Why is Pride celebrated in different months across Canada?

Pride season is well underway across Canada.

The timing of local celebrations varies, however, with some events taking place in June and others after the formal start of summer.

Why? History, to a large degree, explains it, but also weather and scheduling considerations.

The Stonewall story is why Pride is often celebrated at this point in the calendar.

In June 1969, a police raid on the Stonewall Inn in New York City sparked an uprising. (On the Canadian side of the border, meanwhile, an omnibus bill had just passed in Parliament decriminalizing some "homosexual acts" occurring in private, though it eventually spurred protests over its shortcomings.)

"That night, patrons surprised police by refusing to comply with their racist, homophobic and transphobic demands, and the refusal triggered five days of riots, or protests — an event that's considered a watershed movement, in what is now known as the gay liberation movement," said Rebecka Sheffield, an archivist and author on 2SLGBTQ+ history.

"So, we celebrate Pride Month as an anniversary of the Stonewall events," said Sheffield, who noted Canada's own history also informs its own scheduling of events on this side of the border — such as in the case of Toronto. 

In 1971, the first "Gay Day Picnic" was held in Toronto — in August, though, rather than June. Toronto's Pride events would grow and evolve with time — but it was not until 1991 that the city officially proclaimed a Pride Day.

In 1981, Toronto's Pride Day corresponded with the Stonewall anniversary. It also came a few months after the now-infamous police raids on city bathhouses — one of the largest mass arrests in Canada's history, and an event for which Toronto police would formally apologize 35 years later.

But the impact of Stonewall has not been forgotten in Toronto, with its 50th anniversary serving as the theme for the city's Pride in 2019.

Toronto's marquee Pride events are today held in June — the trans march (June 28 this year), the dyke march (June 29) and the headlining Pride parade (June 30) included.

Regina also celebrates Pride this month. Its first parade was held in June 1990, when local police refused to issue permits for it. But it still went ahead, with participants pushing forward progress nonetheless.

Winnipeg today celebrates Pride starting at the end of May and into the first weekend of June, when its local parade is held.

Several major cities in Atlantic Canada have major Pride events scheduled in July — with parades in the provincial capitals Halifax, Fredericton and St. John's during the height of the summer. Ditto for the Pride PEI Festival and its own parade.