![Thai-Canadian Pride](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/Thai-Canadian_Pride.jpg)
Pride Toronto is an annual event held in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
, Canada, in June each year. A celebration of the diversity of the
LGBT
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term is a ...
community in the
Greater Toronto Area
The Greater Toronto Area, commonly referred to as the GTA, includes the City of Toronto and the regional municipalities of Durham, Halton, Peel, and York. In total, the region contains 25 urban, suburban, and rural municipalities. The Greater T ...
, it is one of the largest organized
gay pride
LGBT pride (also known as gay pride or simply pride) is the promotion of the self-affirmation, dignity, equality, and increased visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people as a social group. Pride, as opposed to sham ...
festivals in the world, featuring several stages with live performers and
DJs
A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music festival), mobile D ...
, several licensed venues, a large Dyke March, a Trans March and the Pride Parade. The centre of the festival is the city's
Church and Wellesley
Church may refer to:
Religion
* Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities
* Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination
* Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship
* C ...
village, while the parade and marches are primarily routed along the nearby
Yonge Street
Yonge Street (; pronounced "young") is a major arterial route in the Canadian province of Ontario connecting the shores of Lake Ontario in Toronto to Lake Simcoe, a gateway to the Upper Great Lakes.
Once the southernmost leg of provincial Hi ...
, Gerrard Street and Bloor Street. In 2014, the event served as the fourth international
WorldPride
WorldPride, licensed by InterPride and organized by one of its member organizations, is an event that promotes lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ pride) issues on an international level through parades, festivals and other cult ...
, and was much larger than standard Toronto Prides.
The event is organized by Pride Toronto, a non-profit organization. A growing complement of fourteen staff support the work of 22 festival teams; each team is responsible for an aspect of the festival. Each team was formerly administered by two or three volunteer team leads; in 2019, the decision was made to strip that down to one lead per team in favour of a staff-centered approach. The long-term vision for, and strategic oversight of, the organization and the festival is intended to be managed by 12 volunteers on the board of directors. As of March 2020, the board consists of six members.
The first parade occurred in June 1981. For most of its history, Pride was a seven-to-ten day festival centred on the final week in June, with the parade falling on either the last weekend in June or the first weekend in July depending on the year's circumstances. Since 2016, the entire month of June has been declared Pride month, with a program of events throughout the month leading up to the parade.
Due to the impact of the
COVID-19 pandemic in Canada
The COVID-19 pandemic in Canada is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (). It is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). Most cases over the course of the pandemic have been in Ontario, Que ...
, the organization's in-person Pride festivities for 2020 and 2021including the
Trans March
Annual marches, protests or gatherings take place around the world for transgender issues, often taking place during the time of local Pride parades for LGBT people. These events are frequently organized by trans communities to build community, ad ...
, the
Dyke March
A dyke march is a lesbian visibility and protest march, much like the original Gay Pride parades and gay rights demonstrations. The main purpose of a dyke march is the encouragement of activism within the lesbian community. Dyke marches c ...
and the
Pride parade
A pride parade (also known as pride march, pride event, or pride festival) is an outdoor event celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer culture, queer (LGBTQ) social and self-acceptance, achievements, LGBT rights by country o ...
were cancelled. Virtual Pride Month festivities and an online "parade" took place in both years.
The organization's most recent executive director, serving from 2017 to 2020, was Olivia Nuamah. She was appointed in February 2017 to succeed
Mathieu Chantelois
Mathieu Chantelois (born July 4, 1973) is a Canadian television personality, journalist, magazine editor, and marketing executive.
Early life and education
Mathieu Chantelois was born and raised in Mascouche, a suburb just outside Montreal, Q ...
, who led the organization from 2015 to 2016.
Festival overview
Main events of Pride Toronto's festival include the Trans March, the
Dyke March
A dyke march is a lesbian visibility and protest march, much like the original Gay Pride parades and gay rights demonstrations. The main purpose of a dyke march is the encouragement of activism within the lesbian community. Dyke marches c ...
and the
Pride parade
A pride parade (also known as pride march, pride event, or pride festival) is an outdoor event celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer culture, queer (LGBTQ) social and self-acceptance, achievements, LGBT rights by country o ...
