Toronto’s vibrant Pride parade to cap off weekend of celebrations, marches

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/torontos-vibrant-pride-parade-to-cap-off-weekend-of-celebrations-marches

It's North America’s largest Pride festival

Artin Avaznia says he was transformed the first time he saw a group of Iranians marching in Toronto’s Pride parade.

The Iranian-Canadian dancer was in his mid-20s and it was his first time attending North America’s largest Pride festival. It was a stark contrast to what he’d seen in his hometown of Ottawa, which he described as a “small, very government city” that was lacking in large-scale queer representation at the time.

“Seeing that brought tears to my eyes,” Avaznia said in an interview ahead of a performance at the Pride festival on Friday. “I never witnessed that before, seeing representation of not just Iranians but the broader Middle Eastern folks, just because (being) queer and Middle Eastern doesn’t always go so well together.” Continue…