Pride month is a celebratory time, but in Sackville this year, some incidents prompted more serious discussions and left some members of the Sackville community feeling disappointed.
In Middle Sackville, a pro-Pride message reading “Love wins over judgement” was swiftly removed from a convenience store sign for fear that it was too controversial. Then later in the month, just days after the town repainted three rainbow crosswalks in town, all three were defaced by unknown drivers leaving black skidded tire marks across the colourful paint.
Sackville local Christian Corbet says there’s been a host of other incidents that he’s experienced personally over the years, including people yelling homophobic slurs, and dog excrement and garbage being thrown on his property.
Those are some of the reasons that Corbet, years-long middle Sackville resident, accomplished painter and sculptor, and LGBTQ+ person, decided to start an online group to educate and inform around LGBTQ+ issues in Sackville. The group is called Sackville LBBTQ+ Safe Community, and can be found on Facebook.
Hear Christian Corbet in conversation on Tantramar Report here:
“There’s a need in the community,” says Corbet. “There’s been a few issues in town recently, and it’s important to bring these to light to try to make things better for people.”
One of the negative incidents that inspired Corbet to start the Safe Community group on Facebook started out on a much more positive note.
LOVE WINS OVER JUDGEMENT, FOR A TIME
For less than an hour in mid-June, Hirtle’s Variety in Middle Sackville joined the spirit of Pride month with a sign posted outside their store on Pond Shore Road reading: LOVE WINS OVER JUDGEMENT. HAPPY PRIDE MONTH!
The sign outside the shop often features cute sayings or birthday wishes for local residents. But this time, the message was short-lived. After the employees who made the sign posted a pic of it on Facebook, store co-owner Bill Hirtle came to the store to change the sign. Hirtle told CHMA he had intended to put up a sign congratulating Tantramar Regional High School graduates, and that the employees involved in putting up the Pride sign had overstepped their bounds by doing so.
The two employees involved in putting up the sign at Hirtle’s didn’t feel comfortable speaking on record to CHMA, but the Pride message they were sending with their sign did hit the mark, if only for a brief time.
“The fact that the sign went up so very close to some personal verbal attacks on myself was wonderful,” says Corbet. “I mean, I saw that sign and it was a real sigh of relief, and it sort of made me feel more confident within the community, less trepidatious.”
But unfortunately, Corbet was disappointed shortly thereafter with the abrupt removal of the “Love wins over judgement” sign. Bill Hirtle says he didn’t intend to send a negative message by removing the sign, but he is aware of the reaction. His own daughter, he says, was upset that he took down the sign so abruptly, because of the message it might send.
Hirtle says the store, which he and his wife have owned for 14 months now, “is a safe place for everybody.” He says he did not hear any negative feedback from customers about the Pride sign while it was up, but he doesn’t want the messages on the store sign to venture into what he sees as controversial territory. “There are strong feelings on both sides,” says Hirtle. “Do we want to put up a message that stirs up feelings on one side or the other? I’m not sure that’s really what we’re trying to do with the sign.”
While it was removed in real life, the photo of the pro-Pride sign posted on Hirtle’s Variety Facebook page remains, where it has garnered a handful of positive comments from locals.
NUDGING THE CULTURE TOWARDS INCLUSIVITY
Besides the new Facebook group dedicated to LGBTQ+ issues in Sackville, Corbet says there are other steps that could help nudge the local culture towards inclusivity. One of the personal actions he took during the pandemic was to take a course through the LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce.
“It was enlightening, even to me, to learn more about how to speak, how not to judge, how to sort of pace myself in business and understand who might be coming to business in this town,” says Corbet. “Because just as much as we think we are accepting, or we know the use of pronouns, it goes a lot deeper than that. It really opened up my eyes.”
“It’s important to take time and patience and try to understand and educate yourself,” says Corbet, “because it just makes a better community for everybody.”
Corbet says the new Facebook group could also be a place for local businesses to make known that they are safe places for the LGBTQ+ community in Sackville. “Not every business has or knows that they can put a Pride flag in their business window,” says Corbet. “And of course, not every business has a storefront. So we want people to be aware that even on their social media that they can post things such as LGBTQ+ friendly, or some of the stores in the area that do have storefronts, they can actually put something in the window. So that’s a visual prompt to members of the community, and of course the allies, who just want to be able to support people who are accepting.”
The downtown Sackville Business Improvement Area does not currently have a formal system for shops and businesses to identify as LGBTQ+ friendly, but president Anthony Maddalena says its something the organization would be happy to look into.
PRIDE MONTH, PART TWO
Although June is the most commonly celebrated Pride month nationally and internationally, in Sackville, September is the chosen month for most Pride celebrations.
“One of the reasons for a September Pride parade is because Mount A students are here, and so there’s a bigger community and more support,” says town councillor Andrew Black. “And also, there’s a joining of town and gown with the event… to show support from Sackville for Mount Allison’s LGBTQ+ community, and then and vice versa, for Mount A to support the town as well.”
Despite visible negative incidents, such as the defacing of the town’s rainbow crosswalks (which are being repaired by public works this week), town councillor Andrew Black says he’s happy with the town’s approach to Pride.
“In general, I think the town has been very welcoming with events and flying the Pride flag,” says Black. For those who missed it at Town Hall, the rainbow flag flew for the month of June at the Sackville Visitor Information Centre, due to particularly high demand for flag poles in June. The town also offered some workshops through the recreation department, largely geared to children. “And the Pride Parade just gets bigger and bigger every year, which I’ve been very, very pleased about,” says Black.
There’s still progress to be made, though. “I wish that people would be more welcoming and understanding and accept everybody for who they are and what they do,” says Black. “How do you fix that? I think part of it comes from education. I think there’s a huge component there. Whether the town is involved or not, I don’t know. I don’t know how that fits in. But I hope that things get better and people become more accepting.”
To acknowledge Pride in June, Black took a moment at the June council meeting to thank Matt Pryde for the town’s work on Pride, and to acknowledge the continued need for the celebration in Sackville. Black said his statement was inspired by a comment from a resident. Be warned, in his recounting of an incident involving a homophobic slur, Black uses that slur.
Some resources for LGBTQ+ support and crisis intervention:
For youth: The Trevor Project, 1-866-488-7386
For adults: glbthotline.org, 1-888-843-4564
For elders: sageusa.org, 1-877-360-5428
