A colorful crowd bursting with laughter and bubbles gathered at the elementary school on Quadra Island as the small BC coastal community gathered to celebrate the first Discovery Islands Pride event on Sunday.
The festival celebrating 2SLGBTQ+ individuals and allies in Quadra, Cortes, Read and other neighboring BC islands kicked off at noon sharp. Participants, young and old, left the school grounds to walk the two blocks that make up the main street of Quathiaski Cove before arriving at the town square for a family party.
A couple hundred people, including babies in strollers, children in costumes, youth, families, seniors and dogs in rainbow outfits, milled around the event’s booths making stickers and buttons, painting banners or enjoying face painting. , rainbow cupcakes, musical acts and drag performers. .
“I am so excited that this is the first Pride and I get to be a part of it,” said 18-year-old Quadra resident McKenna McLean.
“And I’m incredibly excited that the island is starting to embrace the queer people who live here.”
McLean, one of the event’s volunteers, said the inaugural Pride celebration is all the more meaningful given the isolation everyone has experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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“I think after everything we’ve been through in the last two years, people want to do the things that will bring us together and give us things to celebrate,” they said.
“I also feel like we are entering a new era on the island where we want to work on being more accepting of people because there are so many people with different identities,” said McLean, who identifies as non-binary, asexual and queer.
As a young man in a rural community, McLean said it took him longer to understand himself and the range of identities represented in the queer community.
Pride events are important in helping rural queer and trans youth find each other and feel welcome in their home communities, say organizers of the Discovery Islands Pride Celebration.
“I didn’t even really know that there were other options besides being gay or straight, and being a girl or a boy,” they said.
“So there was definitely a sense of isolation, and it took me a long, long time to accept my gender identity.”
Pride celebrations are particularly important for rural youth who might not have as many opportunities to connect with the broader queer community, they added.
“I’ve always felt that (Pride) really brings a sense of community,” McLean said.
“And it helps other people who might not be able to find those connections on their own, or might be struggling with their identity, to see other people who identify just like they do.”
Pride events also help young people accept themselves as they see 2SLGBTQ+ members celebrating themselves, McLean added.
But celebrations in rural communities also benefit allies, helping make the spectrum and experience of the queer community less theoretical and more concrete, McLean said.
“Pride definitely helps the queer community, but it also helps allies understand it, and not just in the abstract sense,” they said.
Inclusion and support in communities of origin are important
Celebration events in small communities are important because, in the past, queer and trans people had to leave their home communities and go to large urban centers to be accepted, said Discovery Islands Pride organizer Anne-Marie Long.
“Increasingly, we would like to make sure that our home communities are accepting, welcoming and inclusive,” said Long, who is also a facilitator for 2SLGBTQ+ for queer and trans youth, families and groups at the Foundry, a youth service center in the neighboring town of Campbell River on Vancouver Island.
“And one of the ways to do that is to have public demonstrations of visibility and inclusion so that people know that they are not alone, that there are people of all ages who are part of the queer and trans community, and whose visibility and support is very important. important,” he said.
Studies show that queer and trans youth reported more positive health outcomes and future plans when they have supportive adults in their family, school and community, according to a new study. report by Stigma and Resilience Among Vulnerable Youth Center and McCreary Center Society.
While queer and trans teens experience safer environments and fewer health risks than older generations, gaps still exist between them and their straight peers, the found report.
In rural areas in particular, less than half (47 percent) of trans and/or non-binary youth surveyed live in their gender identity full-time, while 40 percent live their identity part-time and 13 percent never live. in their identified gender.
Nearly 40 percent of the youth surveyed reported that they had been cyberbullied, and 42 percent also reported that they didn’t get the medical care they needed because they didn’t want their parents to know, while another 14 percent couldn’t. get medical care. they needed because it was not available in their community.
Long said it can help young people get gender-affirming medical and sexual health care or help get name or gender changes on government identification.
She has lived on Quadra Island for almost four years with her wife and has found the island to be welcoming and accepting of her and her family.
However, there is no guarantee that everyone will have the same experience, he said.
“I know there are young people in our communities who are not at home because they are worried about being rejected. Or they worry about losing friends or family members,” Long said.
“So I think the more we can do to say, ‘Hey, you’re welcome here and you belong here,’ the better.
“Hopefully that will keep some of those young people in our community instead of feeling like they have to go to the big cities to find each other.”
Rochelle Baker / Local Journalism Initiative / Canadian National Observer