Spectators wave and throw confetti during the Gay Pride Parade below them in Toronto, July, 1, 2012. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Michelle Siu
July 01, 2012 - 3:05 PM
TORONTO - Thousands of people have streamed into balmy downtown Toronto today for the city's 32nd annual Pride Parade.
Many in the crowd are carrying both the Canadian flag and also the rainbow flag of the gay and lesbian movement, marking Canada Day and the end of the city's Pride festival in one go.
The theme for this year's festival is "Celebrate and Demonstrate," and neither is in short supply as waves of people cram together on sidewalks along the parade route laughing, smiling and dancing under a clear sky and sizzling 30-degree weather.
Their enthusiasm is being matched — and, at times, perhaps surpassed — by marchers in the parade, which is the largest Pride march in the country.
Included among the 158 groups scheduled to participate in today's parade was Queers Against Israeli Apartheid, which has been a focus of controversy and cancelled plans to march in last year's event.
Today's march caps the end of 10 days of Pride celebrations.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2012