A Weekend Remembering and Celebrating Toronto’s Queer Spaces

Thursday, July 4, 2024

Last weekend was a blast as we once again came together to celebrate, share, and learn together during our 6th consecutive year of TSA Pride programming–including in our first ever booth at the Pride Toronto Street Fair.

Throughout the weekend thousands of visitors dropped by to share with us their memories and stories of Toronto’s Queer Spaces–from the first 2SLGBTQ+ space they ever experienced, to the place they met their partner, and even some reminiscing about their favourite queer parties. Many also came to mourn spaces lost, and the people and spaces that made a difference in their lives. By the end of three jam-packed days, close to 1,000 memories populated our maps. We feel so privileged to collect these stories and have had the opportunity to chat with so many wonderful individuals. 

You might be asking yourself: what exactly are we doing with all these memories? While we are still working on the final format, work is underway to share our research on Toronto’s queer spaces in time for next year’s Pride celebrations. So stay tuned for more information! 

While this year’s booth certainly took centre stage in our Pride celebrations, it wasn’t the only way we celebrated Pride this year. This weekend’s festivities were capped off with the highly anticipated Pride Parade, where the TSA once again marched remembering and celebrating Toronto’s Queer Spaces. Thank you to all those who participated in our contingent–including TSA members, family and friends–as well as to all those who cheered us along. Our brightly coloured buildings even caught Mayor Olivia Chow’s eye who joined us for a picture at the end of the parade! 

We would be remiss not to mention that this weekend’s activities are just a small part of our multi-year effort to document, share and remember our city’s Queer Spaces which has resulted into some permanent fixtures in our TSA programming including our Church and Wellesley Village walking tours. We want to give a special mention to MJMA Architecture & Design, Hariri Pontarini Architects, and People Design Co-op who reached out to us to host special private tours for their offices–thank you for making us part of your Pride celebrations and supporting our work! 

And if you haven’t taken the tour, you still have plenty of opportunities with the Village tour being offered at least once a month for the remainder of the season! 

None of this would have been possible without the support and dedication of countless individuals, including our Pride Initiative Leads Kurtis Chen and Janice Miyagi, as well as our Street Fair Booth Volunteers Adria Maynard, Derek McCallum, Andrew Caldwell, Mariana Kimie da Silva Nito, Tirzo Alberto Arjona Sonda, Jorge V S Goz, Maxwell Mae-Ng, Shaghayegh Riahi, Greicy Rodriguez Sarita, Santiago Orozco, June Lee, Vikki Mak, Aindrila Sengupta, and Rafael Pascual-Leone. A big shout out to Ryan Falkenberg for all of his help with both the booth and parade logistics, and to TSA staff and UofT placement student Cherisse Teves, for all their hard work behind the scenes to make this year’s Pride programming possible.  

We’re so excited to see where our Pride programming takes us as we continue to commemorate, celebrate, and share with the public about queer spaces across the city and the role the built environment can play in supporting diversity. 

See you at next year’s Pride!