Sanfino and Arsenault were arrested in Edmonton when the plane landed, Sanfino because of the disturbance and Arsenault because she refused to stop filming the RCMP officers arresting her friend.

The police addressed the women by male pronouns throughout the ordeal, and allegedly threatened to put them in the male prison. Arsenault, who has had extensive plastic surgery, said one officer even questioned her about her operations, asking her what parts she had “down there.”

The incident occurred just as Bill C-279, which would add gender identity and gender expression as prohibited grounds for discrimination to the Human Rights Act, stalled before the senate. Xtra reported June 24 that despite widespread support from senators, things don’t look promising for the bill, suggesting Conservative higher-ups may be blocking its progress. Opponents to the bill say transgender people are adequately covered under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

With Pride Toronto kicking off this week, LGBT activists from around the world, including Marcela Romero, are telling the senate to stand up for trans rights. The regional coordinator for the Latin American and Caribbean Network of Transgender People, Romero told Xtra: “We don’t want tolerance anymore. We want human rights.”

"Pride: You Belong Over There". Image from Blackness Yes!

You may have already heard something of Pride Toronto’s new sign-vetting policy,  its banning of Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA) from the parade, and its outlawing of the term “Israeli apartheid” from all Pride-related events.  Or about how, after weeks of public outrage, including the humiliation of having several Pride honourees return their awards, Pride Toronto scrapped the policy, rescinded its decision to exclude QuAIA and overturn the ban on the term “Israeli apartheid.”

What you might not have heard as much about are other decisions made by Pride that, like the QuAIA debacle, reflect a general indifference towards historically marginalized people: organizing the second annual Trans March without input from Toronto’s trans community, for instance. And relocating programming for women, youth, and people of colour to off-site, inappropriate venues—again without community consultation.

For the past 12 years, Blackness Yes!, a community-based committee, has organized Blockorama, a space for black queer and trans people, and their allies. According to committee-member Syrus Marcus Ware, Pride’s recent actions reflect a “pendulum swing” against the diversification efforts of the last 30 years, and an obvious prioritizing of corporate sponsorship. (Xtra found that in 2009, corporate sponsorship made up 41 percent of Pride’s revenue).

Blackness Yes! would know. Three years ago they were told they could no longer host their bustling all-day block party at the Wellesley Street parking lot, as it would now be home to the TD-sponsored festival stage and beer garden. Blocko—as it’s commonly known—was relocated to the parking lot of a nearby Beer Store.

“Of course we had our first ever medical emergencies at this space. And they were directly related to its size,” Ware said. Blocko attracts up to 25,000 participants throughout the day. At one point during the 2007 event, a pregnant woman had a seizure and emergency medical services were unable to reach her due to the density of the crowd.

The next two years found Blockorama at George Hislop Park, about four blocks north of the Pride hub at Church and Wellesley Streets. On the downside, with thousands of people traipsing through the park, the ground eventually wore down to a soggy, muddy mess—not the safest environment for a dance party. On the upside, it was a bigger venue than the Beer Store, it was a green space, and it was a constant space—somewhere Blocko and its community could call home.

That was until Blackness Yes! found out earlier this year that they would again be relocated, this time to the Alexander Street parkette—a venue considerably smaller and less safe than previous locales thanks to hilly, uneven ground. Understandably, Blackness Yes!, its community, and their allies were pissed. And it wasn’t just about the crass commercialism commandeering the festival; it was time to address something much more insidious.

In its infinite wisdom, Pride Toronto uprooted a largely diasporic community, which has struggled with displacement and second-class citizenship for generations.

“Many felt displacement as a continued experience,” explained Ware.

Ware compared the relocation to “tending to a garden, taking care of it until it blooms” only to have someone take it over, move you to a sandy patch and tell you to start all over again.

In response to the community blacklash against the move, Blackness Yes! organized a town hall on April 13 at The 519 Church Street Community Centre, where Toronto’s black LGBTQ community members had the chance to voice their concern and express the importance of Blocko as a space of resistance, community, celebration, and connection, to Pride’s decision-makers. (Ware told me it took five months for Tracey Sandilands, Executive Director of Pride Toronto, to meet with Blackness Yes! That in itself is quite telling.)

In an interview with Deviant Productions at the meeting, Blackness Yes! member Junior Harrisson said that Pride has simply created an event and expected people to show up. Finally, heeding some consideration for Blackness Yes!’s needs and demands, Pride guaranteed the group George Hislop Park for this year and the next. Sandilands’ “solution” was a laundry list of offers and caveats, amounting to the same thing Blocko had last year. No surprise that Blackness Yes! remains cautious.

“They don’t get it…I’m still not 100 percent convinced they have our best interests at heart,” Ware said.

Blockorama 12 program of events. Courtesy of Blackness Yes

Few commentators on the situation surrounding Blockorama and QuAIA have done as Thea Lim at Racialicious did, and looked past the issue of censorship to address the indifference Pride has demonstrated towards groups like Blackness Yes! and QuAIA.

Whatever may be the root cause of Pride Toronto’s continued unresponsiveness towards historically marginalized groups, the communities involved have responded with a message of solidarity. Blockorama’s theme for this year, “Fire This Time”—a play on James Baldwin’s book of essays, The Fire Next Time—does well to sum it up: No more.

Blockorama 12: The Fire This Time takes place this Sunday, July 4 from 12:00 to 10:00 pm at George Hislop Park.

AIDS memorial at 519 Church Street Community Centre, Toronto. Photo courtesy of Kenn Chaplin at Flickr.

Although Pride Toronto decided to reschedule its week-long festivities in light of the G20 circus coming to town, the committee for the AIDS Candlelight Vigil, an event associated with Pride Week, decided it would take advantage of the politically charged atmosphere.

