Church Street was already alive when Wells, Alton, Trey, and Coach stepped into the Pride crowd.
Toronto had fully woken up.
Rainbow flags hung from storefronts. Progress flags moved in the breeze. Music spilled out from cafés and bars. Drag queens glided past in sequins and towering heels. Leather men leaned against brick walls in the morning light. Queer couples held hands. Chosen families laughed over iced coffees. Elders smiled from shaded patios, watching the city they had helped shape come alive again. Church street was already closed to traffic ahead of the weekend and the Pride festival was already in full swing.
The four of them stood out even in the crowd.
Alton moved with easy confidence in a shiny metallic gold fitted athletic T-shirt with “KNIGHTS” across the chest in bold black letters, paired with glossy black jogger pants and metallic gold sneakers. He looked polished, bold, and impossible to miss.
Trey looked intense and striking in a shiny metallic gold athletic shirt with a large black “59” on the front, matching metallic gold athletic shorts with black trim, and a heavy chain necklace at his throat. His blond hair with its blue streak caught the light, and there was something fierce and focused in the way he carried himself.
Wells wore a tight glossy black athletic shirt with a large metallic gold “58” across the chest, metallic gold fitted shorts, black knee-high athletic socks with gold stripes, and metallic gold sneakers. He looked powerful, steady, and grounded, the kind of man who drew eyes without even trying.
Coach strode beside them in a tight silver-grey compression shirt with “DADDY” printed across the chest in gold, black fitted shorts, white socks with black stripes, and black athletic sneakers. His black cap with “COACH” in gold lettering sat low over his brow, and the whistle hanging at his chest gave him the same commanding energy he carried everywhere.
They stopped when they reached a long flag installation stretched across a wall in the Village.
It was not just one rainbow.
It was many flags. Many colours. Many meanings.
Rainbow. Progress. Trans. Bi. Pan. Ace. Nonbinary. Intersex. Two-Spirit. Leather. Bear. Pup. More than Trey could name at a glance.
He slowed, looking up at them.
“Damn,” Trey said quietly. “I knew Pride had flags, but not this many.”
Alton smirked. “That’s because Pride is not one flavour, babe.”
Trey shot him a look. “Thank you, Professor Gold.”
Wells laughed softly, but Coach kept his eyes on the wall.
“Each one means somebody fought to be seen,” Coach said.
That settled over them for a moment.
Wells stepped closer to the installation. His black-and-gold shirt caught the sun as he looked across the colours. It felt less like decoration and more like a map. Not of places. Of lives.
A young person nearby posed with a nonbinary flag wrapped around their shoulders. Two older men stood arm in arm under the leather flag. A trans woman fixed her sunglasses while her friends cheered and took photos. A Two-Spirit banner moved gently in the air while someone nearby explained its meaning to a small group listening closely.
Trey watched all of it, his expression softening.
“So Pride’s not just one story,” he said.
“Never was,” Wells replied.
Coach nodded. “Different identities. Different histories. Different cultures. Different bodies. Different ways of moving through the world.”
“Different outfits,” Alton added.
Coach turned his head slowly.
Alton lifted both hands. “I’m not wrong.”
They kept walking, the crowd flowing around them.
Church Street felt like the whole community had spilled out into the open. A remix thundered from one patio while a hand drum pulsed somewhere farther down the block. Someone handed out flyers for HIV testing. A queer youth group sat laughing on the curb. A drag performer waved to a little kid in a rainbow cape. A leather pup knelt happily beside his handler while tourists tried very hard not to stare too obviously.
Trey shook his head, still taking it all in. “Toronto really is something.”
“It’s not just Pride,” Wells said. “It’s the city too.”
“Toronto’s built out of layers. The Village. Queen West. Kensington. Chinatown. Little Italy. Greektown. Little India. Parkdale. Scarborough. Regent Park. The Islands. Different neighbourhoods, different communities, different histories. Everybody brings something.”
Alton nodded. “And everybody thinks they’ve got the best food.”
“Some of them do,” Trey said.
Coach almost smiled. “Dangerous opinion.”
Wells grinned. “That’s the point. Toronto works because it’s not one thing. Caribbean, South Asian, East Asian, African, Middle Eastern, Indigenous, Latin American, European. Newcomers, locals, artists, office workers, activists, club kids, families. It’s crowded, loud, messy, layered—and somehow it keeps making room.”
Trey looked back at the flags.
Alton folded his arms over his gold shirt. “So the community is strong because nobody has to match.”
Coach looked at him, approving for once. “Correct.”
Alton blinked. “Was that praise?”
“Don’t ruin it,” Coach said.
Trey laughed, and the tension broke.
The four of them stopped in front of the full flag wall again.
Alton in gold and black. Trey in his fierce gold “59.” Wells in his black “58.” Coach in silver-grey and black, solid as ever.
Different looks. Different energies. Different ways of standing in the world.
Wells looked up at the colours overhead and thought of the phrase that had been following him all morning.
It sounded simple. But standing there, watching Church Street move in every colour, every age, every identity, every style, and every kind of joy, he understood what it really meant.
It was knowing the community could hold drag queens and leather men, queer elders and trans youth, loud ones and quiet ones, those who had always known themselves and those still figuring it out. It was understanding that the rainbow was never one colour because the community was never one story.
Coach crossed his arms and looked at the wall.
“Different colours,” he said. “Same fight. Same family.”
Alton tilted his head. “And, respectfully, same slay.”
Alton immediately straightened. “Respectfully.”
Wells joined him, the sound folding into the music, the crowd, and the flags overhead.
Around them, Toronto kept moving, diverse, complicated, proud, alive.
And brighter because it stood together.
Diversity is not division. It is strength multiplied. Stand proud, stand golden, and protect every colour in the spectrum. Join the Golden Army. Contact: @alton-gold77, @polo-drone-125
Featuring: @hero21us, @alton-gold77
