The Orlando shooting will be acknowledged at LGBTQ Pride Week events on the Sunshine Coast, but it won’t be allowed to overshadow the celebration.
Laurie Lesk is part of this year’s Sunshine Coast Pride committee, and she’s been focused on organizing Sunday in the Park with Pride, June 19 at Mission Point Park in Sechelt.
Pride events across North America have been marking the Orlando tragedy, and Lesk said speakers will talk about Orlando’s impact during Sunday’s opening ceremonies, and there will be a memorial on site.
“There is a pull for people to try and be sombre about this. Culturally, we don’t like to get up and party when there’s been a horrible tragedy. On the other hand, this is all the more reason for us to get up and celebrate who we are, because it’s so necessary,” she said. “I have a couple of people who are going to be setting up a memorial. It’s going to be interactive, people can contribute to it. They’re making a banner and people will sign it and put their own artwork on it. We’re going to have ribbons and we will talk about it at the opening, and the flag raising in Gibsons is on the following Monday and we will speak about it [there] also. It’s devastating what has happened.”
For Powell River-Sunshine Coast MLA Nicholas Simons, Orlando is a reminder that protecting human rights is an ongoing task.
“I think our communities are pretty open-minded and we have, for the most part, no difficulties. So when we hear examples like the Orlando tragedy, we have to remember it’s one mind that’s been influenced by hatred,” Simons said. “While we know that there are people who are not very accepting in the world, for the most part our communities are relatively safe. We don’t take it for granted, and at the same time we have to remain a little vigilant that rights are protected.”
Sunshine Coast Pride has been steadily growing over the last decade or so, and especially in the years since Sechelt and Gibsons made their first Pride proclamations in 2009.
But Lesk said the Sunshine Coast Pride committee noticed a lack of connection and awareness between LGBTQ youth on the Coast and the older LGBTQ community, and one of her goals with the Sunday event was to have something that would appeal to families and youth as much as it would for the crowd that usually comes to Pride events.
Lesk has been working with Gay-Straight Alliance groups at local high schools as part of her planning.
“I was thinking about what I would have wanted when I was in high school and I wanted to provide something like that for the queer youth on the Coast,” said Lesk. “This is a family event. What I wanted it to be was just a big party for youth and for the community at large.”
Lesk also noted that the Sunshine Coast Pride committee has had a lot of help in the lead-up to Pride Week. “We’ve had such immense sponsorship and support from the community, I just was blown away.”
Sunday in the Park with Pride will feature the Little Pride Parade, a picnic, field games, workshops, a pet parade and a Neil Young jam session.
Simons said local Pride events have now evolved to the point where they’ve become one of the Coast’s big public celebrations.
“First it was a day, then a week, and the Sunshine Coast is a great place to show how it’s evolved from being a small community with just LGBTQ people together to being families and relatives and friends – and everybody has an opportunity to say, hey, we’re all part of the same community,” Simons said. “This is a time just to celebrate our differences and celebrate the fact that we’re allowed to fall in love with whoever we want.”
Sunday in the Park with Pride starts at 12 noon with the Little Pride Parade from the Davis Bay Pier to Mission Point Park, and runs until 4 p.m.
The Town of Gibsons will raise the Pride flag on June 20 at 1 p.m. District of Sechelt officials told Coast Reporter they were not approached with a request to fly the flag this year. Pride Week wraps up with a dance next Saturday, June 25, at Roberts Creek Community Hall.
There are also several arts events tied to Pride Week (see our Arts & Entertainment section). There’s a full list at www.sunshinecoastpride.com
