Pride and joy: All about Pride Month
Rainbow Connection
Happy June! We love this midyear month because it marks the official start of summer. But what really makes June special is that it’s Pride Month — a yearly festival packed with cultural and community events to celebrate the 2SLGBTQ+ community.
It's an opportunity for people to rejoice in diversity, remember history, and promote equality around the world. Although Pride will look a little different this year (no in-person parade 😭), it is the perfect time to learn the basics of this global movement and the background that started it all. And despite the pandemic, Pride is still (safely) being celebrated in all its glory...but we’ll get to that later.
We also chatted with the fabulous and fierce Queen Priyanka, the very first winner of Canada’s Drag Race, to give us the inside scoop on Pride Month, so keep reading for all the exciting details.
Brave Beginnings
The North American LGBTQ+ movement traces back the Windy City (a.k.a. Chicago) in 1924 and the founding of the Society for Human Rights by German immigrant and activist Henry Gerber.
Considered the first documented gay rights organization, the Chicago-based Society for Human Rights was forced to disband after only a few months when Gerber and his fellow members were arrested.
While his case was eventually dismissed, Gerber was crushed by legal bills and ultimately fired from his job. Thankfully, he lived long enough to see Illinois become the first state to decriminalize homosexuality in 1961. (Hallelujah!)
Turning Point
For a city that now earns top scores for LGBTQ inclusivity, New York City was once a pretty inhospitable place for the gay community.
Cops would routinely raid gay-friendly establishments and arrest patrons for breaking laws ranging from solicitation to cross-dressing. That all changed for good on June 28, 1969, when NYC police stormed the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in the heart of Greenwich Village, and were met with angry resistance that lasted five days.
The Stonewall Riots galvanized the LGBTQ community like never before and sparked the worldwide movement we have come to know as — you guessed it — Pride.
True Colours
In what has become the most recognizable emblem of the Pride movement, the rainbow flag dates back to 1978, when legendary activist Harvey Milk commissioned San Francisco artist Gilbert Baker to create an iconic symbol for the gay community.
Its purpose was to replace the pink triangle which had long represented the LGBTQ movement but was corrupted by the Nazis as a way of marking homosexuals for persecution in World War II.
The original gay Pride flag featured eight colours, each with their own significance, but evolved over time into the six-striped version we know today. According to Baker's obituary in the New York Times, he refused to trademark the rainbow flag design because he considered it his gift to the world. (Cue Cyndi.)
Let the Flag Fly
The rainbow flag is the quintessential symbol for Pride solidarity and LGBTQ+ allyship, and recently, the Halton Catholic District School Board in Burlington, Ont. put it under threat, refusing to fly the flag because of religious differences. (There’s currently a petition circulating, which caught the attention of one of Canada’s famous families, the Levys.)
Although the Halton Catholic District has denied requests to fly the Pride flag, other Ontario Catholic schools in Toronto, Durham, Niagara, Ottawa, and Waterloo will proudly showcase it for the first time.
If anything, Ontario needs a greater number of Pride flags, not fewer. The Waterloo District Catholic School Board director of education, Loretta Notten, shut down any debate within the Catholic school system saying, “Our Catholic schools are places where we educate young people to respect every person regardless of their differences.” (Right on.)
Marching On
Pride month would not be complete without its signature and climactic event: the Pride parade. Started by legendary activist Brenda Howard to commemorate the first anniversary of Stonewall (scroll up for the backstory), Pride marches have evolved into epic street parties (we’re looking at you, Sao Paulo) and celebrations around the world.
Montreal and Vancouver were the first Canadian cities to host an official Pride march in 1979. But there’s a lot more to Pride parades than glittery floats and over-the-top outfits (which we love, btw).
More often than not, time is also set aside to honour LGBTQ activism and to remember victims of HIV/AIDS and anti-LGBTQ discrimination.
Canadian Pride
Pride has its own history in the Great White North. Although Montreal and Vancouver were the first Canadian cities to host official Pride marches in the late '70s, the movement’s watershed moment happened in Toronto on February 5, 1981.
It was on that day that Toronto Police stormed four bathhouses and arrested hundreds of gay men during “Operation Soap.” The mass raids became known as “Canada’s Stonewall” and gave rise to demonstrations — which eventually spurred the city’s inaugural Pride celebration.
Fast forward 35 years to 2016 when Toronto’s police chief formally apologized for the raids — while standing in front of a rainbow flag, no less.
