Preparations for Flin Flon’s second-ever Pride event are well underway, with three weeks left to go before the event.
The city hall flag raising and Pride parade, which will wind through Flin Flon before finishing on Main Street, are in the final stages of planning, as is Flin Flon’s first-ever Trans march, which will take place on Aug. 17.
Other new events, including a family dance and a public park gathering, are also planned.
Pride committee chair Jordana Oulette said this year’s event has been geared toward the community at large, especially toward family and youth events.
“This year, we geared the entire festival more towards family events. We had a lot of requests from parents wanting to involve their children,” said Oulette.
Another new event will see the Pride committee team up with the St. Ann’s Roman Catholic Church. The church is scheduled to hold a special Pride mass on August 19, officiated by Father Paul Bringleson.
Last year, Bringleson spoke at the official opening and flag raising of Flin Flon Pride and encouraged tolerance and understanding.
“Off the top of my head, I can’t name another community as lucky as we are to have the Catholic church supporting us,” said Oulette.
While preparations for the upcoming weekend are ramping up, some Pride advocates have encountered homophobia. Oulette said in the past month, two incidents have taken place in Flin Flon – one at the Pride committee’s glow party fundraiser, where a small group of people shouted homophobic slurs at eventgoers outside the venue, and again later, when a display sign advertising a Pride event was vandalized. Unknown assailants removed the letters from a sign and rearranged them to spell out slurs.
The incidents haven’t affected the focus of Oulette and the Pride committee.
Oulette said the committee has seen some opposition to a measure to install both a permanent and temporary crosswalk using the colours of the rainbow flag.
“The community, for the most part, has been great. There are of course some exceptions – for example, people questioning why we need to fundraise and what we use the money for. Some were also saying how it’s a waste of taxpayers’ dollars to install a rainbow crosswalk, and then of course, there’s the vandalism of the sign,” she said.
“As a committee, we are trying to make light of it and focus on our goal.”
