Eva Baldi
Campbell’s Bay June 1, 2023
Members of Pontiac Pride ushured in Pride Month with the raising of the progress flag at the MRC building in Campbell’s Bay last Thursday.
The progress flag was created in 2018 with the intention to have a flag that is more inclusive of many groups under the 2SLGBTQIA+ (two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex) umbrella. The difference between this flag and the traditional rainbow flag can be seen in the arrow. The colours that make up the arrow symbolise different groups, with the white, pink and light blue representing transgender and non-binary individuals and the brown and black lines representing people of colour and those living with AIDS.
This is the second . . .
year in a row that municipalities have been asked to display visible progress flags for the month of June. Pride Pontiac approached Warden of the Pontiac Jane Toller with the idea last year. According to group member William Bastien, Toller was very receptive to the idea, asking all 18 municipalities to participate.
“She was really supportive of the idea of raising the flags across all 18 municipalities,” explained Bastien.
Last year, Pride Pontiac provided all municipalities with a flag to put on display for the month. In May 2023, they sent out letters to each municipality asking them to take their flags out of storage. This was done in order to ensure there would be enough time to replace any flags that may have been lost, misplaced, or stolen since last June.
Bastien noted that he understands that not all municipal buildings have several flagpoles which could hinder their ability to fly the flag. Because of this, the group asks only that the municipalities have the flag visibly on display somewhere on the building.
The flags will be visible until the end of June. For more information on Pride Pontiac and events they are putting on throughout Pride Month visit their Facebook page.
