'Love coming from every direction' as Carman embraces rainbow colours to celebrate its 1st Pride parade

CBC

4 hours ago

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Soon after Pauline Emerson-Froebe moved to rural Manitoba eight years ago, she realized her small town needed to host its very own Pride celebration where everyone could be authentic and feel accepted.
"My wife and I were determined," she said. "People … deserve to feel welcome, kids deserve to feel love, and we were going to do everything within our power to make that happen."
The event, a dream years in the making for Emerson-Froebe, became a reality on Saturday as hundreds splashed the streets of Carman in colour during the town's first Pride celebration.
The town, sitting about 75 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg, is the latest in a string of rural communities that in recent years have started to host Pride events and parades in June.
Emerson-Froebe, who is also president of Pembina Valley Pride, said the organization hosted its first Pride parade in 2019 in the city of Morden, about 130 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg. Altona, about 110 kilometres southwest of the provincial capital, had its first Pride march last year.
"So many people dismiss them as closed-minded and very conservative, but there are so many welcoming and loving individuals," she said.
"We don't have to uproot our lives just to be who we are," she said. "You're not alone. You're not the only one. There are more of us."
Brett Owen didn't imagine the streets where he grew up as a queer kid in Carman would ever host a Pride event with "love coming from every direction."
"To see this many people here ... It's really, really, really special," they said.
Growing up in Carman, Owen said he felt alone and lost with no one who they could really relate to. They moved to a bigger city in hopes of finding a community.
But Owen said they now realized 2SLGBTQ+ people are all around, "you just have to hunt them."
Events like Saturday's Pride make it easier for everyone to feel supported, which is especially important for younger people in rural areas, they said.
"To see older people who are happy, who are in love, who are themselves authentically, it's the most important thing you can have as a young person," Owen said.
Carman's first ever Pride coincided with the weekend Owen and their fiance had planned for their engagement party. The couple found the opportunity as the perfect time to mark this milestone in their life.
"It feels like a full-circle moment," they said.
Dozens marched around the park during the Pride event. The walk went on for about 20 minutes without a hitch.
A group of people stood in silence holding signs displaying biblical scriptures and other messages against the 2SLGBTQ+ community at sections of the walk.
Supporters of the Pride parade, including members of Manitoba's NDP caucus, stood in between the groups waving flags and cheering.
'People are openning their eyes'
Since Emerson-Froebe moved to Carman, she has seen how the community has become more inclusive to 2SLGBTQ+ people.
One sign of that is the growing number of small businesses that display the Pride flag throughout the year, letting others know it is a safe space for the community, she said.
As in other communities, pushback against the Pride event came mostly on social media where "it is easier to be bitter" under the disguise of a computer screen, said Emerson-Froebes.
Pride flags have also been stolen from her queer space, so Emerson-Froebes found a flag pole to fly it.
"They now have to 'Spiderman' all the way up to take it down," she said.
While there is still a lot of work to do towards acceptance of 2SLGBTQ+ people in some corners of rural Manitoba, Joelle Coolidge said events like Carman's Pride open the door to learn more about the community directly from those who are part of it.
"People are opening their eyes," she said.
Coolidge brought her mother along with her to Carman's Pride. She still remembers how she burst into tears the first time her mom told one of her co-workers Coolidge is bisexual.
"It just means a lot that I can be 100 per cent myself and not worry about what she thinks of me," she said.
While it wasn't always like that, Coolidge said her mom has come a long way since she came out at the age of 16.
"I had to talk to her openly and talk to other people and learn what that meant," said Joanne Klassen, Coolidge's mother.
"It's so important for people to feel accepted and be themselves, be who they want to be."
The strength that takes for someone to be who they really are is another reason why Coolidge thinks it is important to have events like Carman's Pride where people can find a "village" and support in their own communities.