Dyke Day at Pride Week Toronto, '08

28.06.2008

Dad left early this morning to go pick some people up and drop some people off at the airport. That's his job you know.

Anyway, I got to sleep in a little bit, I ate breakfast and waited for dad to get back from his rounds. He finally got back (late) and me and mom took off for downtown.

When we got there, we found that Pride Week is really just an excuse for loosely associated social groups and corporate public relations teams to hand out free stuff to unsuspecting victims. We picked up some of this stuff and somebody from the Canadian Cancer Society made me a funny hat to wear. The point was to make me aware of the danger the sun has on my skin, or so she said. I think she probably had an ulterior motive, but that's just me.

Soon, it was just about time for the "Dyke Parade". I guess the women felt like they had to have their own parade a day before the guys did. It's kind of dumb because they are always welcome to show up to the Pride Parade on Sunday, so I found it redundant. But whatever.

So there were lots of women without tops, which my mom said she had never seen before. There were also lots of really butch women on motorcycles, tricycles and also just plain walking down the street waving banners etc. etc. I got some videos, but they aren't as exciting as it sounds. Also the computer in the hotel lobby won't let me upload them right now. Oh well. Check back later, after I get home.

The Dyke Parade was a bit of a letdown, so we slowly walked over to a stage sponsored by a women's book store with lots of poets. I had already heard of Ivan Coyote, so we went to go see him/her do her little poetry thing. She was really really good. It wasn't really poetry, more like really creative storytelling, which of course, is also cool. We also saw an Asian girl complaining about her parents and childhood in an amusing way. Next up, was a guy who swore a lot and talked about gay sex in very graphic detail. My mom didn't like this, so we left in the middle, kind of upsetting the poor guy. We were sitting right in front, so he saw us leave and apologized in a whisper "sorry" to us over the microphone. I waved and smiled and my mom just kinda kept walking, pretending not to notice.

It was just about time for us to meet dad. My batteries had run out of juice by then, so we went to the Shoppers Drug Mart to pick up some more. Dad met us at College Station after we waited around for about an hour or so. I missed most of Ember Swift but I ended up taking a picture of two of the absolutely cutest gay guys I saw all day. (The photo doesn't really show it, but this guy had garter belts holding up his socks... super cute). I definitely expected more of aforementioned "costumes" and stylish people, but sadly, I did not.

Dad met us a half hour late than we thought he would, and we missed most of Ember Swift. However, I did take a photo of a sarcastic shirt. Of which there were many throughout the course of the day.

Then we went to go see Mel C. (yes Lisa, of Spice Girls fame) but we didn't have enough motivation to actually find a good spot from which to see the show, so we left for the Korean BBQ after one or two songs. I've never been to one of these places, and I don't think I'll ever go back. Not that the food wasn't good... Call me crazy, but I'd rather pay somebody else to cook for me, rather than just cutting it up and handing the tongs over...So yeah, this little semi-vegetarian ate a LOT of meat today, and consequently felt extremely sleepy right afterwards.

After this, we were sick of Pride, so we went to the Eaton's Centre to see if something was going on at the square there. Of course there was. The Mexican Embassy or tourism group or something was putting on a concert of some sort. It was pretty good. We danced for a bit and looked at all the junk for sale, the same junk that was for sale two weeks ago when I was there for NXNE. Right.

We also grew bored of the Mexican music, so we went over to Nathan Phillips Square to listen to the jazz music at the jazzfest. It was super good, so we just chilled out in the park for a while. From there, we took the subway back to Kipling station and from there, took dad's airport shuttle van back to the hotel. That took a while...and I slept the whole way.

Tomorrow mom and dad go back home and I finally get to meet Kit from the TravelPod forums!

Chalk drawing