A rchive Date
[ 23-10-2005 ]
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[ Canada ]
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[http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Levy_Sue-Ann/2005/06/19/1095165-sun.html
Gay Pride’s Come A Long Way Since ‘81
Now In Its 25th Year, It Started With Kyle Rae, Four Friends and A Small Event To Celebrate Gay Culture
By SUE-ANN LEVY, TORONTO SUN
Sun, June 19, 2005
KYLE RAE was only 26 and unemployed in 1981 when he helped put together the very first Gay Pride event - along with four other "feminist fags."
As he gets set to kick off 25 years of Pride and Pride week with tomorrow's flag-raising ceremony at City Hall, the 51-year-old councillor - now married to his same-sex partner - will be the first to admit they've come a long way in a short time.
Where they once had to fear beatings or even jail, Toronto's gay and lesbian community now has an "audience" of hundreds of thousands of people who join in the celebrations at the featured event of Gay Pride week - next Sunday's parade.
The very first event came just months after four downtown steambaths were raided by 100 police officers and 273 men were arrested on bawdy house charges.
"The public was outraged at what was perceived to be private space, people having (consensual) sex behind closed doors," remembers Rae, noting that following the raids demonstrations were held nearly every weekend.
Eventually, a group called Gays and Lesbians Against the Right Everywhere (GLARE) - concerned with a right-wing agenda that brought Anita Bryant and Rev. Jerry Falwell up to Toronto to speak - decided they should be "celebrating the community" instead of protesting.
The "feminist fags" - ultra-leftists - put the event together in five weeks' time at Grange Park, Rae recalls. A group of 1,000 turned up to the event, which included displays, a picnic, singers belting out "labour songs" (of course!) and a short march from the park along Queen St. and up Yonge St.
"It was pretty tentative ... most of the events we tended to do on the (Toronto) Islands where we could be anonymous. We thought we were going into a pretty dangerous situation."
The more outlandish participants - men in leather, drag queens, etc. - didn't start to appear until they moved to Church St. in 1984. "It was our neighbourhood and it was safer," says Rae.
Even finding a company to supply the beer was tough in 1985. Now the big companies "fight over us," he says.
Things really started to explode with Pride in 1986, following amendments to the Ontario Human Rights Code which prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
"That gave the signal to people that the community could be celebrated," Rae says. Attendance at the parade jumped to 12,000 in 1986 and 20,000 the next year.
By the mid-1990s, it blossomed into a week-long event which became "more programmed and more theatrical." While some don't like the commercialization and the crowds, Rae thinks it's encouraged many different cultures to join or attend the parade.
$1-MILLION BUDGET
In 1981, they did it with $4,000 donated from other community groups. Today, Pride operates on more than a $1-million budget (almost entirely from corporate sponsors) and brings in about $80 million in direct and indirect sales to the city. (For the first time in 20 years, Pride got a $100,000 city grant this year to make up for a drop in corporate support.)
Since Ontario's Court of Appeal legalized same-sex marriages two years ago, some 2,418 same-sex marriage licenses have been issued at City Hall - 1,104 to females and 1,404 to males. Some 910 of the licenses were to couples from the U.S. and 102 to people from outside North America. Already this week, at least 15 same-sex weddings are booked at City Hall.
Bruce MacMillan, president and CEO of Tourism Toronto, says for the first time this year they've used some of their $24-million in destination marketing fees to place ads in key gay magazines in the U.S.
"We talk about (Toronto as) a city with lots of opportunites for gay couples and gay singles," MacMillan says, noting next year they plan a more intense campaign with the province and the Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.
Rae estimates at least 1 million people will attend or participate in this year's Pride parade.
"This is seen to be one of the biggest in North America (behind New York)," he says. "We're bigger than San Francisco and we are considered to be one of the most open places in the world."
You can call Sue-Ann Levy at (416) 947-2393 or e-mail at sue-ann.levy@tor.sunpub.com
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