HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Sudbury Pride (french: Fierté Sudbury) is a 2SLGBTQ+ Pride advocacy organization based in Greater Sudbury,
Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...
,
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...
. Their now annual Pride festival, held for the first time in 1997 and organized by a committee that included sociologist Gary Kinsman, was the first Pride event in
Northern Ontario Northern Ontario is a primary geographic and quasi-administrative region of the Canadian province of Ontario, the other primary region being Southern Ontario. Most of the core geographic region is located on part of the Superior Geological Prov ...
, and the only one in the region until the launch of
Thunder Bay Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario; its populatio ...
's
Thunder Pride Thunder Pride is an annual LGBT pride parade and festival, staged in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada.
festival in 2010. The first parade occurred on July 19, 1997. After the first event it was then held in August of each year until 2007, and has since been held in July. In 2006, ''
This Magazine ''This Magazine'' is an independent alternative Canadian political magazine. History and profile The magazine was launched "by a gang of school activists" in April 1966 as ''This Magazine Is About Schools'', a journal covering political issues ...
'' cited Sudbury Pride as an event which, because of the city's
working class culture Working-class culture is a range of cultures created by or popular among working-class people. The cultures can be contrasted with high culture and folk culture, and are often equated with popular culture and low culture (the counterpart of hig ...
, feels "real, dangerous, like Pride's supposed to feel."


Events

Originally consisting of only a Pride March, the event expanded in 2006 to become what is now known as Pride Week. Following an opening ceremony and the raising of the
Pride Flag A pride flag is any flag that represents a segment or part of the LGBT community. ''Pride'' in this case refers to the notion of gay pride. The terms ''LGBT flag'' and '' queer flag'' are often used interchangeably. The rainbow flag is the most ...
at
Tom Davies Square Tom Davies Square (french: Place Tom-Davies) is the city hall of Greater Sudbury, Ontario. Built in the late 1970s and originally known as Civic Square or 'Place-Civique' in French, the building was part of an urban renewal movement toward trans ...
to launch the festival, a week-long series of events is held. Though the specific events and projects vary from year to year, these have included film screenings at Rainbow Cinema and the Sudbury Indie Cinema Co-op, a youth-centered Pride Prom at the Sudbury Theatre Centre, as well as events at
Science North Science North is an interactive science museum in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. The science centre, which is Northern Ontario's most popular tourist attraction, consists of two snowflake-shaped buildings on the southwestern shore of Ramsey L ...
, Market Square, Bell Park, the downtown branch of the
Greater Sudbury Public Library The Greater Sudbury Public Library is a public library system in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. The library system has 13 branches throughout the city. The main branch is called "Mackenzie" and it is located on Mackenzie Street in the downtow ...
and various bars and restaurants in the city's downtown core, including Zig's, the city's only gay bar. On the final day of the festival, a march takes place through downtown. In 2014, the event added an annual program of awards to honour local businesses, organizations, and individuals who have been trailblazers in the city's LGBTQ2 community. Starting in 2018, the organization modified its mandate to create year-round programming, events, and projects, as well as increasing outreach efforts with other marginalized groups. The first such event took place in February 2019 and consisted of a speed friending event, as an alternative to
speed dating Speed dating is a formalized matchmaking process which has the purpose of encouraging eligible singles to meet large numbers of new potential partners in a very short period of time. Organization Usually advance registration is required for ...
, and a winter formal. The 2020 event was cancelled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic in Canada The COVID-19 pandemic in Canada is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (). It is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). Most cases over the course of the pandemic have been in Ontario, Que ...
, although its organizers announced plans to proceed with an online "digital pride festival" called Queerantine. The Queerantine program included panel discussions and a public forum on policing, a livestreamed Pride mass from St. Andrews United Church, a trivia competition, local author readings and theatrical performances from the
Théâtre du Nouvel-Ontario Théâtre du Nouvel-Ontario (''Theatre of New-Ontario'') is a Canadian professional theatre company. Located in Sudbury, Ontario, the company produces French language stage productions. The company was founded in 1971 by the Coopérative des art ...
, and musical performances by Jennifer Holub, Tafari Anthony and G.R. Gritt."Full sked out for Queerantine, the virtual Sudbury Pride festival"
'' Sudbury.com'', July 2, 2020.
In addition to the livestream, some of the events were broadcast on EastLink TV, the city's cable community channel. A second online event, Queerantine 2.0, took place in the summer of 2021 in response to continued uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.


Activism

In 2017, following similar discussions at
Pride Toronto Pride Toronto is an annual event held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in June each year. A celebration of the diversity of the LGBT community in the Greater Toronto Area, it is one of the largest organized gay pride festivals in the world, fea ...
in response to demands from the Toronto chapter of
Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police brut ...
in 2016 and in response to feedback from marginalized community members, it was jointly decided by Sudbury Pride and the Greater Sudbury Police Service to not allow the participation of uniformed police officers during its Pride March. In response to the controversy surrounding
Doug Ford Douglas Robert Ford Jr. (born November 20, 1964) is a Canadian politician and businessman who has served as the 26th and current premier of Ontario since June 2018 and leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, Progressive Cons ...
's 2018 plan to revise Ontario's 2015 sex education curriculum, Sudbury Pride sought to file a human rights complaint against the provincial government to the
Ontario Human Rights Commission The Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) was established in the Canadian province of Ontario on March 29, 1961, to administer the Ontario Human Rights Code. The OHRC is an arm's length agency of government accountable to the legislature throu ...
. In 2020, the organization and activists from Greater Sudbury's 2SLGBTQ+ community reported being targets of a campaign of harassment by local far-right and extremist groups. This campaign received public responses from both the Greater Sudbury Police Service and
NDP NDP may stand for: Computing * Neighbor Discovery Protocol, an Internet protocol * Nortel Discovery Protocol, a layer two Internet protocol, also called SONMP * Nondeterministic programming, a type of computer language Government * National Dev ...
members of provincial parliament condemning the attacks.


References


External links


Sudbury Pride
{{LGBT in Canada Festivals in Greater Sudbury Recurring events established in 1997 Pride parades in Canada Organizations based in Greater Sudbury 1997 establishments in Ontario LGBT in Ontario