The origins of Toronto’s Pride movement go back further than the 80s, and though LGBTQ2S+ have fought and won many rights victories, there are still issues that remain outstanding and misunderstood today. Like the shift of Pride festivities to the Gay Village in the early 80s and what that meant for BlPOC. BLM-TO’s 2016 pause of the parade, for example, is nowhere to be found on Pride’s timeline. Pride Toronto has come a long way from the community-based committee that organized the first “Pride” festival and march that marked queer Toronto’s big coming out in 1981.Ī lot has changed, including the version of history offered by the organization on its website as it celebrates 40 years. During Toronto Gay Pride Week in 1972, marchers demonstrated outside the Ontario legislature.
