Canada‘s Wonderland theme
park will no longer host Gay Day, following a homophobic incident involving
park staff and a gay couple.
According to The Toronto Star, Barrett Morrison and his partner
Brandon Hamilton were told by park staff during this year’s Gay Day in June to
stop hugging, “because this is a family park.”
“All we were
doing was hugging,” Morrison told The Star. “It’s not like we had
our hands down each other’s pants. It was just natural touching like any other
couple in the park.”
The park’s
manager has apparently apologized to the couple and talked to employees about
the incident, but the staff member who made the comment has not been identified
and therefore not reprimanded.
Wonderland’s
4,000 employees receive “human rights training,” according spokesperson Soulla
Lindo. But PFLAG Canada,
which has has organized the event the past eight years, says the theme
park hasn’t responded to a request for more information about that
training, or an offer to provide LGBTQ-specific training to staff.
“I felt that if
this could happen then the training wasn’t adequate or trickling down to
staff,” PFLAG Canada President Bev Belanger told The Star. “It was pretty
disappointing.”
In a statement,
PFLAG Canada explained that it has cancelled future Gay Days at the park:
After the incident,
nearly a month ago, PFLAG
Canada offeredCanada’s
Wonderland free diversity training for its staff, which they ignored.
PFLAG Canada’s board of directors met and discussed this at length. We felt
that no answer was indeed a very strong answer.
“Although we do
appreciate the apology the couple received from Wonderland’s GM, we felt like
it was a corporate apology with no true intent on embracing diversity and the
LGBTQ community.
“Gay Day must
be a safe and welcoming space for our LGBTQ family and friends and moving
forward, it must be with an organization and venue that truly wants to
celebrate and take ownership of Gay Day with PFLAG Canada.”
Morrison and
Hamilton said Wonderland doesn’t fit that bill.
“The magic
that’s supposed to happen at Canada’s Wonderland was lost to us,” Morrison
said.
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