Town of Stewiacke to fly Progress Pride flag

The Town of Stewiacke, N.S., will be raising a flag on July 10 that not only honoursLGBTQ people, but also recognizes additional marginalized LGBTQ communities.

Known as the Progress Prideflag, it was created in 2018 by artist Daniel Quasar who wanted to make the Pride flag more inclusive.It looks like the traditional Pride flag, but it also has arrow-shaped stripes to represent communitiessuch as LGBTQ people of colour.

"It's really to recognize that the rainbow flag and Pride hasn't always represented the entire community," said Laura Whiteland, a transgender member of the Truro Pride Society. "Being inclusive of queer and trans people of colour is an incredibly important statement right now."

The Province of Nova Scotia raised a ProgressPride flag on June 25.

When Stewiacke raises the flag, it'll be one of the first municipalities in the province to do so.

Town council agreed to the move after a presentation by Whiteland in February. She sees it as an important step for small towns and rural areas to show that people do not have to live in a city to be accepted.

"One of the goals of the Truro Pride Society is we want to see the last generation of queer and trans youth that feel that they have to leave Colchester County," said Whitehead.

The mayor of Stewiacke fully supports the inclusive message of the new flag.

"By doing this, the town makes a big announcement to say we accept you, we want you to come, whether you identity as non-binary, transgender, LGBTQ or two-spirited,"said Wendy Robinson.

Hoping for a trend

Whiteland said she hopes Stewiacke will start a trend, particularly for those communities in the province that have not yet raised Pride flags.

The Town of Trurobegan flying a rainbow flag in 2016, after refusing to raise one for a decade.

The Town of Truro will kick off its Pride Week by raising the Progress Flag, with the help of the Truro Pride Society.The flag raising will take place in front of Truro'stown hall on July10at 11:30 am.

This year, Truro has included brown and black colours in its Pride crosswalk for the first time.

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