A new initiative is coming to the area in the form of West Nipissing Pride.
West Nipissing Pride was born during a conversation two-years ago between Jeremy Seguin and Michel Gervais’s mother, who was concerned there was no support system for her son who identifies as homosexual.
“It was in regard to social things that were missing in the municipality,” he explained. “One of the key things that we noticed was we had no Pride group, and we’re starting to see smaller communities build up teams and groups. Especially in northern Ontario, we don’t have the same support systems that southern Ontario has.”
“I am a real-life homosexual,” Gervais said. “I came out when I was 15 and I am lucky to have the most supportive parents I could ever ask for. With having conversations with my parents, we realized what was lacking in the community and maybe we could do something about it. It’s really cool to be able to give a voice to people.”
According to Seguin, the group is composed of community leaders including Mayor Joanne Savage.
“We have a very large group,” he said. “I’ve gotten a whole bunch of messages of people wanting to join the organization in multiple capacities. Yeah, we might have a smaller group of organizers, but we want people to donate or volunteer in any way they can.”
However, COVID-19 has put a damper on some festivities.
“We did want to start with a big bang and have a Pride parade, but unfortunately due to the COVID situation, we’ve had to scale back what we wanted to do,” Seguin said. “We’re going to be going virtual and we’re going to have a lot of activities via our Facebook page which will be launching on May 17th.”