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After Threat of Being Outed, Nova Scotia Mayor Outs Himself

Cecil Clarke, Nova Scotia
CBC News

“I’m not going to have people trying to shame me.” 

After threats against him to expose his personal life, Mayor Cecil Clarke of Nova Scotia's Breton Regional Municipality came out in an interview on Thursday with Canada's CBC News.

"I'm not going to go forward and announce my intentions about the Progressive Conservative Party leadership race having people think they are going to shame me, or hold something over me, or make it negative that, in this day and age, that being gay is somehow a bad thing," said Clarke.

Clarke, 49, spoke briefly about his partner in the interview. "I'm in a committed relationship, I love the person I'm with, that man is very special to me," he said. "And I'm not prepared to go on my future journey alone and I'm not going to do it ashamed, or afraid, or not proud of who I am as a person."

Clarke used his coming out to keep the focus on his politics going forward. "I don't mind criticism and constructive criticism about the work I do, because that is a part of the parliamentary process," he said. "But who I am and how I go about my personal life is no longer up as a punching bag for me, politically." Watch the interview, below.

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