The Trans March will get under way in less than 3 hours. This is the 2nd year it’s happening and the 1st year it’s an official Pride Toronto event organized by Pride Toronto.
There’s been a lot of controversy around it since its inception. The general idea was floating around for years yet when Karah Mathiason and her partner Diane Granta spear headed its organization last year, Pride Toronto was caught off guard. PT was probably nervous because there was no request to close streets down for it; it was not planning marshals for it and so on. In the end, PT requested the march go down Church Street and end at The 519’s green space. The 519 supported the march, but not planning to have it end there, scrambled last minute while organizing its annual Starry Night fundraiser. I was not able to march last year but I was there at the green space. I think it was Pride Toronto that ended up offering a free drink ticket to those over 19 but left it up to The 519 to organize the distribution of that as well. It was messy, by no fault of Karah or Diane, but those who marched were pumped, proud and loud. It was clear the event would become a yearly staple; there was no going back to less visibility.
Pride Toronto vowed to be a part of the organizing of this year after some “consultation with community”. I don’t have strict definition of either consultation or community, but holding one meeting, strictly with people PT chose to invite, doesn’t cut it in my books. PT then selected a MTF centric group not affiliated with the running of the march last year to head the planning for this year’s event. Some amount of drama later, a trans man previously involved with organizing Fruit Loopz was brought in to pull the whole thing together.
I am glad the march is happening. I’m disheartened for last year’s organizers. I am going to the march because it’s important there’s the greatest number of people to increase the burgeoning visibility of trans people and their discrimination within and outside of the cis-queer dominating community. I hold no grievance towards the trans man who’s put so much work and energy into organizing this year’s march for Pride Toronto; I believe he feels similarly to me about the whole affair. It will be interesting to see if any people hold signs up during the march calling attention to the unfortunate way this year’s organization unraveled and demands a better approach going forward.
