Marxism 2010: As Pride Toronto bans the term "Israeli Apartheid" from this year's march, Christine Beckermann looks back on the radical roots of the gay liberation movement, and how the rights we have today didn't come without a fight -- or without radical politics.
This summer will mark the 30th anniversary of the Pride Day celebrations in Toronto. For young people who may be heading out to their first Pride, it would be easy to think that the history of the struggle for LGBT rights has been an onward and upward advance of rational ideas over bigotry and hatred; that through reasoned argument, society and the state have come to accept the case for equal rights.