TTC Chair Adam Giambrone at a news conference Friday announcing better transit service

TORONTO – A Toronto city councillor said he was “amused” to find out a local alternative weekly newspaper claimed this week that he was gay.

Now Magazine reported Coun. Adam Giambrone was gay in an article speculating on whether the youthful-looking politician stood a chance of becoming Toronto’s next mayor.

Giambrone denied being gay in a Facebook posting and said he was in a relationship with a woman named Sarah.

“Amused, but not entirely surprised to learn in Now Magazine that I’m supposedly gay,” wrote Giambrone on his Facebook status update Thursday. “But so as not to mislead anyone, I should correct the record: I’m not, in fact, gay. Sarah, my partner, has taken the news in stride and with good humour.”

Neither Now nor the article’s writer Enzo Di Matteo could not be reached for comment.

Di Matteo, however, told website blogTO: “I meant he’s happy . . . of course.”

The gay claim appeared in the newsweekly’s Dec. 29 edition in an article outlining Di Matteo’s predictions for 2010.

“It’s kind of a long shot, but Giambrone’s chances of becoming mayor are looking better every day,” wrote Di Matteo, in the print edition. “He’s young. He’s bright. He’s gay.”

Now has since changed its web version of the article which know says Giambrone is “gay-positive.” The word “positive” is written in italics.