Pictures and notes from the 2014 Toronto Pride parade

Nursing a massive hangover from a previous night of Pride reveling with Skippy Stalin, I didn't expect to make it down to the immense Pride parade on Sunday afternoon. I don't like parades much anyway, since really it mainly involves standing around in boredom while a bunch of people walk by waving. And as far as parades go, the Pride one is pretty lame.

The idea of the Pride parade, of supporting gay rights and inclusion is a great one. But the actual parade is consistently one of the worst you'll ever see. With its growing popularity, it now goes on for hours and the "floats" almost all entail not particularly well decorated flatbed trucks with a bunch of people just jumping around on the back. With the exception of the odd bit of effort from one or two groups, and the occasional well-turned out drag queen, there isn't much to recommend Toronto's Pride parade.

Promoting Quebec at Pride

That's why I generally like to show my support for Pride by attending the actual festival rather than the parade.

But by mid-afternoon, I was feeling more or less back at par, it was a nice day and I figured I may as well get get out and get some exercise by rollerblading down to check out the tail end of procession.

It was the usual stuff, but even more of it than usual since this year Toronto was the host of World Pride, whatever that distinction means.

Lots of local politicians were there, including a tiny Sarah Thomson contingent. I have no idea how that woman finds people stupid enough to publicly express support for her, but there were a handful of youth looking like they were doing it to get some sort of intern experience they could put on their resumes. Although if they were smart, that would be the sort of thing they would want to leave off their resume.

John Tory's float was the perfect metaphor for his campaign. It was the one that cost the most money, but looked sparse and was manned by unenthusiastic-looking people.

If Pride contingents are anything to go by, then Olivia Chow has the drag queen vote wrapped up. Whether that is enough to put her over the top in the mayoral contest however remains doubtful.

As it turned out, the most popular politician at this year's Pride festival was Mayor Rob Ford. Our mayor didn't appear in person, but was portrayed by a rotund man wearing a Rob Ford mask sitting astride a large model jet on a float from opponents of the expansion of the Toronto Island airport.

That a fake Rob Ford was more enthusiastically greeted by the crowd than any of his real opponents, or the fact that you can even buy a Rob Ford mask may be another indication of some surprises in store for the upcoming October municipal election.

Fake Ford more popular than real Chow or Tory

The miserable, ugly wretches of the anti-semitic group "Queers Against Israeli Apartheid" (QuAIA) were there too. There were only about a dozen of the hideous creatures led by their decrepit spokesman, Toronto District School Board "equity adviser"  Tim McCaskell, who looked less vibrant and alive than any zombie extra you'll see on The Walking Dead.

At the top end of the parade route, their float was being hauled by the "al-Quds" mobile, a black pick-up from Palestine House, an organization that lost its federal funding for its support of anti-semitism and terrorism. The "al Quds" mobile quickly ditched the QuAIA float though, probably offended at being surrounded by a sea of gay people at Pride. Within a few minutes, no longer propped up by their Islamist friends, the QuAIA display collapsed.

There are plenty of ironies and paradoxes that describe a gay group trying to eliminate the only country in the middle east that respects gay rights and does not persecute people because of their sexual orientation. In Gaza, which the QuAIA idiots are so fond of, that al Quds mobile would be dragging QuAIA members by the neck because they are gay, rather than a float supporting their deceitful propaganda.

QuAIA propaganda...

...being dragged by the "al Quds mobile"

One of the QuAIA regulars, a Sue Goldstein, wearing her ever-present bicycle helmet, was naturally part of the group's minuscule Pride contingent yesterday. A couple of years ago, she also attended in support of an Al Quds Day rally organized by Zafar Bangash, Toronto's most outspoken advocate of the genocidal Iranian dictatorship.  Al Quds Day is an annual event that also promotes the Iranian dictatorship that persecutes and tries to annihilate gay people.

The pathetic characters in QuAIA are so past-it, so intellectually vapid, and so desperate for any sort of attention they can get, that they end up supporting overtly homophobic hatemongers while pretending to be "social justice activists."

In what may have been a sense of ironic humor by the Pride parade's schedulers, the "Queers Against Israeli Apartheid" group was immediately trailed by a group of Iranian gays protesting the mistreatment and persecution of gay people in Iran which mirrors that inflicted on gays by the Palestinians.

QuAIA's walking corpse, Tim McCaskell

Some of the Iranian contingent wore rainbow bandannas to conceal their identity, because back home, their families could be mistreated and they themselves killed if their sexual orientation was to be discovered.

Iranian gays live in fear

One outstanding contraption at Pride was some sort of steampunk vehicle moved along by a "Circus Orange"

While having nothing to do with Pride but adjacent to the parade, Ashely's had an outdoor display of an Indy car being supported by four tea cups.

And so Toronto's Pride went, for 2014.

More creepy "Queers Against Israel"

Within a couple of blocks, the QuAIA display malfunctioned (this pic via Joanne Hill)

These folks were from the group supporting gays in Iran

A small marching band from Fort Henry

The groovy Steampunk contraption

The contraption's 'driver'

Behold the strength of the mighty tea cup