Sackville showed its Pride last Friday afternoon, with a brief but well attended double flag raising and march from the Mount Allison campus down to the Tantramar municipal office on Main Street.
CHMA was there and brings you some of the voices from the crowd of over 100 Pride marchers, starting off with organizers Marshall Campbell and Hannah Saulnier, from Mount Allison’s Catalyst student group, who helped organize the event.
“Pride is really important to me because it shows that we’re not afraid of the people that feel that we don’t belong or that we don’t have a right to exist and to express ourselves,” said Campbell. “So I’m really happy to see how many people came out today.”
The all-ages crowd was a mix of Pride veterans and first-timers, many of whom were moved by the outpouring of support and love for the queer community.
“I have lived in areas that have been extremely bigoted and homophobic,” said first year Mount Allison student Catherine, who was attending her first ever Pride event. “I never thought I’d be able to experience this, and now I am.”
“It makes me very emotional to just see people from every age demographic,” said Catherine. “It’s really inspiring and really hopeful.”
Mount Allison masters student Lauren said the event was “special and meaningful, because there was so much support for being transgender and queer and everything.”
“I haven’t had a chance to celebrate my identity much,” said Lauren, who moved to Sackville two years ago from South Africa. “So it was good to have people around that do.”
The Mount Allison Students’ Union spearheaded the event along with Catalyst and the municipality. MASU Vice President of Student Life Cailean Clements said that one of the reasons MASU helps organize a fall Pride Parade is to provide some visibility for the queer community on campus. “I know there’s lots of people that will get to connect from this,” said Clements, “and they’ll make some friends for their entire journey at Mount Allison, but also be able to connect with the community that’s here in Sackville as well.”
At least two candidates in the upcoming provincial election were among the crowd, MLA and Green Party candidate Megan Mitton, as well as Liberal Party candidate John Higham. Mayor Andrew Black participated in the march, and raised the rainbow flag at the municipal office, with some help from his daughter.
