Though pride month has now come to a close, celebrations of the Yellowknife LGBTQ2S+ community are year-round.
Of course it’s a party and a celebration but Chelsea Thacker, executive director of the Rainbow Coalition of Yellowknife (RCYK), notes pride festivities are also political.
While Yellowknife is generally an open and welcoming community, Thacker said there is still homophobia and racism in abundance.
It’s about “advocating for their rights and celebrating identities of who they are,” they said of the pride festival. “It’s still important to highlight that members of the community are facing oppression.”
While June is the official pride month, the Yellowknife committee schedules its celebrations for August, in part to avoid competing with Folk on the Rocks which garners most of Yellowknife’s attention.
Events at the Rainbow Coalition are on-going however for residents looking to come together for movie nights, beach days or drop-in hangouts every Wednesday night.
Details on dates and times are available on the RCYK Facebook page.
In addition to RCYK’s scheduled activities, a weekly LGBT2Q+ meetup has cropped up at Harley’s Hard Rock Saloon as a kind of makeshift queer night at the bar.
Along with Harley’s owner Scott Yuill, Tracey Mercer-Sproule hosts the evening, welcoming LGBT2Q+ and allies to gather at the downtown bar and meet like-minded peers in an inclusive space.
As a small town, Yellowknife can prove challenging to meet other LGBT2Q+ singles, the Friday night meetup is a way of coming together to meet new people and enjoy some drinks under a set of pride flags.