Toronto Mayoral Candidate Adam Giambrone Interracial Sex Scandal.

Splashed across the front page of today’s Toronto Star,  is an article that feels like tabloid trash. The story is about Toronto mayoral candidate Adam Giambrone’s sexual relationship with a twenty year old university student Kristen Lucas.

However, Adam Giambrone is not just any mayoral candidate, he is also the Toronto Transit Commission Chairman. Yes, Giambrone has a lot of political power, he runs the TTC which affects millions of Toronto commuters lives.

The TTC is the engine that helps the city of Toronto run. The TTC is very important to Toronto’s economy.

Millions of commuters need the TTC to get to work, school, drop their kids off at daycare, the baby sitter, run errands, go the doctor, shop for groceries.

If Adam Giambrone wasn’t the TTC Chairman I don’t think this story would be news.

The TTC is  involved in a public relations fiasco because customers are furious at the poor customer service.

TTC subway stations are dirty, the washrooms have graffiti on the walls, no soap available, the stench of urine is repugnant. The floor is splashed with used toilet paper.

I am a TTC commuter, and yesterday I was at the Finch subway station. My goodness,  the men’s washroom at Finch subway station is a pigsty, it is just so disgusting!

When is the TTC going to clean the men’s washrooms at Finch, Yonge & Bloor, Union, & Kipling subway stations?

What is Giambrone going to do about the problems with the TTC? After all, TTC customers have to pay $3.00 one way to take the TTC. Shouldn’t the TTC be clean and efficient? When is the TTC going to get their act together?

Of course, Giambrone’s indiscretions are not criminal, but what does this say about him as a person?

Is it right for the media to judge Giambrone’s sex life in relation to his public political persona and image?

According to the Toronto Star article, Giambrone did not want Lucas  to tell anyone he was involved with her.

The question remains, why? Why was Giambrone so afraid or ashamed?

If someone wants to be a political candidate in  North America, the individual has to be cognizant that their private lives may become public knowledge.

Now is this fair? I don’t know, but this is how politics works in North America. In Europe, people don’t care about the sex lives of politicians.

In fact, in France , the former President Francois Mitterrand, he had a love child yet the French media only reported the information  after he died.

Another point to consider,  Ms. Lucas is an adult, the sex was consensual, Giambrone is not married to his “partner” Sarah McQuarrie.

So why is this news? First, I think this story is news because Giambrone told Lucas important private TTC information.

According to the Toronto Star article, Lucas said she knew the TTC was going to hike transit fares in November 2009.

Second, although the Toronto Star doesn’t mention this, the issue of race is very important to this story.

Ms. Lucas is an Asian woman, she is also the “other woman”. In a text message, Giambrone he admits,   “I had to have someone political.”

So is Sarah  McQuarrie just being “used”? Is Sarah McQuarrie just the white trophy girlfriend?

So an Asian woman is not good enough  to be Giambrone’s girlfriend but a white woman is a more appropriate girlfriend than an Asian woman?

Was Giambrone  more concerned that some of  his white constituents would disapprove that he had a   “sexual relationship” with an Asian woman?

Did Giambrone think that the white constituents would not vote for him if they knew he had a predilection for Asian women?

Ms. Lucas claims she had interracial  sex with Adam Giambrone in “City Hall” in Toronto.  So is Giambrone saying that Ms. Lucas isn’t “good enough” to be his “public girlfriend” because she is an Asian woman?

Third, what about Sarah McQuarrie?  How does Sarah feel that in private text messages to Ms. Lucas Adam Giambrone admits to just using her?

Giambrone says that  his heterosexual relationship with Ms. McQuarrie is just for “political” reasons. Ms. McQuarrie she is just an object, their union is just an image of a  monogamous compulsory heterosexuality.

I think this feeds into the stereotype that white women are pristine, chaste, and are the true image of womanhood. Meanwhile, Ms. Lucas since she is  an Asian woman, she is viewed as the  licentious woman, a woman with  a carnal sexuality. Ms Lucas she is presented as a woman with no virtue.

Maybe, Ms. Lucas is just a young, naïve, innocent woman?  Adam Giambrone should  not  exploit women for sex and political gain without expecting any retribution or consequences for his actions.

Link: Adam Giambrone interracial sex scandal.

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/torontomayoralrace/article/762532

Link: Francois Mitterand’s love child story.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/World/Mitterrands-love-child-tells-of-a-life-under-wraps/2005/02/25/1109180106694.html