A year ago, hundreds of St. Stephen residents came together to support a rainbow crosswalk with the first ever Pride March.
Following the controversy from St. Stephen Town Council initially voting against painting a rainbow crosswalk, a project brought forward by students at the St. Stephen Middle School, Council held a second vote after discussing the issue more with residents.
On October 16th, 2017, several hundred people gathered for the first ever Pride March in St. Stephen, meeting at Chocolate Park to hear the landmark verdict from Council in favor of the rainbow.
It was a year ago today, St. Stephen rallied together in support of a rainbow crosswalk at SSMS and held the first ever Pride March. #lgbtq #bordertown #981news #rainbowcrosswalk pic.twitter.com/5LbjhRGazA
— @981News (@981news) October 16, 2018
One of the organizers behind St. Croix Pride, Sue Weatherby tells us the controversy with the crosswalk brought a huge amount of support for the local LGBTQ community.
“It ended up being the trigger to us organizing a little more, and deciding that we wanted to be part of the community and be visible.”
Weatherby says over the past year they’ve had different activities and have found there is a real need of people wanting to belong to their local LGBTQ community.
“A lot of people I know personally that were closeted, and did not want to be totally ‘out’ are now not afraid to attend public events. That may not mean a lot to somebody who’s never had to disguise a part of themselves. But it’s huge. Especially when you’ve got seniors who’ve had to hide it their entire lives.”
Weatherby tells us the St. Croix Pride group now holds a get-together every month, and following a successful St. Croix Pride Week they are already planning for a bigger and better event next summer. They also invite anyone in the LGBTQ community to join the St. Croix Pride Facebook page.
“We couldn’t believe that a little disagreement over whether or not to have a rainbow crosswalk painted would lead to such support and such a feeling of being welcome in our own community.”
