As Toronto marks the fiftieth year of its first gay rights march comes this celebration of those who march with pride.
Toronto’s inaugural Gay Pride March took place in 1974 when a hundred people gathered to march from Allan Gardens to Queen’s Park, calling on lawmakers to include sexual orientation in the Ontario Human Rights Code. The march helped lay the groundwork for what has become one of the largest gay pride festivals in the world. In Pride, Lambda-award-winning writer Michael Rowe brings this history, and the challenges the gay community has faced since, into sharp focus while Toronto photographer Angel Guerra captures his city’s pride parade on a human scale. In 120 photographs, Guerra zooms in from the glorious spectacle to the small scenes and single participants, shining a light on moments of joy, strength, ferocity, resilience and love. At a time when 2SLGBTQI+ rights are under renewed threat throughout the world, Guerra and Rowe’s work captures the power of a movement that contains multitudes.