Dear Readers,
Please watch this video.
And read this: “The City Staff has therefore concluded that the participation of QuAIA in the Pride Parade based solely on the phrase “Israeli Apartheid” does not violate the City’s Anti-Discrimination Policy. The City also cannot therefore conclude that the use of term on signs or banners to identify QuAIA constitutes the promotion of hatred or seeks to incite discrimination contrary to the Code.”
Now let’s talk a little about the Pride funding debate/debacle (a debatacle, so to speak) that’s been going on in our city. Pride Toronto fought hard to make sure they received essential funding for this year’s festival and they got it – sort of.
According to Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti, this funding is being withheld until the end of the festival and is contingent on unofficial assurances that members of QuAIA be ejected from official Pride events should they turn up.
This means that in order to guarantee that this funding goes through, Pride Toronto is being made responsible for policing events on behalf of a cluster of primarily straight politicians and special interest groups, to root out members of an organization whose message and goal are clearly not designed to engender hate, specifically anti-Semitism. These politicians and interest groups have manufactured an atmosphere of panic over a group that advocates for equal rights using language that is utterly relevant to their cause. And now it appears that these politicians and interest groups are still holding Pride hostage despite a city report stating that the phrase “Queers Against Israeli Apartheid” does not constitute hate speech and that the term “apartheid” is used in an array of discussions internationally to describe Israel’s relationship with Palestine. I know.
Ford condemned QuAIA last year, saying, “Taxpayers’ dollars should not be used to fund hate speech.” That is excellent news. I’m sure all the “Orientals who work like dogs,” “the cyclists who are asking to be killed” and everyone who probably won’t get AIDS “because they’re not gay or doing drugs” – all words uttered by the mayor himself – will be thrilled to hear this.
Crazy pills aside, perhaps you are thinking, “There must have been a shitload of money on the line, seeing as how Pride must make the city’s businesses millions of dollars. I mean, I can barely get a bubble tea in my neighbourhood during the festival, everything’s so jammed up. And forget about booking my wax!”
Actually, the amount of city funding is $128,000 plus services in kind – garbage cleanup and cops – amounting to around $250,000. It’s not peanuts, but it pales in comparison to the money injected into the city during the nine-day festival.
QuAIA does not promote hate speech. So, then, why is that org still being held responsible for the fate of Pride’s funding? Why is Pride agreeing to such questionable terms? (Though Pride didn’t sign anything stating outright that it would ban the participation of QuAIA, it does seem the city still has the organizers by the balls). Is this why a bunch of drag queens and dykes stood up to city authorities at Stonewall? So that 42 years later a bunch of civic and social powers could decide the fate of their future community based on a fallacy, fear-mongering and divide-and-conquer tactics? I don’t fucking think so.
I am calling on members of all queer communities to remember what Pride actually means. I am calling on elders to recall what it was like when 31 years ago a group of you walked on Yonge Street from Glad Day Books fearing for your lives so we wouldn’t have to fear for ours.
I am calling on young members to share their energy and enthusiasm and to know the thrill of making an event and not having it grudgingly handed to you with the gnawing prospect that at any moment it will be snatched away.
I call on everyone to remember how hard we have fought for our space and how it is beneath us all to argue our fate with badly informed politicians and special interest groups when we bring so much money and culture and vibrancy to this city. Let us be perfectly clear: Toronto does not give us Pride. We give Pride to Toronto.
So here’s what the fuck I’m going to do:
Are you an out-of-towner planning on coming to town this Pride and spending a load of money on a hotel, restaurant food and such? Or was this possibility prohibitively expensive for you? Please consider my Queen West apartment your home for three nights. I will provide some basic meals, accommodations for two or three, a hot shower (don’t touch my hair products – I will stab you) and an Internet connection. I will also be pleased to be your tour guide to the city’s more independent queer destinations and cultural hot spots.
The cost to you? A donation to any one of this city’s deeply underfunded queer support and/or cultural groups. Pride may be the first thing quivering on the chopping block, but it won’t be the last.
Here’s your opportunity to help the queer community in Toronto establish more leverage we take back our dollars and we take back our power. I may not make much of a difference to the more powerful businesses that profit from Pride (and by the way, where were all of you when the shit hit the fan?), but I don’t need to be alone in this.
I would encourage other queers to open their homes to strangers coming to town as well. Let’s take risks, meet new friends, host vintage lesbian potlucks, run naked through parks, tell our stories by the train tracks and plan our dream retirement communities. We know how to bake, we know how to sew, we know how to sing, we know how to dance, we know how to fuck, and goddamn it, we know how to fight.
For my apartment during Pride, contact me here. I look forward to meeting you and being your hostess!
