Pride 2008 Crowns Grand Marshall Enza Anderson
This year's Pride Week celebrations might still be a couple months off, but the folks at Pride Toronto are wasting no time and have just announced that this year's Grand Marshall will be none other than Enza "Supermodel" Anderson.
Enza has been a fairly loud voice in Toronto's queer community as a regular columnist over at Metro newspaper, covering local entertainment news and "on the street" profiles.
Anderson is well known for a bid for mayor back in 2000 where she competed against Mel Lastman, taking a fairly substantial number of votes. This surprised many because of the fairly low amount of capital she put into running the campaign.
Enza hasn't been shy in declaring her intentions to run for city council in 2010; She told me as far back as last year's Pride that this was her plan, and calls her role as Grand Marshall "a stepping stone" to that goal. If she's elected, that will reportedly make her the first transsexual on a city council in Canada.
The role of Grand Marshall is to lead the Pride Parade, as well as making media appearances where necessary, in effect acting as the spokesperson for Pride Toronto.
Pride Toronto 2008 runs from June 20th to 29th this year, with Enza leading the parade on Sunday, June 29th. Keep an eye on blogTO for tons of coverage from Pride.
Photo by Adam Schwabe
Comments (8)
GAY PRIDE GOING DOWN. RACE, CLASS, BOREDOM CITED AS CAUSE OF SLOW DEATH
In its beginnings, the parade was an explicitly political affair, largely the work of affluent, white left-leaners consciously grabbing the Stonewall and Steam Bath Raid events as a rallying point for Toronto's largely closeted gay and lesbian population.
One of its great messages was that closeted gays and lesbians were working alongside Torontonians at white-shoe law firms, big accounting firms, in entertainment, the arts, publishing, journalism, politics.
After all, the message ?out of the closet and into the streets!? could hardly have been aimed at people who were living out their gay lives there already.
A few years later, an article in The Toronto Star described the paraders ?? most of whom were white and most of whom were young? ? marching ?past smiling policemen, wide-eyed tourists and blas? locals who passed it off with a live-and-let-live shrug.?
But over the last three decades, as that demographic has largely come out of the closet, and gotten a little more than a ?live and let live? shrug when they emerged, there doesn?t seem to be much for them to march for.
White people say they experience the parade as being tired and corny. They?ll say it?s unattractive to them. The reason it?s unattractive to them is because there are all these faces of people of color from all over the world. What happens is the parade gets blacker and blacker.Fewer white people feel drawn to it. The result is, to be seen at the parade is a little d?class?.
Gays may say they celebrate difference, but only in terms of sexuality. Race and class need not apply.
Thanks for the copy & paste. How about a real opinion?
"there doesn?t seem to be much for them to march for."
Bullshit. Step into the shoes of any gay kid growing up in school where they're dehumanized by their classmates.
Or try kissing your same-sex partner in any club outside of Church Street and see what kind of reaction you get from the people around you.
Hell, take a stroll around town with Enza and observe the disgusting behaviour many Torontonians show her. (I have on several occasions, and she's brave let me tell you)
As much as Torontonians like to praise the city for how progressive and welcoming it is, there's still a lot of bullshit that goes on here and abroad.
Pride is absolutely still necessary. Don't try to tell me otherwise unless you've been exposed to this kind of treatment.
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