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| Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Marches in Toronto Pride |
Note: The following
blog is part of a series of blogs about Toronto, made possible by ManAboutWorld
Magazine and the Toronto Tourism Board, visit ManAboutWorld.com for a FREE 3 month subscription and download
the app for your Phone or Tablet today, to keep up with all the best news in
LGBT travel from global correspondents, like myself around the world.
Are you looking for a Pride that’s not overwhelming but
includes a variety of parties and events for everyone – also still with the cred to attract top performers? Come to Toronto! From its relaxing
outdoor opening at The 519 to the closing beats at the Treehouse, Toronto has
the best organized, compact (and friendly!) event with some of the coolest venues for Pride anywhere. This year included Ru Paul, of course, Canada’s young (hot?) Prime
Minister (the first national leader to march in Pride), and even Joe Jonas who closed the weekend with an hour-long free
concert - if they're going, wouldn't you?
New York might have the biggest, San Francisco the coolest –
but Toronto has the best all-around event, and it’s bite-sized!
Air arrival
Billed as Canada’s downtown, Toronto doesn’t disappoint – with awesome clubs, bars and restaurants – even a stadium with a retractable roof! Still, this is no concrete jungle – its beautiful parks and tree lined streets keep the skyline green. Architecturally it may not have as much variety to offer (they destroyed what would be a historic city center to make way for progress in the 1960s). But the shiny tall glass buildings with that eclectic CN Tower give this progressive city a futuristic look. My favorite transportation feature is one of the most modern, clean and efficient airport trains, the UP express (that takes you right downtown from Pearson Airport) – Toronto is only rivaled by European trains – and of course there’s wifi at the airport and in the train.
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| Rooftop pool at the Thompson Hotel |
Also, you can fly even more conveniently via Porter into Billy Bishop Airport
and simply ferry and walk to your hotel!
Pride
After daily events all of June – the final Pride weekend
(now cleverly arranged for the first weekend in July, vice the previous busy
Stonewall-anniversary weekend) begins with an open event called Starry Night – with a DJ set
and performances by Drag Queens (led by Kim Chi) as well as a special kick-off with reps from all levels of government in a grassy outdoor area called the Green Space that
surrounds The 519, Toronto’s diverse community center.
Ontario is currently being led by a lesbian Premier, Kathleen Wynne who took
office in 2013 as both the first woman premier of Ontario and first openly gay premier
in Canada. So she and her partner were both there, along with the Mayor and a
federal minister (all levels of government are currently being run by the LGBT-friendly Liberal Party).
Also this evening was the perfect party for Canada – “Asian Express” or AX, which bills itself as the main monthly event for the Toronto Gaysian community (for the last 15 years!). Little is more
beautiful to me than a (or being in a) mixed white and Asian couple – and all
were present here (including the incredible guys who brought me). I didn't end up with take-out, but I definitely dined-in and enjoyed this high-energy party, with a number of performances.
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| AX (Asian Express) Party at Mercier Maison |
Friday Church Street – the main LGBT street in “the Village”
– starts to close down to traffic as vendors, promoters and non-profits set up
to advertise to the masses. That evening after the always vocal Trans March (and various parties in houses, patios & rooftops) the main alternative party
was a mixture of a hip-hop event called Big Pimpin’ and a jock party – so they
called it Fit Primpin – held at the original Steam (no not Steamworks, which
is also a standard staple, right on Church Street) Whistle Brewery. Also, the
thumpa-thumpa Prism/Matinee Party was held at the incredible Sound Academy – with one
of the best sound and light systems to titillate all your senses (especially when
consuming illegal substances).
Saturday everyone is rainbow-clad, walking Church Street –
picking up give-aways, winning prizes people watching and eating. At 2pm is the
Dyke march – similar to the Trans March running the length of Yonge Street
(pronounced simply “young”) - it runs parallel to Church. Also, there are all-day Drag performances at Drag On in
Dundas Square – basically Toronto’s much smaller, and more intimate Times
Square. At 6pm, over 70 Draq Queens gathered to break the record of most queens
in a single performance (previously held by Columbus, Ohio).
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| CN Tower goes Rainbow |
Later the biggest mixed event – attended by a great variety of people: GlitterBall at Church street’s only real club, Fly. Here, secretly adjacent to the men's bathroom, is one of the few dark-rooms I've seen in (puritan) North America! There was also a Brooklyn-y alternative-queer event called Hot Nuts, as well as a local-recommended PitBull for the fetish crowd.
Sunday the parade did not snake exhaustingly through the city, just from above the main Village to Dundas square. However, this year
it ran far longer, since Black Lives Matter held up the parade.
Delayed
for about 30 minutes, I simply hung around with Canadian Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau, who just continually shouted “Happy Pride” waved a Canadian Rainbow
flag and waved at the crowds. He took the time to snap pictures with a number
of people while being delayed. His security detail was noticeably stressed –
but the parade for Trudeau was without incident (except for a plethora of water pistols).
Apparently, unmarked cars along side streets lined the route in case he needed
to be quickly evacuated...
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