While COVID-19 has been keeping many shut in, the North Shore Pride Alliance is still going all out.
The LGBTQ+ group is marking Pride Week with a series of events, online and outdoors, to keep friends and allies safe and prideful in 2020.
“I think it's been tough for everybody but especially for a marginalized community that already has issues with being seen,” said Chris Bolton, Pride Alliance co-founder. “I really believe in the expression: We're not breaking down, we're breaking open.”
On Monday, the group gathered outside City of North Vancouver municipal hall where Mayor Linda Buchanan raised the pride flag.
On Tuesday, their usual dance on the Burrard Dry Dock Pier will be supplanted with the more pandemic-appropriate Pride Re-Imagined, an online concert event hosted by Conni Smudge, Bolton’s world famous drag alter ego.
The concert, which will be broadcast via the North Shore Pride Alliance’s social media channels at 7 p.m., has booked Sugarbeech, Winter Youth, Le Roy Wan and Judith Bartlett, Nicole Demers, The Valley Clique, Dublin Tendre, and Tina Jones.
Bolton said it was important to keep the tradition going in 2020 and spread as much of it as possible online because in other parts of the world, being LGBTQ+ isn’t safe, with or without a pandemic.
“It’s not just about us,” he said. “We are a beacon of light for them, thinking that they're not alone – that there's a tribe out there for them somewhere and just seeing these people being able to speak their truth, being exactly who they want to be, without any guilt or regret and just living joyously.”
On Wednesday, there will be a kid-focused story time at the North Vancouver City Library at 10 a.m..
The event Bolton is most excited about, however, is the Pride Art Walk. The Pride Alliance has taken over the Pipe Shop in the Shipyards to showcase some local artists’ work.
“We want to keep social distancing so we didn't want to do anything inside,” he said. “I've got about 20 pieces of art and the art is going to be pointing outside the windows so people can walk around 24 hours a day.”
That event runs until Aug. 3.
The group has also partnered with the Lower Lonsdale BIA to “festoon” the nieghbourhood and storefronts with pride colours.
Beyond Pride Week, Bolton said the group is looking to develop a youth support program this fall, which will need some volunteers to step forward.
If COVID has taught us no other lesson, it’s that it’s important to have the right kind of resource available in times of need, he said.
“For someone that is feeling alienated or sequestered, or COVIDed out, especially the youth, I would suggest they reach out to the Foundry. It's a fabulous resource. And give us a call anytime. We have people at our fingertips if you need help,” he said. “And it doesn't matter where you fall under the rainbow or whatever letter you use. Everyone is welcome. That's why it's called an alliance.”
