Evelyn Buck Lane residents call for street name change following online comments

August 13, 2020 · 0 Comments

Luisa Gomez and Maricella Sauceda, residents of Evelyn Buck Lane, are calling on the Town to change the name of their street following controversial comments made by the former Aurora mayor on social media.

Residents on Evelyn Buck Lane are calling on Council to re-name the street after comments from the former Aurora mayor regarding the Town’s recently-approved Rainbow Crosswalk stirred controversy on social media.

Responding to Council’s decision to approve a Rainbow Crosswalk at Yonge and Wellington, a York Region first, Ms. Buck said in a Facebook group: “It no longer surprises me how much some members of the gay community love to talk about themselves. Gay pride parades and rainbow crosswalks make little sense to me. If the need to live like everybody else is the objective, stop talking about your way. Stop banging drums, parades, making an exhibition of yourselves, painting crosswalks and just shut up about being gay for goodness sake. Just get on with your lives, like everyone else and make the best of it.”

These comments raised the ire of several members of the community, including Maricella Sauceda, who lives on Evelyn Buck Lane with her spouse and son.

An Aurora resident of 10 years, Ms. Sauceda says she has “never felt any kind of discrimination” here, but the comments have left her feeling differently and she is urging Council to re-name the street as a response.

“It made me feel sad, disturbed and angry,” says Ms. Sauceda of the online comments, which sparked a volley of heated exchanges between herself and Ms. Buck.

“I have never felt our community attacked in the community we have. We have always felt safe and those comments and that type of rhetoric is what reminds us that we’re still not safe, there are still people who feel this way and it can be dangerous.”

Comments referring to Pride parades displaying “sexual proclivities” is one of the comments Ms. Sauceda says are particularly offensive.

“She is generalizing everybody and putting them in some weird version of what they think the gay community represents,” she contends. “Everything just pissed me off, to be honest…the way she was speaking about the community and how she would never have supported [the crosswalk] when she was in office, and how we pretty much need to live our lives inside our own bubble and never speak of it again.”

Evelyn Buck is a long-time public figure in Aurora. Having first been elected to Council in the 1960s, she served as Aurora’s first female mayor in the late 1970s. She later returned to politics, serving several terms on Council before narrowly missing re-election in 2014.

Now 92, she remains active on social media and, in Ms. Sauceda’s view, her public profile gives Ms. Buck’s comments extra weight.

“This is a tarnish on her legacy,” says Ms. Sauceda. “By leaving her name on this street and installing York Region’s only Rainbow Crosswalk, it doesn’t send the right message.”

Ms. Buck, on the other hand, says she is content to “let the chips fall where they may” with regards to any potential street name change but insists she is not homophobic.

“I have a hard time finding anything in my comments that is anti-gay, because I am not,” she says. “I am content to live and let live and am content that people should live their lives the way they want to and the way the Charter permits them to. I am glad they are not being harassed by the Police anymore and able to live their lives the way they want to and that is all I have to say about it.

“If I have said it time and time again, my position is if my grandson came to me and told me he was gay I would love him just as much. It wouldn’t change my feeling about him, but it wouldn’t be good news because I think life is a bitch anyway without having extra problems. I think that is a problem for people.”

But Ms. Buck says “I knew I would be stirring up some reactions” with her comments.

“I didn’t say there was anything wrong with being gay, I just said, more or less, stop shoving it into my face.”

If Ms. Sauceda’s efforts to have the name of Evelyn Buck Lane changed do not come to pass, she says she would like a statement from public officials that they are “willing to truly stand for the Aurora of the present and the future.”

“All we’re asking is we get treated like everybody else,” she says. “All we want to do is live a tranquil, peaceful life in a society that doesn’t judge us and doesn’t ostracize us for who we are and that is what we have always had, but comments like this remind us that, no, it is not there yet. These are the reasons why Pride Month continues. These are the reasons why minority groups are always having to teach the majority.”

In a statement, Mayor Tom Mrakas said the Town had been “made aware of the comments that were made in an online forum” and “appropriate action” was being determined.

“Anytime offensive comments are made by a member of our community it is disturbing and disappointing,” he said. “Aurora is an inclusive community and hurtful comments are unacceptable and do not reflect who we are as a community.

“When a member of our community has been honoured with having a street or building, etc. named after them, it comes with a responsibility of upholding the values of our town. With respect to this specific situation, we are currently discussing the matter and determining any appropriate action, inclusive of the considerations involved in changing a street.”

By Brock Weir