Congratulations Toronto!

2014 is going to be quite the year for Queers in Central Canada and the Northeastern United States as WorldPride will be held in Toronto (T.O. beat out Stockholm for the honour) and the Gay Games will be held in Cleveland.

Toronto sealed the deal with a delegation of people from PrideToronto, Tourism Toronto, and the Toronto Police. Organizers of the bid have credited the support of the Toronto Police for giving them the edge over Stockholm.

I must say Toronto really does deserve the honour. The city is the most Queer positive city I have ever been to with ads for same-sex dating services in numerous Subway stations not just those near Toronto’s “gaybourhood”, or village. It already draws 1 million people out to watch and participate in the Pride Parade and festivities during Pride Week and Toronto is also the most multicultural city in the world making it an excellent place to celebrate WorldPride.

Following WorldPride in Toronto by only a few weeks Cleveland will host the Gay Games making the Great Lakes Region a Queer tourism Mecca for the summer of 2014. I expect interesting Queer themed promotion to pop up in the area for those looking to take advantage of the influx of Queer travelers in the area (you hear that Niagara?).

Here’s to Toronto and Cleveland, congrats.

Slainte!

I wouldn’t have expected this from the Advocate but it happened. The headline reads Photos: Canada’s Largest Pride. The article/photos are of Toronto Pride 2013. Toronto Pride is actually North America’s largest pride and the 3rd largest Pride festival in the world. 

In 2012 the estimated attendance was 1.22 million people. While they are still awaiting official numbers from the organizers and police, as someone who was in the parade and on the street and had been last year, this year was certainly larger. Yet the Advocate listed attendance as “hundreds of thousands” down playing the numbers. I’m not sure why they did this or refused to acknowledge Toronto as the largest pride in North America, my only guess is that because it is in Canada the Advocate doesn’t want its American readers to think they are some how being out done. 

It’s not as if we’re not used to being glossed over here in Canada. We get everything from people thinking it is actually below freezing here for much of the year (in reality the average temperature in Toronto only drops below freezing for two months of the year - January & February), people will ask how long it will take to go from Niagara Falls to Vancouver for a picnic (they are shocked when you tell them 3 days by car, 5 hours by plane). Then you have the looks of amazement when people get to Toronto and see all of the skyscrapers and high-rises, 2nd in number only to NYC (most think Toronto has a couple hundred thousand people, not the over 6 million people the GTA holds). 

Maybe next year when Toronto hosts World Pride (also not mentioned on the Advocate) it will get the attention that North America’s Largest Pride deserves. 

Check out more about Toronto Pride and World Pride 2014 here

Check out some great shots here