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The Mayor's Mouthful
What it took to change the city's Pride Proclamation
Margaret Robinson, "The Mayor's Mouthful: What it took to change the city's Pride Proclamation." Xtra! No. 433, May 31 2001, p. 25.
Toronto's mayor has been proclaiming "Lesbian and Gay Pride Week" since 1991. That is about to change.
"We had complaints last year," said Pride Toronto Co-Chair, Scott Ferguson, "and those complaints have been followed up on this year to ensure the proclamation is changed."
According to Anna DiRuscio, Senior Protocol Consultant for the City of Toronto, this year the City will proclaim "Pride Week." An early draft of this year's proclamation text suggests that the1999 proclamation, which read in part "Toronto's Lesbian and Gay Pride Week is also one of the largest and most important cultural events in the city..." has been re-edited to include bisexuals, transsexuals, and the transgendered.
DiRuscio said that the change came as the result of community input "in consultation with the Mayor's office, Access and Equity, Pride [Toronto],and Kyle Rae's community."
Toronto's "Lesbian and Gay Pride Week" proclamation has long been a source of frustration for members of Toronto's bisexual community. The exclusion was particularly poignant last year, when the Dyke March Committee chose Bisexual Women of Toronto (BIWOT) as our first ever Distinguished Group. Many members of BIWOT and their supporters were present for the raising of the rainbow flag at Nathan Phillips Square on June 19, 2000.
When Mayor Mel Lastman proclaimed "Lesbian and Gay Pride Week," I was shocked. Not only was bisexual omitted from the title, but it was present nowhere in the body of the proclamation. As a bisexual woman, I felt that my year-round volunteer efforts were denied by a proclamation which mentioned gays and lesbians but excluded my own orientation. As Dyke March Co-Chair I was embarrassed that this omission had insulted the very group our committee had chosen to honour.
"I went to the proclamation last year (my first time) excited to be part of the opening festivities,"said Krista Taves, a founding member of BIWOT. "As the proclamation was read, I kept a smile on my face, but inside my heart was sinking."
"I...was very disappointed by the proclamation,"said fellow BIWOT member Susan Anderson. "Being a bisexual and transsexual woman, I felt doubly excluded." Pride Toronto has been far more inclusive than the proclamation would lead one to believe. "Our incorporated name is the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Transsexual, Transgendered Pride Committee of Toronto," said Scott Ferguson. "We strive to represent as much of the community as possible and provide the opportunity for all groups to feel they have a voice and are represented at Pride."Although the committee publicly uses the name "Pride Toronto,"each of the four terms continuesto be used in committee documents, meetings, and on their website, www.pridetoronto.com. Pride Toronto has traditionally sent a letter to the Mayor's office requesting a proclamation, indicating the date of the festival, and making note of any particular themes or milestones. This responsibility fell upon Ferguson for the first time last year. His letter of request for 2000 asked that the City declare "Pride Week."
"There are members of our community who do not fit under the LGBT umbrella and that is why I prefer the terms Pride Toronto and Pride Week," Ferguson said. Changing the proclamation was not a simple matter of phoning City Hall. "A proclamation is an official statement by the Mayor,"said Ceta Ramkalawansing, Interim Manager of the Access and Equity office. "All proclamations are drafted by the Office of Protocol."
"Community groups can submit requests," said Protocol Services researcher, Elaine Wills, "but we decide if it's a proclamation."Wills indicated on May 1 that her office had received a draft from Access and Equity, but she admitted that "we had some concerns with it." When I asked what those concerns were, she reminded me that "the mayor has to read the proclamation...it's a personal statement from him....We have to be very careful we don't use offensive language."
What he language in question might be wasn't difficult to guess. The Access and Equity office already uses inclusive language as indicated by the naming of their advisory task force on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues. Mayor Lastman has frequently referred to Toronto's "gay pride parade"when boasting of Toronto's diversity to the leaders of other cities, but I am not aware of any instance in which he has referred to the bisexual, transsexual or transgender communities.
The proclamation was not something the City of Toronto gave out easily. Between 1973 and1989 Toronto mayors refused to recognize the event. In 1990 the Pride Committee filed a complaint with the Ontario Human Rights Commission and lost, leaving the committee with$10,000 in legal fees. Mayor June Rowlands finally proclaimed "Lesbian and Gay Pride Day" in1991. It wasn't until 1993 that Councillor Kyle Rae, filling in for an absent Mayor Rowlands, raised the rainbow flag at City Hall.
Toronto has one of the largest and most organized bisexual communities in North America, yet other cities, such as Ottawa and Halifax, had been ahead of Toronto in adding "bisexual" to Pride Week proclamations. According to June Cook, Executive Secretary for Halifax Mayor Peter Kelly, community groups submit their proclamation request to the mayor's office, complete with the preferred text. "Our office would then format the text with the city crest," said Cook." Ottawa's Mayoral proclamations are drafted by the Protocol Office," said Bernadine Clifford, Coordinator of the Municipal Freedom of Information Act in Ottawa's Protocol Office. "But generally a community group will submit a draft with the text they would prefer."
Not to be outdone, Toronto has now created an even more inclusive proclamation than Halifax (which includes "bisexual" but not "transsexual or transgender"), or Ottawa (which includes"bisexual" and "transgender" but not "transsexual"). The change comes just in time. This year's Pride Parade Grand Marshal, Mira Soleil-Ross, is a transsexual woman. Ms. Ross is neither gay, lesbian, nor bisexual, and is being recognized specifically for her work with transsexual and transgendered people. To have started Pride Week with a proclamation which excluded the Grand Marshal would have been a replay of last year's embarrassing exclusion of BIWOT.
Of course the problem of inclusion is not limited to Pride Week. As Scott Ferguson playfully pointed out to me: this article appears in Xtra!, "Toronto's Lesbian and Gay biweekly."
