Towns along the South Shore are taking part in the region’s first ever pride week.

For the past several years most local municipalities have flown the pride flag in a show of solidarity with the 2SLGBTQ+ community. This year, Lunenburg Pride is working to increase their exposure by expanding the annual flag raising to a week of activities including a dog show, seniors lesbian social, trivia night and pub night, ending with a drag show and dance on Saturday.

Chair of Lunenburg Pride Steve Ellis says there’s a large 2SLGBTQ+ community on the South Shore and they wanted to tailor events to suit local needs.

“Not everyone wants to go all the way to Halifax to have events and they’d rather be supporting their own community,” said Ellis. “So, we decided this year that we wanted to have a week’s worth of events that will include all demographics and something on a smaller scale that represents our community better than the city.”

One event that has generated some controversy is Drag Queen story time being hosted by the Margaret Hennigar Library in Bridgewater.

Following several inappropriate comments South Shore Public Libraries closed commenting on the event on Facebook. Ellis says there’s no reason to fear a man reading to children while wearing a dress.

“If you think about it on a very basic level, it’s no different than hiring a clown for your kid’s birthday party. That’s a man dressed up in drag. If we take away the seriousness about it, because it’s serious that we get hate about it,” said Ellis. “But at the end of the day, there’s plenty of things that kids go to where people are dressed up so this is no different.”

Pride Flag. Photo by Ed Halverson.

Each year, the Region of Queens flies the pride flag to coincide with Halifax pride events in July. Ellis says the Lunenburg Pride group would like to see the week expand next year and says Queens would be natural fit.

“We’re definitely open to working with Queens. I know that we have people who work with the municipality who work on various inclusion projects that have contacted us and we’ve worked on things together in the past. So yeah, we definitely would be willing to work with them to make an even bigger organization.”

Ellis says hosting a week of events to increase their visibility is important to members of the 2SLGBTQ+ community, particularly in rural areas of Nova Scotia.

“It means a lot to me and I know others who have approached us, telling us what it means to them, to have events to go to. And if they’re not comfortable going to the events they can drive all across the South Shore and they’re going to see a pride flag waving and they know that they’re in a safe space. And that means more than all the events together and the events allow us to do more meaningful work.”

For more information about South Shore Pride week events, head to Lunenburg Pride Facebook page.

E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

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