By Sarah Wallace

P.A. gearing up to celebrate Pride Week

Apr 23, 2017 | 8:00 AM

Prince Albert’s Pride Festival is just around the corner as the Prince Albert Gender and Sexual Diversity Events group gears up to host the event June 5 to 11. 

Jennifer Lenny Brockman, organizer for Pride Week and the Pride Festival, said this is the tenth year of celebrating pride in the city. Brockman said the group put out calls to residents to see what theme they wanted for this year’s event.

Brockman said because there is a wealth of history in Prince Albert of the gender and sexually diverse community being involved in different ways, this year’s theme is “10 Years of Queer.”

“The very first Pride Festival we had in 2007 was basically just a parade and barbecue and now we have a whole week of events, so it’s really grown over the past 10 years,” Brockman said.

The annual Pride Parade will take a different route this year instead of Kinsmen Park. 

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“We decided that we wanted to go back to our roots and back to a more visible route and to go in the downtown area so this year’s parade will be back downtown, starting and ending at Memorial Square,” Brockman said.

Brockman said there will be a number of event held throughout the week and hope to have as many community organizations setting up information booths as they can.

Over the last 10 years the festival has grown, seeing the largest attendance for the annual pride flag raising at city hall, with 40 people attending the event last year. 

Brockman said it’s important to support Pride Week because the event provides visibility in the community for the LBGTQ community, which in turn helps provide support for those individuals. Brockman said there are a lot of people who don’t attend the event because they’re not ready to. She said just having the event in place can help create support.

“Over the years we’ve provided more educational opportunities during Pride Week that we haven’t had in the past. This year we have Trans101, introduction to gender diversity … [in] that presentation will talk about gender diverse terminology, challenges gender diverse people face in daily life and healthcare concerns,” Brockman said.

Another change this year will see the annual dance turn into a comedy night instead. The evening will feature improv comedy and headliner Lori Gibbs from Vancouver. 

Pride Week events are open to everyone.

swallace@panow.com

On Twitter: @sarahthesquid