Sudbury Pride Parade celebrates diversity

The Sudbury Pride Parade was more than just a celebration of diversity for the LGBTQ community in Sudbury, but a demonstration that—like most people in the world—they are just like everybody else.

The parade celebrated the diversity of Sudbury's lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community and their supporters. At 1 p.m., they paraded around downtown from Tom Davies Square and around Memorial Park to promote awareness and acceptance.

Terry Burden, chair of Sudbury Pride, said it went really well.

“The event itself pulls together our community and creates a sense of cohesiveness,” Burden said. “I think that our community would be a lot more fragmented (without it).

“I think it says that we're a big community — a lot bigger than people may assume. It also says that this city is very accepting, because we've never had any problems with our events."

The parade marked the final day of Pride Week and saw about 200 participants as well as several organizations take part. Among them was Marlon Picken, CUPE Ontario's vice-president of diversity LGBTQ, who travelled from Hamilton to participate.

“CUPE has a proud history of being involved and active in LGBTQI issues since the mid 80s," he said. “As trade unionists, we believe in equality and we believe in the strengthening in our diversity.”

Picken said his experiences at Sudbury Pride events over the past two years have been positive. “No. 1: the most beautiful blueberries come from Sudbury and the second thing is the LGBTQI community here is very vibrant and it’s organized and it’s pushing forward,” he said. “I think what you’re seeing here are a number of different groups coming together in solidarity to open and create space.”

Burden said the celebrations in Sudbury are very different compared to those in places like Toronto. She said the level of flamboyancy is more toned down, which show the LGBTQ community is more approachable than what people may assume.

“We're a different type of community up here and it lets people known that we can be normal people,” she said. “We are not excluding anybody from our events … we really want to have everybody in the city feel comfortable (to take part).”

Burden plans in her next couple of years as organizer to try and expand celebrations and awareness for the community in Sudbury.

“I want to see things throughout the year,” she said.

One of the things she wants to happen in the future is for a proper, single title for the LGBTQ community.

“One of my arguments when people get into the (LGBTQ) acronym is we really should just go with ‘human.’ That’s what we are: We’re all human,” she said.

Ryen Veldhuis is a freelance writer in Greater Sudbury.