Nanaimo Pride Society is calling for an extra splash of colour downtown as it heads into Pride Week and its 20-year milestone this June.
Pride Week kicks off June 9 and the society is looking for it to be bigger and better than last year, with a longer parade route, larger festival and an official after party. It’s also asking city council to brush up on its rainbow-coloured crosswalks painted last year and add two more at the intersection at Commercial and Bastion streets to drive home this community’s resilience to be inclusive.
Almost 50 floats glided across the colourful crosswalks last year and nearly 10,000 people attended the festival at Maffeo Sutton Park, according to Rick Meyers, society president, who told the News Bulletin the crowd was 20 times what they’ve seen before.
Lauren Semple, vice-president, said it took pride to a whole new level.
This year society is counting on bigger numbers and wants to see the painted crosswalks expanded.
It was emotional and “pretty powerful” for Meyers to see the crosswalks painted last year, with community members and allies looking on. He’d been beaten up at the same intersection at 14 years old for being queer while he was on his way to a movie.
When the crosswalks were vandalized, allies unbeknownst to him and Semple got together and chalked the remaining two crosswalks at the intersection as a sign of solidarity. Semple said they were like pride superheros and it’s that action that’s behind the spirit and idea of getting two more crosswalks painted.
“Our biggest way that we push back against hate and discrimination is with love and acceptance, so what we’re asking the city to do is paint two more,” she said. “Show them that yeah, OK, we painted them, you want to graffiti them? We’re going to clean them off, paint two more and just not relenting, pushing the fact that we are inclusive, we are welcoming.”
Pride happens June 9-17 with a range of events, such as a flag raising at city hall, parade and festival, an art show, youth dance and pet parade. To ring in 20 years, the society is carrying celebrations over two weekends and will bring in the band Queer is Funk.
“We wanted to do something really big to not only just celebrate for the Nanaimo community, but bring an act in that other people on the island who don’t have their own strong pride communities can come travel to and enjoy and celebrate with us,” Semple said.
For a full listing of events and dates, please visit www.nanaimopride.org.