Ajax Ontario Mayoral Candidate Sherry Clymer Says Flying A Gay Pride Flag Is Similar To Flying A Nazi Flag

Sherry Clymer, a 54 year old former taxi dispatcher and community volunteer, is running for the first time for mayor of Ajax. Ontario, and during a debate Tuesday with incumbent Mayor Steven Parrish, Clymer criticized Parish for raising a Pride flag this past June to celebrate Pride Durham. Parish countered, saying his decision represented the town’s diversity, to which Clymer countered saying that citizens never unite by focussing on differences, suggesting the mayor had “best be also hanging up the Nazi flag.” Today, trying to apologize, Clymer, who calls herself a Christian, suggested her debate comment was a “blunder” because it implied she was comparing gays to Nazis. According to the Toronto Star, what she meant was “What makes the gays any more deserving of their flag hanging that anyone else? The gay pride flag says, ‘Look at me, I want to seen as okay,’” adding that Parish’s gesture of raising the flag was merely a “vote grab.” Clymer, who said her “guide is the Bible,” added that “What is so good about being gay? God says no, and I believe him.” Kurtis McAleer, Ajax’s 16 year old youth mayor, was one of those in attendance at the debate Tuesday and said he was shocked by the statements he called “homophobic, grossly, inappropriate and hateful. I couldn’t believe anyone in 2010 would say a comment like that, especially in public and who wants to be mayor. Anyone who compares the Pride flag to the Nazi flag is an obvious bigot and does not represent the views of our town.”