Pride Toronto must return to its political roots, advocates say as sponsors leave
Ahead of last month's Pride parade, organizers sounded the alarm over Pride Toronto's $900,000 shortfall after sponsors such as Google, Nissan, Home Depot and Clorox pulled their support.
Pride Toronto executive director Kojo Modeste attributed the corporate withdrawals to backlash against diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the United States, though some of the companies said their decisions were made solely because of budgetary considerations.
Although this year's festivities went ahead as planned, Modeste warned that next year's Pride festival may have to be scaled back.
Fatima Amarshi, a former executive director of Pride Toronto, says this is the right moment for a reset.
Amarshi led the organization for three years starting in 2005, right after Canada legalized same-sex marriage, and helped lay the foundation of its current funding model.
Story continues below advertisement
At that time, she said Pride Toronto vetted corporate sponsors only to ensure their internal policies were supportive of LGBTQ+ employees and the broader community.
'We weren't looking at how corporate sponsors were funding arms manufacturers or fossil fuels or efforts to suppress Indigenous land claims. We were linking queer rights to human rights at the level of state repression and legislative oppression, but not via those who fund those efforts,' she said.
2:07
Pride Toronto loses some key corporate sponsors
During her tenure, Pride Toronto's budget grew from a little under $1 million to around $3 million, Amarshi said.
Get daily National news
Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up
By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy
But as that budget expanded over the years thanks to major corporate sponsors, some criticized the increasing commercialization of the annual Pride festival at the expense of its original purpose. More recently, Pride Toronto has faced calls to cut ties with corporations that allegedly profit from Israel's offensive in Gaza.
Story continues below advertisement
Gary Kinsman, one of the founding members of the Lesbian and Gay Day Pride Parade – the organization that eventually became Pride Toronto – resigned in 2024 over that issue and what he called the organization's refusal to hear the demands of the group Queers in Palestine.
Founded in 1981, the Lesbian and Gay Day Pride Parade was a grassroots picnic and political march formed in response to increasing right-wing opposition to the LGBTQ+ community and a series of violent raids by Toronto police at bathhouses in the city. The first event involved a march down a much shorter strip of Yonge Street in front of the police detachment that organized the raids.
Kinsman said the grassroots spirit of the festival continued throughout the 1980s, but a turning point came in the '90s when organizers started looking to involve corporate sponsors, which prompted early signs of division that came decades later.
'This begins to change its (Pride) character fundamentally. It moves quite sharply from being a community-based organization to becoming an organization not defined by communities but by alliances with corporate forms of organization,' Kinsman said in an interview.
Pride Toronto did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
For Beverly Bain, who along with Kinsman co-founded a group called No Pride in Policing, the growing calls to break Pride Toronto's ties with corporate sponsors is long overdue.
Story continues below advertisement
'Pride Toronto, as it exists today, is a corporate pinkwashing Pride. I do not think it's an organization that should be continuing to exist,' Bain said.
Pride Toronto hasn't adequately highlighted issues that disproportionately affect the LGBTQ+ community, such as poor access to housing, mental health struggles and increased substance use, Bain said.
'We go back to the political roots of Pride … a political struggle for the liberation of queer and trans and non-binary and those who are racialized and those who are Indigenous and two-spirited and Indigenous and queer.'
Monica Forrester, executive director of Trans Pride Toronto, said she started attending the Pride festival in 1998, when it was still very much a protest organized by local shops, bars and community centres.
1:51
Thousands take to city streets in Toronto's Annual Dyke Rally and March
'We were still in a time of the bath house raids … and the transphobia and violence that a lot of queer people were facing, not only by people, but by systemic violence. It was really a time where we stood up to show our visibility, that we were here, we were queer and we weren't going anywhere,' Forrester said.
Story continues below advertisement
But that changed over time, with corporate sponsors appearing to be at the forefront of Pride events, Forrester said. The fact that some of them have pulled support for the festival is 'a testament that they were never really our allies,' she added.
Faisal Ibrahim, a spokesperson for the Coalition Against Pinkwashing, said it would be a 'bare minimum' for Pride Toronto to cut ties with sponsors who financially benefit from Israel's war efforts in Gaza, and agrees with Forrester that a heavy corporate presence can detract from the overall message of Pride.
Looking back, Amarshi said it was 'incredibly short-sighted' to bring corporate sponsors into what she said has been a vital institution in advocating for queer rights.
'If Pride doesn't find a way to manoeuvre and be accountable to the community and continue to be in a position where the community feels it legitimately represents them, the community will find its own voice and will find its own path forward.' Amarshi said.
