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Hundreds of thousands attend Toronto Pride parade downtown

  (Evan Mitsui/CBC - image credit)
(Evan Mitsui/CBC - image credit)

Hundreds of thousands of people attended Sunday's Pride parade in downtown Toronto, marking the return of in-person festivities for the annual LGBTQ celebration.

The first in-person Toronto Pride parade since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic headed south down Yonge Street before descending on Yonge-Dundas Square.

"The excitement, the buildup, it's finally here," Sherwin Modeste, executive director of Pride Toronto, said on Sunday. "We're really excited to deliver one of Toronto's largest Prides ever seen."

"Pride is more than just a celebration. Pride is a protest. It's a protest to send a message that the 2SLGBTQ members across the globe that are still not free to be themselves."

Modeste said organizers had expected anywhere between 1.8 to 1.9 million people to attend the event and festivities on Sunday.

The last Toronto Pride parade saw about 1.7 million attendees in 2019, according to Pride Toronto's Economic Impact Report to the City of Toronto.

The parade began at 2 p.m. Other Pride events included concerts along Church Street and a queer skateboarding jam at Nathan Phillips Square.

WATCH | Organizer of Toronto's first Pride parade talks about that event in 1972:

The return of in-person festivities was extra special for people attending their first pride parade.

William Slaght came from Quebec City, Que. to attend with his boyfriend, after coming out just last year.

"[Coming out] radically changed my life, I was being myself, I'm 100 per cent gay and I'm proud of it," he said.

The 66-year-old said he felt "terrified" his whole life, but now after coming out, and attending his first pride, he is feels free.

Talia Ricci/CBC
Talia Ricci/CBC

"I can say that I love myself, and before I couldn't," Slaght said. "It's incredible having that feeling."

It was Anna Guirguis' first pride parade too as they just moved to Toronto. It's given them the confidence to come out, they said.

"There's so much love and inclusion in Toronto, you feel safe to come out and be who you are," Guirguis said.

For the first time in Pride Toronto's history, the parade featured no gas-powered vehicles or single-use plastic in effort to be as environmentally friendly as possible, Modeste said.

Ahead of the weekend, organizers said the festival was working with private security firms to conduct checks at designated spaces.

Modeste had said people entering designated spaces would be checked for weapons through the use of security wands and metal detectors throughout the weekend to ensure attendees can celebrate without fear.

Organizers said the extra measures are necessary given a reported increase in anti-LGBTQ incidents this month.