It wasn’t my first Pride Parade or even the first time I had been in the Toronto parade, but being convinced to dress as the cop in the Village People and ride a float proved to be one of my best Pride Parade experiences ever.
Usually I had danced around aimlessly with water bottle in hand with the rest of the lookie-loos and dancing queens, but a few weeks before the big day in 2006 after a bad break up, a friend asked me if I’d volunteer some time to help build the Casey House parade float. Thinking that the best way to get over my own misery was to help someone else, I agreed. Over the next two weeks, I got to meet some pretty exceptionally generous and talented volunteers and it inspired me to help more. With some coaxing, I was going to be in the parade! The day arrived and I got to meet the late June Callwood who I remember to be kind, graceful and in great spirits. If you haven’t been in a pride parade on a float, nothing can prepare you for the overwhelming feeling one gets when turning the corner onto Yonge Street to make the trek to south of Dundas. “We’re up!”, I heard so I followed the group up the ladder to the performing area that was build over the cab of the transport. Fifteen feet in the air and lip-syncing YMCA was a moment right out of Tales of the City. ‘Wooowww’ I remember thinking. My friend looked over at me with a huge grin on his face. “Pretty neat, huh?”. “Yeah!” I said over the music. Seeing thousands of cheering and smiling faces in one days is something I will never forget.
A week before the parade when I was convinced by the other volunteers to learn the YMCA song and ride the float, I was told something that is really true about the Pride Day Parade and that’s that the best way to see it is to to be in it. Happy Pride!
