Mt.A Pride Week deemed a success by attendees and organizers alike
From September 24 to 27, Mt.A held their annual Pride Week celebrations, with a variety of activities! On Sept. 24, the week began with the annual Pride Parade and Flag Raising ceremony. Oliver Vanbuskirk, MASU VP of External Affairs, commented on the importance of Pride events in his opening speech, saying “an event like this where we can all come together, we can build community as peers, whether you identify as queer yourself, or whether you have colleagues or peers or friends or family members that identify as queer, this is extremely important and this is an act of visibility for the entire town.” During the ceremony, Mt.A President Ian Sutherland emphasized Vanbuskirk’s point, saying “we’ve got to come back to the roots, the spheres of influence that we have, and our immediate spheres of influence are here.”
While the opening speeches had a somber note, reflecting the regression in the progress of human rights for members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, a parade participant said that still, “it was nice, we got to meet a lot of people — it was just this exchange of joy.” Dahlia Schulz, a Mt.A student who attended the parade said, “everybody was smiling, everybody was walking around, you know dogs were out on a walk wagging their tails, people were waving from the sidewalks as everybody passed by, all the colourful flags. It was nice, it was really nice. It was up-lifting to say the least.” Schulz continues, emphasizing the importance of the parade and how it benefits Sackville by “solidifying that diversity.” Schulz is part of Queer Space for Adults, a local group that meets every second and fourth Wednesday of the month between 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on the second floor of the United Church, located on 110 Main Street. The group was started by Tillian Prestay approximately two years ago, providing a space for 2SLGBTQIA+ people and allies to come and hangout. Prestay said the goal of the group is socialization, suggesting people “come to the meetings and sit-in on the discussion.” Queer Space for Adults is one of the initiatives in Sackville working to create a community within the 2SLGBTQIA+ population in Sackville. Members from Queer Space for Adults and community members alike attended Mt.A’s flag raising ceremony and parade, whose “turnout was great,” according to the Rev. Ellie Hummel, Mt.A’s multi-faith chaplain and spiritual care coordinator. Rev. Hummel continues, remarking that “the pride march is really a celebration of us as humans and just a way of showing that we are indeed all loved.”
As the celebrations carried on into the week, Mt.A welcomed students for the highly anticipated sex toy bingo event. Fifth-year Mt.A student Nicole Briggs was one of many attendees of the event hosted at The Pond on September 26, but one few prize winners. After the event, Briggs said “I felt really good, everyone was really excited to be there, it was well attended, energy was high.” One of the most notable parts of the evening was the presence of Rene Ross, Mt.A’s sexual violence prevention and education coordinator. Briggs said Ross provided “helpful information about the toys and just about sex or sex related things in general.” Nicole continued saying “[Ross] was queer positive, a lot of the language she was using was very queer positive and not heteronormative.”
Briggs was an attendee of the Queer Academic Panel, a Q&A with Mt.A community members identifying as part of the Queer community, held on the evening of Sept. 25 in the Windsor Grand Hall. In an interview with The Argosy, Briggs said “[Vanbuskirk] organized it really well, and the panelists were very well picked, they had a lot of insights to provide, and they had had various, a variety of experience in and outside of academia.” Speaking to improvements for future events, Briggs said she hoped to see more of both social media and verbal interaction with students to spread word of panels happening on campus.
Mt.A Pride Week was a success for all those involved, as the events brought the Mt.A. community together, forging a strong sense of love and support. As the Rev. Ellie Hummel says, “what matters is that we are loved and accepted and together we can work on solving real social issues.” Happy Pride Mt.A!