This is actually quite surprising. Considering the battering that the Liberal Party has been taking both on Federal and Provincial levels (down 10 points in Ontario) you would think that the Liberals would be pandering to everyone they can, especially a popular event in the socially left leaning Vancouver.
This July 3rd will mark a historic moment in Canada as Justin Trudeau becomes the first Canadian Prime Minister to march in a Pride Parade.
Trudeau has taken part in several pride parades in the past but this will be his first since taking office as the PM.
What is even more special is that the city of 2.7 million people will have the leaders of every level of its representative governments taking part in the parade. John Tory (Mayor of Toronto), Kathleen Wynne (Premier of Ontario and herself a lesbian), and Justin Trudeau (Prime Minister of Canada) will all be present.
Toronto’s Pride Parade attracts over 1 million people each year, making it one of the largest Pride festivals in the world and the largest one in North America.
“It’s an election that’s heavy on ‘family’ and light on fags. But each of the party platforms — except the Conservatives’ — make promises on issues affecting gay and trans Canadians. Here are the queer nuggets in the party platforms…”
Xtra reporters talk to a couple Vancouver Canucks players on acceptance of gay players within the sport, within the Vancouver Canucks themselves, and the You Can Play message.
Moving into Pride Week here in Toronto I think it’s important to remember how far we have come and who the people who fought for our rights and stood up for our community are. This is a great video surrounding the backdrop around which the Toronto bathhouse raid and subsequent riots helped to galvanize the gay liberation movement not only in Toronto but around Canada in a way reminicent of the Stonewall Riots 12 years earlier in the United States.
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
“The United Church of Canada, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, has elected openly gay Rev. Gary Paterson as moderator, making him what is believed to be the first openly gay person to lead a major Christian denomination.”
This is amazing news. The United Church of Canada has always been a very progressive denomination and has long stood onside of LGBTQ rights (supporting same-sex marriage well before is was legalized in Canada).
What does this law do? Well if I were in Russia it would be illegal for me to have my blog, I wouldn’t have been able to be a part of Queer McGill during university, my soccer or water polo organization wouldn’t be allowed to exist, pride parades are banned, making public statements supporting the rights of LGBTQ people is illegal, even movies, TV shows, music, or art seen as ‘promoting’ homosexuality are effectively banned from Russia. I hope the international community denounces this for the draconian and extremely oppressive act that it is. I also hope that any LGBTQ athletes or allies going to Socchi next year make a stand and proudly sport the rainbow flag during their events or upon receiving medals in protest of this disgusting stance.
