City councillors and the media celebrated Sunday, June 28 as a great step forward in sexual politics and enlightenment for our nation. As a great mass of gays, lesbians, and people of various other “orientations” marched through the streets of downtown Toronto, dressed in bizarre costumes and flaunting their exotic “lifestyles,” our civic leaders revelled in the fact that this year’s parade has had more corporate sponsorships and apparently less opposition than in previous years.
Pro-family observers also noted the diversity of the organizations and corporations that took part. Levis donated money to an organization that took part in the festivities, and funded a booklet with coarse language and stories on young gays “coming out.” Representatives of Toronto’s public health department were in the parade, offering condoms and sexually-explicit literature “free of charge,” courtesy of Toronto tax-payers. The Metro branch of the Ontario Association of Social Workers took part, and Metro Children’s Aid had a booth set up, complete with applications and recruitment literature targeted at potential gay and lesbian foster parents. The “Affirming Congregations” of the United Church of Canada were represented, as was Toronto’s (Anglican) Church of the Holy Trinity.
Pro-family observers were also disappointed at the number of parents who took their young children to watch the parade.
Mayor Mel Lastman declared before the event he would not march in next year’s parade if he saw nudity. Topless women and bare-bottomed men were in abundance, however, and one young woman stood on her head exposing her genitalia in front of a police officer. She was not arrested, in spite of the complaint of a passerby to the officer in question. Even so, Lastman says he had fun and that he’ll take part next year.
Organizers claim over 750,000 people attended this year’s event. Metro police crowd control estimated the number to be no more than 175,000.
