"Many Americans such as myself find it necessary to make a pilgrimage to Canada and the Shining City on the edge of Lake Ontario, just so we can see how things might someday be in our own country."

Mickey Weems writes:

I decided to do two Prides in a row: NYC Pride on the last weekend of June, and Toronto Pride the first weekend of July. Due to the G-20 Summit held in Toronto this year when their Pride normally takes place (always the same weekend as NYC), it was possible to do both. Well, if one was willing to endure such massive expenditures of time and energy with only four days break between them.

My conclusion: Manhattan will always be the Mother Church of the worldwide Gay Liberation movement. Sure, places like Berlin, LA, San Francisco, and Philadelphia were important pre-Stonewall sites for Gay folklife. But it wasn’t until 1969 Stonewall when the Snap Heard ’Round The World burst out in headlines across continents that we could claim a truly global awareness of ourselves as a people.

That being said, Toronto and Montreal have since forged ahead of every major metropolis in championing LGBT rights. READ MORE