In an effort to move our radio station away from the “angry old white man” perception of talk radio, we became one of the major sponsors of Pride London, which ended yesterday with the annual parade.
It was my first time attending the parade. The only thing that kept me away in previous years was the crowds. I don’t care for large, unpredictable clusters of humans. Unfortunately, my George-Takei-designed T-shirt didn’t arrive in time for the festivities, so I asked Pride President Andrew Rosser what I should wear. “Bright colours”, he said. With my visiting cousin Barbara-Anne in tow, off we went to show our support. I had no idea there were so many mini-vehicles. Mini fire truck. Mini police car. Mini ambulance.
When many people hear “pride” they hear naked gay people flaunting their sexuality. That’s not its intention. It has been hijacked over the years by TV coverage showing the craziest and most outlandish parts of the parades. We saw a couple of scantily clad people but most of them were simply wearing bright colours or in a costume.
Pride means inclusiveness. It means acceptance of all walks of life, all cultures, faiths, non-faiths and colours, and all sexual orientations. It means cops and firefighters and doctors and patients and radio announcers. It’s coming together and saying you and I couldn’t be more different, but I respect your right to be who you are and to feel safe expressing yourself.
When the group Black Lives Matter stopped the Toronto Pride parade and insisted that police be excluded, they were acting contrary to the point of the event. Their activism is appreciated and warranted, just not in this way. In London, three people representing Black Lives Matter walked along with a banner and we gave them huge applause.
While I hosted First Thing last week and conducted a couple of interviews about Pride, I was horrified to see the nature of some of the listener texts that came in. There’s an astounding level of ignorance that remains in some people surrounding sexual orientation. Some said talking about Pride was “ramming it down their throat”. Others said “these people need to get back to God”. It depresses and angers me to see that type of reaction. Who would choose a lifestyle that might alienate them from their family, bring them scorn and ridicule and – in the case of Orlando – death? No one. You are who you are. A has blue eyes, B has brown. A likes green peppers, B refuses to eat them. A can draw, B can barely make a recognizable stick figure. A is gay, B is straight. Everybody got that? Good.