We recently held two fabulous Pride Days here in Smithers.  At our high school, we had our 2nd annual one on Friday May 25.  And because of last year’s amazing SSS Pride, which attracted many community citizens, the energy to create the first town-based one grew over the past year, so we held that the next day at our freshly re-painted Rainbow Crosswalk.  As a key organizer for both, it was hugely gratifying to see the strong numbers and supportive vibe! All kinds of people at both events, wearing bright colours and celebrating diversity! We had live music, Safeway doing a BBQ, The RCMP with info on their new Safe Space program, lot’s of community organizations and individuals joining in with tents and displays and treats and rainbow accessories and a big rainbow cake at both events.  The mayor spoke at our town Pride, and I was approached by several old gay couples who told me they thought they would never see such an event in this town in their lifetime.  It was very touching … how wonderful to celebrate the spectrum of inclusion and equality!

We’ve made such great progress in our school, our school district, and our community over the past 12 years that I’ve been involved as GSA (Gender-Sexuality Alliance) sponsor teacher and LGBTQ+ advocate in our town.  Of course, there is still more to do, in this domain and other areas of prejudice and bigotry, so the work continues onward.

We got a lot of local media coverage:    From the local radio station, the Moose here.

And two articles from the Interior News here for the SSS Pride Day and here for the town Pride Day