Do The Daniel -

June 2, 2019June 6, 2019

Finally, A Reason For Me To Go To Yorkville

I have officially been living in Toronto for eight years. Prior to calling myself a Torontonian, I used to visit the city as often as I could. Born in Montreal, and having grown up in Ottawa, Toronto was always the city I felt most at home in. My friends and I would drive down the 401 for any number of concerts, exploring Queen St. West in its heyday, and exploring parts of the city that embodied the vibrancy Toronto is known for. Very rarely in the thirty six years I have lived have I found a reason or had the desire to go to Yorkville. Always seemingly too good for the rest of the city, it rubbed me the wrong way. It was trying too hard. It was elitist and it wasn’t for me.

All that changed for me last year when I was introduced to UpMarket. Upon it’s return this year with UpMarket: The Floral edit, there is FINALLY a reason for someone like me to go to Yorkville to enjoy myself and feel like I belong there.

June 1, 2019June 3, 2019

Why I Changed My Mind About Pride

People always ask me “when did you know you were gay?” And as a gay guy, I have to think about my answer because I spent a long time in the closet. While I can now openly admit I was messaging guys online and even looking at Free Gay Cams (dating was out of the picture, after all!) – at the time I wasn’t ready to accept myself and didn’t want anything to do with the gay community. But I remember being in my early twenties and coming out of the closet. A bit of a late bloomer in life, I decided to finally immerse myself in the gay culture Ottawa had to offer me as a young man. I met some of the most amazing people, started dating, and very much had formative experiences that helped me to become the man I am today.

Many years later, I would (as many of us do) shy away from Pride because I didn’t feel as though it and the celebrations therein represented who I was anymore. This year I have come back around and have realized that Pride is something to be proud of in more ways than I realized.

May 31, 2019May 31, 2019

Something To Be Proud Of

With Pride and #PrideMonth literally around the corner, I have come to realize that at thirty five years old, I’ve got some pretty incredible things to be proud of in my life. Being a gay man in 2019 may seem to some as glamorous, but if I’m being perfectly honest, the world still has a lot of growing up to do. I get a bit more into detail in my recent post about #InsideOut19, which funny enough was the press conference that I attended which quite literally brought me to tears.

May 25, 2019May 28, 2019

There’s Still A Lot to Do

It was earlier this year as I began another campaign with the blog for a brand that we had worked with a few times over the year. At the time, I hadn’t decided to put down the proverbial torch I had been carrying on my own for the blog to begin looking for a new career. It was still my all, my everything, and for the most part the only thing that was keeping me afloat. Faced with finding a way to showcase happiness, I made myself presentable, set up the product in my kitchen and shot the campaign photos and video.

I was happy with the results and thought I even looked good in the photos (something I don’t often say about myself while I work on being a healthier version of myself physically, emotionally, and mentally). When the campaign went live, I could never have imagined the amount of hateful and abusive comments I would get online about being a gay man. The campaign went viral, but in the wrong way. The sad part is that it’s not the first time strangers have wished me dead, told me I was evil, and chastised me on the internet just for being myself and doing what I love. Although it is 2019, the fact remains that there’s still a LOT to do.