. Although a definitive count of attendees cannot be determined, estimates in recent years have ranged from 500,000 to over one million for the week, and about 100,000 for the parade itself. The festival is often touted as being one of the largest cultural festivals in North America and the 22 city blocks that make up the festival site is closed to vehicular traffic.
History
Toronto's Pride Week evolved out of the mass protests that followed the
1981 Toronto bathhouse raids
Operation Soap was a raid by the Metropolitan Toronto Police against four gay bathhouses in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, which took place on February 5, 1981. Just less than three hundred men were arrested, the largest mass arrest in Canada since the ...
, and celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2005. In the 2005 parade, newly appointed Toronto police chief
Bill Blair became the first chief of police in the city's history to personally take part in the parade. He marched alongside politicians of all parties, including several federal and provincial cabinet ministers and Mayor
David Miller.
A theme is selected for each Pride festival that reflects the current context of the queer community and helps shape the festivities. Previous themes included "Fearless" (2006), "Unstoppable!" (2007), "Unified" (2008), "Can't Stop. Won't Stop." (2009), "+" (2017).
World Pride 2014
At the 28th annual conference of
InterPride
InterPride is the international organization that brings together Pride organizers from across the World to network, share knowledge, and maximize impact. To this end, Pride organizers design InterPride’s structure, programs, and initiatives, to ...
, held in October 2009 in
St. Petersburg, Florida
St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 258,308, making it the fifth-most populous city in Florida and the second-largest city in the Tampa Bay Area, after Tampa. It is the ...
, the InterPride membership voted to accept the bid of Pride Toronto to host WorldPride 2014 for the first time in
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
. In the first round of voting, Toronto won 77 votes compared to Stockholm's 61. In the second and final round of voting
Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
was eliminated and Toronto won 78% of the vote, fulfilling the 2/3 majority needed to finalize the selection process. WorldPride 2014 in Toronto included an opening ceremony with concerts at
Nathan Phillips Square
Nathan Phillips Square is an urban plaza in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It forms the forecourt to Toronto City Hall, or ''New City Hall'', at the intersection of Queen Street West and Bay Street, and is named for Nathan Phillips, mayor of Toro ...
; an international human rights conference; a variety of networking and social events including
Canada Day
Canada Day (french: Fête du Canada), formerly known as Dominion Day (french: Fête du Dominion), is the national day of Canada. A federal statutory holiday, it celebrates the anniversary of Canadian Confederation which occurred on July 1, 18 ...
and
Independence Day
An independence day is an annual event commemorating the anniversary of a nation's independence or statehood, usually after ceasing to be a group or part of another nation or state, or more rarely after the end of a military occupation. Man ...
celebrations, and an exhibition commemorating the 45th anniversary of the
Stonewall Riots
The Stonewall riots (also known as the Stonewall uprising, Stonewall rebellion, or simply Stonewall) were a series of spontaneous protests by members of the gay community in response to a police raid that began in the early morning hours of Ju ...
.
Pride Toronto officials said that Pride Week 2009 drew an estimated one million people to Toronto and contributed C$136 million to the city's economy, and state that they expect WorldPride to be significantly bigger. The actual numbers turned out to be closer to 2 million visitors. Economic impact was first reported at $286 million in 2014 and later updated to $719 million.
Controversies
Commercialization and marginalization
Toronto Pride Week has not been without controversy, as the growth of the event in recent years has led to allegations that it has become an overly commercial enterprise dependent on corporate sponsors and business interests, to the detriment of local community groups and political activism. Although Pride officially defines itself as inclusive of all races, communities and gender identifications, many such groups within the LGBT community have alleged that their events and communities and issues are increasingly marginalized in favour of a commercialized agenda. For example, many smaller community groups have indicated that they can no longer afford the increased fees required to place a marching contingent in the parade, which is increasingly dominated by corporate-sponsored advertising floats; and many LGBTQ-owned small businesses which historically depended on vendor booths at Pride Toronto for publicity have indicated that they can no longer afford the increased fees for inclusion in the vendor area.
