A prominent LGBTQ community leader who has been demanding justice for Bruce McArthur’s alleged victims has been chosen as the grand marshal for Pride Toronto’s 2018 festival.

Haran Vijayanathan is the executive director of the Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention (ASAAP), an organization committed to providing culturally responsive holistic health and support services for South Asian community members at risk of or affected by HIV. He is also the founder of My House: Rainbow Resources of York Region, a support group for local LGBTQ families and youth.

Born in Sri Lanka and raised in Winnipeg, Vijayanathan has been an active member of the Ontario LGBTQ community for more than 18 years, advocating especially for the rights of the marginalized groups.

“Its truly an honour,” Vijayanathan said, “I’m grateful for the opportunity because it raises the community on many levels.”

“It’s validating,” he told the Star on Wednesday. “It says that if you are Middle-Eastern, South Asian, gay, there is a space for you.

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Since McArthur’s arrest in January, Vijayanathan has been outspoken in calling for a third-party investigation into how Toronto police handled missing persons cases.

“We’re going to sit down and have a conversation,” he told the Star in March. “We can look what police think they did well, and then what actually happened, and then look to see what gaps exist and find solutions based on that.”

Vijayanathan said learning about the murder of Skandaraj Navaratnam, McArthur’s first alleged victim to date, hit close to him. Navaratnam, like Vijayanathan, was Sri Lankan, Tamil and gay. His death was Vijayanathan’s “worst nightmare” — as an openly gay teenager, he had wondered if anyone from his community would care or notice if he died.

In a previous interview, Vijayanathan told the Star he had offered to collect the remains of the victims on behalf on their families — many of whom are not based in Toronto — and perform proper funeral rites.

Olivia Nuamah, Pride Toronto’s executive editor, told the Star Vijayanathan “took up a mantle and space that had rarely been publicly taken up,” and done so with grace and poise.

“Before these men were discovered murdered, their particular stories, how they navigated their queerness, were not stories that necessarily made up a part of the community,” she said. “Pride Toronto felt he did a very good job of opening up that door and starting to navigate that narrative.”

With the appointment of the grand marshal, Nuamah said Pride Toronto aimed to represent the future of the LGBTQ community and highlight different kinds of stories.

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“We feel that the stories of these seven men and the way in which Vijayanathan has spoken about them is worthy of a platform and some prominence,” she said.

The third annual Pride Month will begin on June 1 with a flag-raising at Toronto city hall. This year’s festival will take place from June 22 to 24, and will honour AIDS activism and reflect on loss.