What Does Pride Mean to You?

In Canada, Employment Equity was created to ensure proactive hiring practices were engaged which would result in adequate representation of four designated groups: women, people with disabilities, aboriginals and visible minorities. The Canadian Human Rights Act protects a wider range of minorities. With the growing awareness of CSR business plans in the corporate world, all of these entities are being combined (either formally or informally) in company Diversity or Inclusion Practices and we couldn’t be happier.

Miratel has long supported a broader vision of employment equity as we believe it is critical that workplaces are welcoming and supportive for all employees and promoting a gay friendly culture is vital to that end. In respect of that and in celebration of Pride Week here in Toronto, we posed the question “what does pride mean to you” to our management team and beneath are some of the responses we received:

image courtesy of pridetoronto.com/

Angela – Pride means different things to different people. To me it’s about human rights, acceptance and the freedom to celebrate the sexual, gender and cultural diversity in our lives whether you are LGBTQ or not.

Desi – Pride to me is the celebration of one’s self expression and diversity. As one of the most multi-cultural and diverse cities in the world, Toronto is a great setting to be throwing such a huge celebration and I’m anticipating our showing the world how accepting and inclusive our city is when we host World Pride day in 2014.

Leeno – Pride for me… means to be free-spirited and to be true to yourself. It also means to be comfortable in your skin and accepting who you are.

Ryan – Pride is being proud of who you are regardless of what others think. You cannot gain the respect of others until you first respect yourself. Purposefully Relinquishing Insecurities and Doubts and Embracing me, just as I am.

Keiran – Pride to me means freedom…the freedom for an individual to be him or herself and not be judged. Freedom of self expression, freedom to love whomever you choose and to be able to celebrate that with the world .

Alex – Family Pride. The recognition of who you are, your ideals and blunders, your aspirations and moral fiber. Unconditional and forever.

Eric – Pride, to me, is about equality and acceptance. It’s about embracing one’s self for who they are, regardless if they are queer or straight, male or female, able or disabled, and not being ashamed of the facts of life that define each and every one of us. It means that no matter a person’s cultural, personal or perhaps sexual differences, that we can all walk with our heads held high, knowing that these minor differences are what make us unique, and accepting the fact that despite these differences, that no person can ever deter our resolve to live each and every day as the person we are meant to be.

Angie – Pride to me is a day to be proud of who you are and to celebrate the acceptance and diversity in Toronto.

Michelle – Pride is a big love fest – loving yourself, loving one another, loving who you are, it is a celebration of acceptance and freedom.
Pride is the coming together of people and supporters who believe that this is a celebration freeing ourselves of:
P – Prejudice
R – Rejection
I – Isolation
D – Discrimination
E – Exemption
To us Pride means:
P – Proud
R – Rights
I – Individuality
D – Determination
E – Equality

John – It is great to see people express themselves so openly in such a celebratory fashion.  It truly exemplifies the freedom of expression that each citizen has the right to expect.

Tracy – Pride for me encompasses the spirit of acceptance, promotes equal rights and celebrates the diversity of our community.  Everyone feels welcome and no one is judged.

“Pride Week celebrates our diverse sexual and gender identities, histories, cultures, creativities, families, friends and lives. It includes a three-day street festival with over eight stages of live entertainment, an extensive street fair (including community booths, vendors, food stalls), a special Family Pride program, a politically charged Dyke March, a Trans March and the famous Pride Parade.

A ten day long event, Pride Week is one of the premier arts and cultural festivals in Canada and one of the largest Pride celebrations in the world with an estimated attendance of over 1.2 million people.”

If you’re in the Toronto area, go to Pride Toronto and try to make your way to one of the many events (even if our mayor is still mulling it over).

Happy Pride everyone.

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