Strength in diversity
First fully-fledged Pride P.E.I. event strides into Summerside
A sea of rainbow flags bathed the P.E.I. Lobster House in celebration of the diverse community at the first official Pride P.E.I. event in Summerside recently.
At the event, each beat of the drum in the opening Pride P.E.I. ceremony, by Mi’kmaq speaker Eliza Knockwood, represented the heartbeat of the mother, as well as the nation. The steady sound reminded people of all ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations and socio-economic levels there is strength in diversity.
“Pride P.E.I. has planned to have more of a presence in Prince County for a long time. We’ve had difficulty making the connections with people in the community here because primarily our board exists in Charlottetown,” said Mitchell MacLean, communications director.
“I got connected with Nancy Beth, and she explained to me that she was working with the Include Summerside movement to have a Pride Parade in the city, and I said, ‘that’s fantastic, let’s make it happen,’ and here we are today,” he said.
It’s been a conversation on the horizon for over a year, ever since Nancy Beth Guptill made a Facebook page called Include Summerside.
“The whole purpose of the evening is to introduce Pride P.E.I., as well as the PEERS Alliance, because both organizations are expanding into the Summerside area,” said Guptill, who is the Pride P.E.I. West coordinator.
“I launched the Include Summerside page with the purpose of building a community and a momentum, and through that we started receiving inbox messages and posts on the page to get events going.”
The goal of the first ever Pride P.E.I. event in Summerside is to make their presence known in the community and to invite the public to voice how often they would like related events to take place, as well as to seek volunteer commitment and sponsorship.
“Last year we had eight businesses interested, and since we started organizing this event and Pride Week we’ve had at least another 20 businesses say we want to do something. We’ve also had a great response from the public in general, whether they are part of the LGBTQ+ community or otherwise.”
Guest speakers at the social meet-and-greet event included Summerside Mayor Bill Martin, MLA Tina Mundy and Egmont MP Bobby Morrissey.
“It’s all about community inclusion and that we’re all different and we all need to respect and honour each other. We hold that high in our business and personal lives, so to see people volunteer, and all the products be donated, it just goes to show how much love is in this community,” said Darcia Burnett, co-owner of the P.E.I. Lobster House.
The event “exceeded expectations,” according to Guptill.
“We had 100 in attendance, and the positive response was wonderful.”