Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Kool & The Gang’s Celebration pumped through the speakers in Conservation Park on Sunday morning as a colourful crowd of walkers took the first steps of Greater Napanee’s premier Pride March.
The song was a perfect score for the historic event and there was indeed plenty to celebrate.
Dressed in rainbows and carrying signs promoting acceptance, hundreds of participants strolled through the Napanee River waterfront trail and through the downtown core before returning to the park for an afternoon of celebrating all things pride.
“We couldn’t have imagined a better turnout,” said Nina Irvine, a member of Greater Napanee Pride, which organized the event. “This has taken on a life of its own and this morning is just proof of it. We’re here and we tell people that, but the crowd was here. This is about the community.”
The event lived up to its billing as being for everyone.
“There’s already people of all ages,” said Irvine. “There’s families brining little kids, little kids bringing their families. We’ve got people from the school board, we’ve got people from all branches of the community coming out to show their support.”
Following the march there was a market highlighting local queer artists, a storytime with drag queen Tyfannie Morgan, a Q&A session with acclaimed local author Catherine Hernandez and pony rides for kids. The previous night the Strathcona Paper Centre hosted two successful drag show events-one for families, the second an 18+ event, known as Pride in the Country.
“When I think of how much this is going to change things for Napanee,” said Irvine. “When I think of how far we’ve come to get here and how much further we’re going to go from here because we’re doing this. We’re not giving people in the community an opportunity to say ‘oh, I don’t really know if the community is in Napanee’. No, we’re here. You can’t ignore us anymore.”
One of the driving factors behind the event was to show the youth of the area who might feel like they don’t belong that there is indeed a support network right here.
“If we are visible, we can show our queer youth that it is possible to exist here,” said Michael Wade who spoke of his challenges growing up in Greater Napanee without any visible representation in the area and highlighting how different things are today. “It is possible to be connected to our current community and reality. It is possible to be in a committed, queer partnership in Napanee. It is possible to have a queer family in Napanee….it is possible for queer people to happy in Napanee.”
Given the success of the Greater Napanee’s first Pride weekend, there will definitely be more to follow.
“We’re just making notes every five seconds saying that’s something to learn for next year,” said Irvine. “Just that so many things that next year’s going to be even bigger and better. I think this year we could have had a full on parade. If we had realized the amount of support we were going to encounter, we could have done it even bigger this year. I think this has turned out even bigger than we could have anticipated.”