Big change still needed on Canada’s smaller stages when it comes to LGBT rights: Teitel

Downtown Toronto does not resemble the world at large. It does not resemble Canada. It does not resemble Steinbach, Man., where some elected officials aren’t so keen on celebrating sexual diversity.
In June, the city of Toronto looks pretty gay. I don’t mean this in the idiotic, pejorative, prepubescent way — i.e. “Did you see that dog with the cone on its head? I know, so gay, right?”
I mean it in the literal, homosexual sense.
The CN Tower glows every colour of the LGBT rainbow; storefronts in and far beyond the Church and Wellesley village don the multi-hued flag.
And come parade day, straight and otherwise straitlaced politicians — men and women whose idea of a wild night out ordinarily involves a T-bone at Ruth’s Chris Steak House — mount elaborate floats and smile for the camera as scantily clad revellers hose them down with squirt guns.
In light of the recent massacre in Orlando, Fla., where a gunman murdered 49 people in an LGBT nightclub, Toronto is visibly prouder and gayer than ever.
Even city residents who have faced and continue to face rejection or violence on account of their sexual orientation and gender identity, can take some solace in the fact that hundreds of local coffee shops, drug stores and liquor stores have embraced the Pride spirit — and in many cases have announced support for the victims of the Orlando shooting.
Next weekend, Justin Trudeau will become the first prime minister in our nation’s history to march in Toronto’s Pride parade.
But downtown Toronto does not resemble the world at large.