Toronto Trans March splits in two

By Xtra staff

Published Thu, Jun 30, 2011 8:00 pm EDT

(Just don't call it a binary)

Rumours of an alternate route for Pride Toronto’s Trans March were realized July 1 when about 200 protesters defiantly marched down Yonge St.

The rest of the group — 1,000 or more — took the traditional route down Church St, which is closed for the entire weekend for Pride celebrations.

The Yonge St path, which more closely mirrors the routes of both the Dyke March and the Pride parade, took marchers down about eight blocks of Yonge St, from Charles St to Wood St. A truck at the front of that demo blasted Lily Allen’s "Fuck You" the entire length of the demonstration. The splinter group negotiated the route with police before it began.

That march set off at 8pm, while the Church St march left a half hour later. Crowds of revellers, in the neighbourhood for the weekend’s celebrations, lined the street to cheer on the marchers.

The evening began with a show of unity at Norman Jewison parkette, located in Toronto’s Church-Wellesley Village. Speakers, including Bear Bergman and Kate Bornstein, addressed the swelling crowds before the marches began.

Both marches ended at the Pride Toronto south stage, where trans programming was set to continue until 10pm. An afterparty is planned at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto’s west end.

Watch video of the Yonge St Trans March here:

And check out photos from both marches here:

Comments

Jules

Jul 5, 2011 at 11:56am

trans march fizzled out on church

I was glad to see such a huge turn out of trans folk on Friday - the thing that saddened me however was that the march down Church street seemed to fizzle out and fade because the crowds gathered at Church and Wellesley overpowered the marchers. I wish I had gone down Yonge street now because I didn't enjoy competing with advertizing booths and people who didn't know/care that there was a march going on.

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Stefonknee Wolscht

Jul 4, 2011 at 09:37pm

MESSAGE RECEIVED!

We started together and split in two, only to join up again at south stage together once again. If you consider we marched north, then split left and right, then south on Yonge and Church to a central meeting point, it would seem we created a massive heart in the heart of this massive city! Thank YOU Toronto for supporting Trans Human Rights! (((((((Hugs)))))) Stefonknee

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Marie Gogo

Jul 3, 2011 at 12:42pm

I'm proud of you!

I didn't make it to any pride celebrations. Too much work to do! I want to say how proud I am of all of you. You are so brave and I'm so happy that you are able to choose the gender where you are comfortable and I wish you all good health, happines, lots of love and long life!
Love, Marie

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Amanda

Jul 2, 2011 at 08:47am

speech?

what did kate bornstein say? i heard her speech was basically one big apology - for what? what's the controversy?

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Dennis Boissonneault

Jul 2, 2011 at 08:09am

We are one

This is fantastic. We are taking back Pride. The Stonewall TO march on last Sunday reminded me of the first marches we had. We did not have permits or even police clearance to do so. We just took to the street and marched up Yonge street on only half a side. Eventually the police would start to clear the way for us but not until we had already started to shut down traffic. Eventually they gave us permits but if we had waited for permission we never would have got it.
Eventually they gave us permits but that came after taking control and just doing it. Then came the floats, barricades and insurance issues. All starting to drive up the costs.