Today I volunteered in my very first pride event! Over the last
month, I've been getting involved with one of the bigger LGBT centres in
Vancouver, which offers a long line of services and groups to
queer-identified people, young/old, of different ethnicity, different
sexual identities and more. They needed a few people to man their booth
for the Pride festival this afternoon, so I happily obliged.
Now,
this event, Surrey Pride, was interesting. Surrey is a large suburb
about a forty-five minute drive outside of downtown Vancouver. It's a
suburb, first and foremost, which means there's a lot of families and
it's probably a little less liberal-minded than say, right downtown.
Surrey is also home to a wide range of different ethnicities, many of
which get a rap for having some pretty traditional cultures values when
it comes to the LGBT community. So I was really happy to see lots of
families with kids getting rainbow flags painted on their faces, and
people of all different cultures, ages and walks of life coming up to
the vendors and community groups to ask questions and see what everyone
had to offer. It's comforting to know that so many people are curious
and willing to reach out to the community, and that there's a generation
coming up that will be exposed and understanding of queer people.
It
was an experience that helped me keep in check too. We had a lot of
social/youth workers, nurses, teachers and counselors looking for help
or resources for clients or their students, many of whom are closeted,
scared and uncertain of where to go and who to connect with. In the last
few months, I feel like I've taken coming out for granted, now that
I've got an army of support behind me, so it's kind of a reality check
to hear the struggles the loved ones of these people are going through
and looking for support. We also had a few people approach us with ideas
for different social and community groups that they would like to see
(Playdates for LGBT parents and their kids, a social club for young
adults, among other things).
I really liked that this
was a smaller event too, especially where an
LGBT presence isn't quite as strong. I know a lot of people ask why
pride events still exist and what the point of them are, but I think
this event was a great example why we still need them. As much as the
big Vancouver parade and celebration in August is fun, I think these
smaller,
grassroots events are important to reach out to populations where the
knowledge might not be there and the resources for LGBT community is a
little more limited. We had one gentleman from Chilliwack, a more rural
city even further outside the city, approach us for help in starting
their own pride society and needed help connecting to our organizers to
see what needed to be done and what could be offered out there. And the
amount of straight-supporters that came to us looking for groups and
services to help their friends, loved ones, clients, etc. spoke to this
need too.
In all, a very insightful experience. It's a
different experience, but I'm looking forward to the big celebration in
a few weeks. One of the events going
on is a huge street party on Davie St., Vancouver's gay neighbourhood,
which should be a blast. It'll also give me an excuse to wear this out
more...
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| Congrats to you guys in the States! Hopefully this shirt won't make sense in the near future! |
