The increasing impact of COVID-19 on many community members and community organizations, had led not only to the closure of many businesses, but also losing safe and protective gathering, planning, and meeting spaces, added supporting LGBT2Q+ communities during this time of uncertainty, continues to be more important than ever, said Pride Toronto.

Pride Toronto Creative Studio & Artist Residency Program was developed in consultation with LGBTQ2+ communities to address the continuously growing gap in safe and affordable Queer & Trans creative spaces.

The creative studio facilitates the booking of desks, meeting rooms, board rooms, training facilities, and access to a multi-functional production studio complete with cameras, video equipment, green screens, turntables, and mixers, projectors, and speakers.

In addition, a skill-sharing Artist Residency Program has been developed and made available to the Creative Studio participants.

Located near an accessible transit stop, the venue with accessible gender-neutral washrooms, would be made accessible to registered LGBT2Q+ community artists and community organizations at no charge.

Pride Toronto’s Creative Studio & Artist Residency Program was made possible thanks to our sponsors including IKEA, The Home Depot Canada, Cityline Design,  Studio Markanda, and the LCBO who assisted in outfitting the office and studio. ‘

Amber Moyle, Director of Sponsorship and Strategy at Pride Toronto thanks all of the artists and community organizations that assisted in helping the reimagination of the Creative Studio and have already offered to donate their talents to the Artist Residency Program, says and added, “None of this would have been possible without the generosity of our sponsors who stood behind us during one of the most challenging years yet.”  ​

#PrideMonth; UTube; #LGBTQcommunity; #ElijahDaniel

Toronto, Jul 2 (Canadian-Media): ​The start of Pride Month had been harassed about multitude of issues on YouTube that the LGBT community had to deal with, media reports said.

It was only on the last day of the Pride Month that YouTube spoke directly to LGBT creators about some of the platform-related issues they had been dealing with.

​First, an accusation from one trans creator that YouTube may have been showing videos about gender and sexuality, many of those coming from LGBT creators and that YouTube was allowing advertisements from anti-LGBT organizations to run across the site, specifically about gay and trans creators.

More than a month after these issues, YouTube had issued a public statement.

“We’ve taken action on the ads that violate our policies, and we are tightening our enforcement,” the company wrote in a four-part series of tweets.

“And when we hear concerns about how we’re implementing our monetization policy, we take them seriously and make improvements if needed.”

The company’s statement was vague and did not lay out a specific action plan or a deadlines for things to be improved.

After hate-based ads were magnified by a tweet from Elijah Daniel earlier in June, YouTube responded and removed the specific ad shown in his screenshots.

YouTube’s new statement in full is as follows

"It’s the last day of Pride Month and we wanted to reach out to the LGBTQ community. We’re proud of the incredible LGBTQ voices on our platform and the important role you play in the lives of young people.

But we’ve also had issues where we let the LGBTQ community down–inappropriate ads and concerns about how we’re enforcing our monetization policy.
We’re sorry and we want to do better.

We’ve taken action on the ads that violate our policies, and we are tightening our enforcement.

And when we hear concerns about how we’re implementing our monetization policy, we take them seriously and make improvements if needed.

It’s critical to us that the LGBTQ community feels safe, welcome, equal, and supported on YouTube.

Your work is incredibly powerful and we are committed to working with you to get this right.

Until more action is seen, it’s unlikely that many creators will feel satisfied or comforted by YouTube’s statement."

(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)

​Rainy Weather on Pride Toronto 2018 event

"What a day at Toronto's Pride parade! Proud to join @theJagmeetSingh and our newly elected NDP MPPs alongside thousands of marchers to celebrate love and the diversity of our LGBTQ2S+ communities". Andrea Horwath,  Leader of Ontario’s Official Opposition had tweeted.

​Other dignitaries present in the Pride Toronto 2018 march were Carolynn Bennett, Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs and Kathleen Wynne, formerly liberal Premier of Ontario.​

The Air Canada float was another amazing spectacle to watch.

The launching of Toronto Pride Month was celebrated on Friday with a 1,000-square-foot art installation at the city hall with Tory making the official proclamation including the rise of the Rainbow and Trans flags at Toronto city hall Friday.

The theme of the Toronto Pride Month, said Tory was '35 Years of AIDS Activism' and added that the celebration was a reflection of the unified commitment on the part of this crowd.

The celebration of the internationally recognized  National Pride Toronto Month, said Tory  was not an easy task to reach that far, as the community is still fighting with the government for their rights to be heard and to be treated fairly.

It was important to stand united as a community, said the Mayor and added that the work towards healing the sense of loss and frustration was a united effort.

Tory said that as long as he was the mayor, he ''would dedicatedly commit myself to this  community and see that inclusivity becomes the norm of the community."

He said, "It takes time, perseverance and dedication to bring change but we can and we will bring change. We should never feel defeated, however slow the progress is."




​

Pride's annual parade is scheduled to go ahead at 2 p.m. on June 24, following the Dyke March on June 23 and the Trans March on June 22.

The march is part of Pride Toronto's Until We're Safe campaign launched by Toronto earlier this month, who are upset and mourning for victims of alleged serial killer Bruce McArthur.

 "It's still a celebration…The Bruce McArthur situation has definitely contributed to that sense of refocusing on the things" said the executive director of Pride Toronto, Olivia Nuamah had said during the earlier announcement of the launch of the festival and added that she was "pretty psyched" for the month ahead.
 
"We are trying to…celebrate and look at AIDS service organizations that have been the pillar of the LGBTQ+ community for 30 years and so that's really exciting," she had said.

Nuamah added that involvement of more communities and cultures,and highlights in more local art would be featured in this year's expanded programming,

Tory then thanked Olivia Nuamah,  for her work and all  the people working with her, be they be volunteers, staff and the board.

Tory also said that Pride Toronto was expected to become the first street festival in the city  for the "drinks to go" plan is still pending.

Toronto police have withdrawn bid to march in uniform in 2018 Pride parade

'What changed was Bruce McArthur,' says Toronto Pride.

Mayor Tory concluded his speech by saying, "I, Mayor John Tory, on behalf of City Council hereby proclaim June 2018 as Toronto Pride Month in the city of Toronto."

He then handed the Proclamation to the co-chairs of Pride Toronto who also spoke of all the things they are committed to doing.

​This was followed by raising of the transgender flags by John Tory.

The ceremony concluded with barbeque for the gathering.​

#JohnTory, #PrideToronto, #TorontoPolice, #Toronto’sLGBT2Qcommunity, #ChiefSaunders

Toronto, Apr 4 (Canadian-Media): Toronto Mayor John Tory issued yesterday the following statement on Pride Toronto's request to Toronto Police, media reports said.​