#prideisprotest

The night before had ended at the Black Eagle with bass in their bones and gold still flashing under the lights.

Wells could still feel it the next morning: the heat of the dance floor, Coach’s steady presence beside him, Alton running his mouth until one look shut him down, Trey laughing like Toronto kept surprising him on purpose. The four of them had left Church Street late, half-sweaty, half-glowing, carried by Pride Week energy and that rare kind of exhaustion that felt earned.

Now morning had softened the city.

Queen Street was coming back to life in pieces. Streetcars rolled past with their usual metal hum. Café doors opened. Delivery trucks idled. Someone swept glitter from a storefront entrance, though there was no real point. Pride glitter always found a way to survive.

Wells walked back toward his Queen Street condo with four coffees balanced in a cardboard tray: one for himself, one for Alton, one for Trey, and one for Coach.

Coach would say his was too sweet, even though Wells had ordered it exactly right. Alton would claim he did not need coffee, then drink half of it immediately. Trey would probably stand by the window again, still processing that Toronto had leather bars, streetcars, Pride chaos, island beaches, and somehow a nude beach all in the same city.

Wells smiled at that.

Then he slowed.

Almost every business had a rainbow flag up. Some were small window decals. Some were huge banners hanging above doorways. Some storefronts had Progress flags, trans flags, posters for drag brunches, queer markets, HIV testing clinics, Pride parties, and community fundraisers.

It was beautiful.

It really was.

But it made him think.

Because Pride was never just rainbows, unicorns, glitter, and a logo changed for June.

Pride was a protest.

It was people stepping into the street when the world told them to disappear. It was bodies pressed together not just to dance, but to defend each other. It was rage turned into movement. Grief turned into action. Survival turned into celebration.

Wells kept walking, the coffees warm against his fingers.

He thought about New York in 1969. Stonewall. People fighting back because police raids were routine and queer lives were treated like crimes. That spark became a movement because people were tired of hiding, tired of being hunted, tired of being told their lives were shameful.

He thought about Canada too.

About the 1971 We Demand protest in Ottawa, when queer activists stood on Parliament Hill and demanded basic rights before most politicians wanted to even say the word gay in public. He thought about Toronto’s early Pride gatherings, smaller and riskier than the massive festival the city knew now. Back then, showing up was not branding. It was courage.

Then his mind went to 1981.

Operation Soap.

Toronto police raiding gay bathhouses. Hundreds of men arrested. Names exposed. Lives threatened. Shame used like a weapon. And then the community pushed back. Thousands filled the streets. Angry. Loud. Unwilling to be quiet.

Wells looked up at another rainbow flag rippling in the morning air.

“That flag’s not decoration,” he murmured. “That’s memory.”

Queen Street opened around him in brick, glass, streetcar wire, and sunlight.

Pride was the AIDS crisis too.

It was lovers becoming caregivers. Friends becoming nurses. Drag queens raising money when governments stalled. Activists screaming because people were dying while institutions debated whether they deserved compassion. It was ACT UP demanding treatment access in the United States. It was AIDS Action NOW! in Toronto pushing against government and medical inaction, fighting for medication, dignity, and survival.

It was not polite.

It could not afford to be.

Pride was protest because silence was deadly.

Wells adjusted the coffee tray in his hand.

He thought about marriage, about how easy it was now for some people to talk about love as if legal recognition had always been waiting there with open arms. But it had been fought for. In Ontario and British Columbia, same-sex couples won the right to marry in 2003. Canada made it national in 2005. The United States did not get nationwide marriage equality until 2015.

Not ancient history.

Living memory.

Recent enough that people still remembered the fear before the paperwork changed.

Recent enough that some people still carried the scars.

By the time Wells reached the condo entrance, the city felt different around him. The flags were still beautiful. The glitter still made him smile. The parties still mattered. The dancing mattered. The flirting, the outfits, the music, the joy, all of it mattered.

But only because someone had fought to make room for that joy.

Upstairs, Alton opened the door before Wells could dig out his keys.

“Coffee,” Alton said, eyes lighting up.

“Good morning to you too.”

Trey appeared behind him, shirtless and half-awake. “Toronto coffee delivery service. I approve.”

Coach’s voice came from inside. “Did you get mine right?”

Wells stepped in and handed him the cup. “Obviously.”

Coach checked it anyway.

Alton leaned against the counter, watching Wells’ face. “You good?”

Wells looked back toward the window, where a rainbow flag hung from the business across the street.

“Yeah,” he said. “Just thinking.”

“That’s dangerous,” Alton said.

Coach gave him one look.

Alton immediately lifted his coffee. “Respectfully enjoying my beverage.”

Trey laughed.

Wells smiled, but his voice stayed steady.

“I was thinking that Pride is fun because it had to be fierce first. We get the glitter because someone else took the street. We get the parties because someone else faced the police. We get to love out loud because people fought when loving out loud could cost them everything.”

The room went quiet for a second.

Not heavy.

Just aware.

Coach nodded once. “That’s why we show up.”

Trey looked out the window, his expression softer now. “Toronto keeps surprising me.”

Wells raised his coffee.

“To the ones who marched before us.”

Coach lifted his cup. Trey did too. Alton followed, less smart-mouthed for once.

“To the ones who made space,” Wells said. “And to making sure nobody forgets why the space exists.”

Outside, Queen Street kept moving.

Flags snapped in the morning wind.

The city glittered.

And underneath the glitter, the protest still lived.

Pride was built by those who refused to disappear. Stand with your brothers, carry the memory forward, and let the Gold shine louder than silence. Join the Golden Army. Contact our recruiters: @alton-gold77, @polo-drone-125