It was supposed to be a barbecue with a few supporting visitors, but by the morning of Saturday, September 14, word had spread.
By barbie time, the event in the parking lot of Runnymede Collegiate, conceived as a modest response to anti-gay vandalism in the area, became an all-out, almost-400-strong Pride celebration strewn with the same rainbow flags that had recently been defaced across the street on Jane.
It all started about two and a half years ago. Someone in the west end is troubled by the colourful Pride flags that festoons the home of Sarah Jean Harrison and her partner, Pascal Murphy, both Ryerson faculty, on Jane just south of Dundas.
First a bumper sticker with an exhortation to “Celebrate diversity” was torn from their car’s rear fender. That was just the start of a persistent spate of vandalism. Then two rainbow flags with the word “Peace” in white lettering were torn from their poles and disappeared.
After the flags were returned to their rightful places, they were taken again, and this time the poles were broken. Flying new flags from their second floor at least stopped the targeting of flags, but not the vandalism. The long-running offensive also involved hate graffiti, hurled dog feces and the slashing of their vehicle’s rear tires in late August.
“We’ve decided we’re not going to let hate rule the neighbourhood,” Murphy tells NOW. “We’re passionate allies of the queer community, and we’re standing up to say this is crap and it’s going to end.”
He points out that three other neighbours have reported defaced and missing rainbow paraphernalia. The couple have handed out several rainbow flags in defiance of the vandals.
MPP Cheri DiNovo told Saturday’s gathering that these events mark a particularly ugly moment in an otherwise LGBT-friendly neighbourhood. Twelve years ago, she reminded the crowd, one of Canada’s first legalized gay marriages was performed just blocks away at the Emmanuel-Howard Park United Church where she was pastor.
Ward 13 councillor Sarah Doucette, who also attended, was stunned this had happened in her area. “I couldn’t believe it! Maybe I’m naive,” she told NOW, “but I thought we were living together in, well, almost peace and harmony.”
Still, she was elated by the gathering and the fact that it happened at a high school with the principal’s enthusiastic support. It was he, she says, who got the permit for the affair.
Doucette feels the “Peace” Pride flag hanging in an upstairs school window, signed by students, says everything about how to stem hate. So, too, does the participation of families and children at the barbecue, some draped in capes made from Pride flags.
There’s a reason, say Murphy and Harrison, they fly their flags so prominently across from the school: they were the victims of vandalism, but students are often victims of homophobic bullying.
“How many times is the phrase ‘That’s so gay’ said in a high school?” Murphy asks. “Our hope is that if [gay students] hear that, at least they can look out the window, see the flag and say, ‘There are places that are inclusive for me even if I’m not feeling that right now.'”
While police haven’t announced any leads in their investigation, Saturday’s party, says Doucette, will likely prove the tipping point. “Any time [neighbours] see somebody suspicious, they’re going to be watching now. This event has brought the community together. And that’s what this ward is all about.”
news@nowtoronto.com
