This Is A Rick Mercer Appreciation Post

If you care about Canada or laughing or both, you need to be watching The Rick Mercer Report. Canadian politics can be depressing and/or really, really boring, but Rick Mercer takes the issues happening in this country and turns them into something you can laugh about. Plus, he’s relevant to your queer interests: in response to ongoing backlash from Canadians and the Harper government against same-sex marriage, he posted this spoof on so-called traditional values. My favourite lines are “Every child should have a mom and a dad and nothing else. That’s why I believe in the traditional definition of ‘bastard.’ That’s not a curse word, kids. That’s just grown-up talk for the little fellow next door.”

Following the suicide of gay teen Jamie Hubley from Ottawa and responding to the “It Gets Better” Campaign, Mercer made the following video, saying queer adults have a responsibility to gay teens to make it better not at some unknown point in the future, but right now. Teens can’t afford to wait, he argued; so successful gay adults need to come out of the closet. The video went viral and its message was powerful, but he was criticized for insisting adults have a responsibility to forgo their privacy in favour of gay visibility.

Here is the video:

Do you agree with him. What d’you think?

Finally, here is Rick Mercer talking about coming out to his family:

For more information on Rick Mercer, you visit the Rick Mercer Report online.