Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Monday, October 19, 2009

Toronto will host Pride 2014

An international celebration of gay rights will be held in Toronto in 2014.

The city has been chosen to host World Pride, a statement on the website of the Pride Toronto organization announced Sunday.

World Pride, which includes a parade, festivals and cultural activities, promotes lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues on the international stage.

The first such event was held in Rome in 2000, said the Toronto statement.

The most recent World Pride was set to take place in Jerusalem in August 2006, but was cancelled due to a violent Israeli-Lebanese conflict, the website said.

The next event is set for just prior to the Olympic and Paralympic Games in London in 2012.

"A festival of this nature will bring Pride contingents from the world over, building international awareness of our culture and identities," Pride Toronto spokeswoman Crystal Moore said in a statement.

"World Pride 2014 will transform our local pride and community spirit, while generating a positive impact on our economy, our tourism and commercial industry, and our physical and social community."

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Local Toronto Pride organizers seek to welcome the world

International revellers have long flocked to Toronto’s annual Pride Week, but in 2014 the whole world might be invited.

Yesterday, Pride Toronto announced its bid to host World Pride in 2014. Toronto’s Pride Week is already one of the biggest such events worldwide, but in 2014 organizers would like to “kick it up a few notches,” said Mark Singh, chair of the bid committee and current co-chair of Pride Toronto. “Basically, we’re just making our event, which is already such a globally popular event, into something a lot bigger and on the world’s stage.” Toronto’s pitch will be made at October’s InterPride annual general meeting in St. Petersburg, Fla. Singh said he believes Stockholm is the only competition. The event would fall during the regular Pride week in 2014, but would be substantially bigger and more expensive, costing an estimated $10 million rather than the $4 million spent this year. Pride Toronto would need some financial support.

The provincial government provided $350,000 for this year’s festivities, and Premier Dalton McGuinty has already provided a letter of support for the bid. Singh said the federal government pitched in $400,000 this year and he hopes for more next year.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Is Church St. losing its gay village identity?

After nine years on the main strip of Toronto's gay village, Zelda's restaurant shut its doors last month without a word of warning. From 2 a.m. until dawn, owner Michael Swann and his staff filled a moving van with kitchen appliances, dishes and bottles of alcohol.

Swann says the quick move was because a bigger, cheaper place became available on Yonge St. With the lease on his Church location up for renewal, he says his landlord wanted to raise the rent from $27,000 to $35,000 a month.

you can read more about this in the thestar.com