PRIDE AT WORK
THE ADVENTURE OF HONOURING THE
PRIDE LEGACY
Canada helps newcomers to live in a safer place, but it’s still far from being a paradise because of the systemic barriers By Luis Augusto Nobre
One thing that I have learned in life is that I cannot speak for everybody. All of us are on our own journeys to know who we are and to leave our legacy for future generations. Maybe some of us don’t consider what our communities will be like for those who live after us, but others want to continue improving our society, as did those who came before and left the world a better place for us. Many of the civil rights advances that we enjoy today came from those people. I do my best to be in the second group, and I’m still learning what I can do better for those who haven’t yet been born. Although I’ve walked in different paths and directions for the past years, something inside me says that I’m just at the beginning of my journey. All the new learnings show me that, but they also indicate that the start point is far away. It’s funny because I remember when I had the call to go on my own adventure, like Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit, when he left the shire and ended up fighting against the evil to protect his beloved ones.
MAY / JUNE 2021
I’m from Brazil, a country that is known for its multicultural population and for all the celebrations. We are considered happy, full of life and very welcoming to the different. However, that is only half true. Unfortunately, the country is one of the most complex for LGBTQ+ people. Although we are at the same legal level for sexual orientation laws as Canada, many European countries and New Zealand, Brazil is one of the leading countries for homophobia and transphobia. Considering all the reported murders of trans people since 2008, Brazil has 41.5 per cent of the violence cases worldwide. The trick part is that we are also the country with the highest percentage of trans pornography consumption. As someone who grew up seeing the stereotypes for LGBTQ+ people and being aware of LGBTQ phobia, I struggled to
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understand who I was. I was influenced by others to see Pride parades only as big parties, and I continued to live afraid of people knowing about my authentic self. Although my professional career was developing in corporate social responsibility, community engagement and human rights, I had issues to include myself in the world I was helping to create. Trying to be invisible and to avoid the focus on my personal life wasn’t the right solution. Everything changed when I had the opportunity to come to Toronto, one of the most friendly cities in the world for the LGBTQ+ population. That visit blew my mind because I saw that I could live the life I wanted and be truly happy. I came to Toronto as an international student years ago, and was mesmerized by seeing LGBTQ+ people living their lives publicly. Considering the reality I lived in at home in Brazil, it was fantastic to witness queer people holding hands with their partners, people proudly showing their gender identities and gender expressions, not hiding their lives. I interpreted that as they were marching their own Pride parades, carrying their rainbow flags, and creating spaces for others like me. The trip was a few weeks before the Toronto Pride parade, so I could live and embrace that feeling of being part of something bigger. The taste for more became so strong that one of my journey paths brought me to live here some years later. After moving to Canada, I decided to embrace that sense of community and belonging to help others overcome their fears and be their authentic selves. Worldwide, Canada is considered one of the “paradise lands” for LGBTQ people. More than 70 countries still criminalize people for their sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression – and a few of them punish people with the death penalty. As Canada seems to be very progressive and inclusive, immigrants come