As early as 2010 the Blackness Yes! committee, which organizes an annual dance party called Blockorama for LGBTQ people of colour, was raising the alarm that their program was being involuntarily forced to move from its traditional space, the Wellesley Stage across from
Wellesley subway station, to unsuitable spaces such as the smaller parking lot in front of the Church Street
Beer Store
Brewers Retail Inc., doing business as The Beer Store, is a privately-owned chain of retail outlets selling beer and other malt beverages in the province of Ontario, Canada.
Founded in 1927, it was owned at its inception by a consortium of Ont ...
, the unpaved and unsuitable-for-dancing George Hislop Park, or the far too small Alexander Street Parkette. An appropriate space for Blockorama became one of the nine demands highlighted by
Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police bruta ...
in the 2016 incident discussed below.
In 2015, Pride Toronto was forced to withdraw applications to trademark the phrases "Dyke March" and "Trans Pride", both referring to events which are organized by outside groups on Pride weekend as a ''reaction'' to lesbian and transgender people's concerns that their issues and needs are not adequately addressed by Pride.
Queers Against Israeli Apartheid
In 2010 there was a controversy over Pride Toronto's decisions regarding the participation of the group,
Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA). Initially, Pride Toronto agreed not to allow the phrase "Israeli Apartheid" as part of a deal with the City of Toronto (which had suggested that funding would be reviewed if the group was included). However, Pride Toronto subsequently reversed that decision June 23 (after it had received the funds from the city), allowing the group to participate. Several Pro-Israel groups also attended the event.
Pride Week's decision to reverse the ban on QuAIA after it had received funding from the city (which was done on the condition that QuAIA not be allowed to participate) drew sharp criticism from several sources.
Rob Ford
Robert Bruce Ford (May 28, 1969 – March 22, 2016) was a Canadian politician and businessman who served as the 64th mayor of Toronto from 2010 to 2014. Before and after his term as mayor, Ford was a city councillor representing Ward 2 Etobi ...
, who was then a mayoral candidate (he was subsequently elected several months later), stated that: "I want to express my disappointment and disgust with Pride Toronto's decision to allow this hateful group to march." Giorgio Mammoliti, who was also running for mayor, announced that he would introduce a motion at the city council demanding that Pride return the $250,000 it had received from the city to reject all of Pride's future funding requests. In an editorial, the ''
National Post
The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...
'' called for both the City of Toronto and corporate sponsors to halt all funding to Pride Week, arguing that: "Anti-Israel bigots are free to have their own parade – but not on the public dime. The City of Toronto, whose councilors already have explicitly denounced QuAIA’s “apartheid” propaganda, should prepare to cut funding. Corporate sponsors should do likewise."
In March 2011, Toronto Mayor
Rob Ford
Robert Bruce Ford (May 28, 1969 – March 22, 2016) was a Canadian politician and businessman who served as the 64th mayor of Toronto from 2010 to 2014. Before and after his term as mayor, Ford was a city councillor representing Ward 2 Etobi ...
has said that he will not allow city funding for the 2011 Toronto Pride Parade if organizers allow QuAIA march again this year. “Taxpayers dollars should not go toward funding hate speech,” Ford said. However, on April 13, 2011, the non-partisan Toronto city manager released a report for the city council's executive committee concluding that "the participation of QUAIA in the Pride Parade based solely on the phrase 'Israeli Apartheid' does not violate the City’s Anti-Discrimination Policy. The City also cannot therefore conclude that the use of term on signs or banners to identify QuAIA constitutes the promotion of hatred or seeks to incite discrimination contrary to the Code." Ford indicated that he plans to defund the parade regardless of the City Manager report. On April 15, 2011, QuAIA announced that it would withdraw from the 2011 Pride parade; however, councillor
Giorgio Mammoliti
Giorgio Mammoliti ( , ; born George Mammoliti on September 20, 1961) is a former Canadian politician who represented Ward 7 York West on the Toronto City Council from 2000 to 2018. He ran for mayor of Toronto in 2010. Mammoliti previously repre ...
responded that he would still introduce a motion to withdraw city funding from Pride Toronto if the committee did not explicitly ban the group from participating.
