June is Pride Month, and for members of Brandon Pride, it’s also not only the busiest month of the year but in many ways the most uplifting.
A full week of events around the community will begin on June 7 at run through to June 14 for Brandon’s Pride Week. Getting a full week’s worth of events together is no mean feat, but organizers have been working hard to make it happen.
“We have been working toward these series of events as the Brandon Pride board for months now,” said Nora Wilson, chairperson of Brandon Pride. “In fact, the entire year has been gearing up toward throwing these events next week. Right now, it is all of the ‘Do we have the tables in the right place, do we have this, do we have that?’ all of those last minute kind of details.”
Pride Week’s scheduled events begin on Sunday at the Riverbank Discovery Centre from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM with Pooch Pride, which is often one of their more popular events. Dogs up for adoption will also be at the march.
“This is an event we throw every year, and as the name implies it’s for all the dogs to come down and celebrate Pride with their owners. You can dress your dog up, we’ll have a contest for the gayest looking dog, and we’ll have a Pooch Pride march around the Discovery Centre.”
A Pride Cafe at Chez Angela, Queer-aoke at Black Wheat Brewing, an art gallery exhibition of local queer artists, a Pride flag raising at City Hall, and the final event of the week, the Pride Rally at 11:00 AM on June 14 at City Hall, are just some of the events of an extremely packed week. And if past Pride Weeks are any indication, the community will show up in droves for each event.
“A lot of people really support Pride in this community,” Wilson said. “Our events regularly hundreds of people. The march, I don’t know how big it will be this year because we are doing it a little bit differently than we usually do, but it’s always drawn five or six hundred people every time and sometimes more. I’m around this community all the time, I’m a trans woman, and I speak to people all the time who are very supportive. There are lots of allies who are very supportive in this community.”
Wilson added that while Pride Winnipeg has made the decision to ban military uniforms from their events, Brandon Pride has no plans to do the same.
