The UTSU and the U of T Pride Committee coordinated a united U of T contingent for Pride Toronto’s 30th anniversary parade.
“The UTSU has worked with LGBTOUT to participate and, as such, has a special relationship with the event,” said UTSU President Adam Awad, the first openly gay President of the Students’ Union.
The U of T Pride Planning Committee consists of staff, students, and faculty who meet four times a year to coordinate logistics and theme for the parade and develop activities for throughout the week.
“Over the course of the week there were a bunch of events held as well,” said committee co-chair Alex Wells. “All in all this whole process is powered in a large way by students. But, we do for sure have staff and faculty involvement too, because they are a part of the community as well.”
The parade maintained an activist flair with shirts and bandannas from LGBTOUT that read “My Pride is Political” and “My Pride is Free Speech.” Joined by students from Ryerson, York, and George Brown participants distributed ‘goody-bags’ with candy, condoms, and materials on a campaign to end the Canadian Blood Services’ ban on gay blood donors.
The contingent also included a truck with a live Samba band. “It is such a unique sound during the march and it really is felt both in the contingent and the crowd,” said Wells.
In future years Awad hopes that U of T will be more prevalently featured in the parade. “As some of the most active members in the community and given the role that we have historically played, it would have been nice to be closer to the front of the parade, rather than the back, which is where we have been for several years.”
U of T events throughout the week included a BBQ, pubnight, and shirt decorating party. The U of T community also participated in the Trans, Dyke, and Take Back the Dyke marches.
Comments
"The U of T community also participated in the Trans, Dyke, and Take Back the Night marches."
I think you mean the 'Take Back the Dyke' march...
http://www.xtra.ca/public/Toronto/Take_Back_the_Dyke_takes_over_Toronto_streets-8880.aspx
Varsity journalism. Sigh.
Jul 21, 2010 at 05:20 PM
A poignant rebuttal, Faraz!
Row row, fight da powah!
Jul 21, 2010 at 07:18 PM
Dear Varsity Editors,
Proofread.
Thanks.
Reader
Jul 21, 2010 at 07:22 PM
“As one of the founders of the Pride Parade, the U.T.S.U. has worked with LGBTOUT to participate and, as such, has a special relationship with the event,” said U.T.S.U. President Adam Awad"
WOW! Join us next week when UTSU unveils the wheel...
And now for some much needed fact checking:
The first known an openly gay group at UT was the Gay Academic Union of Toronto, or GAUT, formed in 1975. They made steady progress and in 1981, the first year of PRIDE Toronto, hosted "Gay Awareness Week U of T". As all good and active student groups must eventually do, they approached UTSU/SAC for funding. Here's what their Chair, Dan Healey, had to say about the encounter:
"I found it a humiliating experience to have to go before the Board to plead for more funds, so that our grant would at least match those of the other campus groups which found themselves on SAC's bottom rung"
Awad's claims that UTSU are "founders" of Pride in Toronto are clearly inaccurate. In fact, we can see that the opposite is true. Did the author or editors even try to corroborate Awad's revisionism? Can we expect this kind of drivel all year in the "News" section? This is a gigantic fail.
This article should be pulled. It's absolute garbage.
Sources:
Queer U of T: An annotated history by LGBTOUT http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/19686
Three decades of pride and protest by The Star http://www.thestar.com/specialsections/prideweek/article/827470--three-decades-of-pride-and-protest
Toronto Pride founders protest decision to bar Palestine solidarity http://mondoweiss.net/2010/05/toronto-pride-founders-protest-decision-to-bar-palestine-solidarity.html
Jul 21, 2010 at 09:29 PM
I guess the Varsity is publishing UTSU press releases as articles now?
I can tell this was written by a UTSU employee, since they are the only ones who insist on writing it as "U.T.S.U." in contravention of most style manuals and this newspaper's own established style.
Not to mention that pretty much everything in the article must have taken place in some sort of CFS alternate reality, because it sure as hell didn't happen out here in real life.
Jul 21, 2010 at 11:29 PM
Rishi
In American English one uses periods to denote acronyms, whereas in English English one does not. Whether in Canada we use one or the other depends on which empire you are an agent of. Mind you in a decade, we will all be writing in Mandarin :)
Jul 26, 2010 at 11:21 AM
He didn't mention that it was incorrect to use periods in an acronym. He mentioned that usually, people write "UTSU" with no periods, and only UTSU employees write it as "U.T.S.U." That this article was written by an UTSU employee explains why it is nothing but promotion material for the UTSU. Want further evidence? The periods have been removed from the acronyms in the articles. Suspicious, eh?
Jul 26, 2010 at 01:48 PM
In all honestly, I'm disappointed in the way this article turned out. Rather then acknowledging all the diverse groups that collaborated to pull off pride this year, it focuses very narrowly on LGBTOUT and UTSU.
As others have already stated, it feels more like a press release for UTSU then a legitimate news article. While I acknowledge UTSU's contribution to pride this year, they were far from the only U of T group involved and their contribution left some of us wanting. The negligence of one of their executives nearly cost U of T their spot in the parade, and their decision to hand out CFS materials without even consulting the pride committee was shameful especially after last years "drop-fees pride".
Aug 3, 2010 at 11:50 PM
Post a Comment