Victoria Pride Parade highlights unity in Canada’s most gender diverse centre

Victoria Pride Parade highlights unity in Canada's most gender diverse centre. The post Victoria Pride Parade highlights unity in Canada’s most gender diverse centre appeared first on CHEK .

It’s a day to be out, proud and loud as Victoria celebrates its 32nd Pride Parade, packed with excitement and community spirit. However, the underlying message of this year’s Pride is unity amid the current political climate in Canada, as Alberta’s introduction of Bill 9 requires parents’ consent for youth under 16 to use preferred pronouns in schools, among other measures. Watch below: Loading the player...

“It’s important to make sure we keep fighting and ensure that our rights stay today, tomorrow and forever,” said Nick DeGroot, president of Victoria Pride Society. Valrie Sullivan and Bill Williamson are longtime supporters of the Queer community and attendees of Pride parades. They say that, more than ever, it’s important to be vocal and to support the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.

“Particularly for trans people who are not being given any support,” said Sullivan. Williamson says that it’s only been in the last 20 years that being out and proud is widely accepted. “We’re old enough to remember when you weren’t allowed to be gay, so that people would hide away.

We have been active in the theatre, so we’ve always known 2SLGBTQIA people as part of the arts community.” For others like Max Arignon, a member of the Victoria Pride Society, Pride is a time to reflect on those who led the fight for equality before modern times. “I was sitting at a Pride parade with an 85-year-old trans person who said to me, sometimes it’s fun, dear, and some years it’s necessary.”

In Canada during the 1970s, Pride started as a protest against police raids and mass arrests in prominent Queer spaces like bathhouses and nightclubs, which sparked mass protests in cities like Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. These protests contributed to the Pride movement celebrated today. “I think pride for the last two years is really getting back to what it was meant to be, which is a place for the community to gather in times that are fun and also times that are really challenging,” says Arignon.

Victoria has the most gender diversity among Canadian large urban centres and has the largest proportions of transgender and non-binary people in Canada, according to Statistics Canada. READ MORE: CHEK to show Victoria’s Pride Parade on TV, livestream on Sunday The post Victoria Pride Parade highlights unity in Canada’s most gender diverse centre appeared first on CHEK .