William Thorsell
Feb. 22nd, 2003 08:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldThere's an interesting article in the February 2003 issue of Toronto Life, an interview/biography of William Thorsell.
For those of you who aren't Canadians, Thorsell is the current director of the Royal Ontario Museum, and past editor-in-chief of the The Globe and Mail. He has been, to say the least, a controversial man, known for his rather abrasive manner (the most important reason behind his departure from The Globe and Mail) and his advocacy of policies of fiscal responsibility et al. avant la lettre. Oh, yes, he's also gay--I found that out in 1997, when I read a transcript of a brief speech he made to The Fraternity in which he said that gays and presumably other non-heterosexuals should keep from being overly assimilated, though Frank Magazine had been revealing his male dates at official functinos to the public long before that. (At least one friend of mine finds Thorsell's stance funny, since his sexuality is the only thing that distinguishes him in the context of Canada's patronage system, which is at least as much a meritocracy as anything else in Canada.)
It was an interesting interview, particularly when he (and others) mentioned how he was so alienated from his sexuality that he found it difficult to establish relationships. (He even claimed that failing was his biggest personal regret about his life to date.) Interesting.
For those of you who aren't Canadians, Thorsell is the current director of the Royal Ontario Museum, and past editor-in-chief of the The Globe and Mail. He has been, to say the least, a controversial man, known for his rather abrasive manner (the most important reason behind his departure from The Globe and Mail) and his advocacy of policies of fiscal responsibility et al. avant la lettre. Oh, yes, he's also gay--I found that out in 1997, when I read a transcript of a brief speech he made to The Fraternity in which he said that gays and presumably other non-heterosexuals should keep from being overly assimilated, though Frank Magazine had been revealing his male dates at official functinos to the public long before that. (At least one friend of mine finds Thorsell's stance funny, since his sexuality is the only thing that distinguishes him in the context of Canada's patronage system, which is at least as much a meritocracy as anything else in Canada.)
It was an interesting interview, particularly when he (and others) mentioned how he was so alienated from his sexuality that he found it difficult to establish relationships. (He even claimed that failing was his biggest personal regret about his life to date.) Interesting.
