PORT HAWKESBURY, N.S. — Taylor Linloff is out, proud and ready to show the Strait area there is no room for prejudice against the LGBTQ+ community.
The 25-year-old queer femme has organized Port Hawkesbury’s first Pride march, taking place on Monday at the Civic Centre, as a way to show the community they’re not alone.
“I want to show the LGBTQ2+ people in the Strait area we have a supportive community and there is respect (for them),” said Linloff.
“I want to show people in the Strait area there is no place for homophobia or transphobia.”
Open to anyone who identifies as LGBTQ+, their families or allies, the Strait Area Pride Rally will feature fiddler Morgan Toney from We’koqma’q First Nation performing the Mi’kmaq Honour Song. Bryson Sili’pay, who is also L’nu and two-spirit, will speak to acknowledge the event is happening on unceded Mi’kmaq territory and he will discuss the meaning of two-spirited. Local musician Adam Currie will also perform at the event which starts at 7 p.m.
Linloff has wanted to organize a Pride event in the Strait area for many years but didn’t have the confidence to do so until doctors determined she was on the autism spectrum two years ago.
“Once I knew my diagnosis, I had more self-esteem. I knew who I was,” said Linloff, who is an advocate for dispelling myths about autism.
“Part of being autistic is we have a strong sense of community … I don’t like standing by while people are saying hurtful things about people in my community. And I am a part of the LGBTQ2+ community.”
This year marks 51 years since the first Pride march rose out of the Stonewall riots, also called the Stonewall Uprising, in New York City in 1969. On June 28, police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar, something authorities often did at the time. However, bar patrons and others in the community decided they’d had enough. The raid sparked riots which lasted for six days.
The anniversary is one of the reasons Linloff felt 2020 was the year to hold the first Strait Area Pride Rally and the other is a call the Town of Port Hawkesbury received earlier this month.
The caller complained about the city flying a Pride flag at the Civic Centre — something they did for the first time last June. It wasn't the first complaint. Linloff said after they flew the flag in 2019 some people wrote to a local newspaper complaining about it.
“Our town staff were quite upset about the call (this year) and informed me," said Mayor Brenda Chisholm-Beaton. "Our staff at the Town of Port Hawkesbury are so committed to inclusivity, as are we on council. So it was certainly a difficult phone complaint to receive.
“When I was informed about the complaint by town staff, I was surprised because it is 2020 and we have taken so many important steps as a town to show support to our LGBTQ+ and two-spirit community by raising the Pride flag and installing rainbow crosswalks, one at NSCC and one at our Civic Centre/SAERC high school.”
Chisholm-Beaton took to social media to show support for the LGBTQ+ community and let residents know they received the complaint. Instead of berating the person or posting what they said, she wore a Pride pin and posted that she put it on in response to the complaint and used the hashtag “Be The Change.”
“I wore my NSCC Pride pin in my post — in the hopes that others took the opportunity to show their Pride as well and their support. That is exactly what happened and many citizens made positive comments,” she said.
“Out of something negative, came something positive. And the positive keeps going now that Taylor has organized a Pride rally and march, which I support 100 per cent.”
Linloff said participants are asked to wear masks and they’re encouraging social distancing by using six-foot-long Pride flag banners.
During the march, the person in front will hold one end, while the people in back will hold the other, keeping them connected and two metres apart.
For more information, go to the Strait Area Pride Rally Facebook page.
