THUNDER BAY — A flag-raising ceremony at Thunder Bay’s city hall helped kick off month-long Pride celebrations Friday, but also put the spotlight on rising threats facing the LGBTQ+ community.
Around 100 people attended the ceremony Friday morning, marking one of the opening events in the city’s 13th year of Pride events.
Some of the many highlights of the festivities include a glitter ball featuring Canada’s Drag Race star Rita Baga, a street festival on Red River Road on June 17, and a pride pool party at Volunteer Pool.
The month will also feature community discussions like a forum on allyship, and a protest march recognizing Pride’s activist origins is also planned for June 17.
Full event details are available through the Thunder Pride Association and the Rainbow Collective of Thunder Bay, which are co-organizing this year’s Pride.
The local event first launched as Pride week in 2011 before expanding to a month-long celebration of the LGBTQ+ community.
This year’s Pride comes as members of the community face growing threats, organizers stressed on Friday, citing widespread government actions to limit the rights of transgender people and crack down on classroom discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in the United States.
Rainbow Coalition president Jason Veltri pointed to a move by the New Brunswick government to bar teachers from using children’s preferred name and pronoun without parental consent, calling that one indication blowback has found purchase north of the border, too.
Veltri highlighted transgender rights as the current focal point of attacks on the LGBTQ+ community, leading the crowd in a chant of “Trans rights are human rights.”
“We cannot let trans kids be used as political weapons,” he said. “We need our allies now more than ever.”
“That’s our call to you — stand up and call it out when you see it. Stand up and demand better from your elected leaders.”
Thunder Pride treasurer Crystal Caputo said she’ll be celebrating important advances for the LGBTQ+ community this month, but also called it crucial to highlight ongoing repression.
“I always like to remember our history — I mean, just 50 years ago, being part of the community was illegal,” she underlined. “So it’s really important to celebrate how far we’ve come, but we also can’t get complacent.”
“The pendulum swings both ways. The pendulum really swung for us, and now it’s going the other way. It reminds us how important it is to keep on fighting.”
Veltri called support from figures like political leaders and curler Krista McCarville, who along with her Northern Ontario women’s team serves as community ambassador for Pride, crucial against that backdrop.
“It shows our city is with us,” he said. “I said in my speech, there are cities that are restricting access to flying the pride flag, in this province. So to have the city recommit themselves and reaffirm their support for the queer, trans, and two-spirit communities means the world.”
Newly-elected Fort William First Nation Chief Michele Solomon encouraged all members of the community to get involved in Pride and show their support.
“For a lot of us, we have a lot of learning to do, and that’s okay,” she said. “That’s why we come together, that’s why Pride month is so important. We have the opportunity to share and learn with each other in a good way.”
Abi Stevens-DeCorte, a Fort William First Nation community member, raised the First Nation’s pride flag alongside Solomon at the conclusion of the ceremony.
“It was a big surprise, and also a huge honour to be able to be involved in this,” she said. “As an Indigenous and queer woman this is an extremely important cause to me.”
Stevens-DeCorte agreed events in the U.S. make this year's Pride feel particularly urgent.
“I’ve seen a lot about Pride [being] less about ‘love is love’ this year, and more about trans and queer lives are in danger. That is something that needs to be talked about.”
