TORONTO (djc) – The half-naked bodies strolling down Toronto’s Yonge Street swaggered with a strut that conveyed more than the usual Pride Parade confidence. Because of a recent Canadian court decision that recognizes same-sex marriages, newlyweds took to the streets to mark this year’s celebration of gay life with a decidedly sharper political overtone.
More than 250 gay couples have been married at Toronto City Hall and local churches since the ruling, including about 30 American couples. Some of these newlyweds paraded down Toronto’s most popular street in a white limousine, waving to hundreds of thousands of spectators. The crowd cheered and waved as if Elton John was rocketing past, but the jubilation at this year’s Pride Parade didn’t need any celebrities to spray them with water guns. This year, the gay community was cheering the Canadian government.
Reformed homosexual human rights also spilled across the border last week, when a U.S. Supreme Court decision struck down a Texas law prohibiting sodomy, and thus allowing several states to allow their gay citizens to enjoy the privacy of their sexuality. United States gay activists applauded the controversial move, although they aren’t satiated yet: as if the appetizer only whetted their appetite, American gays are looking to overturn laws that limit marriage to same-sex coupes. In a nutshell, the U.S. is looking at Canada as a precedent and, as expected, some die-hard pro-family advocates are frothing with anger.
Bill Frist, an American Republican senator, told USA Today that the Supreme Court’s decision threatens to make the American home a place where criminality is condoned. “I very much feel that marriage is a sacrament,” he said, “and that sacrament should extend and can extend to that legal entity of a union between — what is traditionally in our Western values has been defined — as between a man and a woman.”
As more than one Pride Parader would gladly point out, one of the great Christian contributions to marriage was the flexibility for eligible groups. Poor people were allowed to marry in the 16th century, and later on, the church extended marital freedom to slaves. It isn’t far-fetched to view same-sex unions as a natural extension of the elastic process our marriage revolution has undergone.
In England, the bishop of Oxford appointed openly-homosexual bishop Jeffery John to a post in Reading, 40 miles west of London. England’s church is divided on this much-debated issue, leading senior clergy to urge John to refuse his assignment, and simultaneously stimulating a surge of gay-rights activism Western Europe has rarely seen. True, John is in a 27-year relationship with a man; but he’s celibate, still a man of God, and he keeps his fetishes in the bedroom.
The gay world is changing, rippling into areas thirsting for reform. In Brazil, 800,000 people marched in Sao Paulo’s Pride Parade, cementing the city’s reputation as Latin America’s most vibrant gay and lesbian community. Brazil is looking to speed up its pro-gay legislation, including a proposed gay partnership law that has been stuck in Brazil’s Congress for seven years.
Look way north of Brazil, past San Francisco and Manhattan’s Chelsea community. In the Great White North, families of all stripes watched the Pride Parade with a renewed sense of elation, and mothers were satisfied their sons can be wed without being labeled social pariahs. Yes, half of America is fuming, but half the world is watching the Canadian lead — today, same-sex unions; tomorrow, what next?
At Toronto’s Parade, a group called TNT!MEN (Totally Naked Toronto Men Enjoying Nudity) strolled the route as naked as the day there were born. Not all were hard-cut like the stereotype holds; some bellies hung low, some genitilia elicited more gags than gasps. But TNT!MEN weren’t there to please; they were enjoying the day that celebrated the human body, in all its form. On another level, they were enjoying the day that marked the beginning of a new era.
Check Out 2003 Pride Parade Slideshow
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| Toronto was coloured with people of every stripe as 12,000 parade participants marched through the streets during the Pride Parade. – Photo djc Features |
