Pride Week concluded in Prince Albert on Saturday with the Pride Parade and Pride in the Park.
Prince Albert Pride Chair Andromeda Eremondi said they were excited to see all the LGBTQ community’s supporters and allies at the event.
“Pride Week has been really good,” Eremondi said. “I hate that I’ve missed so much of it, because I was at my union convention in Humboldt for three days.
“I’m here for the big events. I was here for karaoke last night. That was great. Our gaymer nights I heard were great. Our teen karaoke, and everything’s just been… really low-key this year. Just really, really fun.”
Eremondi said they intentionally decided to keep things low-key.
“When we were talking about all the events, we knew we wanted to do the gaymer night and two karaoke nights. I think we actually talked about spreading out the karaoke nights because last year we had it all cramped into one night and that didn’t really work out great,” Eremondi said.
“We thought, yeah, let’s just keep it kind of low key.”
Pride also brought back board game night and included a book club and a writing workshop.
Eremondi said Pride is about the LBTQ2S community but it also has a message of inclusion.
“Pride is about being unapologetically yourself,” Eremondi said. “You can’t always do that all year. Having a day or a week or a month, a year where you can be yourself unapologetically and say, this is who I am, this is who I love, it’s important.”
Eremondi said people who are offended by Pride and wonder when Straight Pride month is are not seeing the real meaning.
“Most of the year, like people will be wearing masks. I don’t always dress as fem as I would like to at work because I don’t feel like I can. I know a lot of people who are in worse spots
than me for work…. My work is accepting of it, but someone else’s might not be,” Eremondi said.
At Pride in the Park there was a number of shirts and messages to Repeal Bill 137 (The Parents Bill of Rights Bill) which was passed in the Saskatchewan Legislature. Eremondi noted that Pride itself has always been a political concept. When asked for the reasons to repeal the bill, Eremondi said that there were several.
“The first one that always comes to my mind is it tramples on the rights of queer youth,” Eremondi said. “It tramples on … the education rights of youth in general, because they can’t have the comprehensive sex education that they can have. Schools can’t be a safe space for them to explore their identity, which schools should be.”
Eremondi was also concerned some schools would out students to homophobic parents.
“Trans people and queer kids are already in danger and queer kids are already at the top of homeless rates,” they said.
Then Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill introduced the “Parents’ Bill of Rights” in the Legislature in October 2023. At the time, Cockrill said the bill outlined a number of rights parents have to be involved in their children’s education.
“Parents should always be involved in important decisions involving their children,” Cockrill said in a press release announcing the legislation. “The Parental Inclusion and Consent policy introduced in August and now this new legislation we are introducing today will ensure that continues to be the case.”
Representatives from Affinity Credit Union, the Saskatchewan Rivers School Division and countless other organizations were in attendance for both the Parade and Pride in the Park. Eremondi was pleased to have so much support in terms of vendors.
“I love how many vendors we got this year, and part of me wants to credit the city because last year we put out the call a little late, but then the city required us to have a list of the vendors who would be showing up like a month ago, so we can actually put it out really early.
The Parade itself also had an excellent turnout according to Eremondi.
“The parade had a great turnout. Not as many vehicles this year, but that’s probably a good thing. we have way more marchers this year,” Eremondi said.
Eremondi said that the theme for PA Pride this year was “reflections’ and that they outsourced karaoke and entertainment for the Pride in the Park to Prism Project/Studio Q.
The Parade, as always, began at the Court of King’s Bench and ended at Kinsmen Park for Pride in the Park.
Pride in the Park opened with a prayer from Elder Liz Settee and included games by Studio Q/Prism Project, entertainment all afternoon from several bands including Cupid’s Heart and Broken Idols. Pride in the Park was emceed by Saskatoon comedian Craig Watson.
“That’s kind of our big thing,” Eremondi said. “We did it last year too. We start the week slow on some really like light stuff and crescendo to Pride in the Park and After Dark.”
The event had a long list of sponsors and supporters and that was because of the work of the Pride organizers.
The event was also supported by the Prince Albert Police Service who provided an escort for the Parade. During Pride in the Park some counter protestors arrived and in Facebook posts PA Pride said that they were chased away by the love in the park.
Pride Week concluded with a drum circle on Sunday evening.
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.c
