Maple Leafs general manager Brian Burke has pledged to march in the Toronto Pride Parade in honour of his gay son Brendan, who died Feb 5.
From Sports Illustrated:
“After Brendan publicly revealed his sexual preference, Brian was
flooded with requests to do advocacy work on behalf of gays. He told
the groups that while he supported his son, he had other causes: land
conservation, blood donation and children’s literacy. He didn’t want to
dilute that work. This, too, changed on that Friday in February.
Brendan’s causes are Brian’s now. He will do a public-serviceAdvertisementannouncement aimed at eliminating the bullying of gay children. And he
plans to march in the Toronto Pride Parade. ‘I’d promised him I would
march with him,’ says Burke, who briefly left the Olympics last Friday
to attend a memorial service for Brendan at Miami of Ohio. ‘He won’t be
there, but I will.’” (via Queerty)
Brendan received international media attention in 2009 after ESPN wrote about his coming-out story.
And remember that story about Brendan’s Wikipedia page being marked for deletion? A decision was made to keep Brendan’s page on Wikipedia (as it should be!). The page was marked for deletion earlier this month, because some felt Brendan wasn’t “notable” enough under Wikipedia’s guidelines.
Read more:
- Brendan Burke’s Wikipedia entry marked for deletion
- Brendan Burke, gay son of Maple Leafs GM, dies in car crash
- Watch: Brendan Burke talks about homophobia and hockey
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