It’s going to be a big weekend for the North Bay Pride Committee, and the LGBTQ2+ community in North Bay. On Friday, for the first time the Pride flag will fly in the city. The flag raising ceremony is scheduled 4:00pm, and following that on Saturday at 11:00am hundreds of people are expected to gather at City Hall as a lead up to the North Bay Pride March. Marchers will head down Main Street, then down Memorial Drive, to the Kiwanis Band Shell at the waterfront. A Unity for Pride Picnic sponsored by the North Bay and District Labour Council will follow the march.
Committee media spokesman Jason MacLennan says they’ve received a good response from the public to the Pride events, and from businesses around town. He says Best Western Hotel is donating a cake, HGS Canada is putting a whole team of their employees together to participate and TD Bank is planning to have some employees participate as well. MacLennan says there hearing from people in Elliott Lake, Manitoulin Island, Sudbury and Toronto who are planning on being in North Bay on top of the locals taking part.
MacLennan says the idea is to draw attention to the struggles still facing the LGBTQ2+ community. He says the event is called a march rather than a parade because they feel that they are still fighting for true equality in North Bay. MacLennan says LGBTQ2+ people are part of the community, and this weekend’s events show it’s time for acceptance of those people. He says the biggest point now is getting to the events on the weekend, and adds that hopefully people will come out and talk to people just so they realize that LGBTQ2+ people are just like everyone else. MacLennan finished by saying the march is about demanding change, whereas a parade is more of a celebration, but he doesn’t feel they’re far enough along for a celebration yet.
