Grande Prairie is letting its rainbow flag fly. The festivities will start with a guest speaker on LGBTQ rights on June 24th followed by a carnival and an party in white the next day. Grande Prairie Pride Society Treasurer Todd Russell says the event is about highlighting how open and accepting the city can be.
“That, and building on success we’ve already had. There are people in the LGBT community who aren’t full accepted or don’t feel fully comfortable, and so we want to try and show them that this is an open and accepting place and they can be who they are and we’re happy to have them.”
Russell says there have been a few smaller Pride events in Grande Prairie in the past, but they were just held within the LGBTQ community. He hopes this one will be a celebration open to everyone.
While they’re expecting a few ignorant comments, Russell said they’ve gotten mostly positive feedback so far.
“One of the most common things I hear is people commenting, ‘I’m really glad you guys are doing that; aren’t you worried about what everybody else is going to think?’ This is a great event for Grande Prairie for the rest of the community to realize that, ‘Hey, you know what? My neighbours and the people I work with are not as intolerant or are more open and accepting than I thought they were.”
The carnival will be held in the GPRC parking lot and is free to attend, just like the guest speaker from Uganda. For more information or to get involved, visit the Grande Prairie Pride Society Facebook page.