Pride parade put on pause

Kahnawake’s streets won’t be filled with rainbows this pride month, after no individuals or organizations stepped up to lead this year’s Pride parade.

“I’m kind of bummed we couldn’t do anything this year,” said Calcifer Goodleaf, who helped plan the first parade in 2023, and last year’s event as part of the Pride Planning Committee. They also designed the Kahnawake Pride logo for the initiative.

“We needed way more aid than we got last year I found, I don’t know if that was on the committee or not, but we were not ready to ride without training wheels.”

The first Pride parade was organized by Kahnawake Collective Impact (KCI), spearheaded by community member Lily Ieroniawákon Deer who worked for the organization at the time. The first parade saw hundreds of community members march through town, with supporters sitting in front of their houses throughout the parade route waving colourful flags and cheering in support.

It also featured an after-party on Tekakwitha Island, with dozens of free food stands and refreshments provided by local vendors.

KCI’s communications representative, Tyson Phillips, said that back then they aided youth in organizing the event, serving only as a collaborator in last year’s parade, which was a considerably smaller event.

“KCI does not have the capacity to take on such a large-scale event as it did in the past. The first parade had a lot of planning, and other organizations were involved,” Phillips said. “This is why collaboration with other groups and organizations is important as it is valuable.”

Phillips said that KCI would be willing to be collaborators but would be unable to lead the event.

“As for the future, our work will always coincide with what the community wants and needs, and support community groups and members if there is an initiative taken for projects and events,” he said.

Goodleaf said that last year, the Pride Parade Committee struggled to make things work. The team was small and many did not have experience organizing large-scale events, making for a relatively stressful planning process. As a result, the parade was scaled down significantly, with less involvement from other community groups and a smaller turnout for the event.

“It’s a lot of work, and it felt like things didn’t go too well last year and like we were on shakier ground with not as much support,” they said. “As an independent group, it’s pretty tough to plan and organize something like that, whereas KSCS (Kahnawà:ke Shakotiia’takéhnhas Community Services) and other organizations have much more practice in doing so.”

Rebecca D’Amico, KSCS’s clinical supervisor of secondary prevention said that KSCS would definitely support community members should they want to organize another Pride parade, but said that the organization wants the LGBTQ2S+ community to be the leaders on the project.

The organization has had a float in both parades and sponsored various aspects of the events, such as food, but has not played an organizing role.

“I think that, respectfully, we don’t want to take it over. If people within the community who identify as allies or as LGBTQ2S+ want to do it, we really want them to take ownership of the parade,” D’Amico said. “People who identify who are very passionate about this, the voice and the vision for the parade needs to come from them.”

KSCS said that at this point, it’s too late for a parade to happen, at least this month. Both of the past parades took place around this date in June.

“You need to plan this far in advance, at least five or six months in advance, to get the promotion out and the location,” D’Amico said, adding that it’s a big undertaking that KSCS isn’t equipped to take on.

“Everybody is so busy, so even planning meetings takes a lot of time and balancing that with all the other workloads and events that people have is hard, so you really need somebody to get the ball rolling.”

KSCS still hosted events supporting the queer community this month, including its annual International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Interphobia, and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT) awareness event.

“We’re still trying to keep the spotlight on the LGBTQ2S+ community and provide support and uplift that population,” she said. “We’re still doing these things, but in terms of a grander scale thing with a Pride parade, nobody has approached us.”

Goodleaf said that realistically, the parade needs to find concrete support from community organizations in the planning process.

“Eventually it would be good to be fully independent, but we simply aren’t ready for that,” they said. “With most projects like this, it takes years to become fully established.”

Community member Lacey Lazare, who owns local thrift store Thrifting the Night Away with her partner Lanny, has been a big supporter of the parade for the past two years. She and Lanny were some of the first to discuss the idea with Deer before its inception.

She acknowledged that in past years, the parade has been controversial - KSCS saw an explosion of hateful comments on a press release about the event in 2023, and there were similarly homophobic and transphobic comments on some of Thrifting the Night Away’s posts.

Those kind of reactions are exactly why the parade is needed, Lacey said.

“Pride is so important because there are still people out there who think they’re better off dead than to be gay,” Lacey said.

“It’s not to sway people into being gay. It’s not to brainwash kids and make them be something they’re not. It’s to show our community members, our youth, our future generations that no matter what it’s okay to be who you truly are, to love who you love, and that you’re safe here in Kahnawake,” she said.

She said it’s tricky to strike a balance when planning an event like this, noting the need for the LGBTQ2S+ community to be the leaders of the movement, rather than being steamrolled by those who might not understand their experiences.

“I think that the Pride parade should be a collaboration of our major organizations and the LGBTQ2S+ community, just so the responsibility doesn’t fall on one single group, and so it’s a well-rounded, community-driven event,” she said, adding that she and Lanny took a step back from getting involved in organizing to let other members of the queer community lead the way.

“We were hoping this year organizations would step back in and help host, so it’s disheartening to learn that no one has taken the lead. We are just a small private business, with no budget for major events; but we wish we could have the financial capacity to host pride,” Lacey said.

Despite there being no parade this year, Lacey said she’s hopeful that the community can work together to bring it back in future.

“I hope that pride makes a comeback for our community. It brings so many families together for such a great cause: love,” Lacey said.

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