Pembina Valley Pride is hosting a pride rally in Winkler for the first time, and Brandon Pride is going to be there to show their support.
Brandon Pride is sending a bus to Winkler tomorrow full of supporters, and paid for by donations from the community. That bus will leave at 9:30 AM and return at 5:00 PM.
“It’s really important to remember that members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community exist in every town and every city in this province and in Canada and everywhere around the world,” said Nora Wilson, chairperson of Brandon Pride. “Whether we’re feeling safe enough to be able to be out and ourselves is another question, but we are everywhere from little towns the size of 100 people all the way up through Winnipeg.”
Pembina Valley Pride came into being in 2019 and have not hosted an event in Winkler before. They have faced some online backlash from people in Winkler ahead of the event.
“Every person, regardless of who they love and how they live and how they like to express themselves deserves the right to be themselves in public, to be able to access healthcare, to be able to have the same rights as everyone else, to be able speak their minds, dress as they want to dress, love who they want to love,” Wilson said. “That’s simply why we need to be supporting events like Pembina Valley Pride in Winkler. There are queer people down there and they deserve to feel safe.”
For Brandon Pride, this bus is the first event of an extremely busy weekend. Their Pride in the Park event happens that same evening, and they’ll be holding a march and rally at City Hall the following day. But it was important for them to show support for Pembina Valley Pride.
“We have to continue to advocate for ourselves,” said Wilson. “That’s the importance of pride just in general. Going down to Winkler to support them, a small community and a known very conservative community, it’s important to show that we’re here, we’re no threat to anybody, we just want to be ourselves. And the more we are able to send people down there to show that, to help those people who live down there feel more comfortable being themselves and feel safe coming out to an event like that, it’s really important work.”
Wilson added Winkler is not the only community where pride organizations may need additional support and they feel it’s important to stand with pride rallies in other smaller communities as well.
