With Pride Month around the corner, the Minto Pride group have their plans set for what are now annual events, as well as some new things to celebrate this year.
Group member Jess Rowden says this year the Pride in the Park and Drag Show events are both back, preceded by the decoration of all 3 Minto community downtowns and a flag raising ceremony at the township office on June 1. Rowden notes that Sunday, June 11 will be Pride in the Park at the Lion’s Heritage Park in Palmerston for a family friendly event.
“We’re encouraging all folks who are there, as part of the queer community, but also there in ally-ship, so people who are in support of human rights, and inclusion and belonging, to come and join us for a family-friendly event. There’s no cost to the event, and there’s going to be lots of family-friendly opportunities there, we have different games, crafts, face painters, music and we have also invited some vendors,” Rowden shared.
Rowden says the now annual drag show will be the night before, June 10, at the Crown Theatre in Harriston and will be a 13 and up event. Some of the funds raised go toward a great cause.
“Some of the proceeds from that event go to our committee to help us with the events we do all year long and the Pride in the Park the next day. Tickets are available to that event on Eventbrite and the Crown Theatre in Harriston. It’s always a really good time for anyone who has been out to the shows before, they’re just a great way to get some smiles and laughs and take in some great entertainment,” said Rowden.
Additionally, this year Minto Pride has partnered with Wellington County and the Museum and Archives to create Our Small Town PRIDE: A Celebration of 2SLGBTQI+ Stories and History. It will be a display at the museum and archives between Fergus and Elora that is now open and will run until February 4, 2024. Rowden says the county reached out to them with the idea, and she says it’s been a real honour putting it all together, and that it’s been a very gratifying and meaningful experience.
“Ultimately they just asked for us to share what this work means to us, what having the support of the town means to us, what the support of the members of their communities means to us, the importance of this work, maybe especially in times when there’s seemingly an increased push against it, even though we know that’s not the case, as often times it’s just a few voices that are often the loudest,” Rowden explained. “It was actually a great opportunity for us, though, to reflect back on the work we’ve done over the last 4 years. A lot of work, a lot of celebration, a lot of movement, and in a small community with not a lot of access to resources. So for us it was a really great opportunity to reflect back, and it gave us an opportunity to be really cognizant and mindful of all the people who have been supporting us along the way, especially the Town of Minto and the cultural roundtables.”
Also, Stratford Perth Pride is hosting a Rural Pride Summit on Intersectionality this summer, which Rowden is excited about. She says it’s important for rural Pride groups to come together and further foster inclusive communities. Rowden adds for example, it’s often perceived that faith-based rhetoric is against queer identifying people, but in fact, many people that are queer identifying people are also people of faith.
“A lot of people within our queer communities are actually people of faith. So how they experience both their identities as a person of faith and as a queer person would be different from somebody who doesn’t identify that way. Or different from somebody who’s racialized, or somebody with a disability. So I think it’s really an amazing opportunity for all of us to come together, and to really understand the relationships between all of those things, and also just build a stronger network,” added Rowden.
Our Small Town PRIDE is on display in the Wellington County Museum and Archives right now, and includes “photographs and stories from the Minto Pride Committee highlighting dozens of Wellington County residents from the 2SLGBTQI+ community. The display invites visitors to learn more about Wellington County’s pride history and add their own story to the Revelation Rainbow – a colourful, empowering, sometimes sad, and often humourous collection of anecdotes,” according to a release from Wellington County.
“The Minto Pride Committee is very grateful for the opportunity to showcase our community and our story,” said Rosie Krul, Treasurer/Communications Coordinator, Minto Pride Committee. “Minto Pride is a relatively new organization, but the history of Pride is not, and it deserves to be acknowledged and celebrated. We are honoured to have our voices amplified, and to be involved in this project by helping amplify the voices of others.”
“I am grateful to be part of this project,” added Amy Dunlop, Assistant Curator. “It is a pleasure to work collaboratively with the Minto Pride Committee to continue to add diversity and inclusion to our collections and the stories we share at WCMA.”
For more information on Minto Pride and all their events and initiatives, visit their Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/mintopride.
