Pride Month may be over, but Flin Flon Pride’s plans are just beginning. The group’s annual celebration of the north’s LGBTQ+ community will start in earnest next week.
This year’s Flin Flon Pride celebration now has a firm schedule, with several of the event’s normal celebrations now with confirmed dates and times.
The events will start with a Pride flag raising and ceremony at City Hall July 15 at 5 p.m., then will include a kick-off party and 18+ drag show at the R.H. Channing Auditorium, along with a magic show and several local organizations in attendance.
“It’s four fundraisers in one,” said organizer Jordana Oulette.
The show will include an art showing from artist CC Trubiak, an open bar staffed by the Flin Flon Rotary Club and a canteen by the Flin Flon Guidance Nursery. Performers from Saskatoon’s YXE Drag Collective will hit the stage, along with a pair of local talents - former Drag Queen Mermaid sash holders Miss Bijoux and Virgo Moan.
“This year, we kept thinking, ‘Oh, let’s keep it small this year.’ Nope. It’s not small at all,” Oulette said.
The next day will feature the Pride in the Park family event at the Creighton Spray Pad from 2-4 p.m., then a haunted house-themed teen dance July 16 at the community hall - donations to the Lord’s Bounty Food Bank will be accepted as entry tickets.
Pride will continue with Flin Flon’s sixth annual Pride parade July 23, starting at 11 a.m. The parade will go in reverse of the traditional Canada Day parade route, starting uptown and ending on Green Street. Community groups will be at the parade’s start site with refreshments for marchers. The last official Flin Flon Pride event will be the group’s glow party at the Unwinder July 23.
Other Pride events near Flin Flon are starting to appear - both Cranberry Portage and Pelican Narrows recently hosted their first Prides last month, including events and parades. Flin Flon Pride also maintains a pair of student bursaries - one in Flin Flon and a second in Creighton - and has worked with local school divisions to hold Pride-related programming for students and raise Pride flags at schools.
Oulette said as an organizer, seeing recognition for a movement for equality grow makes her - for want of a better term - proud.
“It's a really weird feeling - not bad weird, it's like a weird, good feeling. I feel really happy that people are catching on to it, wanting to join, which is really nice to see. You think, ’Wow, look at this little committee up here, making a difference.’”
The Flin Flon group has also had a chance to expand, attending Fierte Canada Pride in Winnipeg earlier this year. Stories of people who feel emboldened by Pride are also starting to come forward, Oulette said, mentioning people, young and old, who have come up to Pride committee members with questions or stories about who they are.
“When we had a booth set up at Canada Pride, we met a whole bunch of seniors that were from Flin Flon. One guy - I had no idea who he was, he didn’t tell us - told us a really dark story about Flin Flon,” Oulette said.
“He said that he and his friend were gay and were the only open ones here. There was a dance at the community hall - he said his friend was bullied so badly that he went home and killed himself. He said, ‘as soon as I graduated, I had my bags packed, ready to go, right after grad.’ That is motivating for us to keep going, to keep a fire under us.”
