Disillusioned with Pride

Another Toronto Pride has come and gone this past weekend. I was on Church street networking with people and taking in a few shows, but I did a few things that I haven't really done before skip the parade and went home early. I realized that increasingly I've been getting disillusioned with Pride.

This isn't to say that I don't believe that Pride isn't important or that we shouldn't be doing it anymore or any jargon about us being in a pomo (post-modern) society. Instead my disillusionment comes from the increasing distance from the roots of Pride that it becomes. Pride started as a very political act in a culture that did not accept LGBTTQI people to the point of criminalization of sexual activity, a sub-equal status in regards to rights and a shaming society it said "we are here, we are queer, get used to it."

Now instead of a political act increasingly Pride is becoming a stagnant excuse to party and for large corporations to attempt to make money. Don't get me wrong for a new queer person who has just come out Pride can be a trans-formative experience where suddenly they are accepted, safe and are surrounded by people like them. Yet, to a certain extent that safety is taken for granted by certain parts of the community.

Pride is not a safe place for everyone despite a belief by some that we have gotten past the need for political acts. Yet tell a queer sex worker or someone with HIV that sexual activity is no longer criminalized, tell trans people or queer migrants that we all have equal rights or, tell someone who went through 'reparative therapy' that people aren't shamed anymore. These are struggles still going on in Canada that need to be addressed. It is easy to look to other countries like the brave queer activists from Iran whom marched in Pride and say that as long as we don't live there, but on the same streets as the parade are people whom have been left behind by the LGBT community. Next time you're at a Pride enjoy the revelry, but remember the struggles still being fought.