Six Star Magazine Six Star Magazine 2014 | Page 20

Toronto welcomes

Downtown Subaru gets involved
In a summer packed with festivals to visit,
late June’s Pride Week, which attracts
more than one million people to Toronto,
has expanded even more. For the first
time in North America, Toronto will host
WorldPride 2014 (WP14TO), the fourth
such event in the world. Pride Toronto,
organizers of Pride Week, is presenting
the event with its lively and joyous
parade, street fairs and celebrations.
It was last held in London, UK in 2012.
Toronto won the hosting rights in 2009
at the 28th conference of InterPride, an
international body representing various
Pride organizations.
The international celebration
incorporates activism, education, and
the history and culture of global Lesbian,
Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered (LGBT)
communities. Highlighting Canada’s
continued progress in human rights,
WP14TO also celebrates Toronto’s
diversity and dynamism, as one of the
world’s most progressive and livable cities.
WorldPride will allow people from all
over the world “to work together on
human rights, discuss and learn from
each other, and focus on LGBT rights
internationally,” according to Pride
Toronto executive director Kevin Beaulieu.
Deborah Cox, Martha Wash and DJ’s
David Morales and Quentin Harris are
the first in a list of premiere international
artists to perform at the world’s largest

global LGBT celebration taking place in
Toronto this summer.
A wide variety of musical genres will be
presented live on the 10 open-air stages
of the festival from rock, pop, dance, hip
hop, R&B, country, traditional, folk, retro,
disco. Carly Rae Jepsen, Tegan and Sara
and Melissa Ethridge are the headline
performers. Some of the key dates are:
• Opening Ceremony – June 20
• WorldPride Gala and Awards –

June 25
• WorldPride Human Rights

Conference – June 25-27
• IGM Human Rights Reception –

June 26
• WorldPride Parade – June 29


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•  treetfair and Arts & Culture Festival
S
– June 27-29
• Closing Ceremony – June 29

One member of the Subaru family who
will be in the middle of these events is
Downtown Subaru’s General Manager
Keith Leung. His family-owned dealership,
started by his father Tom in 1977, is long
established on Toronto’s eastern shore.
It’s the one closest to the historic ChurchWellesley gay community and a number
of his customers come from that area. He
has supported many community events
throughout the years, especially at Pride
time. He has advertised on PRIDE FM
radio and his rainbow-coloured Outbacks
and Foresters, serving as festival shuttles,