Pride Month is celebrated across Canada every June. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

By Derek Cornet

LGBTQ2S+

Pride Flag raised in La Ronge’s Patterson Park

Jun 2, 2022 | 2:11 PM

The wind and cool temperature didn’t keep tri-community residents away from Patterson Park on Wednesday evening for the raising of the Pride Flag.

In all, about 60 residents came together to raise the flag which is a symbol of the LGBTQ2S+ social movement. It is the fourth time the Pride Flag has been raised by the Town of La Ronge.

Shortly after it was raised, Lac La Ronge Regional Pride committee member Janae Brownley told the crowd Pride is celebrated each year across the country to educate others about the queer community and the ongoing struggle for basic rights.

“Tonight is a wonderful night,” she said. “I’m talking about the fact that Indigenous Peoples and non-Indigenous Peoples are here together. I’m also talking about the reality of queer and straight people are here at the same place. When I was an adolescence and teenager, that would not have been possible. There would have been no gathering place for queer people and straight people together, and there still are not enough places for queer and straight people to get together.”

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Brownley talked about the world becoming more fragmented and the division between people because of race, wealth, religion, gender and sexual orientation. She noted it is important these groupings have conversations with one another to understand the issues everyone faces.

Brownley also mentioned the rising tide of violence in the United States and the attempts to make it harder to organize or set up Gay Straight Alliances in schools. She added that’s a problem in Canada as well.

“Recent surveys done in Saskatchewan and Canada shows increasing violence against transgender people spilling over on to queer members right across the country, so it’s not something that’s going away,” she said. “I want to urge everyone, all people of goodwill, to resist those kinds of negative pressures. For all people of good will to join together, for people of all goodwill to join in good action to protect the rights of everyone because we are all important.”

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derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @saskjourno