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Scene: The Big Kiss at Yonge-Dundas Square

By • Photos by Corbin Smith

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Photos by Corbin Smith/Torontoist.


WHERE: Yonge-Dundas Square.
WHEN: Thursday, December 2, at 6:09 p.m.
WHAT: Newmindspace’s latest thing, The Big Kiss, brought couples and friends and other pairs of loved ones to kiss below Yonge-Dundas Square’s new mistletoe. (Virgin, the event’s sponsor and the ones responsible for the mistletoe, is giving $5 per kiss to WWF Canada.) As photographer Corbin Smith noted, the moment ended quickly: the whole event finished within three minutes of the kisses starting.

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Comments

  • Kenny Craine

    gross

  • http://flickr.com/aged_accozzaglia accozzaglia

    Heteronormative boredom.

  • mikeyteeth

    oh my god. shut up.

  • http://flickr.com/aged_accozzaglia accozzaglia

    Absolutely not.

  • http://undefined Casey Oraa

    +1 accozzaglia
    I wonder how many same-sex couples were there…

  • http://undefined rek

    Kissing is heteronormative? The event itself? The photo selection in this post?
    What’s your point?
    Did you go?
    Whose responsibility is it to make this 100% proportionately representative of the couples composition of Toronto?

  • http://undefined torontothegreat

    Homosexual hyperbole

  • http://flickr.com/aged_accozzaglia accozzaglia

    Delivery, rek. Optics, rek. Same, usual, boring. It’s so expected that it’s boring: straight-up (pun intended) het PDA. It may look cute, but cuteness doesn’t earn something with a story.
    You were not under attack. Still aren’t. Don’t waste your energy getting into a tizzy about it and going into rhetorical interrogation. Disagree with whatever it was I said, but at least acknowledge that it can be said here. Some places it cannot.
    Incidentally, in the bizarro universe Rob Ford’s mind, it cannot.

  • http://undefined rek

    That’s a lot of typing to say nothing.

  • http://flickr.com/aged_accozzaglia accozzaglia

    That was pretty weak. Try, try again.

  • http://undefined holly

    http://newmindspace.com/images/thebigkiss_splash.jpg
    Right there, far right, centre.
    Boom.
    Now shhh.

  • http://flickr.com/aged_accozzaglia accozzaglia

    Not in the Torontoist by-line or story, so uh no.

  • http://flickr.com/aged_accozzaglia accozzaglia

    Nor a Torontoist photographer.

  • http://undefined rek

    And bottom left, looks like two women to me.

  • http://undefined EricSmith

    A certain person needs to have the last word, rek, and if you keep replying, it’ll never happen.

  • you

    @accozzaglia – come on, you gotta get over it. You’re queer in some way, great, so am I, no need to wear it on your sleeve and put down heterosexuals every chance you get. Seriously, you’ve had a tough life, people don’t accept you, maybe if you stopped feeling so sorry for yourself all the time other people would accept you more. The more you try to keep up with this hard done by attitude the less likely people are to accept you. It IS cute and not because it’s two straight people kissing, it’s nice to see people in love, straight or gay. Really, it’s a photograph ffs, not some plot by the world to put down us queers. Acting like this is as much a problem as homophobia for the LGBT community. You’re perpetuating an us vs. them mentality, there are people that dislike LGBT, but they’re backwards losers and they’re not represented in these photos. The only representation of hate here is yours. You have to let that bitterness go. Embrace who you are and forget about the fucktards that can’t seem to get their heads out of their asses, be comfortable in your sexuality and live your life. Life isn’t fair, you need to find a way to deal with that unfairness. Accept that some people are straight, if you want straight people to be able to accept LGBT lifestyles. Fighting intolerance with intolerance will get us nowhere.

  • you

    Really, what’s more queer than a group makeout session? And where was i?

  • http://undefined torontothegreat

    hahaha, so true

  • http://flickr.com/aged_accozzaglia accozzaglia

    Hey, I said two words. They were provocative enough, but they were more a statement of observation. It was really the first two words that came to mind. If there’s a problem with it, it isn’t mine to deal with.
    If you guys want to have a commenting frenzy challenging it, then you go right ahead. I stand by it, so move on already.
    As to acceptance, you, I left high school such a long time ago. I don’t try to be accepted.

  • http://undefined you

    It’s not just the two words spoken here that i refer to. this is ongoing, same thing day in and day out.

  • http://undefined you

    It’s rather obvious you’ve given up on acceptance, and now seek revenge on straight people instead.

  • http://flickr.com/aged_accozzaglia accozzaglia

    Don’t be a troll, please.

  • http://undefined Mr Ornot

    Are we really having a scrawl-fest about public kissing? Or a brawl over a seasonal fluff piece?
    If it’s boring you’re not doing it right.
    If you’re not one of those doing it, you have my sympathies.
    If you don’t want to look at it (regardless of your politics), don’t.
    With Our Ford and Saviour ramping up to save us from the burdens of free will, don’t we have bigger fish to fry?

  • http://undefined Andrew

    What is this, The Varsity?

  • http://undefined Corbin Smith

    I don’t feel like the photos in this post need to be justified. If anyone is uncomfortable about the notion of posting images of people kissing during a public event to raise money for the World Wildlife Fund, there’s nothing to be done on Torontoists end to make such people happy.
    However, if there are individuals concerned about the representation (or lack thereof) of heterosexual, homosexual, monogamous, polygamous, or interracial couples; I feel like I can offer some beneficial contextual information.
    I took these photos, and as the post explains, the whole even lasted no longer than 3 minutes. During the “kissing” portion of the event, I wildly photographed anyone who looked like they were kissing. The result was a very large majority of heterosexual couples, and one, maybe two homosexual couples. A good majority of the images were out of focus or blurred as I was shooting with my camera over my head, into the crowd.
    The images that made the post were selected based on the quality of the image (eg: you can actually tell what the hell is going on.) Hope this clears up some potentially unanswered questions.

  • http://flickr.com/aged_accozzaglia accozzaglia

    You were never under scrutiny or challenged. You sent the editor those photos you took, and the editor chose which of those photos went into the story by-line. The editor was being challenged on the limited variety of those selections used from your shoot. Whether the editor heeds anything from this discussion is beyond your control or Torontoist readers.
    Public display of affection itself was never really an issue of concern here. The optics of what images were selected was. It is now a moot point, and it is likely for the best for us to close this discussion and move on.

  • rek

    You’re just complaining for the sake of complaining, and it’s tiresome, so yes let’s move on.

  • http://flickr.com/aged_accozzaglia accozzaglia

    Cheap parting shot, rek, and really quite unnecessary.
    For the record: the first comment was not made for the sake of complaining.
    Don’t diminish or trivialize that. Thanks.

  • http://undefined torontothegreat

    Unbelievable!!!
    As opposed to your unnecessary cheap shot at heteros? Don’t trivialize or diminish the photo/story with your cry-wolf, b/s! THEN and only then can you ask for the same in return.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bryan-Cook/507835870 Bryan Cook

    I for one am confused by how this turned into a gay rights issue when the real issue is the photographer needs better equipment.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bryan-Cook/507835870 Bryan Cook

    I for one am confused by how this turned into a gay rights issue when the real issue is the photographer needs better equipment.