At the raising of the Pride flag Friday on Sarnia’s waterfront, advocate Crystal Fach said the community still has a long way to go before it’s safe for everyone.
At the raising of the Pride flag Friday on Sarnia’s waterfront, advocate Crystal Fach said the community still has a long way to go before it’s safe for everyone.
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Diversity Ed, Sarnia-Lambton Rebound and the recently formed group Queer and Questioning Sarnia hosted the event to kick off Pride month in June.
“I think it’s definitely, up and down,” Fach said of how safe a community Sarnia is for members of the LGBTQ2s+ community.
“There has been an influx of online hate and targeting” of the LGBTQ2s+ community and other marginalized groups recently, they said.
“At the same time, as a collective of community I think that we’ve gotten stronger,” Fach said.
“I think people are standing strong as who they are,” they said. “As much as there’s a lot of hate, there’s a lot of great people empowering us to really develop a sense of community and that’s because they want us to stay.”
Feeling able to stay and live in the community, and not have to leave to thrive, is the goal, Fach said. “I’m glad to see that’s starting to happen.”
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Beth Dekker, who co-founded Queer and Questioning Sarnia less than two months ago with June Null, spoke about the group that organizes low-or no-cost events for the queer community.
“I grew up in a super, tight-knit, very conservative community,” Dekker said. “The more that I grew into myself, the less that I fit in.”
Dekker said that, like many, she lost that community when she came out.
“It took me a long time to realize that just being out wasn’t enough,” she said. “I needed to be loud. I needed to be seen and known by people who understood. I needed to be in community with other queer people.”
Queer and Questioning Sarnia was created to help build that community and provide “a safe place” to explore identity “without judgment,” Dekker said.
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“I’m so proud to be here raising this flag with my community,” she said.
Friday’s flag raising was to be followed in the evening with a potluck dinner hosted by Diversity Ed and Queer and Questioning Sarnia at Dunlop United Church.
Sarnia has officially recognized Pride month annually after a 2019 council vote.
Bluewater Health is hosting a Pride flag-raising Monday, 2 p.m., for staff, patients and the community at Russell Street entrance in Sarnia.
Lambton Shores is holding Pride flag-raising events Monday, in partnership with Diversity Ed and the North Lambton Community Health Centre, at the Northville municipal office on Port Franks Road at 10 am and the Legacy Recreation Center in Thedford at noon.
This year’s Sarnia-Lambton PrideFest will be held July 12 and 13 with drag shows and dances at Refined Fool and Imperial City, and a free Pride in the Park event July 13 at Sarnia’s McGibbon Park, with family entertainment and vendors.
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