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rfmcdonaldOne thing I've been thinking about a lot in the aftermath of the recent general election on Prince Edward Island is the election of Wade MacLauchlan as premier. As noted by, among others, the National Post, MacLauchlan is gay: quite out, partnered, all of it. This did not hinder his election.
MacLauchlan has a long career on Prince Edward Island. Among other things, he was president of the University of Prince Edward Island from 1999 through 2011. The first three years of his presidency were the last three in which I was studying at the same university and living and worrying and feeling afraid for reasons I could not articulate to myself.
I had no idea what was going on, on Prince Edward Island in regards to people being gay and living as gay openly or otherwise. I still have no idea what was going on, not really. I just felt afraid all the time, for reasons I was not able to articulate to myself. Fear of being different, fear of being visible, fear of being somehow found out: all of it was there. There was so much fear that I don't think I can actually say, with any degree of certainty, what was going on, what would have happened if I'd come out earlier than 22 (21, 20, 19, 18, younger). I know only of specific things that happened to me: laughter over the table as friends of my parents laughed at the idea of a Pride parade in Charlottetown, a quite possibly over-friendly high school teacher who killed himself the next term after doing something with a student and the relief I felt, the mockeries of high school and the deepening depression I felt.
I don't know. I'm not sure you can understand how terribly this frustrates me. When I was much younger, I loved too enthusiastically Descartes and his argument that the human mind could understand its entire environment so long as it was sufficiently rigourous. This seemed to work for me as long as my world was cramped, narrow. Now that it has been exploded, even years later, I don't know what was actually going on. I wonder if I ever will, if I ever could.
This little island is often cast as a bastion of social conservatism in Canada. It is predominantly rural with 140,000 people, where you can throw a cat from anywhere and hit saltwater, as one bar patron put it this week.
All this makes frontrunner Wade MacLauchlan somewhat of an unlikely candidate.
MacLauchlan, an academic with little political experience, stands to be the first openly gay man to be elected premier in the province. But it hasn’t been a factor during the election campaign, he says.
“Absolutely zero,” the Liberal Party leader told the National Post this week. “I’ve been open about the fact that I’m gay. And my partner has been front and centre as appropriate, we try to keep some home life and privacy as anyone with any sense would do.
“That has not come up at any doorstep or any of the discussions that I’ve had across the island,” he said, noting that P.E.I. was the first to elect both a female premier and a premier of non-European descent.
“In some ways this might be a hat trick.”
MacLauchlan has a long career on Prince Edward Island. Among other things, he was president of the University of Prince Edward Island from 1999 through 2011. The first three years of his presidency were the last three in which I was studying at the same university and living and worrying and feeling afraid for reasons I could not articulate to myself.
I had no idea what was going on, on Prince Edward Island in regards to people being gay and living as gay openly or otherwise. I still have no idea what was going on, not really. I just felt afraid all the time, for reasons I was not able to articulate to myself. Fear of being different, fear of being visible, fear of being somehow found out: all of it was there. There was so much fear that I don't think I can actually say, with any degree of certainty, what was going on, what would have happened if I'd come out earlier than 22 (21, 20, 19, 18, younger). I know only of specific things that happened to me: laughter over the table as friends of my parents laughed at the idea of a Pride parade in Charlottetown, a quite possibly over-friendly high school teacher who killed himself the next term after doing something with a student and the relief I felt, the mockeries of high school and the deepening depression I felt.
I don't know. I'm not sure you can understand how terribly this frustrates me. When I was much younger, I loved too enthusiastically Descartes and his argument that the human mind could understand its entire environment so long as it was sufficiently rigourous. This seemed to work for me as long as my world was cramped, narrow. Now that it has been exploded, even years later, I don't know what was actually going on. I wonder if I ever will, if I ever could.
