Pride Toronto

Pride Toronto
Formation1981; 43 years ago (1981)
Typefestival organization based in Toronto, Ontario
Legal statusactive
Purposeadvocate and public voice, educator and network
HeadquartersToronto
Region served
Toronto
Executive director
Sherwin Modeste
WebsitePride Toronto
Several Toronto City Councillors taking part in the 2006 Pride Parade
Two men dressed in faux Royal Canadian Mounted Police costumes celebrate their wedding.
CANFAR float in the 2006 parade
2012 Thai-Canadian float at Pride Parade
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow at the 2024 Pride Parade

Pride Toronto is an annual event held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in June each year. A celebration of the diversity of the LGBTQ community in the Greater Toronto Area, it is one of the largest organized gay pride festivals in the world, featuring several stages with live performers and DJs, several licensed venues, a large Dyke March, a Trans March and the Pride Parade. The centre of the festival is the city's Church and Wellesley village, while the parade and marches are primarily routed along the nearby Yonge Street, Gerrard Street and Bloor Street. In 2014, the event served as the fourth international WorldPride, and was much larger than standard Toronto Prides.

The event is organized by Pride Toronto, a non-profit organization. A growing complement of fourteen staff support the work of 22 festival teams; each team is responsible for an aspect of the festival. Each team was formerly administered by two or three volunteer team leads; in 2019, the decision was made to strip that down to one lead per team in favour of a staff-centered approach. The long-term vision for, and strategic oversight of, the organization and the festival is intended to be managed by 12 volunteers on the board of directors. As of March 2020, the board consists of six members.[1]

The first parade occurred in June 1981. For most of its history, Pride was a seven-to-ten day festival centred on the final week in June, with the parade falling on either the last weekend in June or the first weekend in July depending on the year's circumstances. Since 2016, the entire month of June has been declared Pride month, with a program of events throughout the month leading up to the parade.

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, the organization's in-person Pride festivities for 2020 and 2021 – including the Trans March, the Dyke March and the Pride parade – were cancelled.[2] Virtual Pride Month festivities and an online "parade" took place in both years.

The organization's executive director since 2020 is Sherwin Modeste.[3] He succeeded Olivia Nuamah,[4] who had been appointed in February 2017 to succeed Mathieu Chantelois.[5]

  1. ^ https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=Pride%20Toronto%20board&epa=SEARCH_BOX [user-generated source]
  2. ^ "Coronavirus: City of Toronto cancels events through June 30, including Pride Parade". Global News. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
  3. ^ "Pride Toronto chooses new executive director". CBC News Toronto, November 30, 2020.
  4. ^ "Pride Toronto hires its first black female executive director". The Globe and Mail, February 17, 2017.
  5. ^ "Mathieu Chantelois is Toronto Pride’s new ED". Xtra!, January 21, 2015.