Leafs GM to march at Toronto Pride in honour of gay son

Maple Leafs general manager Brian Burke has pledged to march in the Toronto Pride Parade in honour of his gay son Brendan, who died Feb 5.

From Sports Illustrated:

“After Brendan publicly revealed his sexual preference, Brian was
flooded with requests to do advocacy work on behalf of gays. He told
the groups that while he supported his son, he had other causes: land
conservation, blood donation and children’s literacy. He didn’t want to
dilute that work. This, too, changed on that Friday in February.
Brendan’s causes are Brian’s now. He will do a public-service

announcement aimed at eliminating the bullying of gay children. And he
plans to march in the Toronto Pride Parade. ‘I’d promised him I would
march with him,’ says Burke, who briefly left the Olympics last Friday
to attend a memorial service for Brendan at Miami of Ohio. ‘He won’t be
there, but I will.’” (via Queerty)

Brendan received international media attention in 2009 after ESPN wrote about his coming-out story.

And remember that story about Brendan’s Wikipedia page being marked for deletion? A decision was made to keep Brendan’s page on Wikipedia (as it should be!). The page was marked for deletion earlier this month, because some felt Brendan wasn’t “notable” enough under Wikipedia’s guidelines.


Read more:

Keep Reading

Trans issues didn’t doom the Democrats

OPINION: The Republicans won ending on a giant anti-trans note, but Democrats ultimately failed to communicate on class

Xtra Explains: Trans girls and sports

Debunking some of the biggest myths around trans girls and fairness in sports

How ‘mature minor’ laws let trans kids make their own decisions

Canadian law lets some youth make medical or legal decisions for themselves, but how does it work?

To combat transphobia, we need to engage with the people who spread it

OPINION: opening up a dialogue with those we disagree with is key if we want to achieve widespread social change