Everyone knows that I love living in Toronto (and if you didn't, well, now you do!), but when asked specifically what I love about the city, I tend to get hit with a random case of amnesia. It's kind of like being asked what your favourite band is, and for some reason you can only think of Linkin Park. Yeah -- that kind of feeling.
Me being asked things. via: http://goo.gl/1oKT4d
This last week, however, I definitely didn't have to think about why I love Toronto.
Two words: WorldPride 2014Toronto isn't just diverse -- we celebrate our diversity. Being in my area of study (Social-Cultural Anthropology, Book & Media Studies, Women & Gender Studies, and Wikipedia), and being a minority individual, I'm so glad that I have the privilege of being able to live here.
And I'm ecstatic that mentality doesn't stop anywhere you go downtown -- especially at our university.
The very first thing I did, even before Pride Week officially started, was attend the U of T Pride Pub at Hart House with a few friends.
Hart House makes a very nice party area. Who knew?!It was outrageous.
I mean, I'm not dumb (note: I can only attest to this by saying U of T accepted me) -- I know our student body is diverse, but experiencing the Pride Pub showed me that as a university, we truly do have strength in numbers!
It was a beautiful night filled with Britney Spears music, lip-synching drag queens, Steam Whistle, and a whole lot of new faces for me to embarrass myself in front of.
This summarizes everything that happened that night. No shame, just love.
Since the University of Toronto is a "no judgement zone," I was able to simultaneously "dance" to C+C Music Factory's "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)" at the Pride Pub, while still having the pleasure of being invited to march as a part of the university group for the second year in a row!
Me passing out from the heat at last year's Pride.If you look up the word 'messy' in Webster's Dictionary, you will find this picture from Pride 2013.
Although it was literally boiling, having all my friends and peers around me while marching by thousands of equally happy spectators helped me not to have a heat stroke (this is scientifically proven). That, and we were walking through a military war field -- if the war field was downtown Toronto, and the guns were water guns.
You can't see me because I shape-shifted into a puddle.It started raining for a few minutes, but then a double rainbow formed. The only thing that could've made this scene better is if Diana Ross' "I'm Coming Out" was playing at the same time.I didn't know I could be more proud than I already am to go to the University of Toronto -- but I truly am. 50 metric pounds of glitter, and a community that doesn't just accepts you, but celebrates your differences with you. That is priceless. Unless you count the glitter; It was probably purchased at Costco. So almost priceless.
UofT, what did you do for WorldPride?
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