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Pride
Day Parade photos online: first draft 
I haven't had time to fix up the photos or mark them with
captions, but rather than making you wait, I thought I'd put up what I have
now, and then update things later. I only have the Pride parade photos online
at the moment. Pictures from the body painting, the party, and the naked
dance will follow in the next few weeks. |
Pride Toronto 2003 was about many things. First, Toronto was still recovering from the terrible effects SARS had on tourism to the city. While SARS is a serious disease, few people in Toronto were actually infected, and it was contained within a few hospitals, so this reaction was extremely overblown. Thank the media for that.
However, just before Pride, the Supreme Court of Ontario ruled that Canadian laws specifying marriage as being between a man and a woman were in violation of Canada's constitution, and were thus invalid. In the week before Pride, couples from around the world came to Canada to tie the knot.
And a few days later, the Supreme Court of the USA realised that homophobic anti-"sodomy" laws were a violation of their national constitution, and were thus invalid. It's bloody well about time! While gay Americans could finally have sex without fearing arrest, gay Canadians were busy planning their honeymoons. (Do I sound a little smug? :-)
And for those who have checked out this site, you'll know that last year the police arrested a number of us at the end of the parade, but the Crown Attorney's office admitted that mere nudity at Pride is not a crime, and denied the police the ability to place any charges against the men arrested. This clear victory last year did not stop the police from trying again this year: they came to the booth just before the parade and told everyone that they were planning on video-taping the parade (something they've been doing for many years) and gathering evidence to send to the Attorney General to let him make up his own mind whether charges could be laid this year.
Given all the publicity our victory last year got, our legal argument is even stronger this year, and so we knew there is no way the Attorney General can consent to lay charges. I asked the cops if they were aware of what happened last year. "Yes, we are very familiar with what took place last year," they claimed.
"So you know that the Crown Attorney agreed with us that no conviction was possible," I argued.
"Yes, but that was at that time in those specific circumstances," they said.
"But you should also know that our victory last year was publicised around the world, including in Pravda. As a result, our legal argument is even stronger this year."
"That's for the Attorney General to decide."
"Given that you know he will not consent to charges, and given that you know you cannot possibly get a conviction, it would be illegal for you to arrest us today," I told them.
"We do not intend to arrest anyone. We are only interested in making sure everyone has a safe time today, and that we can all get along peacefully and legally," they claimed. We weren't convinced, but we didn't argue with them after that. Their camera guys made sure to video everyone's face in an obnoxious manner, but they left immediately afterwards and I didn't see them again.
A few of the men who planned on marching with us were intimidated enough to drop out. Others decided they would not let police bullying prevent them from execising their right in Canada to be nude in public in a non-comercial, non-sexual and non-disruptive manner, and to celebrate their identity as gay nudists in a legal and popular way.
Once again the crowd greeted us with enthusiastic cheers and applause, despite the fact that we were the very last community group at the end of a long parade. After the parade, most of the marchers remained naked for the rest of the day, both at the TNT!MEN booth and in the crowd. Though they were stopped many times by people asking if they could pose for pictures with them, no-one was arrested or harassed in any way.