Conservatives, anti
gay sentiment colour
this year's pride
parade
Arin Atac, The
Canadian Press, June 24, 2006
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CREDIT: AP Photo/Andre Penner
Thousands
of participants carrying a rainbow flag march during the 10th annual
Gay Pride Parade in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Saturday, June 17, 2006. |
TORONTO, June 23 --
Leather-clad dancers and drag queens in full bloom will march to the beat of
their own drum Sunday, even if the federal Conservatives are trying to call the
tune.
Participants in Toronto's gay pride parade also hope to fire a warning shot
across the bow of a government many of them consider a threat to their way of
life.
With several recent examples of what critics describe as blatant homophobia
still fresh in the minds of many, this year's parade will be part party, part
protest, said Kyle Rae, a Toronto city councillor and one of the parade's
co-founders.
"Each year it sort of fluctuates between a parade and a political statement,''
Rae said in an interview.
"Some years, when equality rights were being fought out at the province or at
the federal government, the parade was more defiant than it was celebratory.''
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative government, which has pledged to
hold a free vote on same-sex marriage in the fall, has given many in Canada's
gay community pause, and given negative attitudes towards gays and lesbians a
chance to flourish, said Rae.
"I think the message from the Prime Minister about reviewing marriage has given
homophobes a feeling of power,'' he said. "I think it gives them
license.''
During a week that was supposed to be about diversity and acceptance, the gay
community has instead experienced a number of incidents of anti-gay sentiment
that threatened to colour the celebrations.
Last weekend in Hamilton, that city's local gay pride parade was marred by an
angry confrontation with a group of youth who cursed and spat at the
participants.
On Monday, protesters gathered at Ryerson University to register their disdain
as noted ethicist Margaret Somerville, who has come under fire in recent weeks
for her opposition to gay marriage, was given an honourary degree.
And on Tuesday, former Iraq hostage James Loney, who is gay, alleged that a
church camp where he worked had been shut down because of concerns expressed by
the organizer that the camp was promoting a homosexual lifestyle.
The gay pride movement has made remarkable strides over the last decade and
society at large has made plenty of room for gays and lesbians, Loney said in an
interview. But the ugly head of homophobia has never really gone away.
"Homophobia is still a very powerful force in our society,'' Loney admitted.
"I think the tide has turned, and there is this space now in society that wasn't
there even five or certainly 10 years ago. I don't think the clock can be
turned back, but we still have work to do.''
Loney said he believes the current Conservative government is encouraging a less
tolerant attitude towards homosexuality.
"I think Stephen Harper's intention to reopen the same-sex marriage debate is
providing a forum for people to express what I think is a kind of intolerance
and a very narrow view,'' he said.
"I think it's a step backward.''
Rae said the level of public intolerance always seems to fluctuate depending on
what the provincial or federal government of the day is doing.
"When the province was refusing to give us our equality rights in 1994, the
bashing went up. When there was the police action against the gay
community, the bashings went up. Because they saw the state doing it,
people thought they could do it too.''
The genesis of the gay pride movement came in 1969 at the Stonewall Inn in New
York City, where a three-day riot erupted in response to a series of police
raids on gay bathhouses.
Later that same year, the Liberal government decriminalized homosexual acts,
with former prime minister Pierre Trudeau famously declaring that "the state has
no place in the bedrooms of the nation.''
Canada's version of Stonewall came in February 1981 when 300 gay Canadian men
were arrested in a major bathhouse raid, creating an uprising that inspired the
annual celebration.
Today, the Toronto parade has grown into one of North America's largest;
hundreds of thousands of participants and spectators are expected to pour into
the city's downtown core on Sunday.
"I think (it's) been a focal point for building a sense of queer identity that's
positive and a focal point for people to come together and to be seen and to
break the yolk of silence,'' Loney said.
David Rayside, a politics professor and director of the Centre for Sexual
Diversity at the University of Toronto, said the incidents of homophobia are
unfortunate but not surprising, and shouldn't mar Sunday's celebrations.
"There's always been a segment of Canadian society that is very opposed to any
kind of expression of sexual difference or very uncomfortable or fearful of
it,'' Rayside said.
"There's always the possibility that there's going to be some group that's going
to express its dissent vocally, and they have a right to do that. But it's
very much a minority phenomenon.''
Pride Toronto co-chairman David Anderson said he's not concerned about the
recent incidents, and that he's confident the number of people who are tolerant
and accepting of the gay community grows with each passing year.
"They get to know us better, they get to understand that we are full members of
society participating (in) and happy to be part of this wonderful Canadian
society that we've constructed,'' he said.
"Each year this momentum just continues to build.''
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