Lesbians are everywhere!’ 1981 was about queers taking up space and resisting police repression alongside Black, Brown and Indigenous communities.” Kristyn Wong-Tam, Toronto city councillor for Ward 13, Toronto Centre Photography courtesy of Kristyn Wong-Tam In October, Lesbians Against the Right led over 300 proud lesbians in a march down Bay Street, chanting ‘Look over here, look over there. In June, we yelled at the cops at 52 division, ‘Fuck You 52!’ after leaving our spirited Lesbian and Gay Pride Day rally at Grange Park. In February, at midnight on Yonge Street, we roared ‘No More Shit.’ Toronto queers were pissed at the police raids of bathhouses, the brutality and arrests.
This Pride Blockorama celebrates its 23rd year.” Amy Gottlieb, activist, artist and educator However, the crowds came and fashioned an amphitheatre out of asphalt and planter boxes, the DJs created a sonic communal dance floor and drag diva Duchess reigned supreme. I tie-dyed this fabric to cordon off a makeshift change room for the drag performers. In that first year we had no stage, lights or change rooms, only a tent, a sound system and the southernmost sliver of the parking lot across from Wellesley street subway. It depicts the core members of the collective Blackness Yes! in 1999 who organized the very first Blockorama - the diasporic LGBTQ African, Caribbean and Black stage at Pride showcasing our history, creativity, resistance and joy. “I attended my first Pride celebration in 1984 when I was still in high school, so I have many images and memories of Pride over the decades, but this image is among my favourites. Photography courtesy of Courtnay McFarlane. Courtnay McFarlane, visual artist, poet and archival activist Junior Harrison, Douglas Stewart, Jamea Zuberi and Angela Robertson.
Equity for every queer person, whatever their additional intersections may be. Other simply shared their queer joy, which is itself a revolution in a heteronormative world.Īs these memories attest, Pride doesn’t belong to the organizers who put the festival on, nor to the sponsors who foot the bill. Many, for example, shared stories about taking up space for racialized and othered communities at Pride. When FASHION reached out to people to share memories from Pride, what they shared demonstrated that Pride remains political, though often on a personal rather than a collective level.
#Gay pride day toronto 2014 series
There are still powerful political moments, like when Black Lives Matter stopped the parade with a series of demands in 2016, but Pride today is more commonly associated with dance parties than, say, fighting back against the Toronto Police’s documented bias against queer people. Over the years, the politics of Pride in Toronto have shifted both as gay rights have progressed and as Pride Toronto has embraced corporatization. Tim McCaskell, the granddaddy of Canadian gay activism, recounts in Any Other Way: How Toronto Got Queer how early Pride events acted as protests against police harassment, lies about homosexuality in the media and the Ontario Human Rights Code’s failure to protect lesbians and gay men. In 2019, 1.9 million people attended Pride Month events during the organization’s last non-digital festival.Īlways a mix of protest and celebration, queers who took part in the early years of Toronto Pride had a lot to rally against. Over four decades, what started as a series of small marches and picnics has turned into a behemoth festival that spans an entire month. Toronto Pride 2021 marks 40 years since Toronto’s first Gay Pride Week.