First province-wide Pride Week focuses on education, collaboration
Pride Week is kicking off in Moncton, Saint John and Fredericton and organizers of each group have come together to collaborate for a week of online events.
Together they created the event Pride NB, the first province-wide Pride event.
President of Moncton's River of Pride, Zivi Richard, said they hope the collaboration can continue in the future.
"Hopefully in the future we can have more cohesion through all the different parts of the province."
Mike Cummings, president of Saint John Pride, said the experience of working together has gone well.
"You learn so much about other cities' pride groups and it has been a real opportunity to share best practices."
The virtual events run all week and most are suitable for all ages. This year there the focus is on education. Some of the events include a Queer experiences panel and a history of pride event.
Amelia Thorpe, co-chair of Fredericton Pride, said it's important to remind people how and why Pride began.
"Pride needs to be doing more and folks of privilege need to be stepping up. It has really informed our programming and it is even more important for us to celebrate Pride this year and recognize that Pride began as a riot and it needs to remain so."
While education is the focus there is also a balance of fun.
There will be a drag show and a virtual house party with three different DJs on separate live streams. This allows people at home to choose what genre of music they want to hear.
"People can host parties at their houses if they feel comfortable with that," said Richard.
"It's definitely going to lack some of the magic, connection and visibility that we have when we're in person but we're hoping to make due with this version of pride."
Cummings does hope next year will be a bit more normal but that the collaboration between the cities continues.
"Hopefully something like this can endure and I don't see why it wouldn't at this point."
Richard said the idea of continuing to do Pride week online isn't something they're interested in.
"We hold so little capital in social culture, in the media, legislature, politics. We are such a small percentage, that this week, but also the month of Pride, is important to create spaces just for us and online is not enough."
