Toronto Mayor Rob Ford says he’ll never attend "Gay" Pride parade - but would if they wore "appropriate clothing"

PETER BAKLINSKI lifesitenews.com As the city of Toronto prepares to host World Pride this June, the city’s mayor has stated that on principle he will not be attending. “I’m not going to go to the Pride parade,” Mayor Rob Ford said at a candidates’ forum for the 2014 mayoral election Wednesday. Amidst catcalls, he continued: “I’ve never been to a Pride parade. I can’t change who I am.” While Ford has never attended a pride parade in all his years as mayor, this is the first time that he has admitted that he stays away on principle. In previous years, he has said he could not attend because of a family tradition of spending that weekend at their cottage. Councillor Shelley Carroll accused the mayor of “thinly veiled homophobia” for avoiding Pride and compared him to Russian president Vladimir Putin, calling the mayor’s refusal “an international problem.” “It’s very similar to the embarrassment that Putin is causing his nation and the international hatred towards him,” she said, reported the National Post. Ford’s brother Doug came to his brother’s defense Thursday, saying that he himself does not want to see “buck naked men running down the street.” “I spoke to some folks in the gay community and they said they weren’t going because they didn’t like the idea of men running, middle aged men with pot bellies, running down the street buck naked,” Doug Ford said. He added, however, that he would happily attend if Pride participants wore appropriate clothing.