I remember one that started at the CHAT (Community Homophile Association of Toronto) Centre on Church Street, where I spoke for the Young Socialists, the left group I was then in and another than started in Allan Gardens.
In 1971 a picnic and celebration was held at Hanlan’s Point on the Toronto Islands and in 1972, 1973, and 1974 rallies and marches were held. To begin with Pride rallies and marches did not start in Toronto in 1981 but were held in Toronto in the 1970s. White character of these historical sketches Indigenous and racialized activists are needed to contest and transform the too
In particular, the voices and experiences of Black, Provide in these notes is partial and limited, but I hope others will use it asĪ resource to build upon. Pride Toronto itself, as it has been transformed from the movement andĬommunity-based committee which organized the 1981 festival and march. We need to resist the forgetting of the radicalĪnd activist roots of Pride in Toronto, including that done through the work of Recover the radical (as in getting to the root of the problem) history of Pride There is an attempt to sanitize Pride Day in 1981 and what I do here is to Gathered in the park and hundreds took to the streets to celebrate Pride and The event gets translated as a time to simply “relax and celebrate” and not anyĪctual description of what took place that year when more than 1,500 people Thirdly, theĮxpression “an afternoon of fun and frolic” as part of the text on a poster for Group for many years without any need for incorporation. This did not actually happen until much later? The Pride Committee remained a community-based Secondly, why is being legally incorporated so important to note, especially when Firstly, the police were active agents behind organizing the bath raids. This sets up a major contradiction or ruptureįor me since I was there, and this is not at all how I remember what took Near theĮnd of a politically charged year, the day was billed as a time to relax and People celebrated Pride Day on Sunday, June 28th, 1981 at Grange Park. Later in the year, ‘Lesbian and Gay Prideĭay Toronto’, now Pride Toronto, was legally incorporated and an estimated 1,500 I contrast this with what Pride Toronto writes in 2021Ĭommemorating the 40 th anniversary where they state, with no clearīathhouse raids, which took place in 1981 – 40 years ago – generated a string Police refused to give us a permit to march on Yonge Street, but we organized andĭid so anyway! I had signed this permit with the police that also did not Wanted it to be what would now be called a ‘family friendly event.’ But the
Out of town, with getting and signing a police permit for the event since people Happened without the mass resistance to the police and the bath raids.Ĭo-ordinating marshal for the Pride March I was tasked at a meeting, when I was “Fuck You 52!” was very popular that year, along with “Enough isĮnough!” and “No More Shit!” Pride day that year and this march would not have This was against the mass bath raidsĬarried out by the police, since 52 Division was where these raids wereĬo-ordinated. To 800 people stopped and chanted “Fuck You 52!” outside 52 Division of the The high point for me that day was when close I was actively involved in organizing with the LesbianĪnd Gay Pride Day Committee in 1981 and was the co-ordinating marshal for the June The Pride Toronto theme this year is: “40 years of Of Pride festivals and marches in Toronto at the end of June in 1981,Ĭoinciding with the anniversary of the Stonewall rebellion against police ‘Canada’ is based on racism, settlerĢ021 is the 40 th anniversary of the start The days after the graves of 215 Indigenous children were uncovered at theįormer Kamloops Indian Residential (Death Camp) School in BC. I am writing this on Indigenous land in.