A member of St. John’s Pride says he’s encouraged by the huge show of support for 2SLGBTQIA+ community at Confederation Building today.
Hundreds turned out, both from the queer community and their allies, primarily in response to a growing social media campaign denouncing efforts to make schools in particular more inclusive for people of all gender expressions.
I didn’t see one anti-inclusion protestor at the rally today amid all of my people. Hopefully they found all of the closets that we had to come out of. #NoSpaceForHate 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ pic.twitter.com/XpxzRQvulc
— Gemma M. Hickey (they/them) 🇨🇦🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ (@justbegemma) June 9, 2023
Co-chair external for St. John’s Pride, Eddy St. Coeur, says he’s encouraged by the show of support seen today.
“A point was made here today,” says St. Coeur, “that in Newfoundland and Labrador, there’s no space for hate.”
That said, St. Coeur says there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done to make sure that society is more inclusive and that people can live their lives without fear. That’s particularly true of the transgender community, he says.
“Every single day they’re facing this and they’re seeing this online,” he says. “The fact that we still have those people in our community who are genuinely walking through the streets afraid. I need people to be reminded that we haven’t achieved equality.”
In the meantime, the official St. John’s Pride Festival is scheduled for July 9-23 with the Pride Parade scheduled for July 23.
