Today Fri Sat
It is forcast to be Fog at 11:00 PM EDT on May 24, 2012
Fog
29°/18°		 It is forcast to be Chance of Rain at 11:00 PM EDT on May 25, 2012
Chance of Rain
28°/18°		 It is forcast to be Overcast at 11:00 PM EDT on May 26, 2012
Overcast
27°/15°

25 Comments

news

Adam Giambrone (Jokingly?) Outed by NOW

By David Topping

20091231_adamgiambroneouted.jpg
Photo by David Topping/Torontoist.


This week’s NOW Magazine features “Five fearless predictions” for 2010. (Online and in print on page 13, teased on the front page with “City council: Five stunners sure to shake things up.”) Number five is “Adam Giambrone defies the odds,” and it begins:

“It’s kind of a long shot, but Giambrone’s chances of becoming mayor are looking better every day. They don’t call him a wunderkind for nothin’. He’s young. He’s bright. He’s gay. And he looks better than any of his challengers so far.” (Emphasis added.)

He may be “gay-positive,” as Xtra! put it, and he may have a transgendered brother, but Adam Giambrone? Not gay, as he confirmed on his Facebook:
20091231_adamgiambronenotgay_2.jpg
Thing is, we’re not entirely sure if the initial NOW article is a joke—a collection of things writer Enzo Di Matteo wishes would come true in 2010 but won’t. In which case: haha? [UPDATE, 1:01 p.m.: Seems it was a straightforward mistake: NOW has updated the online version of the article to say that Giambrone is "gay-positive."]
Kudos to Jonathan Goldsbie for the discovery.

Filed under: , , , , ,

Report error Send a tip

Comments

  • http://undefined Green Sulfur

    This list is no joke. Matteo is just that dumb. It’s consistent with all his other municipal musings over the past year. An entirely appropriate end to the year and decade for NOW.

  • http://www.guesswork.ca Patrick Metzger

    Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

  • http://undefined metabaron

    Why do they even need to emphasize the sexual orientation? It is not like being gay (if he were) makes him a better person…
    Idiots at NOW magazine. I pick up NOW magazine only for listings which I am sure I could find online at better sources.

  • http://undefined Skippy the Magical Racegoat

    He didn’t handle that very gracefully. A quick, assertive “no homo” would have sufficed.
    (Just kidding.)

  • http://undefined lunarworks

    This is NOW. Being anything other than a straight, white male makes you a “better person” in their books.

  • http://undefined deadrobot

    I dunno… his picture *is* pretty close to that Pride FM ad.

  • http://undefined dowlingm

    NOW is a joke. While they are a joke with Dan Savage on the inside back I’ll keep reading though.

  • Dry Brain

    NOW is a joke. The writing is bad, the reporting is shallow, and their politics are knee-jerk and simplistic to the point of parody. I’m sure some of the problem is their geriatric old hippie editorial staff. Fresh blood, maybe. As silly as Eye can be (See the Facebook suicide story), it’s got columnists I’m always interested to read, and the arts coverage is usually better too.

  • http://undefined Darren

    Now is indeed a JOKE. It blindly supports anyone with a leftist agenda regardless of their numerous faults, and on the flipside they will attack anyone with a right of centre agenda even if they have something worthy to offer.
    Adam Giambrone is a joke, gay or straight doesnt matter. There isnt a snowball’s chance in hell of him getting elected Mayor due to his dysfunctional chairmanship of the TTC. He is worse then Moscoe. Adam has interfered more then Moscoe did with the role of the GM. We lost Ducharme due to Moscoe and Giambrone is keen on doing the same with Webster. His artsy fartsy past is evident in his determination to rebuild perfectly fine stations on the BD line due to no good reason except that they look ‘dated’. NYC has subway stations twice as old as our BD station yet they maintain them and not rebuild them. Staten Island has the oldest urban rail line (older then London tube) which is mostly exposed to the elements (like our Rosedale and Summerhill), and those stations are maintained not rebuilt.
    Adam has publicly gone on record (on Goldhawk live in 2006) that he has never visited NY nor will he ever. So one has to ask why our TTC chair refuses to ever vist and use the best transit system in North America?? His father being a Vietnam draft dodger from NY state may have something to do with it;
    http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/168444

  • http://undefined rfmcdpei

    The story has been amusing to me since I’ve known his long-time–female–partner for years since grad school. These rumours have been running around for a while, coming up in at least one post at the Toronto Livejournal community, so it’s not surprising that the author picked up on these and reproduced them in print.

