Human rights activist named Pride marshal

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/04/2018 (2902 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In keeping with its just-announced 2018 festival theme, Pride Winnipeg’s parade grand marshal will be attending the local LGBTTQ* celebration for the first time.

Brielle Beardy-Linklater, 24, will be announced as the parade’s grand marshal today, along with honorary youth marshal Janine Brown, 17.

The 2018 theme — My First Pride — draws on the journeys of self-discovery that can stem from attending the annual celebration. 

Beardy-Linklater is a two-spirit, transgender and queer woman, who is originally from Thompson and the Nisichaweyasihk Cree Nation.

She helped found Pride North of 55 in northern Manitoba, then moved to Winnipeg last year with plans to attend post-secondary school. She also spoke at the 2017 Pride festivities in Steinbach.

“I think really as a person who actively pushes for human rights, I think this is such an honour,” Beardy-Linklater said of the grand marshal role. “And I think anybody would feel like it’s gratifying, especially given within the context of what I’m trying to do, which is trying to push for change.”

Beardy-Linklater is a grassroots activist and frequent public speaker, who was the first transgender person to take a seat in the House of Commons as a representative at last year’s Daughters of the Vote celebration in Ottawa.

She was nominated for grand marshal by various friends in Manitoba and Ottawa.  

“I really love queer history and there’s such a prominent culture of two-spirit in Winnipeg,” Beardy-Linklater said.

“And I’ve met with so many people who have kind of shared their stories with me, their perspectives… those stories and pieces have helped me shape my own identity.”

Janine Brown identifies as a lesbian and enjoys writing and performing spoken-word poetry, about intersectional feminism, LGBTTQ* issues and environmental sustainability. She is also a cabinet minister for Parlement jeunesse franco-manitobain.

When she found out she was chosen as Pride’s youth marshal this year, Brown said she was pretty sure her entire neighbourhood heard her scream in delight.

“PRIDE is a purely magical experience, I went for the first time in 9th grade and fell completely in love! It is so energizing to be surrounded by other LGBTQIA* folk and allies,” Brown said by email. “Being able to promote an event that is crucial to the justice and advancement of the LGBTQIA* community is an honour.”

“What I believe means the most to me is when you’re in the closet, the world feels so small. It can feel so dark inside there you forget there’s actually a world outside it,” she added. 

“But then events like PRIDE happen, maybe you join a GSA (Genders and Sexuality Alliance), or make a friend who’s been through something similar, and everything seems to grow. What being Youth Pride Marshall means to me is a reminder that so much is open to you if you just are willing to get out and search for it.”

Jonathan Niemczak, president of Pride Winnipeg, hopes the My First Pride theme will engage a wide array of folks.

“It’s sort of a unique theme because it can apply to anyone. If you’ve been to Pride, then you have a first Pride experience and if you haven’t been to Pride, then you can have a first Pride experience,” he said.

“And so we wanted to kind of focus on that, in both collecting peoples’ stories of their first Pride experiences, as well as encouraging folks that haven’t been out to Pride, to come out to Pride and experience it whether they’re part of the community or not.”

The 31st annual Pride Winnipeg Festival runs from May 25 to June 3, culminating in the downtown parade on its final day.

The parade route will start at the Manitoba legislature, down Memorial Avenue to York Avenue and then southbound on Fort Street, ending at Bonnycastle Park.

Despite some community members who opposed Winnipeg police participation last year, members of the force will be invited to march again, Niemczak said. Pride will ask that officers not march in uniform or drive police cruisers, the same stipulations they abided by last year. 

jessica.botelho@freepress.mb.ca  Twitter: @_jessbu