Sat, July 28, 2007
It's been 25 years -- some controversial -- since
London's gay and lesbian community began
celebrating its identity with an annual festival. Free
Press reporter Joe Matyas looks at how the
community, buoyed by a recent unexpected gesture
from city hall
By JOE MATYAS, SUN MEDIA
Pride London celebrates its 25th anniversary festival
this weekend with a new sense of civic belonging and
acceptance.
Gays and lesbians and their families and friends will
enjoy entertainment at the John Labatt Centre today
and march in a pride parade tomorrow while their flag
flies at city hall.
The flag -- banded in the rainbow colours of red,
orange, yellow, green, blue and purple -- will flutter in
the prevailing winds, a powerful symbol of inclusion.
Pride officials were surprised when city council quickly
decided July 16 to fly their flag at city hall from the
opening of Pride London Festival 2007 on July 19 until
tomorrow, when it ends.
"We didn't expect it when we asked the city to review
its policy on flying special flags," said Eugene Dustin,
president of the festival board.
"We thought it would be months before they
addressed the issue. We were hoping to see the flag
up next year."
But council voted 13-5 to raise the rainbow flag and
donate $2,500 to the festival -- both milestones, said
Dustin.
"We were pleasantly surprised. We didn't even ask for
the donation. It showed us that we have a more
progressive council today, one with a more inclusive
vision for the future," he said.
Coun. Nancy Branscombe, who urged her council
colleagues to let the pride flag be flown for this year's
festival, said she didn't see the need for a debate
about it.
"Frankly, it was time to get on with it, for a number of
reasons," she said, including social change and legal
advances.
The swift decision marks "a major turnaround" for
those who felt snubbed a decade ago, said Ken
Sadler, secretary of the festival board.
"The pride community was thrilled beyond
expectations," said Sadler, city clerk at the time of a
pivotal proclamation squabble in 1995.
Then-mayor Dianne Haskett, an evangelical Christian
with strong views on homosexuality, shocked the city's
gays and lesbians that year by not issuing a civic
proclamation for a pride weekend.
At the time, Sadler said, "I wouldn't anticipate a
problem (with a gay pride proclamation), but I'm not
the mayor."
With Haskett refusal, Richard Hudler of the
Homophile Association of London Ontario (HALO)
complained to the Ontario Human Rights
Commission.
In 1997, Haskett was found guilty of a provincial
human rights code violation because of her refusal,
which came shortly after the commission had fined
then-mayor Bob Morrow of Hamilton $5,000 for the
same offence.
London was fined $10,000 by the commission and
ordered to issue the proclamation. That was done in
July 1998.
Today, that battle is water under the bridge, said
Dustin.
"We have no interest in a proclamation now. We're not
going to go there again."
Today, Hudler lives in Toronto and HALO is a defunct
organization, having sold its landmark building on
Colborne Street at the CP railway tracks.
The group was dissolved in 2005 after serving
London's gays and lesbians as a social and advocacy
organization for 30 years. It had outlived its
usefulness, a board member said at the time of
dissolution.
The public had become more comfortable with
persons of a different sexual preference, said Bruce
Flowers, adding "the queer community" had also
advanced with court decisions on such issues as
same-sex benefits and same-sex marriage.
Sadler said HALO was once an important safe haven
for socialization "when there was less acceptance
and no alternatives."
But everybody's blending now and there isn't the
same need for segregation, he said.
