“Welcome to pride month,” 14 Wing Greenwood Colonel Jeff Davis said June 3, as the wing raised the pride progress flag at the main gate and launched a “busy month – and a busy summer ahead, of activities being coordinated or that you’re participating in.”
The wing’s Defence Team Pride Advisory Organization hosted the kick-off flag-raising, with DTPAO members and wider wing representation gathered. Corporal Sky Fisher thanked everyone for attending, and welcomed them to another “more exciting” day for the LGBTQIA+ community. The DTPAO recently acknowledged May 17, the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia.
“This time of year is so special for so many reasons, and so joyful to the very core,” Fisher said, taking a cue from the just passed Annapolis Valley Apple Blossom Festival weekend.
“As we prepare to celebrate in the upcoming months, we start by raising the flag to commemorate and remember the vitality it took to accomplish our right to visibility. The strength and resilience of the LGBTQIA+ community has opened locked doors and mindsets. It planted roots and built a safe place for everyone. It eliminated a desire to hide, and inspired a generation of authenticity.”
Fisher provided a brief background, to the 1969 celebration of pride on the streets of Manhattan, when a group of people took a stand against police brutality against the homosexual community at the city’s Stonewall Inn, “and chose to be visible no matter the cost.
“At a time when this was so dangerous, and so many like us were taught to hide and bury their identities, the protestors at Stonewall chose to rewrite that narrative and spark a drive in the hearts of enough people to begin a movement that has just kept on moving.”
Fisher said every milestone since is a celebration, and is an opportunity to remind everyone “every time we raise this flag and show up for each other, we lift our community a little bit higher.
“Every gathering like this is just as important as the last, and every time we choose visibility and allyship, we remove a little less space for hate by creating our own love. Every positive impact we can make makes a difference, and every person deserves to live authentically and to be celebrated for everything that makes them who they are. Just by having pride in ourselves, and supporting those around us, we are contributing to the pursuit of equality.”
To put action into her remarks, Fisher encouraged everyone to “feel the pride in the air, and I hope it spreads with every apple blossom.”
