Celebrating Pride each summer is an act of power, remembrance and celebration. Here in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, NL, it means community coming together to share and celebrate, to honour and commemorate, to laugh and dance and to simply make space to be our authentic selves. In a week filled with festivities, the local 2SLGBTQQIA+ organization Safe Alliance organizes events for Pride week such as trivia nights, coffee houses, outdoor yoga, drag shows and—my personal favourite—Pride in the Park.
Safe Alliance, the local community-led organization for 2SLGBTQQIA+ folks, hosts activities and events promoting awareness around issues like homophobia, transphobia and heterosexism while fostering connections amongst queer individuals and allies. Pride in the Park was the first event held by Safe Alliance at Happy Valley-Goose Bay’s very first Pride back in 2010. It starts with a march down the town’s main road, followed by an afternoon of musical performances, games and fun in the local park. I first performed at Pride in the Park back in 2011 and continue to do so every year I can. Typically I sing covers of my favourite pop songs accompanied with my trusty ukulele. This year’s setlist featured many songs by Chappell Roan and Carly Rae Jepsen, interspersed with other favourites.
In a smaller community, Pride is usually less commercialized and a bit less flashy. Here in Labrador, there are no big floats or corporate sponsors. Pride is more about coming together and celebrating the community that we’ve created. And that’s precisely what makes Pride in the Park the best way to celebrate Pride in Labrador. With good food, games and family activities, local vendors, live music and lots of sunshine, spending an afternoon with chosen family gets back at the heart of what Pride is all about. To me, Pride is about honouring our authentic selves while celebrating the 2SLGBTQQIA+ community, our histories, our struggles and our love. It’s about challenging societal norms, pushing back on bigotry and oppression and standing in solidarity with one another. Pride is saying “Free Palestine.” Pride is standing with our unhoused relatives. Pride is political—always was and always will be. Pride is love.
Pride in the Park, Happy Valley-Goose Bay, NL, 2024 COURTESY SAFE ALLIANCE
Pride is especially meaningful to me as an Inuk woman. I am Inuk. I am queer. Neither of these facts make up the entirety of who I am. Rather, they intertwine and interplay as two of many facets of my identity. It’s important to me to show up as my truest self for my community so I can show the youth that there are infinite ways to be Inuk and to be queer. And if being my true self helps our young people imagine a future for themselves, then that’s what it’s all about. The values we hold as Inuit mean that we take care of each other, we look out for each other and we respect one another.
My dear friend Nik Mesher, one of the organizers with Safe Alliance, summed up the importance of community quite nicely. He said, “...getting our community to gather together to celebrate love, expression and authenticity is the goal at the end of the day, [and] seeing you all out at our events [is] what keeps pushing myself to keep up this volunteer work up as I know we need to celebrate queer identities today more than ever before!”