In June 2012, the Toronto city council voted to condemn the phrase "Israeli apartheid," as part of a resolution recognizing the Pride parade as a “significant cultural event that strongly promotes the ideals of tolerance and diversity.” The resolution said it slams the term "Israeli apartheid" for undermining the values of Pride and diminishing “the suffering experienced by individuals during the apartheid regime in South Africa.”
Black Lives Matter
At the 2016 parade, the Toronto chapter of
Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police bruta ...
, who had been selected by Pride as the honoured group, interrupted the parade for approximately half an hour to call attention to a number of demands addressing
racism
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...
in the LGBTQ community. The demands included Pride providing stable funding and space to events for LGBTQ people of colour such as Blockorama, Black Queer Youth and the South Asian stage,
["Black Lives Matter protests at Toronto Pride Parade"]
''BlogTO'', July 3, 2016. which had seen funding cuts and repeated relocation to less convenient or suitable venues in recent years, as well as increasing diversity in the hiring of the organization's staff and board — however, media coverage focused primarily on one explosive demand: that
Toronto Police
The Toronto Police Service (TPS) is a municipal police force in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and the primary agency responsible for providing law enforcement and policing services in Toronto. Established in 1834, it was the first local police ser ...
officers be barred from participating in Pride while in uniform, in response to ongoing police harassment of people of colour and
transgender
A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...
people.
[
Executive director ]Mathieu Chantelois
Mathieu Chantelois (born July 4, 1973) is a Canadian television personality, journalist, magazine editor, and marketing executive.
Early life and education
Mathieu Chantelois was born and raised in Mascouche, a suburb just outside Montreal, Q ...
signed BLM's statement of demand, but later asserted that he had signed it only to end the sit-in and get the parade moving, and had not agreed to honour the demands. Following criticism of his handling of the incident, he resigned as executive director of Pride approximately six weeks later on August 11.
Debate over the action focused primarily on the question of whether banning uniformed police from the parade represented an abdication of the organization's stated values of diversity
Diversity, diversify, or diverse may refer to:
Business
*Diversity (business), the inclusion of people of different identities (ethnicity, gender, age) in the workforce
*Diversity marketing, marketing communication targeting diverse customers
* ...
and inclusivity, largely without regard to the matter of whether not honouring the demand, thereby alienating racialized and transgender members of the community, would also be an abdication of those same values. Some media analysts claimed that BLM was an outside group with no connection to LGBTQ issues at all, and thus should not have been invited to participate in the first place, even though the all of the demands related directly to Pride's handling of transgender and racial issues, and BLM leaders Janaya Khan and Syrus Marcus Ware
Syrus Marcus Ware is a Canadian artist, activist and scholar. He lives and works in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and is an assistant professor in the school of the arts at McMaster University. He has worked since 2014 as faculty and as a designer fo ...
are both queer-identified. Pride staff have reaffirmed on more than one occasion that police were not barred from participating in the parade at all, but were simply being directed not to march in uniform.
At Pride's general meeting in January 2017, the organization's members voted to affirm the motion that police not be permitted to march in uniform. Some opponents of the motion have falsely claimed that the meeting, and the resulting discussion about the police motion, were conducted in secret even though the meeting was scheduled and advertised normally and widely publicized by the media.
Following the meeting, Toronto Police chief Mark Saunders announced that the organization would voluntarily withdraw from any attempt to challenge the Pride membership's vote or participate in the parade.["Mayor John Tory ‘disappointed and frustrated’ after police say they won’t participate in Pride parade"]
''Toronto Star
The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...
'', February 10, 2017. He affirmed, however, that the police service would continue to hold its established annual Pride reception,[ and would raise the ]rainbow flag
A rainbow flag is a multicolored flag consisting of the colors of the rainbow. The designs differ, but many of the colors are based on the spectral colors of the visible light spectrum.
The LGBT flag introduced in 1978 is the most recognized u ...
at Toronto Police Headquarters.
The decision led Toronto City Council
Toronto City Council is the governing body of the municipal government of Toronto, Ontario. Meeting at Toronto City Hall, it comprises 25 city councillors and the mayor of Toronto. The current term began on November 15, 2022.