  • http://undefined TokyoTuds

    Not only is Adam gay-positive, but he is all around positive. He is an optimist, intelligent, and works his butt off. I disagree with some of his positions and decisions, but I admire his public service and determination. I think it is too early for him to run as mayor. I’d rather see him continue as TTC Chair, support the right mayoral candidate in 2010, and if we end up with some wing-nut he should run for mayor after that.

  • http://undefined joeclark

    Hey, I saw it first! (Last night at 23:54!)
    Anyway, here’s an enjoyable drinking game for people who like that sort of thing. Every time Adam Giambrone uses the word “gay,” take a shot from whatever’s in your left hand. Every time he uses “LGBTQ” or any anagram thereof, chug a whole stein from whatever’s in your right hand. (It’s worth more.)
    Knowing him, you’ll be drunk in a jiffy.

  • http://undefined Svend

    He seems too well groomed. For all we know his “partner” could be a lesbian.

  • http://undefined Green Sulfur

    Care to explain all those photos Giambrone took and posted on Facebook from while he was in New York City this summer? I thought not.

  • http://undefined Darren

    Finally I guess. Obviously he didnt learn a thing from his visit, as he is still hellbent on rebuilding stations along the BD and creating artsy fartsy stations both there and in the Spadina extension.

  • http://undefined quickymgee

    you and your artsy fartsy

  • http://undefined Darren

    Yeah its my arsty fartsy. Its also yours and everyother taxpayers too. People should be concerned when the TTC is needlessly building stations larger then they need to be, with more and more walkways, creating green roofs instead of leasing air rights, and maintaining our backward fare system and busbways which are the biggest source of fare evasion

  • http://undefined mark.

    It’s not really your ‘artsy fartsy’ – the argument you present is very common, and something I find quite strange. I know you’re genuinely interested in transit, and not just some wing-nut reactionary so I figure it’s worthwhile to challenge you a bit.
    I suppose I understand when a frustrated TTC rider thinks or says something like “I don’t care about how nice this station looks, just make the train run on time!” But supporting this idea of ‘pure functionalism’ ought to be only temporary. Upon reflection, people should realize how short-sighted it is. When I think of a city designed and built on principles of pure functionalism, images of the Borg come to mind. Pure functionalism would rid us of any sort of citizen participation or democracy in general – there’d be no need to debate competing ideas since what would be done would be that which is most efficient and functional. And what would happen to culture, the arts (which really define a civilization) and creativity (not just Richard Florida’s trademark)?
    Of course there’s a ‘limit’ to all this – no one’s suggesting that there be Ferris wheels and roller coasters in subway stations. But at the same time, i don’t think people want grey cinder blocks or a design that moves people efficiently and functionally like cattle to the slaughter.
    Finally, recall what Montagu and Darling wrote in The Prevalence of Nonsense:
    “Mussolini may have done many brutal and tyrannical things; he may have destroyed human freedom in Italy; he may have murdered and tortured citizens whose only crime was to oppose Mussolini; but ‘one had to admit’ one thing about the Dictator: he ‘made the trains run on time.’”

  • http://undefined Darren

    Its not just temporary. Toronto has a funding shortage for the operaitonal budget of the TTC, and it needs to secure capital funding for most every type of purchase, and both are difficult as Toronto has lost the trust of both the province and the country. Every dollars saved in a capital project is a dollar that can go towards another project. King, Queen, Dundas, etc work extremely well. Anything larger then them is just pure extravegence we do not need. NYC has stations either those size or smaller as they do not incorporate passenger crossovers/underpasses, so station entrances are one directional entraces (a stairwell being northbound Lexington only for example)
    During the announcement of the design for one of the stations along the Spadina extension, Giambrone went on record as saying that he wishes every station could be as large as those new ones. He is moving on that statement. Did we really have to knock down VP, just as we will do with Pape? Thats major capital dollars going to replace stations which have worked just fine for the past 40 years and are now carring as many passengers as they did in the all time highs of the 1980s, ie managebale numbers. Green roofs on subway stations that are niether coooled nor heated? More walkways and retail area? Do you know how much more maintenace this will involve, and how many people will have to be hired for this? What type of station do you think costs more to be maintained; King or say Downsview? Should the TTC even be in the business of building and leasing out retail space? Do you want to pay more in fares knowing that some of that is going to some guy’s salary for pushing paper on a lease agreement? How is that efficient? The better way to lease is to build small stations (again, King, Queen, etc) and lease out their air rights. NYC has been doing for a centurt. They actually created the idea of air rights when they sold off the air rights for Grand Central.
    Do we really need to tunnel under empty land in Vaughan? Couldn’t cut and cover be done for cheaper, and closer to the surface?
    I use the TTC to get from A to B. I dont use it to see art or retail, etc. I want to get from the street level to the subway. There are places for culture and arts, and transit systems should be seperate from them.

