Celebrating Pride each June is a strong tradition at the University of Toronto. Signature events—including Pride flag-raising across our campuses and the U of T Pride Pub—bring our community together to celebrate 2SLGBTQ+ communities at U of T and globally; to reflect on defining moments in the fight for 2SLGBTQ+ rights; and to renew a personal and collective commitment to address homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia wherever it occurs.
Designating June as Pride month commemorates the Stonewall Riots, which evolved in response to a police raid of the Stonewall Inn, one of New York City’s most popular gay bars. This six-day event in the summer of 1969 helped galvanize what became known across and beyond the United States as the Gay Liberation Movement. Canada may find a comparable catalyst in the 1981 arrest of nearly 300 men during a police raid of four Toronto bathhouses—an incident which, 35 years later, prompted a formal apology from the Toronto Police. Today, Canadians continue to find parallels and portents in the treatment of 2SLGBTQ+ communities south of the border.
For all these reasons, Pride has many dimensions, and it continues to evolve. It is a time to celebrate victories in the fight for 2SLGBTQ+ rights and to recognize the precarity of these rights. It is a time to acknowledge the need for ongoing advocacy and to honour those who have spearheaded change. These leaders include many members of queer and trans Black, Indigenous, racialized, and/or Two-Spirit communities who daily experience the impact of holding multiple stigmatized identities.
This June, the University of Toronto celebrates all 2SLGBTQ+ members of our community, past and present, who have brought their insights, creativity, and skills to our classrooms and labs, offices and facilities, and who have contributed to every discipline and every area of University activity. Across our campuses, we will continue work to support and welcome all gender identities and gender expressions within our community, and to address barriers—both evident and implicit—that may prevent students and employees from flourishing in the ways that feel most true to who they are and what they want to become.
I wish everyone Happy Pride, and look forward to the collaborations that will guide our own evolution as a community and as an institution.
Events
U of T St. George Pride Flag Raising 2023
Date: June 1
Time: 12pm (doors open at 11:30am)
Location: Varsity Centre, rain or shine
Light refreshments and snacks will be provided.
University of Toronto Bookstore’s Pride merch will be available for purchase.
If you are attending the event and require accommodation(s) due to disability, please email edib.sportandrec@utoronto.ca to make appropriate arrangements.
UTSC Pride Flag Raising 2023
Date: June 1, 2023
Time: 12 – 1pm
Location: Arts & Administration (AA) Building, UTSC*
*In the case of rain or inclement weather, we will move the celebration inside to AA112.
Light refreshments will be provided.
Registration is not required; all are welcome in this space. More details to come!
UTM Pride Month 2023 Launch BBQ and Flag Drop
Date: June 1, 2023
Time: 11:45am – 1:30pm
Location: Outside UTM Student Centre
All U of T students, staff, faculty, and librarians are invited to the UTM Pride Month 2023 Launch BBQ and Flag Drop! Opening remarks begin at 12pm.
Rainbow Rendezvous: 2SLGBTQIA+ Researcher Mixer
Date: June 8, 2023
Time: 6 – 8:30pm
Location: Factor-Inwentash School of Social Work, 246 Bloor St.
To kick off Pride Month, this Queer Research Mixer, Rainbow Rendezvous, is hosted by the International Partnership for Queer Youth Resilience (INQYR). This event aims to highlight the voices and experiences of queer academics and scholars and is an opportunity to connect with a diverse group of queer researchers across local universities in the Greater Toronto Area.
Event Details Learn more and register
U of T Pride Pub 2023
Date: June 9, 2023
Time: 4:30pm – late
Location: Hart House Quad (7 Hart House Circle, Toronto)
Before 9pm: Free
After 9pm: $5
Start YOUR pride celebrations with U of T surrounded by friends and colleagues in the beautiful outdoor Hart House Quad at the U of T Pride Pub. Join the party early for an outdoor event with food and drinks, a Community Fair with local 2SLGBTQ+ organizations, a photobooth from our friends at Alumni Relations, and kid-friendly activities. Or wait until the stars come out to dance the night away with our fabulous DJs.
