Calgary may not have the reputation of being a particularly tolerant city, but that perception could change sooner than one might think. For one, Calgarians elected a surprisingly progressive mayor last year. Naheed Nenshi won by a comfortable margin thanks in large to an active youth vote, assembled into action via social media. And now, from this involved base of progressives, the city’s mayor has—for the first time ever—led the city’s annual Pride parade.

For some history, Calgary—the largest city in the Canadian prairies—hasn’t been particularly welcoming of Pride celebrations in the past. It famously rescinded a Gay Pride proclamation in the early 90s following angry public demonstrations. Even more recently, any public visibility by the city’s GLBT community is usually accompanied by protesters, an annual occurrence at the Pride parade, as well as events like the regional Outgames in 2007.

Needless to say, I think the growing visibility and comfort of the GLBT community is wonderful, and already a big change from my experience living in Calgary in the mid 2000s. So, thank you, Mayor Nenshi, for representing all Calgarians!

• Nenshi first Calgary mayor to lead Gay Pride parade [Globe and Mail]

The city of São Paulo approved legislation last week that would bring a heterosexual pride day to the city, if the Mayor approves it. Carlos Apolinario, the bill’s sponsor, said the legislation was “not anti-gay,” but rather “a protest against the privileges the gay community enjoys.”

“I have no trouble coexisting with gays as long as their behavior is normal,” Apolinario told the press.

That’s OK, I don’t have a problem with heterosexuals—so long as they act gay in public.

At any rate, this interesting development in the world of straight pride parades reminded me of a story I wrote last year for Outlooks Magazine. Since it was never published on this site, you can read it for the first time in digital form after the jump.

Enjoy!

On Heterosexual Pride

(Originally published in the June 2010 edition of Outlooks Magazine.)

“If you perverts want to be treated as equals, stop ramming your perverse lifestyle in our faces!” Those were the words that greeted me in my email inbox this morning. Being the slightly introspective type, I did a quick mental review of my actions from the previous night. Had I kidnapped anyone and strapped them to a chair facing a slideshow of all my illustrations, eyelids forcibly held apart à la Clockwork Orange? I took a sip of tea. No, I doubt I would forget something like that.

Indeed, this anonymous emailer had simply blasted off some typical, unsolicited, anti-gay criticism—ramming it in my face, if you will—after visiting my website voluntarily and staying long enough to become angry for some reason. His final words almost helped me narrow down which of my articles he might be referring to: “Straights don’t have parades to celebrate their straightness,” he observed. “You do harm to yourselves when you say ‘we’re just like straights… we’re equals, but look at us dressed half naked and prancing around in the streets.’”

It was actually kind of timely, for hate mail. Summer marks Pride celebrations worldwide. It’s lovely: Bears come out of hibernation, gays everywhere reclaim their local gyms, and cities across the world get a whole lot more colourful. No longer just a parade, Pride festivals are now massive, weeklong cultural celebrations, generating significant tourism dollars. Pride Toronto alone brings in an estimated $100 million annually in taxed, tourist spending. Assuming my anonymous critic is a Conservative supporter (and they usually are), you’d think he’d at least be a little happy about all this commercial revenue.

In 2009, the Conservative government announced that they had allocated $400,000 of federal money to Toronto Pride in order to make the festival events more accessible to disabled persons. It was both a surprising and welcome gesture, but short-lived. The Tories, somehow angered by their own funding announcement, suddenly removed the minister responsible for the funding from her duties. Shortly after, Montréal’s Divers/Cité was denied their expected funding weeks before it was set to begin, as was the city’s Black and Blue event. The new policy continued this year as well; organizers of Pride Toronto were shocked when they learned—through the media—that their requested funds had been denied by the Tories. (If you’re a fan of Burlington’s annual Ribfest, though, don’t fret. $98,610 in federal dollars is still coming your way.)

Since Pride festivals enrich Canada’s culture and generate significant tourism, these funding cuts probably aren’t from any sound fiscal planning, but are more likely done at the request of a loud minority of Canadians who, like my anonymous emailer, feign some kind of profound personal violation from any celebration of gay culture. To them, our entire lives amount to perversion and our festivals are nothing more than ramming sexuality into faces. They’re also the ones who repeatedly remind us that there are no such thing as straight pride parades and that, since we somehow aspire to be just like them, we shouldn’t have gay ones.

To their credit, they’re right about one thing: There are no straight pride parades—at least, not on any serious scale. It would be silly if there were. What would the symbol of pride mean to the straight community, if it’s even cohesive enough to be called that? No one is trying to dismiss straight relationships as being unworthy of marriage. No one is opposing the legal rights of straights. No one is reducing the “straight lifestyle”—and all expressions of it, such as holding hands in public—as flaunting sexuality. With no one wagging their fingers to make straights feel ashamed, there’s no need to counter it with pride.

