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This post is about pride, in more definitions than one.
Toronto had their annual Pride parade over the weekend. They have a huge parade, one of the biggest in the world. For the first time ever, a Canadian Prime Minister participated and marched in the parade and from all accounts and photos, looked like he had a fantastic time. He dressed casually, not in a suit, he allowed himself to be doused with water pistol ammunition. And a young man who marched with him or in his group turned out to be a short, gay Syrian refugee whose life has probably been saved by immigrating here, considering he had more stacked against him in his former country than just politics.
I am proud to live in a country that took on some of the refugees. I am proud that my Prime MInister even went to the airport late at night to greet the first families that arrived and invited at least one refugee who was gay to march in his entourage in the parade. I'm proud that the PM did march in the parade and celebrated with everyone.
Halifax has a fun Pride parade later in the month, in a couple of weeks and I will probably go unless it's teeming down. In anticipation of Pride Week here, several main intersections downtown and one in Dartmouth have had rainbow panels painted on them. Awesome!
I know that there's still a lot of negativity towards LGBTQ folks and they are often still targets for violence, even here in Canada and I'm not proud about that but I think,... I hope, little by little it's changing for the better.
Be proud of who you are.
Toronto had their annual Pride parade over the weekend. They have a huge parade, one of the biggest in the world. For the first time ever, a Canadian Prime Minister participated and marched in the parade and from all accounts and photos, looked like he had a fantastic time. He dressed casually, not in a suit, he allowed himself to be doused with water pistol ammunition. And a young man who marched with him or in his group turned out to be a short, gay Syrian refugee whose life has probably been saved by immigrating here, considering he had more stacked against him in his former country than just politics.
I am proud to live in a country that took on some of the refugees. I am proud that my Prime MInister even went to the airport late at night to greet the first families that arrived and invited at least one refugee who was gay to march in his entourage in the parade. I'm proud that the PM did march in the parade and celebrated with everyone.
Halifax has a fun Pride parade later in the month, in a couple of weeks and I will probably go unless it's teeming down. In anticipation of Pride Week here, several main intersections downtown and one in Dartmouth have had rainbow panels painted on them. Awesome!
I know that there's still a lot of negativity towards LGBTQ folks and they are often still targets for violence, even here in Canada and I'm not proud about that but I think,... I hope, little by little it's changing for the better.
Be proud of who you are.
