Great time to show the Pride

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This article was published 04/06/2012 (5151 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Skin-tight Speedo? Check.

Lady Gaga clones? Check.

Political barbs locked and loaded? Those, too.

Thousands came out Sunday for the culmination of 10 days of celebrating gay, lesbian, transsexual, transgender, intersex, two-spirit and queer people.

Pride Winnipeg’s 25th anniversary festivities hit their peak Sunday afternoon with the parade capping off a string of earlier events including a beach volleyball tournament, lesbian lube wrestling and a fishing festival.

Among the revellers were Gloria Booths, who walked with Pictoria Secrete, both in towering headdresses made of pool noodles and dresses made of bottle caps.

“It’s the homage to Lady Gaga,” said Booths.

Booths said the jaw-dropping silver-spangled outfits — which would put the notoriously attention-seeking pop star to shame — were made by hand into the wee hours of Sunday morning.

“We wanted to go sparkly,” said Booths, adding the outfits also were a wink at Pride Winnipeg’s silver anniversary. “The makeup wasn’t much today, because we didn’t go over the top.”

Pride Winnipeg chairwoman Barb Burkowski estimated about 15,000 people attended Sunday’s parade, which began with a rally in the morning at the legislature.

Floats included throngs of dancers and revellers tossing shiny beads to those lining the route north on Memorial Boulevard, east along York Avenue, south on Garry Street and then west on Broadway.

The crowd swelled to about 20,000 people as the party moved to The Forks Sunday afternoon.

Finding terms to include everyone can be tricky, though. One person resting along the parade route on York Avenue rejected the terms male and female.

“I don’t fit in those boxes,” said Alexia Winters, who stood outside the convention centre with marker body drawings.

When Winters — who has taken hormones, and has both breasts and facial hair — fills out forms, there’s no boxes to check off that summarize the social work student’s gender identity.

“I’m not one, I’m not the other, I’m not somewhere in between,” said Winters, 26.

And not everyone left happy. St. Boniface Conservative MP Shelly Glover was visibly angry after attending the Pride rally at the legislature — because she said the event had been unfairly politicized by comments by Manitoba Justice Minister Andrew Swan.

“I’m more sad than anything because this is about trying to make sure that people are included,” said Glover.

“It’s not a political event. It’s an expression of pride… To make it political and try to gain political points is disgusting. I’ve been here seven years; Andrew Swan, it’s his first year here, shame on him,” said Glover.

Glover said she supports Bill C-279, which seeks to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code.

The bill would make sure the rights act included “gender identity and gender expression as prohibited grounds of discrimination.”

Swan made no apologies for his stance as he walked along York Avenue greeting people along the route.

“I reminded people in 1987, that it was the NDP government that brought in the human rights code and protected sexual orientation… ” he said. “And every single New Democrat voted in favour of it, and every single Conservative voted against it.”

Swan said “in Manitoba, they’ve opposed everything we’ve done to move the goalpost on protected sexual orientation and making Manitoba more inclusive.

“There’s nothing wrong with telling people that,” he said.

Last month, Swan announced the provincial human rights code will be changed so transgender Manitobans will be protected from discrimination.

gabrielle.giroday@freepress.mb.ca