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On August 1, nearly 200 people gathered at Victory Square in Vancouver for the Two Spirited Queers, Trans, Intersexed, and Bisexual People of Colour Pride March.
It has been just over two weeks since I woke up to a friend informing me that "there was a big shooting in Orlando." I was instantly filled with anxiety as I turned over in my bed and reluctantly responded, "Oh no. I really hope it wasn't my people."
I could already locate in my body a well-known heaviness that precedes the media wave of causal inquiry that consistently lands in the same place, laced with its own violent punches and cheers from its fixated audience.
I knew that within hours the media would begin making connections between Islam and terrorism in ways that implicate all Muslims as a matter of course.
With this knowledge, I deliberately postponed looking at anything on social media for an entire morning.
Mayoral candidate Olivia Chow's World Pride Party packed Toronto's premier gay bar Woody's this week-end.
The lineup was over an hour long for two sensational shows starring Mahogany Browne, Sapphire Titha-Reign, Allysin Chaynes, Slimthick Monroe, Mila Veu, Natalia Haute-Mez and Brendan Lewis. Former Ontario Deputy Premier George Smitherman was the special guest and rallied Chow supporters.
One of the drag queens, Natalia, did Kylie Minogue's Locomotion with a cute transit costume that said: "Olivia Chow: A Real Transit Plan" only to be a greeted by a giant "John Tory Transit Flip-Flop."
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