The 100 Mile House Pride Parade and Pride in the Park attracted hundreds of cheering on-lookers and visitors this past Saturday.
For the second year, the Pride Parade was held at 100 Mile House, where floats celebrating the 2SLGBTQ+ community in the town paraded through Birch Avenue before heading towards Centennial Park, where another related event, Pride in the Park, was happening. The parade and event were both organized by the 100 Mile House Pride Society, which South Cariboo local Saturn Zezza is the chairperson and founder of.
"It's surreal. It's crazy to watch how it's grown." Zezza noted.
The parade attracted around 500 people, and an equal amount went to Pride in the Park.
The parade involved drag queen Ella Lamoureux, who hails from Kelowna, as well as a newcomer to the 100 Mile Pride Parade, King Jovian - who describes himself as "Kelowna's autistic, aroace, out of this world drag king". In addition, members of the 100 Mile Performing Arts Society, Distric of 100 Mile House Mayor Maureen Pinkney and Cariboo Regional District chair Margo Wagner were among those who had marched in the parade.
Upon making it to the stage at Centennial Park - Lamoureux, as well as King Jovian - both lip-synced songs for the audience whilst adding their own flavour to them. Jovian in particular revealed an alien in one of his hands as part of his performance.
Jovian was a fill-in after one of the planned guests could not attend the parade and event. Jovian stated that he always wants to do these gigs - and it is the first time he has been to 100 Mile House.
"She [Ella Lamoureux] put out a call and I was more than happy to join her in this endeavour," Jovian explained.
According to Jovian, he is the opposite of a Drag Queen: embodying macho and other traditionally masculine stereotypes.
"That's what a Drag King really is: you basically just exaggerate your masculine traits and perform a bunch of silly numbers."
In addition to being a Drag King, Jovian is autistic, as well as aroace - short for aromantic asexual. According to him, it means that "you feel little to no romantic attraction and little to no sexual attraction."
"Some people think we're just choosing not to have those kinds of relationships - but it's just that we genuinely don't feel much or any of those attractions. So because of that, I feel like we need to just be visible - show that we're here and that it's not just a simple choice," Jovian said.
During the performance, Lamoureux mentioned a handful of hateful comments that 100 Mile Pride organizers had received on social media. She encouraged those in attendance not to respond to such comments, but instead leave a heart emoji on them instead.
"If there's so many hearts on there and they're going to see them and they're going to second guess saying something," Lamoureux said.
Political candidates for this year's provincial election also attended Pride, such as BC NDP candidate Michael Moses and BC United candidate Michael Grenier. However, Cariboo-Chilcotin MLA Lorne Doerkson was not invited to this year's festivities.
"When Lorne crossed the floor to the Conservative Party, a few members of the community expressed their concern to have him here today." Zezza stated, pointing to controversial statements made by BC Conservative leader John Rustad - with one example being of him calling homosexuality a "lifestyle".
However, Zezza pointed out that Doerkson would not have been able to attend anyway.
"He had his own campaign stuff - he had a scheduling conflict anyway."
At the Pride in the Park event, there were several vendors in the park, including Ashleigh McDonald, who is the owner and designer of Woodland Mystics, which offers "handmade treasures to help you stay connected to your mind, body and spirit". McDonald stated that it is crucial for her to attend events like Pride in the Park and show her support for many reasons.
"It's important for the younger generations, growing up, going to these events and seeing the adults, and people coming together and just a great sense of community with us," McDonald said.
Zezza stated that the event went ahead smoothly overall with few challenges, but that the society could use more support year round.
"We do have big dreams to get more rainbow representation in the town, so we are actively pursuing grants and sponsorships for future events, and for things like rainbow banners, rainbow sidewalks - that kind of thing."
