Montreal Likely to Host World Pride in 2023
Montréal held its pride parade last Sunday, the 19th of August 2018., Sarah Lombardo reporting on the MTL Blog, said, “chances are if you were in the city you went to the event to support the LGBTQ+ community, listen to music, watch all of the parade floats go by, catch a glimpse of Justin Trudeau marching in the parade or maybe you just wanted to find an excuse to celebrate and party. Whatever your reason is, we can all agree this year’s Pride festival was a good one.”
The pride parade this year was a great success and was made even more colourful by an announcement which said that there was actually a pretty good chance the city could host World Pride 2023!
This news was announced by Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante, just before the parade began yesterday afternoon. “To top the surprise announcement,” Lombardo wrote“Valérie Plante afterwards told the city that Montreal is drafting a sexual diversity policy that’ll be released next year. Both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard agreed and supported Plante, with Trudeau even addressing Montreal’s hidden issue of the massive amount of homeless youth in the city that identify with the LGBTQ+ community.”
There were even talks on introducing rainbow coloured buses which would operate all through the year. It was one of the city’s preparations towards being selected to host the world pride. There promises to be more pride themed events around Montreal in the forth coming months as the city prepares for the possibility of hosting the event. Right now it obviously cannot be said for sure who gets to host the 2013 pride event, but Montreal city and its residents, would make a great host.
The International Gay & Lesbian Travel Associationexplains that Gay pride events, including gay pride parades and festivals were started in major urban centers to improve the visibility, acceptance and legal protections for LGBTQ people living in those communities. While the aim of pride day started with a political nature, many cities around the world have such wide acceptance and legal protections that many events have become a celebration of pride for the local LGBTQ community. Depending on the country or city where the event is being held, the marches and parades often campaign for recognition and acceptance of same-sex marriage, legal protections for couples and families, anti-discrimination laws or trans rights. Although there are still obstacles in achieving full acceptance and protections for the LGBTQ community, the progress made just over the past few decades have been significant.
The history of these parades could be traced back to the commencement of the gay rights protest movement in 1965, whenlesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons had rioted following a police raid on the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. The Stonewall Inn was a gay bar which accommodated an assortment of patrons, but which was popular with the most marginalized people in the gay community: transvestites, transgender people, effeminate young men, hustlers, and homeless youth.