Leather Pride Parade in Toronto

A few weeks ago, just after Pride, I wrote what Pride was for me – or at least, one part of it.

Sunday culminated with the combination of the “Church St. Fair”, formerly the “Church St. Fetish Fair”, and Toronto Leather Pride.

The Church St. Fetish Fair was a weekend designed for a number of reasons:

• for sexual minorities to show their pride.
• for people to recognize that “it’s okay” to be kinky – after all, everyone has their kink.
• it was designed to bring more people to the Church St. Business Improvement Area.  As long as we acknowledge that at some level, it was for capitalistic reasons, and I am fine with that.  After all, Church St has a number of independent businesses that I would prefer to support over larger commercial enterprises.

I believe the event in the past did create a safe space where people could wear their fetish clothing during the day and display their sexuality, rather than having to ‘hide it’ away in a club or bar, and people could explore things in a non-threatening environment.  After all, that is one aspect of what Church St. is about – sexuality.  Why would we want that sanitized in the days of conservatism in Toronto and in Canada?

So this year, the BIA decided to drop the Fetish aspect based on many reasons as described in this podcast episode for a kinky internet radio show, sanitizing the event.  The one reason I am most offended at was that, to paraphrase, businesses didn’t like kinky folk standing in front of their stores doing things like standing in diapers or flogging out of fear that people wouldn’t return to those businesses?

Kinky folk are not allowed in the Gay Village?

I knew the Gay Village was going mainstream, but hadn’t realized just how mainstream.

Excuse me, but the Church St. Fetish Fair was meant to be an adult event.  Church St by it’s very existence has always been a more adult place.  While I may not be interested in one person’s fetish, who I am I to censor?  If you’re looking for something much more open and inclusive, that’s what Pride is about.  I will also add that if you want to be inclusive, then you also need to be inclusive of kinky folk when it comes to Church St.  You cannot just say, “We want everyone but you, you’re not welcome” especially on a street that was built on and celebrates sexual minorities.

Needless to say, Church St. witnessed it’s first Leather Pride parade yesterday. Kinky people – players, lifestylers, fetishists, pan, bi, gay, straight, two spirited – you name it – came together walked up and down Church St in a celebration to say, “Hi, we are here, and we’re not going away.”

While some would disagree with the flash mob and parade. I do support this initiative and it made a point.  We are still around, there are a LOT of us and we will not be pushed back into the leather or sex closet.

It’s important for these businesses to know that the same people that purchase from them, are the same people that some have talked about negatively.

And needless to say, the BIA realized their mistake:

• The Ferris Wheel and Bouncy Castles went largely unused.  The mechanical bull was quite busy.
• There were still a bunch of independent fetish businesses that sold their products on the street despite the drop in the number of vendors.
• Overall attendance, I’m sure, was down because most of the kinky leather folk who would have spent their hard earned dollars, gladly supporting Church St. Businesses, supported Zipperz who were the Sunday hosts of Toronto Leather Pride.  Smart move for Zipperz.