First ever Pride Parade in Steinbach draws thousands

July 9, 2016 5:16 PM

Police estimate that 2,500-5,000 people marched in the parade, in a small town in the heart of Canada's Bible Belt. "We kind of thought that if we got all of our friends together and family members maybe we would get 200 people," McHale said. The town's MP, MLA and mayor did not attend, but Prime Minister Trudeau tweeted his support, and participants were expected from as far away as Florida and France.

"I didn't think I would ever hear the words 'Steinbach pride' in my life," Wiens says.

The local paper has some pictures. The cows on the loose in the town did not appear to interfere with the parade.

posted by clawsoon (13 comments total)

Conservative MP Ted Falk has refused to attend. Steinbach Mayor Chris Goertzen and member of the legislature Kelvin Goertzen are not expected to attend the Pride event because of prior commitments.

As well, the mayor and city council released a written statement that they would not endorse the march.

"I've been clear on this issue many times, and have made my position public on my values of faith, family, and community," Falk said in a statement issued June 20.

I sometimes wonder how conservatives deal with the knowledge that they are going to lose all their battles, one by one.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:26 PM on July 9, 2016 [31 favorites]

Apparently Ted's "values of faith, family, and community" aren't the same as those of those family and community members who participated and supported the march, who I also assume are his constituents, who could choose to support someone else in the next election. The liberals have been gaining ground in the races he won, and this probably didn't help his chances, if he has the chance to run again.
posted by filthy light thief at 5:49 PM on July 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

Well, if I had to guess where I would find some news to restore a tiny piece of faith in humanity after the last couple of weeks, I would not have guessed Manitobe's Bible Belt, but there you go.
posted by jacquilynne at 5:53 PM on July 9, 2016 [3 favorites]

Wikipedia lists of the population of Steinbach as ~13,500, so a few thousand is rather a large fraction.
posted by quaking fajita at 5:59 PM on July 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

I sometimes wonder how conservatives deal with the knowledge that they are going to lose all their battles, one by one.

Angrily.
posted by aaronetc at 6:05 PM on July 9, 2016 [8 favorites]

"A good day for Steinbach" a 79-yr-old woman who has lived here for nearly 50 years tells me #steinbachpride #cbcmb
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 5:46 AM on July 10, 2016 [2 favorites]

I sometimes wonder how conservatives deal with the knowledge that they are going to lose all their battles, one by one.

As in the US, they will get louder and more splutteringly and conspicuously outraged until people start to believe that they're a genuine rising backlash…until we realize that it's just a death rattle.
posted by sonascope at 6:00 AM on July 10, 2016 [5 favorites]

"....Canada's bible belt...."

I didn't know we even had a bible belt.
posted by storybored at 12:30 PM on July 10, 2016

It's not so much a belt as a collection of polka dots. Surprisingly, Yahoo Answers has the best outline I've found so far: "These include the majority of rural southern Alberta and Saskatchewan, parts of southern Manitoba, the Fraser Valley of British Columbia, the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia and the Saint John River Valley of New Brunswick."
posted by clawsoon at 12:44 PM on July 10, 2016 [2 favorites]

After a lot of other dreadful news, it was lovely to see this.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 1:30 PM on July 10, 2016

Just throwing this out there - my favourite name for a pride celebration:

Thunder Pride.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 2:32 PM on July 10, 2016

The quoted Evan Wiens was mentioned previously on Metafilter.

A few friends of mine who grew up in Steinbach but live in Winnipeg headed out to attend, and this seems like a much bigger deal to them than the Winnipeg Pride.
posted by RobotHero at 6:09 PM on July 10, 2016 [2 favorites]

Supporters will outweigh haters, says gay Hutterite speaking at Steinbach's 1st Pride Parade [...] When Tyrone Hofer came out as a gay Hutterite to his Christian family just over a year ago, his mom responded by saying that was worse than death.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 7:24 PM on July 10, 2016 [2 favorites]