Toronto Mayor Rob Ford takes anti-gay stance for second day

Rob Ford, the current Mayor of Toronto, Canada (in name only) returned to work last week after two months in drug recovery and already has caused controversy, both times taking a stance against the gay community.

Today Ford was the lone vote against a report recommending allotting 25% of shelter beds to LGBT youth in Toronto. Only yesterday Ford refused to stand during a city council standing ovation for Toronto’s recent hosting of World Pride.

The report passed on Thursday by a vote of 37 to 1 though several city councillors we absent including Doug Ford, the Mayor’s brother. The researcher at the Centre for Research on Inner City Health, Alex Abramovich, has spent eight years researching and creating the proposal for an exclusive LGBT youth shelter. The outcome of the vote has no impact on the current city budget. Ford considers himself a tax fighter.

Ford has previously resisted raising the pride flag at Toronto’s city hall, and never been a supporter of gay-rights. Ford became mayor in an upset election against a veteran gay politician George Smitherman. Many saw the defeat of Smitherman not as a vote against him being Toronto’s first out-gay mayor but a backlash against an unpopular provincial government where he was second in charge. Toronto has a long history of mayors who embarrass the city’s reputation.