  • http://undefined mark.

    I don’t see any evidence here that you even considered my points. I’m not sure it’s worthwhile continuing this one-sided discussion. Perhaps you really do want a bland, functional city and would prefer if we followed the ideas of Henry Ford, Robert Moses, etc. I suppose that’s fine, but you’re going to have to prove this is a good idea, and do this with more than inflamed rhetoric and appeals to so-called ‘common sense.’
    In any case, I’m well aware that there’s a big problem funding the operational budget (one of the fall-outs of the ‘common sense’ revolution, I might add). It’s been said elsewhere (here or maybe spacing.ca) that funding capital projects is something that the provincial and federal gov’ts are more willing to do since there’s a ‘ground-breaking ceremony,’ a press conference and lots of photos for the papers. Providing secure, stable funding for the operational budget is not sexy and doesn’t provide the ‘images’ that politicians seek.
    A lot of unthinking people agree with the basic argument that the TTC is just a money-pit and that’s why no senior level of gov’t is willing to provide operational funds. However, I don’t believe this is the case and I don’t see any evidence to support this. I suggest that the someone (either from the province, the city or the TTC itself) commission a report by an independent third party to critically examine how the TTC spends its operational budget (how it’s changed historically and how it compares to similar transit systems). From this report, we would find either that the TTC isn’t ‘wasting’ money or that there are places where the TTC can save money. So, not only would we (possibly) find ways to reduce the operating budget, but we would have clear evidence to support our case that the province should return to subsidizing the operating budget.

  • http://undefined Darren

    Yes there is evidence that gross mismanagement has scared away funding. The federal government has made that clear in 2009, when they repeatly said “get your own house in order” to TO.
    You can call us “unthinking people”, but I think bland is a must in dire times. As for it being a good idea; it has been a proven functional approach in cities like NYC and Montreal and in parts of TO. Residential and commercial densities boomed around small stations that were streamlined into the streetscape.

  • http://undefined mark.

    Sorry, but the Feds telling TO to ‘get your house in order’ is not what I mean by garnering evidence from a third party report. For one, it’s an easy excuse for the Feds to not fund. Secondly, I believe in 2009 the Feds did, in fact, provide substantial funding for capital projects.
    Your argument that “bland is a must in dire times” is nihilistic, pessimistic and flies in the face of much contemporary research (eg. creativity, sustainability, innovation, etc.). I do, however, agree that subway stations ought to be as close to the street as possible. I have a special hatred for Downsview and St. Clair West station! But just because the station is relatively small and close to the street doesn’t mean they ought to be bland.

  • http://undefined Darren

    Well at least we can agree on some points. Too bad those who don’t agree on that are the ones who decide the layout of the stations.
    The feds funded a high profile low ridershrip subway extension project, and then used the economic stimulis to find other projects, and they made TO go through the ringer to obtain that funding.
    Call me pessimistic, but I cannot justify spending 177 million on just one subway station.

  • http://undefined Verna

    At least when you read some magazines you know you can believe them:
    http://thealbatross.ca/2009/12/airport-delays-reveal-new-terrorist-strategy-family-togetherness/

  • Anna35az

    It is really funny sometimes how people judge others by mere looking his appearance and how his relationship with the public and with other people. Anyway, if he said he is not, well then that is good to hear or if yes, my response is still the same. First thing to consider is it really matters? For me what matters is our relationship with others. If we don’t hurt anyone, so be it.

    Anna Marie

    Blog: plinthe bois