Ottawa Citizen

PRIDE RAINBOWS COME OUT

A little rain doesn’t spoil the parade

- EVELYN HARFORD

You know what comes after the rain? Rainbows — and there were lots to be seen at Sunday’s annual Capital Pride parade.

Thousands of supporters and parade marchers hit the streets despite drizzly conditions.

“The rain is not getting me down,” said John Aubry, 54. “The sky is crying for Orlando and all the people who have died of HIV.”

Aubry and others hit the streets dressed in colours and glitter and embodied the spirit of the day — freedom and self-expression.

“Ottawans are very resilient,” said Capital Pride chair Tammy Dopson.

“But also I think that people really wanted to come out despite the weather because ... given some of the things that have happened on the world stage ... it really mattered to people to get out here to send a message of support.”

Ottawa’s Pride parade comes just two months after the Orlando gay nightclub massacre. Parade organizers grappled with a way to incorporat­e a memorial for the victims of the shooting in June.

They considered a moment of silence, but given that it might be difficult at a loud-and-proud event, they decided the best way to show solidarity was to have marchers hold up signs representi­ng the names of all 49 people who died.

Spectators lined the streets of Centretown to support the LGBTQ+ community. More than 100 businesses, service organizati­ons and community groups set out from Gladstone Avenue and Bank Street, marched up Kent Street to Laurier Avenue, then circled back down Bank Street to end at the recently installed rainbow crosswalk painted at the intersecti­on of Bank and Somerset in the heart of the Village.

Ottawa police officers marched in the celebratio­ns despite a small Black Lives Matter-like demonstrat­ion at the front of the parade by members of Ottawa Black Diaspora Coalition and No Justice, No Peace. Using a megaphone, the half-dozen demonstrat­ors shouted, “Black trans’ lives, they matter here.”

Demonstrat­ors said they weren’t happy with previous dialogue with Capital Pride and wanted Pride’s origins — which they say stem from the trans people-of-colour community — to be honoured.

The group said it joined the parade at Laurier Avenue and Kent Street.

Const. Stephane Poirier, 48, who has worked not just as a police officer for nine years, but also as an ambassador for the LGBTQ + community, said he was sad about the demonstrat­ion, whose members marched in front of the parade.

Poirier, who marched in the parade in uniform, said he’s always proud to represent the force.

“It’s my ninth year. I’ve never missed it, ” he said.

“There’s a lot of stuff in the media right now and it’s all negative, and a lot of people do demonstrat­ions and it’s fine — it’s OK to believe in something — but when you’re disrupting things and projecting negativity you’re not doing anything constructi­ve with the community, like we’re trying to do.”

Dopson, Capital Pride’s chair, didn’t seem fazed by the group’s actions.

“I don’t think it disrupted the parade, and if they needed to put a message out there it’s a great place to do it because this parade was born of protest.”

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 ?? PHOTOS: ASHLEY FRASER ?? Capital Pride’s 2016 parade brought thousands out to show support for Ottawa’s LGBTQ+ community despite the wet weather on Sunday. Below, four-legged marchers joined two-legged participan­ts who made the most of the annual celebratio­n of their sexuality.
PHOTOS: ASHLEY FRASER Capital Pride’s 2016 parade brought thousands out to show support for Ottawa’s LGBTQ+ community despite the wet weather on Sunday. Below, four-legged marchers joined two-legged participan­ts who made the most of the annual celebratio­n of their sexuality.
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