What Do the Truckers Convoy & Pride Toronto Have in Common?

Now I know many of you are not going to like me either way, because many from the Gay Community do not like my position and opinion of the Truckers Convoy and very few from the Truckers Convoy would have a problem of me talking about Pride Month. Frankly the Gay Community have been divided regarding COVID 19 Mandates and also many from the LGBTTiQQ2SAA community supported the Truckers Convoy but you will never get that from any news source. Rarely would you see from the Tabloid News Agency CBC, CTV, CityTV, Global would you get an opinion from a person from that Community supporting the Truckers Convoy, yet many did, like myself, but we would never be allowed to express that on National Television, because Justin Trudeau and his goons for some reason owns me and holds my acceptable views. Not! Also, many from the Truckers Convoy didn't care if I was gay nor did they give a damn even if I would tell people that I died of AIDS and came back to life. Frankly I found that the people from the Truckers Convoy were more interested in hearing my story, and with genuine interest. Recently I wrote a small post at work regarding Pride Month, and thanking my company for recognizing Pride Month, even though I no longer attend Pride Toronto because it has become too Commercial, too weirdly woke, and very exclusive, this grass roots organization has been infiltrated by idiots and ruined the fun.

Seriously most Canadians do not understand the reason why Pride Toronto has a parade. To understand the similarities of the Truckers Convoy and Pride Toronto, I would need to go back into history and tell the story of why we have a Pride March here in Toronto. I have been covering Pride Toronto here in Canada since the late 1987 as a young photographer, hiding my homosexuality because I was scared of the repercussions. What most Canadians do not know is that Pride March started from violent moments in our Canadian History. February 9, 1981 in the city of Toronto, the police raided the gay bathhouses, and arrested many men, and charged a lot of gay men who were operating the gay bathhouse. But it goes further than that many of the media at the time, literally listed in the newspapers, broadcasted on television, radio all the names of the gay men who were caught at the bathhouses, they were shamed, and ridiculed by most of the media at first, including our politicians who participated in the rhetoric. Many of these gay men, lesbians as well, lost their jobs because of it, lost their homes, their families, and many kicked out of their apartments along with the constant harassment by the police, along with the extreme prejudice from other Canadians which was relentless.

Sounds familiar? After this ill treatment, which became a violation of Humane Rights, the gays and lesbians for the first time got together, if you seen the first poster, "Enough is Enough", these Canadians where now fighting back, with 3000 strong marching down to 52 Division, with the slogan "Gay Rights Count." and then about 500 of them remained, causing damage to store owners, and cars of people whom had showed serious prejudice. The protest continued down Young Street with the Police violently beating them but the Gay men fought back and it became violent and bloody. This went on for almost a year, with many more arrests, but not all the media were guilty, like CHUM FM finally started to sympathize with the gays, when the police got really violent with the Gay Community, criticizing finally on the air calling the police pigs, and the Global Mail spoke out and felt someone's sexual activities should remain in the bedroom, and should not be printed in the public domain. Enough is Enough... the violence continued and certain politicians also started to speak out risking their political careers in criticizing prejudice from the community. Dr. Rev. Brent Hawkes went on a hunger strike demanding the rights of Gays to be addressed, from the prejudice of employers, banks, police, hospitals, and businesses. His hunger strike was met by arrogance like the Toronto Star reporter, who admittedly with a strong implication that he should starve to death. Finally the first Gay Pride occurred in March 1982 where Margaret Atwood spoke, Dr. Rev. Brent Hawkes with thousands and thousands of Canadians including some media outlets criticizing and speaking out against the violence, and the hateful, degenerate language from Police, certain politicians, certain press media, institutions, and businesses. Of course Pride Toronto has changed from the cold month of March 1982 to June probably because you can't wear a thong, bikini or speedo in March. So Pride Toronto March was originally a violent occurrence in Canadian History and frankly a bad moment in history. Thankfully today, there has been so much reconciliation, forgiveness towards the issue, with laws now protecting us from such violent prejudice given us some ammunition to fight back in the court room. Though Pride Toronto is more commercial now, but at the time it was a moment when our rights were being violated and we were so frightened to be ourselves. The reason you don't have a Heterosexual march is because you didn't have to to fight for your right to be straight, and to be subjected to unlawful treatment from Police, Hospitals, Businesses, Communities, and you were not barred from your partners pension after being together for 25 years.

Let's make the comparison to the Truckers Convoy, and protestors against COVD 19 Mandates and forced vaccination. So what's happened to Canadians today for not taking a vaccine, pretty much the same treatment that was done to us because we were gay. Think about it, the violent treatment from police, ostracized from businesses, fired from your job, kicked out of your home, treated like a disease, and segregated by hateful language from media and politicians. Also, did it not happened recently where people who supported the Truckers Convoy financially that their names where listed in the newspaper, broadcasted through television, radio and shamed by for their support. Did the banks not freeze bank accounts, did Canadian Politician not arrogantly went public to defame the character of Canadians, shaming them with falsehoods and lies. Hmmmm and you wonder why these Canadians are protesting and shouting through the streets for their freedoms that has been taking away from them, much in the same fashion that was done to the gay community in its time.

One thing for sure, how ignorant our politicians forget our recent history of prejudice. I am glad for all the gays, lesbians who fought for our freedoms, and now the LGBTTiQQ2SAA community is a National Celebration of Expressions for a full month of June of which I am proud to say that I am no longer afraid to be myself. One great lesson I can say is when you see Police, Politicians, Business, Media, the Community, shaming publicly, ostracizing and creating division, to a certain segment of a population, that is a true sign of prejudice and intolerance which should never be part of our Canadian Culture because we are better than that. My message to all Politicians and Career Journalists, you do not speak on my behalf, and stop using the LGBTTiQQ2SAA Community has a pink shield for your virtue signaling and using our community has a weapon to place the same prejudice to another segment of Canadian Culture. Enough is Enough.