a l'allure garconniere

"While a lot of the parade admittedly felt frustrating and alienating for us, the sentence “wow, this feels like an exercise in futility” actually being exchanged between the co-authors on more than one occasion, we really did enjoy the energy of our flamin’ and ragin’ cohorts. Throughout the march, we shouted several different slogans, such as, “No! One! No one is illegal!”, “Harper nous fait la guerre / Les queers en colère!” and “Police partout! Justice nul part!”. Those may sound like your every-rally slogans, but rest assured – there was a lot more lisp involved. These chants were belted out with gusto as we attempted to publically repoliticize Pride by making connections between diverse queers struggles, including the on-going fortification of borders, the criminalization & incarceration of (coloured, poz, trans-, disabled, marginalized) bodies, police brutality, the medicalization of trans- identitied, and violence targeting queer bodies in our everyday lives."

"Compelled by the overwhelming urge to strut, we werked our way over to a contingent with which to join forces. These skids were hard to miss, what with their choice of style and sass! In a parade where most groups (corporate fronts) were wearing brand-new, barely-there, rainbow-themed matching outfits, these folks coordinated differently. Donning homemade outfits of every type of floral, ripped denim, shredded mesh, and lots of black and pink, this contingent seemed shiny in a different way; we felt at home with these post-apocalyptic LGBT misfits. Dollar store glitter clinging to our bodies, we adjusted our electrical tape, unravelled our banners, prepped our garbage bag pompoms, and got ready to march…"