Pride parade Toronto

The city's first Pride parade came at a strange moment. In 1972, the notion of gay people appearing unashamedly in public was unthinkable to many.

As Andrew Solomon wrote of the first New York gay parade, “it was a means to defy the belief that homosexuality was a sin, an illness and a crime, that gay people were subhuman.” He was perfectly polite, but when he handed over the signed form, he said, “So you’re really gonna march down the street saying you’re ‘that way’?” To him and so many others in 1972, the notion of gay people appearing unashamedly in public was unthinkable. I left The Body Politic collective that fall to pursue a career in book publishing in Toronto and New York. We hope so.” An editorial in the same issue made a plea for unity, urging that The Body Politic, CHAT and TGA “remain united in their stance for basic civil liberties for all gays.” Then we followed a police car down to the Immigration Building on University Avenue to rally for changes in the federal Immigration Act. Jearld Moldenhauer spoke on behalf of The Body Politic, while George Hislop and lawyer Peter Maloney made addresses for CHAT – with no one mentioning the week’s divisive controversy. The calumny that gay men were a danger to children was something the homophile movement had been fighting for years. The letters appeared on Saturday, Aug. 26 – the day of the first Gay Pride March. Despite the bad press, it was an enthusiastic group of about 200 that picked up placards and banners outside the CHAT Centre that afternoon. He had telephoned CHAT and been assured that The Body Politic was a separate organization, but clearly the public-money-supporting-pedophilia gambit was too good to pass up for him. I made a panicked call to Jearld Moldenhauer, the founder of The Body Politic and unofficial leader of the city’s young gay radicals. He had asked for a limo to take him, Naturale, Eden and the hostages to Kennedy Airport. His plan was to board a plane for Denmark where he thought Eden could have her surgery. He also said of The Globe, “Well, at least they’re noticing us.” Until then, the mainstream media had studiously ignored gay liberation – in fact, The Globe and The Toronto Star refused to even use the term “gay.” When the time came for Wandel and me to leave for the CHAT Centre that evening, the hostage drama was still continuing.

This is a clipping, from the alternative newspaper Guerilla, documenting the picnic. It had about 200 to 300 attendees from all over Southern Ontario. The ...

Activism played a large role in pride events of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. The Toronto City Council did not officially recognize Pride Day until 1991. They began in the early 1970s as a picnic and a form of protest on the Toronto islands with only a few hundred attendees. Here’s the itinerary of the 1974 Gay Pride Week. A poster of the 1973 Gay Pride Week in Toronto. It had about 200 to 300 attendees from all over Southern Ontario.

From searching for community, to finding and helping build it, Marisa Rosa Grant was chosen as this year's BIPOC Pride Ambassador for Pride Toronto. The role ...

They said holding space for other queer people is crucial. Grant, who grew up in Brampton, said they came out at the age of 19. It's where we get to lose ourselves. Denise Benson, a DJ and an author, said she has not worked at a dance party since March 2020. Toronto's Pride parade returns for the first time in three years this weekend. "It's where we find ourselves.