Pride in Toronto

Walking around Toronto in late June, one notices how much support for the LGBT community pervades throughout the community. In short, there are pride flags everywhere, and it’s interesting to see where people put them. It’s interesting that almost wherever you go in Toronto, if you ever run into a church or other religious building there’s a good chance that on the church sign will be a rainbow flag or some message that communicates solidarity. This is no doubt curious to Americans because here religious institutions and the LGBT community have butted heads for a long time. Regardless of one’s politics, the prevalence of LGBT-friendly religious institutions in Toronto shows Canadians’ strong sense of community and their distaste for conflict.

As Pride Day approaches, the rainbow flags only increase. So far, my favorite pride flag sighting is this storefront:

Other instances of pride flags include this bike rack and this display at the Scotiabank near the hotel.

On Sunday, a few other students and I went east on Bloor Street to check out the annual Pride Parade. As somebody who doesn’t dig parades too much, I would’ve popped a gasket if I had to spend an hour in the hot sun listening to marching bands. Fortunately, the event was way more fun I anticipated. The main attraction this year was that Trudeau was going to be in it—the first time a Canadian Prime Minister had ever done so.  What surprised me though was that he wasn’t actually the main attraction; it was only in middle of the parade that he made his appearance. What’s more, he was actually marching, not on some vehicle.

Not everybody will agree with me, but I bet if an American politician was ever featured in a pride parade, they would probably get their own float. After all, it seems to me that politicians in the US are almost treated like royalty; one doesn’t have to look beyond their campaign donations and large salaries for proof. On the contrary, I’ve heard from numerous Canadians here that their politicians don’t get the same treatment, as Trudeau supposedly takes public transit to work, just like everybody else.

Back to the parade: As I said, it was a pretty fun event. Lots of music, dancing, and, uh, interesting costumes.

It was also curious to see how racial and ethnic minorities partook in the parade. During the hour I spent there, I saw appearances by groups that represented LGBT Hispanics and LGBT Muslims, the latter of which was especially curious, since Islam is not usually portrayed as having tolerant views of those in the LGBT community. Lastly, one of the most interesting floats I saw that day was the Black Lives Matter float, which saluted the lives of black community activists. This was surprising because normally you think of BLM and the LGBT rights movement as two different things, besides those few individuals who are Black LGBT activists. Regardless of what one thinks about these movements (since they're still relatively controversial), it's admirable that Toronto has a culture where disparate groups are willing to support each other and join forces, even if they're fighting for different goals.