Proud to Shine: What Pride means to 3 Windsorites

Celebrations are underway for Pride in Windsor-Essex. Ahead of the pride parade happening Sunday morning,CBCWindsor ran a Proud to Shine series, where we featured community members and explored what Pride means to them.

We accepted submissions over two weeks and here are the selected few:

LisaRenaud

At first,Renaud'sthen-daughter said when they were old enough to date, they would prefer to date the same gender. But later in the summer between grade six and grade seven, her child came to her and said there's something more.

It wasn't just their future romantic interests. It wastheir gender identity.

• Read about Lisa

Gina Bedingfield

Bedingfield is a transgender woman living in Windsor. She used to live as a gay man, but it felt wrong to her.

Looking back now, Bedingfield said the signs were there before,but it took learning more about what being a transgender woman means for her to start her own personal transition.

Now, she'sdoing whatever she can to help others like her.

• Read about Gina

TaleyBanks

While some teenagers face hardships after coming out to their family, Taley Banks had nothing but tenderness and endearment.

She now writes poetry and she has also written a 13-page book that is being sold on Amazon calledThe Deserted Kids, which is written about a gay teenager who is trying to overcome hardships surrounding her sexual orientation.

• Read about Taley