Morden's LGBTQ community touched by love, honks of support in first Pride

No Pride will speak as personallytoD Van Vliet Vaisiusas theevent they founded in MordenSaturday.

The first one will be remembered as a celebration of hundreds, resplendent incolourful attire,marchingdown a sidewalkin a traditionally conservative communitytohollers of support and honks by the manywho drove past.

Thatvisionisat odds with the southern Manitoba city of 9,000 people Van Vliet Vaisius, 23, has known.

"I am here today because I was told to shut up every single day, in small insidious ways," Van Vliet Vaisius, a non-binary personwho uses the pronouns they and them, said.

'I will not shut up'

They spoke of feeling ostracized for growing up secular and later identifying with theLGBTQ community.

"I am here today because I will not shut up,"Van Vliet Vaisiussaid, to a roaring crowdat Morden Park on Saturday afternoon.

"I've seen people lose their friends, their families, their hope I will never shut up."

Stories of people, and communities, becoming accepting of the LGBTQ community weavedthrough Morden's first Pride. It is estimatedas many as 400 people marched from the park to the Access Event Centre.

While LGBTQ rights have advanced nationwide, faith-connected communitieshave wrestled with how they fit in.They're learning, Conor Adrian says of his nearbyhome ofRoland, Man.

"As our communities have started to change and the people around us have been more open and willing to talk about issues that are going on, we have changed the way we view the people in our community and people who may be different from ourselves," said the 21-year-old, who isbisexual.

After the march, peoplegathered outside the Access Event Centre, where numerous speakers shared personal tales.

Ben Guenther, a gay man knownby his friendsas the Queen of Morden-Winkler, shared how homosexuality was perceived as the ultimate sin in his household.

When he came out, his church turned itsback. His family isn'taccepting of his sexuality.

"Pride to me is family, even if that is only the LGBT+community," he said."Because that's all the family I need."

For Kristen Andrews, Pride in Morden becamea homecoming.

She grew up in the community,about 100 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg, in the 70s and 80sand remembers how people were set apart forhow they dressed or acted. She felt on the outside for being queer.

"I couldn't have imagined how beautiful this is, the colour, the diversity," said Andrews, who now lives inWinnipeg.

A message of inclusion was extended by Morden Mayor Brandon Burley, whospoke of the value of a welcoming city.

Mordenisthe ninth community in Manitobato host a Pride festival. After long-running events in Winnipeg and Brandon, new festivals have popped up in Steinbach, Thompson, Portage la Prairie, Flin Flon, Gimli and Riding Mountain National Park in recent years.

In Morden, there was an expectation of a counter-demonstration, but the dissentwaslimited to a handful of people handing out pamphlets about the Bible and sexuality.

The protest wasn'tnoticed by many of the people in the crowd, including Reese Estwick, who faced some backlash when she sought to establish a gay-straight alliance in her Altona high school four years ago.

She saw on Saturday a beautiful display of how far small-town Manitoba has come.

"There's conversations being started over the years," she said proudly.

The battle over gay rights have polarized the people ofPembina Valley, such aswhen gay-straight alliances becamepermissible at everyschool, and when a pair of Altona teachers put a little card with a rainbow on their desk to signal their support of theLGBTQ community.

More than an ally

One of those teachers was PeterWohlgemut, who some at the timesaid should have been fired.

A straight ally then, it took Wohlgemut a while to come to the understanding they are queer. Theirstudents use the honorific of Mx, rather than Mr.

Wohlgemutreminded those who belong to the LGBTQ communitythey aren't asalone as they may feel.

"I heard people honking as I drove by our parade today, that is not what I expected," Wohlgemut said to applause.

"There is a lot more support in these communities than I think any of us, myself included, realize.

"There's a lot of things that still need to change, but there's a lot of support to do exactly that."

And thoughMordenmay evolve, itstill has asmall-town spirit, Andrews points out.

"I found outthat one of the organizers is my second cousin and I hadn't met them yet," she recalled, smiling at the thought.

"I am just thrilled that, in that small-town southern Manitoba way, you come out here and you find out who you're related to.

"You make new friends and you get new family."