What a great weekend!
I'd been looking forward to Pride weekend in Toronto for some time. I volunteered to help out at the Trans Space booth, and the Xpressions dinner was on Saturday night. Alas, I was unable to go again today due to family obligations.
Friday night I arrived in Toronto a bit early and had dinner with some friends, then I went to the booth for a bit of orientation, then we did the Trans March.
The Trans March was incredible - so many people both in the march and watching from the streets. We walked from Hayden St down to Wood St, where we stopped and milled around a bit shoulder-to-shoulder.
Saturday after a bit of parking trouble I spent the afternoon at the Trans Space booth talking to people. We had a "gender map" that was very popular and got so many passer-bys involved... People born a girl took a red pin, born a boy took a blue pin, and we had "identify as man" on the left, "identify as woman" on the right, "attracted to men" on top and "attracted to women" on the bottom. Then everyone pushed their pin into the board where they fit in the spectrum.
The board got a lot of people thinking and talking, which was exactly what we wanted...
The dinner at Cafe California was great as usual, good conversation and good food are two things you'll find at any Xpressions dinner...
