Vancouver Pride ‘19

Vancouver charmed the pants off me from just about the second I disembarked my flight...and I couldn’t put my finger on exactly why until I witnessed its annual pride parade.

As you might be able to tell from looking at these photographs, every myriad and miraculous kind of human came out of the woodwork in mutual celebration of love in its equally myriad forms. This city and its distinct neighbourhoods comprise a jigsaw puzzle of subcultures and fringe-dwellers and fetishes and everything in between, and they’re all chuffed as chipmunks to walk alongside one another in declaration of that ineffable essence that is, indubitably, at the core of every one of us.

Love is the most natural state of being — and don't just take my word for it. Let these school children, grandparents, emergency services workers, dancers, gladiators, hockey mascots, bagpipers, makeup artists, dogs, drag queens, creatures of kink, and even the country’s Prime Minister show you with their beaming smiles. Loving people are happy people; and Canadians are among the lovingest variety I’ve ever met.

Just you wait, VanCity. When covid-19 takes a backseat in the vehicle of tyranny, I’m coming for you. (Pun only slightly intended!)