Celebrating pride, Protection Island style

Martin said that the pride parade is a little different than other communities as many people that take part in the parade are allies and do not identify as a queer person. Photo: Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7fm

With about 350 people living on Protection Island, for the past ten years, the community has once again come together to celebrate pride on the island.

Every August, on the island known for its pirate theme and floating bar, residents come together to put on a pride parade by decorating the main form of transportation on the island; golf carts.

CHLY attended the tenth-anniversary of the pride parade and celebration on Protection Island on Saturday, August 17. About 14 golf carts, including a cart moving a stage with a live band, drove around the island as residents sat outside their homes cheering as they went by.

The parade finished at Gallows Point Light Park, at the southern tip of the island. There were snacks, dance parties, and a performance by a local drag performer Mannaquinnn who highlighted the need to continue to celebrate pride in the face of hate targeting the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.

Chrys LoScerbo who performs under the name Mannaquinnn said celebrating pride on the island is important because there are a lot of queer individuals living on the island.

“So at the end of August– third Saturday of every August, we have a parade,” LoScerbo said. “All the golf carts come decked out, dressed up in amazing colours and themes, and people do the same thing for themselves, and we walk along and parade the streets.”

Although they have been involved with the celebration for about six years now, this is their first time performing. They said they got involved to perform after last year's celebration had a presentation on why pride is more than just a parade and celebration, but also about the protest and fight to be whoever you want to be.

“So it was lovely to be able to engage people, even if they've talked to our community members and our committee members before they know our passion,” they said. “Then they can see that same message and the bottom line as to why this is such an important thing for all of us.”

While Protection Island may be small, LoScerbo said because of its size it's even more important to make sure there are safe spaces for residents to go to and be a part of.

“Small communities in general are complex. When you put them all on a small island, those complexities can be louder and more either healthy or unhealthy,” they said. “So it's really important that all residents feel safe on this island, and that is something that we try and do regularly, is have communication and at least be able to express differing opinions and have dialogue around that so making sure that no one's afraid to be who they are, be seen as they are and act as they are that doesn't put anyone else at risk is really, really important.” 

LoScerbo said while this year’s parade may have had a smaller turnout than other past years, they said it is still amazing to see all the people who came out for the celebration.

“But it's always amazing to see people that still say ‘oh, this is my very first one, I've never been able to make it,’ and ‘it's so nice to finally be here.’ People get really excited about dressing up their cart or dressing up themselves and you can see that again, there are so many ways to support a community and support people that are marginalized,” they said. “So it's really wonderful to see people come at it from different perspectives, and also come at it from their own learning as well, and pass that on.”

Wendy Martin is one of the organizers of the event. She said the first pride event on the island happened in 2013 when many residents who identified as queer wanted to host a potluck so all the queer residents could have a space to meet each other. It was the following year they decided to throw a pride parade.

“So six of us kind of pulled together and decided to do this pride parade. We were really nervous that year. We had no idea what kind of reception we were going to get,” Martin said. “We were so nervous when we were walking up to the start to see we thought it might be the only people walking, but there were piles of people there. There was a huge turnout of people in the parade all decorated up, and lots of people along the side cheering. It was just so incredibly supportive and moving.”

Protection Island’s pride parade came two years before Nanaimo's first-ever pride parade in 2016. She explains that the date chosen for the parade came from wanting to space out their celebrations with the many pride celebrations that happen during Pride Month in June.

She said that the pride parade is a little different than other communities as many people that take part in the parade are allies and do not identify as a queer person.

“It's just been really important for the people on the island, and those of us that are queer, many of us feel safer on the island knowing that we have the support, because we didn't know before, and now it's just really clear that we have it,” Martin said.

She said she hears from parents of young kids who said their kids feel more comfortable being themselves and from older residents who feel like they can be themselves knowing that there is a safe space for them.

“It's important because Protection Islanders want to support Protection Islanders,” she said. “So it's a real measure of their support for the queer community.”

Martin said they will continue to support queer residents on the island by giving them a safe space to be who they are and be proud of it.

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.