TURNING OUT WITH PRIDE
Celebration draws massive crowd
Fred Morsy stood at the corner of Somerset and Bank streets Sunday afternoon, soaking in the final steps of a Pride parade he’ll never forget.
“This is my first Pride, coming out three months ago, after 29 years of my life,” a beaming Morsy said as hundreds of people walked the final stretch on the parade route.
“It’s been the most amazing thing in my life. Feeling myself, being proud, being safe, being more creative, loving people, having way more love, feeling peaceful to everyone. Just having this awesome feeling toward everyone and everyone respects me for whoever I am. I have never felt it in my life.”
Morsy, who walked in the parade with supporters of community health centres, is from Egypt and was also raised in Saudi Arabia. He came to Ottawa five years ago and said a counsellor at the Centretown community health centre was one of the first people to whom he came out.
“I just cannot believe this moment,” Morsy repeated several times as groups posed for pictures and people embraced.
“This is honestly incredible,” he said. “I feel proud to be here. I feel it’s heaven.”
It was likely the largest turnout for a Pride parade in Ottawa’s history. An official count wasn’t immediately available, but organizers estimated tens of thousands of people lined the parade route on Kent Street, Laurier Avenue and Bank Street. They danced to music blasting from floats and shared positive vibes on the last day of the week-long Capital Pride festival.
Somerset Coun. Catherine McKenney, the first openly gay woman to be elected on city council, believes it was the largest Pride event ever in Ottawa.
“Not only the parade, but everything I’ve been to this week has had more people, more excitement, just a bigger energy than I’ve ever seen,” McKenney said.
McKenney was one of the municipal election candidates — several incumbents and challengers were there — who marched in the parade. When it comes to the LGBTQ2 community’s wishes for a local government, people want investments in arts, housing and communities, she said.
“Because look around,” McKenney said, surrounded by a massive crowd of people at the end of the parade route.
“This is what it produces. When you have a good, rich social infrastructure, this is what we get. The happiest day of the year in the City of Ottawa.”
It was also a chance for people to send political messages.
Marnie Wellar wore a costume that looked like a book, emblazoned with “2015 Ontario Sex ed Curriculum,” with tabs like LGBTQ+, same-sex marriage and gender identity. Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative provincial government repealed the curriculum and is consulting the public before of writing a new one. CUPE marched with a banner that said Sex Ed Saves Lives and members chanted the words as they stomped up Kent Street.
Breanna Dealmeida, 15, said “all the brilliant pretty colours” will stand out as a memory of watching the parade with her family. She was decked out in rainbow garb and had a handful of swag from people in the parade distributing stickers and flyers.
“It was amazing. Everyone was dancing and smiling. Everyone was upbeat and happy,” Dealmeida said, reflecting on the huge crowd this year.
“People are more involved with it now and starting to understand it’s okay to be who you are and love who you want. People are wanting to join in and have fun.”
Toby Whitfield, chair of Capital Pride, said more than 150 groups were in the parade, including organizations who wanted to be part of the parade for the first time. It’s a chance for those groups to bring their own members together to celebrate Pride, he said.
“We really set our sights on organizing the largest Pride celebration in the capital,” Whitfield said.
“It took a lot of hard work and an amazing volunteer team. This year we chose to celebrate the power of community, and today the community showed up. This is about bringing people together. It’s about celebrating the LGBTQ2 community and I think today we saw people come out in numbers todojustthat.”