'It's never needed scale. It's needed to be loud and it's needed to be brave. That's what started Pride and that certainly hasn't gone away.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
National Observer
23 minutes ago
- National Observer
Coastal First Nations call on Carney to uphold oil tanker ban
Indigenous leaders on British Columbia's north coast are calling on the federal government to hold out against pressure from Alberta and industry to reverse the west coast oil export ban. On Tuesday, the Coastal First Nations, a group of nine First Nations along the north and central coast of BC and Haida Gwaii, wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney. The group urged the government to uphold Bill C-48, known as the Oil Tanker Moratorium Act. Since 2019, this law has prohibited tankers carrying over 12,500 metric tons of crude oil and other oil products from stopping or transferring cargo at any port between the northern tip of Vancouver Island and the Alaska border, which includes Haida Gwaii, the Hecate Strait and Queen Charlotte Sound. The act formalizes protections that Indigenous communities and environmentalists have been seeking since the 1970s. It effectively bans crude oil supertankers from one of the world's most pristine cold-water marine ecosystems, home to whale habitats, wild salmon, seabirds and ancient rainforests. Exports through the Juan de Fuca Strait are allowed, meaning the ban has not interfered with the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. The controversy comes as Carney said in a recent statement that a new bitumen pipeline to BC's north coast is 'highly, highly likely.' His remark aligns with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and federal Conservative MPs push to lift the tanker ban. Smith has specifically called for faster federal approvals for pipeline projects and an exemption at the Port of Prince Rupert to allow oil exports to Asia. But Marilyn Slett, president of the Coastal First Nations and chief councillor of the Heiltsuk Tribal Council, said oil tankers are a 'non-starter' for her community. 'An oil tanker project is not something we can ever provide consent to,' she said. 'Our communities rely on healthy oceans and ecosystems for our livelihood and culture. Reversing or weakening this legislation would put everything our communities depend on at risk.' Marilyn Slett, president of the Coastal First Nations and chief councillor of the Heiltsuk Tribal Council, said oil tankers are a 'non-starter' for her community. The tanker ban was instituted after more than a decade marked by energetic opposition to pipelines to the West Coast. The Northern Gateway pipeline, first proposed by Enbridge in 2002, was ultimately halted in 2016 after more than 130 First Nations publicly opposed the project and courts ruled that consultations had been inadequate. Slett called the decision a major win for Indigenous rights and protection of coastal areas, and said any new talks should not repeat old mistakes. Marilyn Slett, president of Coastal First Nations and Heiltsuk chief councillor, signs an open letter urging Prime Minister Carney to uphold the north coast oil tanker ban. Indigenous leaders have come out against crude oil tankers but have been more accepting of other types of ships, especially those carrying liquefied natural gas (LNG). By 2030, as many as 600 LNG vessels are expected to pass through their waters — activities accommodated through lengthy engagement and approval processes with communities, said Danielle Shaw, chief councillor of the Wuikinuxv Nation and a board member of the Central Coast Indigenous Resource Alliance. 'We're open to discussing projects that will be sustainable and responsible and can strengthen the economy of Canada and British Columbia,' Shaw said. 'But there's strong opposition to oil tankers on this coast because of the impacts it would have for our communities directly.' Slett noted that with 175 LNG tankers already passing through coastal channels this year and more expected, the impact on the ecosystem is significant. 'This is substantial, and those have cumulative effects on the ecosystem. They are in place and serving as projects for British Columbia and other communities. This [oil tankers] is something we cannot add … it's not something we would support.' The risks from oil spills are considered too great. 'When it comes to allowing oil tankers on our coast, it wouldn't be if something were to happen, it would be when something happens,' Shaw said. Slett criticized the lack of formal consultation regarding renewed pipeline proposals. Bill C-5 was rushed through Parliament in just two weeks, and a meeting between Carney and First Nations leaders from across Canada last week was allotted just a few hours. 'There's been a lot of talk about us without talking to us,' she said. She said she learned about energy proposals through the news rather than direct government engagement. The open letter invites Carney to visit the north coast to see why the tanker moratorium remains vital and to consider how a path forward without an oil pipeline can benefit the region. Slett said her communities prefer discussion and collaboration but remain firm in their opposition. 'Court challenges and direct action would always be a last resort,' she said. 'We've built relationships with provincial and federal partners that we want to maintain, but we won't support new pipelines. The tanker ban must stand.'
CBC
43 minutes ago
- CBC
Inclusive rite of passage + India's court backlog
The National is invited to an Indigenous-led camp in Alberta, working to inspire a renewal of rite of passage ceremonies by making them more inclusive. Plus, what's behind India's massive court backlog.
Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Prime Minister Mark Carney set to visit birthplace in N.W.T.
FORT SMITH – Prime Minister Mark Carney is set to stop today in the town where he was born as he travels across the Northwest Territories. Carney also spent his early childhood in Fort Smith, located south of Yellowknife along the Alberta boundary, before he moved with his family to Edmonton. He is scheduled to talk to locals in Fort Smith about affordability and food insecurity, and discuss wildfires with community leaders, before heading to Inuvik in the territory's northwest corner. He is set to co-host the Inuit-Crown Partnership Committee on Thursday with Natan Obed, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, a national organization representing Inuit. It will be Carney's second meeting with Indigenous groups on Ottawa's major projects bill. The legislation would give Ottawa the ability to fast-track projects deemed to be in the national interest by sidestepping some review requirements. This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 23, 2025.
