Digital Journal — It’s amazing the degree to which society now focuses on being gay. Even in the last decade, homosexual men and women have fought hard for rights to be treated as equals. And internationally, the word Pride has become synonymous with freedom, love and expression.
All over the world, people are beginning to embrace their sexual orientation in their work and social lives. More and more, we see celebrities revealing their once-hidden mates. Ellen DeGeneres, who was once booted off the air because her show was deemed to be “too gay”, now quietly (but actively) dates ex-Ally McBeal femme fatale Portia de Rossi. These days, almost every television program features gay characters or storylines — think Will & Grace , The Simpsons and Seinfeld to name but a few — and mainstream media have kept the issue blipping strongly on their gaydar. In North America, homosexuality has never been more in style.
Throughout the summer months, large world-cities will be celebrating Pride Week. New York’s infamous Folsom Street East celebration is in its 10th year of operation, reeling in thousands of leather-clad men and women from all over the continent. Similarly, Toronto’s 26th annual Pride Week celebrations wrap up Sunday with a gigantic street parade through the heart of Canada’s largest city. In an event that sees more than one million people hit the streets to party hard, this year’s theme is “Fearless.”
“‘Fearless’ is about how far we’ve come and where we need to go,” said Pride co-chair David Anderson. “In cities like Toronto, queer people can live more openly than ever before. But there are still places…where being queer leads to fear, stigma and discrimination. We need to change this.”
Toronto’s Pride Week is the largest in Canada and third-largest worldwide. In Toronto this week, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty presented awards to Canadian Olympic gold-medal swimmer Mark Tewksbury, best-selling author Irshad Manji, MAC Cosmetics co-founder Frank Toskan and James Loney and his partner Jim Hunt for being long-time advocates of peace and tolerance.
Pride Week has become so popular that major media are even taking to publicity ops; CTV Toronto recently announced it signed a three-year deal as the exclusive broadcast sponsor of Pride Week. As part of the sponsorship, CTV has unveiled campaigns profiling Pride Week and featuring a variety of CTV Toronto personalities declaring, “I have pride.”
But even with so many people coming out of closets everywhere, being openly gay or lesbian is very much a work-in-progress. The stereotypes persist: Flamboyantly feminine males are book-ended by tattoo-laden lesbians who keep their hair cut boyishly short.
James Loney, who was kidnapped for four months in Iraq, purposely kept his sexual orientation from his captors, fearing it would cost him his life. In fact, Loney says the Ontario Catholic Youth Leadership Camp in Orillia, Ontario (where he used to work) shut down the camp after his coming-out. A statement on the Ontario State Council of the Knights’ website denies the allegations.
And in some countries, Pride is not something to celebrate. In Israel, Jewish and Muslim religious leaders say if a Pride event is held this summer in Jerusalem as planned, it could spark a worldwide Islamic furor worse than that generated by cartoons of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed.
Finally, who could forget the kafuffle caused by the film Brokeback Mountain ? It only took one little movie to question the authenticity of the great American cowboy and set half a nation into gay paranoia. And with the upcoming release of the new Superman film, rumours are already flying that the Man of Steel could be hiding more than a secret identity underneath his cape.
And so as the years pass, many more athletes, actors, comedians and ordinary folk will be revealing their true sexual identity to the world. It’ll take the most influential to encourage people to get over ridiculous stereotypes and just accept things. Unlike most trends, this is a style not going away.
