Gay Pride 2018
Fierté Montréal, also called Montreal Pride, was founded in 2007 at the initiative of Montreal's LGBTQ communities after the city's prior Pride festival, Divers/Cité, repositioned itself as a general arts and music festival. A major event of Pride Montreal includes the annual Montreal Pride Parade.
Montreal Pride is the largest LGBTQ gathering in the francophone world. Active year-round, MontrealPride supports local LGBTQ communities and advocates on behalf of LGBTQ people living in countries that are hostile toward LGBTQ rights.
From August 10 to 20, 2017, the festival's special edition Canada Pride Montreal 2017, was featured as part of the official programming of Montreal's 375th and Canada 150 celebrations. In the lead-up to the parade, Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre offered an official apology to the LGBTQ+ community for violence and discrimination perpetrated against the community by local police forces in the 1960s to 1990s. The 2017 edition of the parade was the largest in the city's history. In an event that attracted significant media attention, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau marched that year with Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar (the first openly gay Irish leader) and Vradkar's partner Matthew Barrett.