Ottawa Mayor Comes Out in Time for Pride
There have been a number of openly gay majors in recent years, from Bertrand Delano� (Mayor of Paris) to Annise Parker (Mayor of Houston) to "Mayor Pete" Buttigieg, Mayor of South Bend, Indiana and a contender for the 2020 presidential election.
Now another city joins the list of places that are, or have been, headed by openly LGTBQ mayors: Ottawa.
The Canadian city's mayor, Jim Watson, came out just in time for this last weekend's Pride celebrations there, reports the CBC.
Watson kicked down the closet door in an interview that aired August 17. In the course of doing so, Watson reaffirmed the truth that everyone comes out in their own time - and for some, it can take decades.
"I've been thinking about it for 40 years," Watson told the media, going on to add, "I've known I was gay since I was a teenager,"
"I feel comfortable with the decision and I'm glad I did it," Watson added. "But it took me a long time to get there."
Saying it was his hope that LGBTQ youth would see his coming out as proof that living authentically is okay, Watson one on to quip, "Don't be afraid to come out, don't feel rushed, but don't take 40 years either."
Added the Ottawa mayor: "There's nothing really to be ashamed of."
Watson dove more into the details of his process in an Aug. 18 op-ed he penned for the Ottawa Citizen.
Watson recalled being young and "always much more attracted to male TV and movie stars, such as Rob Lowe and Brad Pitt, rather than Julia Roberts or Sharon Stone."
The mayor recalled, "Unlike today, back when I was a teenager in the 1970s there were virtually no resources to seek for guidance or help, or just to talk. No LGBTQ clubs or gay-straight alliances." Once at university, Watson continued, he found himself in a more accepting and broad-minded environment, but "Still, I was completely in the closet — too shy or reluctant to come to grips with my own sexuality."
After school, he sent to work and eventually started his career in politics, and questions of coming out went on the back burner. Watson recalled that "for most of my public life, my sexuality was not an issue. It came up just once at an all-candidates meeting."
Watson described the scene:
"I was running for the provincial legislature in 2003 and a known homophobic activist stood up and asked me if I was gay. There were jeers and shouts, and before I could answer, my NDP opponent snapped at the questioner and told them that anyone's sexual preference had nothing to do with being a good MPP.
"To this day, I'm not sure how I would have answered that question, but I am grateful to the NDP's Marlene Rivier for her gutsy intervention."
Watson recalled two defining experiences during those years in the closet. On one occasion he was approached by a man who said he hoped that Watson would not be attending "that fag parade" - Pride - that year. Watson told him that he was looking forward to it, and invited the man to join him. The man hastily left, Watson wrote.
The other incident Watson described involved a constituent who wrote him to say that Watson had lost his vote after tweeting his support to LGBTQ athletes competing in Russia in 2014 - not long after that country's draconian "no homo promo" law was passed.
Watson's response to that constituent?
"If you have that point of view, I really don't want your vote."
Watson's advice to young LGTBQ people to come out in their own time but not to wait as long as he did has a humorous edge but is rooted in a sense of genuine regret. Wrote Watson:
"My reluctance has not allowed me to live my life as full of love and adventure as my gay friends who were bolder and braver than I ever was."