Nine days time
The LGBTQ+ community
Will be marching
In Toronto's Gay village.
Personally
I wouldn't miss it
If the various Pride events
Were to disappear
From Toronto's social calendar.
What started off
As a protest demonstration
Against Toronto's police
Blatant homophobic harassment
Of the gay community
In 1981.
Has become
An institutional cash cow
For Toronto's tourism
And hospitality industries.
Drawing visitors
Locally nationally
And internationally
To one of the world's largest
Organized Pride events.
And yet
Between 1981 and now
It lost its political direction
In becoming
A straight event.
As minority groups
Push the status quo
Forcing the white gay centric
Pride Toronto leadership
To look outside of the box.
Regarding
Ethnic minorities
And transgender people
Within the LGBTQ+ community.
Especially
The often rocky relationship
With Toronto Police Service
In their dealings
Towards the various ethnic groups
Of Toronto's LGBTQ+ community.
In the deliberate setting
Of honey traps
To entrap gay men
In certain public areas.
Never stopping
After the 1981 bathhouse raids
That sparked the origin
Of Pride Toronto.
Something
The gay community
Keeps silent about.
As for the 2014 comments
Premier Ford made
About the Pride parade:
“...middle-aged men
with pot bellies"
ran down the street
"buck naked...." (1)
I'm laughing myself
Silly
In acute pain
At the stupidity
Of his remark.
Should any gay man
Even leave their place
Remotely dressed
In this fashion.
They would be arrested
And face charges
Of indecent exposure
And public nudity
By the police.
Unless
Premier Ford
You're channeling
Your own inner gay self.
If so
Time to get
Your own freak out
On June 24
And party.
Therisa © 2018
Author’s note: (1)blogto.com/city/2018/06/doug-ford-police-toronto-pride-parade/
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