Today, Pride is still a contentious topic between law enforcement and LGBTQ activists in various Canadian cities.
The queer and trans community has had a problematic relationship with law enforcement since the dawn of time, which is why Toronto police haven’t marched in the Pride parade in uniform since 2016.
The director of Pride Toronto stated that some members of the community are triggered by seeing police in uniform, knowing how the institution has violently treated queer folk in the past. For this reason, police are also banned from participating in Pride in Vancouver, Hamilton, and as of this year, in NYC.
Drag It Out
The drag queen scene is a huge part of Pride celebrations, and who better to represent Canadian drag culture than the one and only Queen Priyanka?
Born in Whitby, Ont., Priyanka’s charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent landed her the crown on the inaugural season of Canada’s Drag Race. (Yass Queen.)
And since Priyanka is a self-proclaimed “natural-born entertainer,” she started doing drag so she could entertain her LGBTQ+ community in Toronto. Once she got on stage, she "felt so free."
So, what is drag?
Over the years, the definition of drag has changed drastically. When Priyanka first started doing drag four years ago, she would explain it as, “when a male impersonates a female for entertainment.”
And that’s exactly how drag began — as “impersonations.” The earliest documented “drag” performance in Canada was from a troupe of Canadian entertainers called The Dumbells in WWI. As part of the act, male soldiers would impersonate females (as there were no gals around to play the parts).
The group was a smashing success during and after the war, and even went on to do a 12-week run on Broadway. That is, until WWII broke out and military officials began to suspect the performers were gay.
But now, it doesn’t matter if you’re gay or straight, as drag has evolved to become “a form of entertainment that anyone can do,” says Priyanka. It’s not just limited to Queens — there are Drag Kings, or Drag Things, too.
At the end of the day, drag challenges gender conventions and reminds us that gender is really just a performance.
Canadian Drag Community
Canada has a very vibrant drag community, with so many “hidden gems” across the country — from Vancouver to Montreal, to Calgary, Saskatchewan and Yellowknife.
Priyanka says each drag community has its own provincial identity but at the end of the day, “it's not that different. We’re all just doing drag.”
One place that holds a special significance in the Canadian drag landscape is Toronto's Church-Wellesley Village (a.k.a. the “Gay Village”). Dating back to the 1970s, drag performers (then called “cross-dressers” or “female impersonators”) would host a popular drag show every Halloween at the Church-Wellesley intersection, but they weren’t always met with the warmest welcome.
Over the years, “The Village” became a safe haven for some of Canada’s most famous queens, including Michelle Ross (RIP) and Tynomi Banks. This is why Priyanka decided to move there — to be as involved as possible in the drag community.
High Visibility
It took one TV show to put drag on the map, and of course, that show was Drag Race. Canadian drag queen Brooke Lynn Hytes participated in the show, opening the doors for drag stars on our side of the border.
“When I saw Brooke Lynn go on U.S. Drag Race, I was like, ‘Wow, I could also really blow up my entire drag career one day,’” says Priyanka. “And now look, I'm the winner of Canada's first-ever Drag Race!”
Canada’s Drag Race, which premiered last year, put a spotlight on a community that hid in the shadows for a long time. Priyanka has seen firsthand what the show can do for Canadian 2SLGBTQ+ representation, and she wants to share the light, the fame, and the fortune that Drag Race afforded her with the Vizzybility Project.
In her new role as the community impact director for Vizzy Hard Seltzer, Priyanka has partnered with the beverage company and Queer Collective to launch a creative grant program to help elevate and give #vizzybility to LGBTQ+ artists. Grant recipients will also receive mentorship from the Queen herself, and much more.
“I think it’s so important to give back because there are so many artists right now that are struggling at home because of COVID,” she says. “They just need that little magic fairy dust sprinkled over them to help them finally do the project they want to do.”
“I just want people like myself who see me do big things to know that they can do it, too," she adds. (Enter now!)
How to Celebrate
“During Pride Month, I think that it's important to tell a person from the 2SLGBTQ+ community that they're amazing and you support them," Priyanka says.
That means showing love to queer-owned businesses and watching (and tipping!) local drag performers. Another way to celebrate is by tuning into Toronto’s 40th anniversary virtual Pride Parade on June 27, hosted by Queen P herself.
“I know it’s our second Pride in lockdown but if there's one thing to know about Canadians, it's that they're gonna find a way to celebrate,” she says. And celebrate we will.
