On Tuesday, Saskatoon’s Western Development Museum opened up ‘Gaytown’, a Pride festival to celebrate the historic past and achievements of the 2SLGBTQ+ community in Saskatchewan.
With the theme ‘Courageous Past, Fabulous Future’, the event transformed the museum’s popular ‘Boomtown’ street with pride flags and exhibits.
“This is important for the visibility for us as a community and especially as seniors,” said Spark Your Pride board member Peter Lippmann. “We’ve found through a lot of research over the years that queer seniors going into care go back into the closet.”
The event is open to all ages, but Spark Your Pride and the event is geared toward residents 55 and over.
“It’s important to let them know it’s okay to be old, to be queer, to be around and celebrate who you are and what you are,” said Lippmann.
“We are a little bit separate from the Saskatoon Pride Organization because we focus on having a place that is safe and comfortable for queer seniors, and we consider ourselves queer seniors,” said board member Jean Dudley.
Dudley added there is a timeline in the museum that people can add to when they remember things about Saskatoon’s queer history.
“Even though this is the 30-year anniversary of human sexuality, homosexuality being included in the Human Rights Act legislation, there are still a lot of horrible things happening,” Dudley said.
“People still get beaten up, people still get graffiti on their houses and on their places of gathering. Just because it was legislated doesn’t mean people’s attitudes changed.”
Dudley noted that queer people are an important part of Saskatchewan’s history.
Lippman said the fun, awareness and comfort is all he can hope people gain from the event.
“Realize life has a lot of fun in it,” he said.