Small Sask. town's rainbow crosswalk brings tears to former resident
It's an intersection Jon Petrychyn crossed on his way to school, every day, for six years.
Yet, when a friend sent him a picture of that intersection last week, Petrychyn didn't recognize it at first.
A group of high school students were jumping in the picture and in front of their feet was a freshly painted rainbow-coloured crosswalk.
"I look at the photo and I'm like, 'that's cute, that's nice,'" Petrychyn recalled.
When his friend pointed out where the picture was taken, in Petrychyn's hometown of Wolseley, Sask., 100 km east of Regina, he started crying in his office.
'I never expected to see that in my small town'
"I was overcome with this feeling of just pride and just and being seen in that town because it was tough growing up as a gay kid in that town," he told CBC.
These days, he lives in Toronto where he is obtaining his PhD in communications and culture at Ryerson University. Eleven years ago, he was a closeted gay kid afraid to come out in the small town of Wolseley, population 850.
A self-described effeminate drama kid back then, he was subject to homophobic bullying, and, as is common in rural Saskatchewan, students regularly misused terms about gay people, turning them into crude insults.
Petrychyn didn't come out to his family until he was 20 years old. So the rainbow crosswalk marked a big change.
"When I was growing up, I never would have expected to see that and still today, I never expected to see that in my small town," he said.
Petrychyn knows better than most that things are changing for queer people on the prairies — he has spent the past five years of his doctoral studies on queer film festivals on the Canadian prairies looking at the history of queer activism.
Still, the emotional component caught up with Petrychyn in a hurry when he saw that picture of the rainbow crosswalk.
"I was really surprised at just how at just how moved I was by this little gesture," he said.
Meet the painters
On Tuesday, CBC connected him with Wolseley High School's Life Transitions 20 class, their teacher and the school principal.
In a Skype conversation, Petrychyn smiled back at five students as they explained the school's Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) group was part of the motivation for the rainbow crosswalk, which they did as their end-of-year community project in the class.
"Oh my God, there's a GSA there?" Petrychyn asked.
A student had asked for a GSA in a student survey the previous year. Now in its first year, its small number of members helped mark and paint the crosswalk.
"I really wish there was a GSA when I was in high school," Petrychyn told the students.
"It would have been nice to have that support. It would have been nice to have anyone in that town recognize that queer people existed. And just seeing you guys do this 10 years later, it just really makes my heart really full."
Principal Ryan Whalley sat off camera during that discussion, but became emotional when asked how he felt about Petrychyn's reaction to the school's expanding inclusivity, which was lacking when Petrychyn went there.
"I wish it would have happened sooner," Whalley said, pausing after speaking.
"That's really nice to hear," Petrychyn responded.
Rural acceptance
Since he moved away, Petrychyn has found out that he was not the only one who grew up in Wolseley that didn't feel comfortable coming out until he no longer lived there.
"It sounds like it was a tough time when it was your turn in high school and maybe this will be a step towards a better high school experience," student Cambie Lam told Petrychyn.
Wolseley High School's student population is admittedly not diverse, said teacher Brendan Dickie. You can count on one hand how many students self-identify as First Nations or Métis. It's the same way for other minority populations like Filipino students.
"I think we just all agree that inclusion is good and something very new in our community, changing our community, it's really nice to see," said Kally Malach.
"It shows that we're open to anybody, and everybody and anything. I think it makes it easier for everybody."
'If I were a kid these days, it would make me feel seen'
Homophobia and backlash to LGBTQ+ pride events has been an issue in rural communities across Canada in the past, and echoes of that have remained in recent years, Petrychyn pointed out.
Steinbach, Man. made headlines in 2017 when politicians publicly denounced plans for its first-ever pride march. Just last weekend, a physical confrontation broke out between a group of protestors who arrived at Hamilton's pride festival.
Wolseley does not live in a bubble but aside from a few cars doing burn outs on the crosswalk (the perpetrators were quickly caught), response has been positive.
Perhaps, Petrychyn said, the crosswalk in Wolseley is a sign things are changing on that front too.
"If I were a kid these days, it would make me feel seen," he said.
"It would be a marker of just how safe it could be for me to come out if I were a kid these days."
