June is Pride Month, and Pflag Halton heard its members when they said they wanted to celebrate: Halton Pride Fest is coming to Country Heritage Park in Milton on Saturday, June 24, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
This all-ages event will feature music, a vendor market, performances, food, and fun. Tickets cost $10 and include the cost of all activities except for any food and vendor purchases. Pflag’s volunteers have been working hard for months to pull everything together and are excited to celebrate the 2SLGBTQIA+ community in a safe and welcoming space.
Taylor Henderson and Whit Ross took over Pflag Halton in 2020, working to provide peer-to-peer support for 2SLGBTQIA+ adults in Halton, and training and workshops for organizations looking to become more 2SLGBTQIA+-inclusive and supportive. Pflag, which was formerly an acronym for “Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays” and has gone by “Pflag” since 2014, is a national charitable organization with local chapters — and Halton is one of Canada’s biggest chapters.
Youth looking for peer support in Halton had been going to ROCK’s Positive Space Network up until recently, when the program was dissolved due to funding issues. Henderson says that Pflag rushed to help fill that gap, taking on lots of new volunteers, and putting on more workshops.
In speaking to their program participants, Henderson and Ross heard that what the Halton 2SLGBTQIA+ youth really wanted for Pride Month 2023 was to celebrate: and since February, they have been pulling out all the stops to make that wish come true. Given the lack of time, it at first seemed “like a pipedream,” noted Henderson, but with the help of other volunteers, and generous sponsors and partners stepping up to help out, it is happening. Pflag Halton is hosting the event, alongside collaborative partners like Queer@ROCK and Halton Black Voices.
From big names like Starbucks and the AIDS Network, who are Toronto Pride staples, to local sponsors like Port Nelson United Church, Grace United Church, Kelly’s Bake Shoppe, and Crossfit COL, the community has come together to help with the celebration. And for a community whose members do not always feel safe or welcome where they live, this is a big deal. “It feels really good,” says Henderson.
Burlington’s Mayor Marianne Meed Ward will be attending and speaking, as will most of Halton’s other mayors. Minister Karina Gould will share a booth alongside her fellow MPs Adam van Koeverden, Anita Anand, and Pam Damoff.
The vendor market emphasizes queer vendors, including Muka (selling enamel pins, earrings, and apparel, including an “All Cats Are Beautiful” t-shirt); O.W.L. and the Crafty Beaver; and Rainbow Certified. Conservation Halton will host lawn games, and Milton Public Library will be on hand to represent the region’s libraries; Burlington-based vendor booths include Dare to Be You(th) and Food for Life.
Performances will include music by the Bourbon Brown Trio and the House of Adam and Steve, street performer Alexander Gonsalves, and a number of drag performances, which are particularly significant in light of recent and ongoing attempts by our southern neighbours to censor and even render drag performers’ existence illegal. Drag is not only an expression of identity and an art form; drag performers engage in activism (often facing actual physical violence) to promote the rights of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, and Pflag Halton wants to “honour the resilience, creativity, and courage of those who have embraced this art form as a means of expressing their authentic selves.”
The focus of Halton Pride Fest, though, is on the party, not politics. And Henderson calls out Pflag Halton volunteers Leanne, Randy, Andrew, Serena, and Zoe as instrumental in putting this big, fabulous celebration together and supporting the 2SLGBTQIA+ community by running the adult and now youth programming, the trans parenting meetings, the Pflag Discord, and the beautifully-named adult trans support group, Glowing Pains.
But it’s also a family affair for married couple Henderson and Ross. Henderson notes, “I wouldn’t be able to do this without my wife and I doing it together; it’s been on-the-spot and constant communication [about the festival].” Their kids, Alex, Ian, Grant, and Zach, have also all been involved, from organizing lawn signs to button-making. The kids’ involvement is “what’s really allowed us to focus on the 2SLGBTQIA+ community; right now, we’re full-throttle in peer support and the festival,” says Henderson, with July set aside for more family time.
But before that, there’s that celebration to look forward to! To purchase tickets to the event, go to www.pflaghalton.ca or click here. If cost is a barrier to participating in Halton Pride Fest, contact haltonon@pflagcanada.ca. You can also support the 2SLGBTQIA+ by purchasing a lawn sign, designed by Wry and Ginger Studio for Pflag Halton, for $20 each, here.