Structure
The cur ...
to debate withdrawing its Pride funding for 2017. The motion to withdraw funding, put forward by councillor John Campbell, failed on a vote of 27-17. A small group of Toronto residents organized a competing event with the theme of "first responder
A first responder is a person with specialized training who is among the first to arrive and provide assistance or incident resolution at the scene of an emergency, such as an accident, disaster, medical emergency, structure fire, crime, or terr ...
unity", which was scheduled for the same time as the main Pride parade but was located in another part of downtown Toronto. The First Responder Unity event made unauthorized use of Pride's logo on its website, as well as making deceptive marketing claims in an apparent attempt to portray itself as the "real" Pride event, calling itself one of the world's largest LGBTQ events and claiming a million attendees — Pride's usual attendance figures — months before the Unity event's actual attendance figures could possibly even be predicted. On June 19, however, Saunders publicly indicated that Toronto Police officers who wished to attend that event were also not permitted to do so in uniform.
In October 2018, Pride Toronto made the announcement that Toronto Police have been granted permission to march in the 2019 Pride parade. However, three months later Pride Toronto members reversed that position when they voted 163-161 to not allow uniformed officers in the 2019 parade.
Departure of Olivia Nuamah
In January 2020, Pride Toronto announced that Olivia Nuamah was no longer its executive director, as of January 15. Despite concerns from the organization's membership about the timing of her departure just months before the 2020 event, the board declined to clarify the reasons for her departure or even whether she had resigned or had been fired.
COVID-19 pandemic
It was announced on March 31, 2020, that Toronto's in-person Pride parade and festivities, originally scheduled for June 26 to 28, 2020, had been cancelled, as mandated by the City of Toronto's prohibition on city-led mass events, parades and festivities until at least June 30, 2020, owing to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada
The COVID-19 pandemic in Canada is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (). It is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). Most cases over the course of the pandemic have been in Ontario, Que ...
, although virtual Pride Month festivities and an online "parade" hosted by comedian Brandon Ash-Mohammed
Brandon Ash-Mohammed is a Canadian stand-up comedian, whose debut comedy album ''Capricornication'' was released in 2020.
A Black Canadian of Trinidadian heritage, he is an alumnus of the comedy school at Humber College. He also has some Muslim an ...
took place in June on the Pride Toronto website.
It was announced on February 24, 2021, that given the ban on city-led and permitted events had been extended through to June 30, 2021, the in-person Pride parade and other Pride-related festivities originally scheduled for June 25 to 27, 2021, would be cancelled. The event was again staged virtually and was hosted by ''Canada's Drag Race
''Canada's Drag Race'' is a Canadian reality competition television series based on the American series ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' and is the Canadian edition of the ''Drag Race'' franchise, produced by Blue Ant Studios. In a similar format to th ...
'' season 1 winner Priyanka
''Priyanka'' is a popular female given name in Hindu and Buddhist cultures. It is a name derived from the Sanskrit word 'Priyankera' or 'Priyankara', meaning someone or something that is amiable, lovable, or makes you happy and the one who has lov ...
, with performers including Allie X
Alexandra Ashley Hughes (born 31 July 1985), known by her stage name Allie X, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and visual artist. She began her career as an indie pop artist in Toronto in the mid-2000s, playing with local bands and writing and ...
, iskwē
iskwē (Cree syllabics: , formerly transliterated IsKwé) (short for waseskwan iskwew, meaning "blue sky woman" in English) (born Meghan Meisters, 1981) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and activist.
Personal life
Originally from Winnipeg, M ...
and Gary Beals
Gary Beals (born October 25, 1982) is a Canadian singer who is best known for being runner up in the first season of the reality television series '' Canadian Idol''. He is a resident of Cherry Brook, Nova Scotia and named "Best Halifamous Per ...
. Despite the lack of an official Pride celebration, some small-scale Pride events did take place, including a Dyke March and a No Pride in Policing rally.
