Pride Week in St. John's takes on 'together' theme, parade kicks it off Sunday

With diversity and diverse opinions both in and around the LGBTQ community, St. John's Pride has adopted "together" as the theme of this year's Pride Week.

"We're trying to understand how to properly reconcile those opinions with what we're capable of doing and what needs to happen for the community," said Derek Semerad, a co-chair with St. John's Pride.

"We're trying to teach people empathy. We're trying to engage people in the understanding that some people have it worse off than others. And we can't do that without first coming together."

Pride festivities officially start Sunday with a flag raising at 1p.m. at St. John's City Hall, followed by the annual Pride parade which leaves from the same building at 3p.m., and heads towards Bannerman Park.

The parade usually wraps up the week of events, but to "offset some of the tension relating to the events" and because of a scheduling conflict with the Tely 10, Semerad said the organization decided to change things up.

Last month, St. John's Pride announced uniformed officers would be allowed to walk in the parade, following two years of back-and-forth.

The organization also invited students from Springdale to act as grand marshals after their public fight to get a rainbow crosswalk ended in disappointment, which ultimately, the town council did not approve.

• St. John's Pride parade to include uniformed police, Springdale students

"We're always hearing from small, rural towns because a lot of the queer community in St. John's is a variety of people who come in from small towns because they don't feel safe there," Semerad said, adding thatthis year,more people are going back to support smaller communities, helping with togetherness.

"The initiatives that sprung up around Springdale and Middle Arm have shown, to not only to the St. John's Pride board but to the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, that people really care about the youth in small towns, and can do a lot to support them."

Clothing swap

On Friday, ahead of the official Pride Week, MUN hosted a clothing swap where everyone was invited to pick out their clothing style of choice, free from judgment.

"Homophobia and transphobia is still a pretty big thing on campus and in the community, said Alison Kavanagh, campaign director of MUN's Pride on Campus 2018.

"So we're just trying to break it down a little bit."

Despite the Pride committee welcoming back police officers, MUNSU is keeping its distance.

The unionwill be walking in the parade on Sunday and Kavanagh said measures are in place to ensure police won't be near their group, should people want "a safe space" to walk in the parade away from officers.

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