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Queer reception

Rob Ford did not attend the rally against homophobia at City Hall’s rotunda Monday evening, May 16, but if he was anywhere near the building he would have heard a very loud and very clear message: don’t cut funding to Pride Toronto.

The non-profit group that stages Pride Week every year receives about a quarter of its budget from the city.

The very real possibility that Ford allies will cut its funding at a May 24 Executive Committee meeting has sent a chill through the network of groups that provide support services to the queer community.

The fear is that if a lucrative, high-profile event like Pride is on the chopping block, then nothing Toronto’s queer community holds dear is untouchable for this administration.

“Let me be very clear about this,” Pride Toronto co-chair Francisco Alvarez told the hundreds of supporters gathered at City Hall. “If the city does not provide support this year, it’s almost certain that Toronto will lose the opportunity to host World Pride in 2014, and it is certain that Pride Toronto will become insolvent and shut its doors forever.”

To Doug Elliott, a lawyer and queer activist who grew up in Toronto 40 years ago when homosexuality could easily land you behind bars, gutting funding for Pride would be an unconscionable return to the dark ages of intolerance.

“This is nothing but a deliberate attempt to destroy Pride Toronto,” he said in an impassioned speech. “Well, I have news for our enemies. You cannot destroy Pride. We won’t let you.”

For two hours, speaker after speaker took to the podium to declare that Pride is much more than just a parade. It’s a symbol, a flashy, campy, often half-naked beacon declaring to queer youth across the country that they have a home.

Videographer and activist Lali Mohamed said that discovering Pride when he was growing up in isolation in Etobicoke showed him there was a place where he could be himself.

A group of students struggling against the Toronto Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board to create a Gay-Straight Alliance at St. Joseph’s High School took the stage to a standing ovation. They said that marching in this year’s parade was vital to their cause.

“Pride offers us visibility like no other opportunity,” said Irene Miller of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG). “Huge numbers of people come to our booth during Pride Week to talk and ask questions or take our contact information for ‘someone they know.’

“Bullying still happens. Coming out is still hard,” she said. “LGBTQ youth need to see role models. Parents of LGBTQ youth also need to see role models.”

Toronto’s queer advocates are so concerned that funding will be cut for programs like the Hassle Free Clinic, the 519 Community Centre and HIV/AIDS prevention initiatives that they’ve launched Proud of Toronto, a campaign that hopes to head the Ford administration off at the pass by holding rallies like this one.

“There are public consultations going on across the city, and they’re going to look at what is [a core service] and what the city should be funding,” said Doug Kerr of Proud of Toronto. “We’re really concerned that LGBTQ services and HIV/AIDS groups are not going to be considered core services. That’s why we have to do this now.”

Kerr said he had no idea why the city would consider cutting funding to an event that brings in $100 million in tourist revenue every year.

In attendance at the rally were pro-Pride councillors like Kristyn Wong-Tam, Gord Perks, Mike Layton and Adam Vaughan, as well as Ana Bailão.

The motion that will go before the executive next week ostensibly hinges on whether or not Pride will sufficiently conform to the city’s anti-discrimination policies.

Last year’s inclusion of Queers Against Israeli Apartheid led Pride’s opponents to claim that the parade was promoting hate speech against Jews, but that argument has largely been rendered moot by a city staff report that found the term “Israeli apartheid” does not violate anti-discrimination policies and a promise from QuAIA not to march this year.

Still, that might not be enough to dissuade Ford from filing Pride under “gravy” and effectively shutting down the event.

On Tuesday, May 17, a rainbow flag was raised over City Hall to mark the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. Toronto’s LGBTQ groups are hoping it’s more than an empty gesture.

news@nowtoronto.com

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