Financial difficulties
2009
On June 15, 2009, before the 2009 Pride Week festival, it was announced through the office of then Minister of State Diane Ablonczy
Diane Ablonczy (née Broadway; ; born May 6, 1949) is a former Canadian Member of Parliament who served in the House of Commons of Canada. Ablonczy represented Calgary ridings from 1993 to 2015, sitting first with the Reform Party of Canada, ...
that Pride Toronto would receive a $400,000 federal grant under the Marquee Tourism program. Shortly after this announcement, Charles McVety's Institute for Canadian Values issued a public statement titled "Conservatives Announce New Program to Fund Sex Parades," which condemned Stephen Harper's Conservative government for granting Pride Toronto the award and conflated the festival with sex abuse against children. It was later revealed that the Conservative government stripped Ablonczy of responsibility for the Marquee Tourism program within days of the announced funding for Pride Week, with the Institute for Canadian Values statement and the ensuing uproar reportedly playing a role.David Akin
David Akin is a Canadian reporter, currently the chief political correspondent for Global News.
Akin's career began in 1993 with ''The Packet and Times'' in Orillia, Ontario, as the paper's city hall reporter. In 1995, he moved to ''The Chronic ...
Tourism Minister loses funding program after grant to gay pride week
. Canwest News Service
Postmedia Network Canada Corp. (also known as Postmedia Network, Postmedia News or Postmedia) is a Canadian media conglomerate consisting of the publishing properties of the former Canwest, with primary operations in newspaper publishing, news ...
, July 7, 2009 Conservative MP Brad Trost
Bradley Ryan Trost (born May 15, 1974) is a former Canadian politician who served as a Conservative Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of Canada, representing the ridings of Saskatoon—Humboldt from 2004 to 2015 and Saskatoon—Unive ...
was quoted as saying, "The pro-life and pro-family community should know and understand that the tourism funding money that went to the gay pride parade in Toronto was not government policy."
May 2010
In May 2010 it was revealed that Pride Toronto would not receive further federal funding under the Marquee Tourism program,[Paul Moloney and Vanessa Lu]
Decision to nix Pride funding a ‘slap in the face’
''Toronto Star
The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...
'', May 8, 2010 despite having received a favorable review for its grant application. Toronto City Councilor Kyle Rae
Kyle Rae (born January 23, 1954) is a Canadian consultant and former politician. Rae was a member of Toronto City Council from 1991 to 2010, representing Ward 6 in the old city from 1991 to 1997 and Ward 27 Toronto Centre-Rosedale following the ...
commented on the announcement, saying "Reading the political tea leaves from last year, and Diane Ablonczy being shoved aside, I think all of us saw that this was going to happen."
July 2010
In the late summer of 2010 it was reported that Pride Toronto was facing severe financial difficulties because of the withdrawal of future funding from corporations and the City of Toronto due to the decision to allow QuAIA(Queers Against Israel Apartheid) to participate in the parade. Pride Toronto executive director Tracey Sandilands stated in an interview that "the fact that we might not be able to count on city funding next year, and existing sponsors who have given us notice in writing to say that unless we resolve the issues to their satisfaction, they will no longer be sponsoring us next year. So next year looks very bleak at this point.”
Audited financial statements released on January 25, 2011, indicated that Pride week had a $431,808 operating deficit for 2009/2010 (ending July 31, 2010), up from $138,605 in 2008/2009. Pride Week's bank indebtedness had increased significantly, from a surplus of $219,296 in 2009 to a deficit of $155,232 in 2010. In the 2009/2010 financial year, sponsorships, which were identified as the primary source of financial difficulties, increased by 17% over 2009 (from $1,225,044 to $1,469,027). However, the total value of the grants Pride Week received declined from $971,800 in 2009 to $709,025 in 2010.
Awards
The Pride Week event received the Top Choice Award for Top Event of the year 2007/2008.Top Choice Awards
/ref>
Honoured groups
Each year, Pride Toronto identifies honoured group(s) that are highlighted for their contributions to 2SLGBTQ+ communities. These have included:
* 2016: Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police bruta ...
– Toronto
* 2017: Rainbow Railroad
Rainbow Railroad is a Canadian charitable organization that helps lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI) individuals escape violence and persecution in their home countries. In the past, they have helped individuals fro ...
* 2019: Women's College Hospital
Women's College Hospital is a teaching hospital in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located at the north end of Hospital Row, a section of University Avenue where several major hospitals are located. It currently functions as an independe ...
