too far to one side or the other of any debate and who are unable to engage in respectful discussion may, by that definition, be in danger of acting bigoted.

Another definition that is worth reviewing is the one for tolerance: “a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, practices, race, religion, nationality, etc., differ from one’s own; freedom from bigotry”. What tolerance is not is a scant, grudging acknowledgment that certain people have rights, beliefs, behaviours, or “lifestyles” we do not agree with but we will put up with them because we have to. A true attitude of tolerance is devoid of hate, anger and fear. It would appear that cultivating such an attitude of tolerance might be easier said than done.

Homosexual couples appearing on Christmas cards, walking down the street hand in hand, kissing, adopting children, marching in parades, or getting married is not “flaunting” homosexuality any more than it is flaunting heterosexuality when straight people do the same things. I do not necessarily agree with Mr. Brison’s politics generally, but I certainly applaud his decision to feature a photo of his family on his Christmas card. Everyone is entitled to his or her own beliefs and opinions, but as Oliver Wendell Holmes famously said, “The right to swing my fist ends where the other man’s nose begins.” If someone is offended by the photo then he (or she) should stop looking at it. If he is unwilling to post his commentary publicly using his real name, then perhaps he ought to reconsider what and why he is writing.

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This entry was posted on Monday, December 21st, 2009 at 10:18 pm and is filed under Activism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.