18
EVOLUTION
of Pride
The Pride Winnipeg Festival has evolved and grown to a point
that it requires year-round operation and planning. Even after the
Festival, The Organization is doing take-down, settling accounts,
and updating branding pieces for the following year before
breaking for a couple weeks of “vacation.” Not long after, The
Board is back at work in the summer planning for the following
year’s Pride Festival. One major component of this planning is
the next Pride theme...
The Pride theme can be one of the most difficult and daunting projects for The Board. We
are tasked with creating a theme that will resonate within our whole diverse community but
as any marketing professional will tell you “If you try to market to everyone, you will reach
no one,” in other words if the theme isn’t relatable then it won’t have meaning for anyone. It
would also be inappropriate to focus the Festival around one sole issue – who are we to
say which issue should take spotlight and precedence over another? Therefore we aim to
create a theme to which multiple issues can receive focus and where we can highlight
certain subjects.
This year’s theme ‘Evolution’ examines the
evolution of pride and human rights. It aims
to promote education and awareness
around LGBTTQ* history and major
milestones. Wrapped up in the history and
milestones are not only the reasons why
Pride movements were formed but also why
we continue with Pride movements today.
For some, the concept of LGBTTQ* may be
new or having only existed within the last
50 years but in fact history points to
LGBTTQ* people having been around since
the dawn of mankind. Mesolithic rock art in
Sicily dated between 9660 to 5000 BCE
depicts phallic male figures in pairs
interpreted to be depictions of male
homosexual intercourse.1 Throughout the
recorded history of humans, LGBTTQ*
people are documented – from Egyptian
Pharaohs with homosexual love affairs,2
Roman emperors seeking transition
surgery,3 to an ancient Greek female poet
and her love for women being the
inspiration for the word ‘lesbian,’4 and
pre-colonial First Nation communities
celebrating two-spirit people as visionaries.
Unfortunately since the 4th century,
LGBTTQ* people became required to hide
in the proverbial closet for fear of exile,
torture, and death due to widespread
misinformation.
We often hear in the media coverage of
Pride, comments such as “you have all your
rights, why do you still need Pride?” To this
we answer ‘there is still lot’s to do and much
to celebrate.’ Pride is more than just a rally
or protest. It is a celebration of identities,
culture and love all wrapped up in the
reflection of the evolution of LGBTTQ*
human rights.
Pride movements began after the New York
Stonewall Inn riots of 1969. In Canada, the
Canadian government decriminalized
homosexual acts for consenting adults over
21, under then-Justice Minister Pierre
Trudeau whom uttered his famous “the state
has no place in the bedrooms of the nation”