One year later, Pride parade coming to Coquitlam

A group of students brought a Pride celebration to Coquitlam for the first time last year — now one organization is taking the party to the streets. 

On July 20, the city is hosting its first-ever Pride parade in collaboration with the Tri-Cities Pride Society, Coquitlam Public Library and Evergreen Cultural Centre. 

The parade, slated to run on a section of sidewalk from the Evergreen Cultural Centre to an intersection adjacent to Douglas College, will highlight the city’s second annual Pride Festival, an annual party that will include a Drag Story Time event, live music and free workshops in the Town Centre district. 

“We heard a lot of positive feedback from last year,” said Brett Collins, president of the Tri-Cities Pride Society. “We had people reaching out, saying, ‘I feel like I do belong here,’ . . . We had people move away from the Tri-Cities saying, ‘I wish that had been there when I lived in Coquitlam.’” 

The city held its first Pride event last summer and raised Pride flags around city hall after lobbying from the Dr. Charles Best Secondary’s Gay-Straight Alliance, a group of students and a teacher hoping to increase diversity and Pride initiatives in Coquitlam.

The group presented in front of city council last February, outlining how a Pride event would meet many goals — safer communities and strong local economy — in Coquitlam’s strategic plan. 

They received unanimous support from Mayor Richard Stewart and council. 

“You had us at hello,” Stewart said. “You’ll see from council wholehearted support.”

The Tri-Cities Pride Society were invited to help plan the event but were not the primary organizers, Collins said. 

This year marks the first time that the collective is leading the organizing effort. Increasing visibility of the event ranks at the top of their lists ahead of the festival later this month, Collins said, and planning a parade was one of the easiest ways to achieve that target.

“It’s extremely visible,” Collins said. “Which is really the whole point of this thing: we’re here and we’re not going to just disappear.” 

The organization of the festival comes as public demonstrations regarding Drag Story Time readings and Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) teachings have captivated the city and other parts of the country in recent months. 

In January 2023, roughly 100 supporters of a Drag Story Time event at the Coquitlam Public Library (CPL) outnumbered a small group of protesters. 

Later that year, on September 20, organizers set up an anti-SOGI rally at Coquitlam City Hall as part of a wider national movement dubbed the 1 Million March 4 Children. One month later, the CPL rescheduled a Drag Story Time to March due to it coinciding with an ant-SOGI demonstration and the possibility of a protest at the library. 

The postponement of the latest story time made some people in the LGBTQ2S+ community weary about coming into perform in the Tri-Cities, Collins said. 

“That really felt to the community that ‘maybe we don’t belong here, maybe the community doesn’t have our back,’” Collins said. “So [the Pride Festival] is making those connections so that we can have a more resilient community that is able to respond to those things with a message of ‘you do belong here.’” 

Collins said a strong majority of Tri-Cities residents are supportive of Pride and diversity. But they acknowledge there is a loud and vocal minority of people who protest or write negative things on social media about Pride events in the city. 

Ultimately, Collins said the Pride Festival will create relationships and foster a sense of community for people that may have otherwise felt isolated.

“We need those connections,” Collins said. “This is a great opportunity to find out they’re not alone and there’s a bunch of people here who support me.”  

An earlier version of this article used an incorrect term for SOGI, it stands for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.