Monday, June 30, 1997
Hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets of downtown Toronto yesterday for the city's 17th annual Gay Pride parade. Several blocks on Church Street were shut down for a street party that featured everything from drag queens to square dancers. Even pedestrian traffic ground to a halt at points. Police had no estimate of crowd size, but participants said it was bigger than last year's, when 650,000 attended.
While there were booths featuring leather clothing and sex toys, there were also stands set up to provide information on mutual funds and associations for gay doctors and lawyers. Sign-up sheets were passed around for a gay orchestra and a gay curling league. The growing economic clout of gays and lesbians was also evident this year: Several floats were sponsored by liquor and cosmetic companies, and booths were set up by Snapple, Pizza Pizza and Starbucks.
Back to TNT!MEN's Pride 1997 page.