This event is open to U of T students, staff, faculty, alumni, friends, families, and community members – everyone is welcome to attend!
Featured performers:
Toronto’s “Latin sensation” drag artist Miss Shay Dee
Queer South Asian Dance Group bringing “Bollywood Reimagined” Naach For Fun
Local DJ DJ Shannyn Hill (8pm-10pm)
Local DJ DurtyDabz (10pm-Late)
UTSC Pride Pub Bus
Looking for safe transport to U of T Pride Pub? UTSC students, staff, faculty members, or librarians can register for a free round-trip bus ride at uoft.me/utscpridebus.
#Display Your Pride 2023
Date: June 13, 2023
U of T’s three campuses celebrate Pride Month and U of T Pride with the annual #DisplayYourPride event! Decorate your office, your workspace, or get creative with your colleagues to find a way to celebrate Pride! How you do this is up to you and your own interpretation of what Pride means to you at #UofT. Take a picture and post it to Twitter, Facebook and/or Instagram and tag your post with the hashtag #DisplayYourPride.
You can also add your campus hashtag (#UofT, #UTM, #UTSC) and then follow us as we try and trend on social media. If you don’t have a social media account, send your photo to the Sexual & Gender Diversity Office and the SGDO team will post it for you.
Keyboard Fantasies: Celebrating the Works of Beverly Glenn-Copeland
Free documentary screening and panel discussion
Date: June 13, 2023
Time: 3 – 5pm
Location: Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Ave., St. George campus
Throughout a fifty-year recording career, Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s music has defied categorization and genre, its only consistency being the fusion of vision, technology, spirituality and place. A Black, trans artist, he is a strong advocate on behalf of Black, Indigenous, and LGBTQ2S+ communities in Canada and abroad, and has influenced new generations of artists. You are invited to a celebration of the extraordinary work of this visionary artist and University of Toronto Honorary Degree Recipient with a screening of Keyboard Fantasies, followed by a panel discussion. This event is presented by the University of Toronto Faculty of Music, Sexual & Gender Diversity Office, Anti-Racism & Cultural Diversity Office, Women & Gender Studies Institute, and Mark H. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies.
Event Details Learn more and register
#UofTPRIDEPITCH 2023
Date: June 14, 2023
Time: 5 – 6:30pm
Location: The Blind Duck – 1815 Inner Cir Rd, Mississauga
ICUBE, The University of Toronto, and The City of Mississauga are proud to announce the fourth year of the PRIDE Pitch event, which is open to all students, staff, and faculty from all three campuses of the university, as well as members of the community (Peel Region). The program is a competition that offers a total of $5,000 in cash prizes to recognize, reward, and accelerate the growth of 2SLGBTQ+ entrepreneurs associated with the University of Toronto.
Individuals or teams who are interested in participating in the competition will have the opportunity to showcase their ideas through a five-minute pitch to a panel of judges. The judges will evaluate the ideas and determine the winners based on various criteria, including originality, feasibility, impact, and potential for success.
The goal of the PRIDE Pitch program is to provide support and resources for 2SLGBTQ+ entrepreneurs, and to help them succeed in their ventures. By offering cash prizes, the program hopes to incentivize individuals and teams to pursue their entrepreneurial goals and turn their ideas into reality.
Event Details Learn more and register
2023 Pride Run Team
Date: June 24, 2023
The Pride and Remembrance Run is back! Whether you’re an experienced marathon runner or enjoy a leisurely walk, join us on June 24 for an in-person or virtual fundraising run/walk during Toronto’s Pride Week supporting Toronto’s 2SLGBTQ+ community. The 2023 beneficiaries are Asian Community AIDS Services (ACAS), Black Coalition for AIDS Prevention (Black CAP), Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (Buddies), 519 Church Street Community Centre (The 519) and Pride and Remembrance Foundation.
Registration for the run and walk is now open.
To join the University of Toronto team:
- Visit the Pride & Remembrance Run page
- During the registration process, under the Teams section pick the option “Yes, add this registrant to a team created by someone else” and join team “University of Toronto”
For more Pride 2023 events, visit the SGDO Pride Calendar.