Posted by rider on June 15, 2007, 4:01 pm The 20-year-old York University student is planning an event called Solstice Pride, hoping to pull together people and music not much in evidence during the festivities. "The first time I went to the Pride Parade, I was overwhelmed with what I saw because it just didn't represent me," Morrison says. "It was the quintessential stereotype of what queer culture is, and for me that just didn't register, it didn't make sense. I didn't identify with the drag queens, I didn't identify with the buff men singing `YMCA,'" she says. Her event will be held Thursday in Toronto at Footwork bar and will fuse ska, afrobeat, funk, hip-hop and samba beats with "queerisque" visual montages, food and performances by local deejays. "The event is a celebration of confidence as well as sexuality. It's something that's really important to me as I've just come out and it was really hard for me to be confident with my own sexuality," Morrison says. "Once you come out, it's not just you, it's you and the rest of society and how they judge you." She says coming out in the Jamaican community a year and a half ago was "scary as hell" and recalls being frightened to tell her mother and crying the whole time as she spoke. "When you're West Indian, it's just taboo to begin with. It's something you just don't bring up, even if you are," she says. "It's something that's just not discussed, it's swept under the rug." And although her mother was supportive and said she wouldn't pass judgment, she told Morrison that she shouldn't tell everyone that she's gay. "At first I thought about that, because I felt so confident that my mother had acknowledged that I'm gay. But the fact that she said that, I couldn't understand how people could hate me simply for who I am," Morrison says. She says she hopes minorities from straight and queer communities will attend her party knowing it is safe place to have fun and listen to different types of music. "Once black people, Latinos (who are gay) start realizing they are no different from people within the heterosexual community that is the moment they will start being more confident within themselves," she says. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PRIDE WEEK
TheStar.com - living - Celebrating her own way
RICHARD LAUTENS / TORONTO STAR
York University student Felicia Morrison is throwing a party called Solstice Pride next Thursday to celebrate her lesbian Jamaican take on queer culture.
For many people, it's not a big deal to throw a party. But for Felicia Morrison, a lesbian of Jamaican descent, it's a testament to her finally being comfortable in her own skin.
Toronto Star
For more information on Solstice Pride, go to myspace.com/solsticepride.
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