When “Pride” turns into “shame” - EDITORIAL

Over the weekend, social media caught fire over videos showing naked men and women parading the streets of Toronto, not bearing any shame, in a ‘pride walk’ in front of spectators which included children.

Some across the social media world hailed their ‘performance’ as ‘pride’ while thousands of others condemned their stunt as ‘disgusting’ and ‘shameful’ and called on the Canadian government to halt such acts in public especially in front of children.

Some other users even went to the extent of saying that the target of such walks was always children, and while ‘pride’ should be celebrated, it should be done in a decent manner and not by flaunting one’s private parts, which even to me makes no sense as to what message they want to convey by exposing their genitals in public.

Many men and women identifying themselves as gays and lesbians took to social media on Sunday saying that such people who exposed themselves in public without any shame did not represent their community and while pride used to be about having equal rights, regardless of who you love, this has long been accomplished in the Western world. However, after such shameful walks under the guise of ‘pride’, many members said pride was now about showing everyone ‘junk’ and advertising certain people’s ‘sexual kinks’ in public. 

Surprisingly while the Western world has openly accepted the rights of the LGBTQ community, a majority do not accept such despicable behaviour of pride walks turning into nude walks. What is even more surprising is that when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took to X, saying that ‘Pride is about freedom - the freedom to be who you are, and love whom you love. That’s something to celebrate’, many Canadians went against him saying such nude walks do not represent the Canadian LGBTQ community. Some others went on to tell him to ‘call for an election’ saying by endorsing such behavior, Trudeau was inviting disrespect towards Canada.

In New York, the ‘Pride Walk’ also ended in disaster. Although there, the participants were clothed, a massive brawl broke out at the Washington Square Park in New York City during the Pride celebrations over the weekend with videos showing men and women throwing punches and violently beating each other in the park. While the reason for the brawl is still unclear, the disturbing videos created a stir on social media with many American users saying this culture was now broken and pride seemed to be losing its original message of spreading love and unity among all.

The LGBTQ community has long been wanting to be accepted and have their rights recognised, but by now turning to shameful behaviour such as the nude walks, will they be able to uphold their original message of ‘unity, love and equal freedom”? The walks in Canada make me wonder why some members of this community want to go back to the age of the Neanderthal who became extinct in part because they could not make fitted garments and draped themselves with crudely cut skins but eventually could not survive as the climate grew colder in the Last Glacial Period.

The LGBTQ community is a community who promotes equal freedom and love amongst all, but by some walks even turning into promoting sexual acts in the West, is this the true meaning that the Pride walks want to convey? 

It is indeed a shame that by the despicable behaviour of some, the LGBTQ community throughout the world is left once again shooting down criticisms and hate and are fighting to convey the true meaning of what they have been fighting for. While some Western countries can only watch and accept such behaviour of nudity in public, the community is strongly wanting to convey their message to the world - that it is a respectable community wanting nothing but acceptance and equal rights.