And that’s probably for the best. Considering how badly all those who lament about not having straight pride parades mischaracterize gay ones, I doubt very much that I would enjoy what they have in mind. It would probably conclude with a live birth.

For the sixth consecutive year, Moscow has forbidden a peaceful gay rights demonstration from happening within the city, and for the sixth consecutive year, equal rights advocates have defied the ban—with violent consequences.

Sadly, this isn’t a surprise. Homophobia runs very deep in Russian culture, so the same story returns year after year. An otherwise peaceful demonstration is met by violent counter protesters from radical right-wing organisations, and the end result is that the peaceful demonstrators are arrested by the police.

Banning peaceful protests is never a good idea, so I’m grateful for the bravery and dedication these men and women show year after year.

It may seem like Moscow has a long way to go, but attitude only change with visibility. When I was a teen growing up in Edmonton in the 90s, I remember a news story about the city’s first gay Pride march. A small handful of protesters stood in front of city hall with handmade signs. About one in three had their heads covered by paper bags with holes cut out for eyes. They were afraid of being identified, afraid of losing their jobs or being outed to their families. This was in Canada, only about 15 years ago. Things have changed a lot since then, and it’s happening all over the world—just at different paces.

I’m looking forward to the year, guaranteed to come, when I’ll post about the first march in Moscow without arrests or violence.

• Dozens detained in failed Russian gay pride march [Montréal Gazette]

Last Sunday was Montréal’s 18^th annual Pride parade, and it was fantastic! Organizations, businesses, churches, sports groups, hobby groups, and tons of other equal-rights supporters marched down a brand new parade route in view of over 100,000 spectators. The parade even included politicians from every party—except one.

As in previous years, politicians of all stripes were invited by Pride organizers to come and join in the celebrations, and—like the years before it—the Conservative invitees ignored it entirely. Their absence didn’t go unnoticed, either. Speaking to the media in French, author and television personality, Jasmin Roy, was particularly succinct: “I don’t think we could speak of this as indifference; it’s clear the Harper government doesn’t like gay people.”

Indeed, Stephen Harper’s Tories have fought against equal rights for gay people at every conceivable step, opposing everything from marriage equality (even after it had become law) and protection from hate crimes, to smaller offensive gestures like removing all references to homosexuality from their new immigrant guides.

Given their behavioural history, I never really expected to see Tory party representation in the parade. Actually, I would have been shocked to see it and probably would have joined in a chorus of boos—an appropriate gesture of no where near the level of disrespect and consequence that this government has already displayed toward us gays.

Still, this is a very public example of what our government doesn’t represent, and that’s all Canadians. Whether Tories like it or not, the government is here to represent everybody—not just those that voted for them. And while Harper’s Tories may have a profound lack of sensitivity and understanding toward gay people, we’re still a large and vibrant community whose contributions to the country should have been acknowledged with representation at our biggest and most important cultural event. Honte à vous, Monsieur ‘Arper!

• L’absence des conservateurs au Défilé de la Fierté est décriée [Métro Montréal]
• Montreal fetes Gay Pride [CBC News]

The annual gay pride float was a little different this year at Anchorage, Alaska’s fourth of July parade after it burned down in what is being treated as possible arson.

Just a day before the Independence Day parade was set to begin, a suspect was seen fleeing from a residential driveway where the float was parked, as weeks of hard work burned to cinders. Neighbours fear that the fire, which also scortched a nearby garage and attic, could be a hate crime.

The float’s construction team had a great idea, though. Christening the charred float “Phoenix Rising,” they rebuilt it from its ashes and burned remnants using donations from the community. After just one day, the float was finished, entered into the parade as planned, and won the Grand Champion trophy.

What a great display of unity and community pride. It’s an inspirational demonstration of exactly why the gay community should be proud of its accomplishments, and why hateful people should feel ashamed.

• New gay pride float rises from the ashes of burned original [KTUU News]
• Possible arson destroys gay pride 4th of July parade float [KTUU News]

Good news! Toronto has been chosen to host the 2014 World Pride celebrations, an international gay rights and cultural event. Toronto will be the fourth city to host the event (joining Rome, Jerusalem and London) since it started in 2000. The event includes outdoor concerts, festivals, a large parade, and is expected to contribute an estimated $680 million to the city’s economy—five times more than the city’s usual Pride income.

Toronto is Canada’s largest city, and has recently been doing a lot to welcome and nurture its gay community, which makes it a great choice for the festivities. Not too many other cities have the guts to brand themselves “as gay as it gets,” for example!

The federal Tories will purportedly offer negative funding in exchange for enjoying the economic benefit.

• Toronto chosen to host 2014 World Pride event [Montréal Gazette]
• Toronto To Host World Pride In 2014 [City News]