Article content Owen Sound’s River District transformed into a vibrant sea of extravagant costumes, bright colours, and big smiles Saturday afternoon as the city’s annual Pride Parade strutted down 2nd Avenue East to the farmer’s market. It’s hard to believe such a lighthearted and exuberant event is a direct descendent of a fight against violent hatred and systemic oppression. Still, it’s those beginnings of the Pride movement organizers in Owen Sound paid tribute to this year — while also recognizing there is a long way to go to achieve the ideals imagined 55 years ago.
Grey Bruce Pride chose Emerald City as this year’s theme, a nod to the 55th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots — a watershed moment in the fight for LQBTQ+ rights. An uprising began in New York in 1969 when police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in the city’s gay village. The raid was followed by nights of protests and riots by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
The traditional gift for a 55th Anniversary is emerald, which dovetailed nicely into another nod to the queer community and paved the way for this year’s theme, organizers said. “Way back when, when it was unsafe to be queer, and it’s still unsafe to be queer, to be honest, one of the coded ways for folks to be able to go and communicate they were part of the queer community is to say they were friends of Dorothy,” said Rachel Paterson, co-chair of the Pride parade and spokesperson for Grey-Bruce Pride. “Em.