Grand marshals
Each year, through a nominations process, Pride Toronto selects one or more grand marshals who will lead the Pride Parade. Past grand marshals include:
* 2014 International Grand Marshal: Anna Rekhviashvili
* 2015 International Grand Marshal: Celina Jaitley
Celina Jaitly (born 24 November 1981) is an Indian actress who mainly appears in Bollywood films. She won the Miss India in 2001 and was the 4th runner-up at Miss Universe 2001. She made her acting debut with the 2003 thriller ''Janasheen''.
E ...
, Pussy Riot
Pussy Riot is a Russian feminist protest and performance art group based in Moscow that became popular for its provocative punk rock music which later turned into a more accessible style. Founded in August 2011, it has had a membership of appr ...
* 2016 International Grand Marshal: Aydian Dowling
* 2016: Vivek Shraya
Vivek Shraya (born February 15, 1981) is a Canadian musician, writer, and visual artist. She currently lives in Calgary, Alberta, where she is an assistant professor in the creative writing program at the University of Calgary. As a trans woman of ...
, Salah Bachir
(, plural , romanized: or Old Arabic ͡sˤaˈloːh, ( or Old Arabic ͡sˤaˈloːtʰin construct state) ), also known as ( fa, نماز) and also spelled , are prayers performed by Muslims. Facing the , the direction of the Kaaba with ...
* 2017: Kent Monkman
Kent Monkman (born 13 November 1965) is a Canadian First Nations artist of Cree ancestry. He is a member of the Fisher River band situated in Manitoba's Interlake Region. He is both a visual as well as performance artist, working in a variety ...
* 2018: Haran Vijayanathan
* 2019: Gigi Gorgeous
Gigi Loren Lazzarato Getty (born Gregory Allan Lazzarato; April 20, 1992), known professionally as Gigi Gorgeous Getty, is a Canadian YouTuber, socialite, actress, and model.
In 2008, Lazzarato began uploading video blogs onto streaming platfo ...
Programs and stages
Pride Toronto hosts multiple programs and stages, including several which occur every year. These include:
* Blockorama
* Fruit Loopz
* Dirty Disco
* Alterna Queer
* brOWN//out
* Yalla Barra
Blockorama
First introduced to Toronto Pride festivities in 1999 by organizers of the Blackness Yes! Committee, Blockorama is an annual event created by and for BIPOC queers. Influenced by the history and politics that have shaped black and Caribbean Canadian communities, the organizers of Blockorama were concerned by the lack of safe BIPOC spaces at Toronto Pride. The event was created as a way for the queer black community to connect, but has grown over the years to include all BIPOC queers who might feel left out of the more dominant Pride events.
Between 2007 and 2010, Blockorama, the only black queer diasporic event at Pride Toronto, was moved three separate times, with each location being further from the main Pride festivities than the last. Although Blockorama has been returned to its original location at the Wellesley stage, this happened as a result of community push-back from Blackness Yes! and Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police bruta ...
Toronto to the uprooting and displacement of the event.
Third-party events
Like many successful Pride events worldwide, the official events are supplemented with non-official events, including the Prism Festival, now in its seventh year and featuring international DJs and all-night dance parties. The Writers' Trust of Canada
The Writers' Trust of Canada (french: La Société d'encouragement aux écrivains du Canada) is a registered charity which provides financial support to Canadian writers.
Founded by Margaret Atwood, Pierre Berton, Graeme Gibson, Margaret Laure ...
formerly presented its annual Dayne Ogilvie Prize
The Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ Emerging Writers is a Canadian literary award, presented annually by the Writers' Trust of Canada to an emerging Canadian writer who is part of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer community. Origina ...
, a literary award for LGBT writers, during Pride Month, although it has since diversified to hold its gala at locations throughout Canada.
See also
* Amy Gottlieb
References
External links
Pride Toronto
{{Pride parades
Parades in Toronto
June events
June observances
Awareness weeks
LGBT culture in Toronto
Pride parades in Canada
1981 establishments in Ontario
Recurring events established in 1981
Annual events in Toronto