We took the opportunity to speak with Kay Roesslein, co-chair of the AIDS Candlelight Vigil planning committee, about the significance of the event, the decision to keep the original date, and what to expect at this year’s event, which is tonight.

Q&A

Natalie Samson: I was hoping you could tell us about the history and background of the event.

Kay Roesslein: This is the 26th vigil and it truly began for honouring, remembering and celebrating. When it began in the 80s there were so many losses, especially in the gay circles, significant numbers were lost. We saw then over the years [the vigil] become impactful in other communities, including in those wherein substance abuse is a challenge, mental health communities, populations from various countries—that would be the slow progression over the years where losses started to impact [these and] other communities. It really was an opportunity to remember significant losses and to make a statement, to talk about awareness and to raise the flag that HIV is impactful and it can effect us all.

Natalie Samson: So it’s very much a political statement.

Kay Roesslein: Absolutely.

Natalie Samson: Has there historically been any kind of political presence at these vigils?

Kay Roesslein: Not as a rule. June Callwood was here one year and was a host…I know Kyle Rae has attended over the years, George Smitherman has. It’s really a community event. We have strived over the years to keep it a community event. We get sponsorship, yes, but it tends to be sponsorship from [not for profit and related organizations like] Casey House, LOFT Community Services, it’s from ACT [AIDS Committee of Toronto], from the Elementary Teachers Federation. But it’s not from big pharmaceuticals—and that’s intentional. The intent is to keep it a community event.

In fact, the planning committee, all the organizers, are representative from different community agencies or are individuals within the community. That way we stay true, we don’t end up with the politics that we see elsewhere, like Pride, for example.

Natalie Samson: Have you seen questionable sponsorship or politics at other vigils?

Kay Roesslein: I can’t cite any personal examples, no. I am aware though that it came up often in conversation when we looked at our programming, especially with the International AIDS vigil we had during the International AIDS Conference at Yonge and Dundas Square. We invited our local politicians to participate and they did. But again, it’s who do you invite and why, and what’s the message behind it—are we still reflecting our community.

I think one interesting area of growth is the increase in diversity. It speaks to how HIV has grown and impacted so many different communities now. Culturally, it’s all over. So what we’ve done this year, we had to make a decision. We had to decide, because Pride Toronto changed its date, it moved Pride week. Well, if we continued to do the vigil on the Thursday of Pride week, we’d be on Canada Day.  We really thought hard about this. Part of us still remains true to the grassroots cause—I mean really it’s still about honouring, celebrating, remembering and awareness. This year, we had wanted to honour those who had died or were affected by HIV/AIDS in those countries where it’s endemic. Of course with the G20 suddenly in town, we had an opportunity to marry our themes. So we are including universal access and human rights as our theme this year. So this year, given that direction around HIV in countries where it’s endemic, the G20 just made sense.

It also influenced our choice around our priority. Our priority is awareness. Our priority is human rights and universal access [to medical treatment]. And given that really we’re talking about HIV, which goes beyond a Pride event, it was appropriate to hold it this Thursday. So we did introduce the G20 [to this event] in this sense. We’re really raising the flag around awareness, saying HIV touches us all; it’s global. We need to look at ourseves in Canada, because there isn’t universal access in Canada. You can ask many aboriginal communities if they feel they have universal access.

Natalie Samson: What’s been the response to keeping the original date?

Kay Roesslein: I think there was consensus by the committee and by the community there’s been absolute understanding. In terms of it being on Canada Day, people understood not competing with that. And as people unraveled the theme of the vigil, especially with our increased diversity on our committee and in our community, it really made sense. If anything has changed over the years, it’s the diversity of our community and the diversity of the board.

Natalie Samson: Is the event run by any particular organization?

Kay Roesslein: We are a Pride event, although that was a little trickier this year because we are not fitting in their calendar since we’re happening just prior to it. So we’re an associated event. We’re associated with the 519 [Church Street Community Centre]. We hold it at the 519 at the AIDS Memorial. We read out the names each year of those who have passed each year and have been put up on the wall.

Natalie Samson: What is the AIDS Memorial at the 519?

Kay Roesslein: It’s a series of upright standing concrete slabs arranged in an arch. There’s a garden around it and it creates a semi-circle. In front of that semi-circle is a flat cemented area and all of this is raised. On each slab that goes around in a semi-circle are metal plaques engraved with names going back to ’84, I believe.

Natalie Samson: How is it decided which names go on the memorial?

Kay Roesslein: We don’t decide. Any name put forward to the AIDS Memorial Committee [through the 519] usually goes up.

Natalie Samson: And it can be an AIDS-related death from any year?

Kay Roesslein: That’s correct. So tonight, for example, we’re reading out names from 1994, 2003, 2007, 2008, and from 2009 and 2010. There are 23 names added this year. They ask for a fee, but where you can’t there is consideration.

Natalie Samson: What can someone expect tonight?

Kay Roesslein: We have Glad Voices that we start with and we end with Singing Out, a huge community choir, and we’ll have about 50 to 60 people on stage at the end. In between we’ll have individual performers on stage…pieces that are really quite touching. But we end with Singing Out on a very hopeful note.

We invite the audience to go on a journey with us wherein first we acknowledge the facts, the gaps, the things that may upset us and make us angry, our call to action and awareness, then we move towards remembering. That’s when we note all the names. And then we move towards honouring with the candle lighting and we move the flame into the audience. It’s quite beautiful.

The AIDS Candlelight Vigil in Toronto will be held tonight, June 24 at 519 Church Street, Cawthra Square Park, from 9-10pm.