Moose Jaw Pride creating mural to celebrate LGBT history

Hundreds of people from the LGBT community gathered in Moose Jaw in 1978 for a protest as singer and anti-gay spokesperson Anita Bryant stopped by the city's Crescent Park for a performance at a religious rally.

The protest against homophobia is one of the historical events that will be commemorated in a new mural on the back of the Moose Jaw Pride building.

Moose Jaw Pride shares a Main Street location with the Rainbow Retro Thrift Shop.

Joe Wickenhauser, executive director of Moose Jaw Pride and Saskatchewan Pride Network, studied the city's LGBT history while taking anthropology in university and was inspired to bring the mural to the city.

"As I learned these stories, it came with the responsibility to share them and to let other people know where we've come from as a community and where we can go," Wickenhauser told CBC Radio's Morning Edition on Tuesday.

This year marks the 50th Anniversary of homosexuality being decriminalized in Canada.

Wickenhauser said many people don't know the LGBT history in Moose Jaw because it was pushed down for so long.

Within the past two years, Moose Jaw Pride painted a rainbow bench that prompted a fairly public complaint. In the end, many people came forward in support of the bench. Recently, city council allowed a rainbow flag to fly at city hall for the first time.

Now, those milestones will have a permanent place inthe city's landscape.

Wickenhauser met and brainstormed with many people in the community, including a two-spirit elder and the Gay and Lesbian Assocaition, in order to fully reflect Moose Jaw's pride history.

"A lot of these stories have been really difficult for people to tell so for us to be able to put it on the side of a building, I think that is an indicator of where we are as a society today."

Regina artist Karli Jessup has been tasked with turning the back of Moose Jaw Pride's office into a colourful masterpiece.

Volunteers are invited to help out.

Jessup said she ordered more than 20 different paint shades. The piece will include lots of rainbows and the bottom half will have big, geometric blocks of colour, she said.

"I wanted to make some aspects easy enough for folks who may not have experience doing any sort of artwork to be able to help with the process," Jessup said.

The mural is expected to be done by next week, in time for Moose Jaw Pride May 26 to June 1.