Thousands take part in largest ever Capital Pride parade

People of all stripes came out to celebrate Ottawa’s Pride parade on Sunday and all with different reasons.

Sarah-Jane Ward and Dave Ward both wore cardboard signs around their necks that read “Free Mom Hugs” and “Free Dad Hugs” respectively. Sarah-Jane said it was to support members of the LGBTQ community who aren’t accepted by their parents.

“It’s super important for us that everyone, no matter who they are or who they love, gets to come out and celebrate being their true selves,” Sarah-Jane said.

She said this was the first year they had come to the parade wearing the signs and had been getting hugs from people even before the parade began.

Organizers said this year was the biggest Capital Pride parade in history with a street fair that stretched over six blocks and over 150 groups participating. Some of the groups marching in the parade included the German and Australian embassies, the Ottawa Redblacks and Ottawa Senators, political parties, LGBTQ community groups and local businesses.

Thousands of people lined the parade route that started at the intersection of Bank Street and Gladstone Avenue and headed north on Kent Street. The parade turned on Laurier Avenue and finished at the intersection of Somerset Street and Bank Street. The 2018 parade’s grand marshal was China Doll, an Ottawa drag queen.

Dave Junk, who dyed his beard and hair rainbow colours, said this was his third time attending the parade and came out to support his friends in the community.

“It feels really important to me to come out and represent… Everyone’s got to be out, if you’re not out then you’re repressing a side of yourself,” he said.

Marnie Wellar came to the parade dressed as Ontario’s 2015 sex-ed curriculum. She said she wanted to show her opposition to the provincial government’s decision to repeal that curriculum and to support teachers marching in the parade.

“This is the best, most up to date curriculum that we have to offer and taking it away for stupid reasons would be a big mistake,” she said.

Wellar said she has come to Ottawa’s Pride parade for the past 25 years. She said raising five children makes topics such as consent and same-sex marriage important to her. Her costume featured coloured tabs on the side representing the topics from the 2015 curriculum that are not in the one from 1998 currently being taught.

“Kids need it, we have to give them the best. It’s a complicated world.”

Louise Duguay came with Dan Melanson and said she came out to support one of her friends who drove a truck in the parade.

“We have a lot of friends that are gay and lesbian,” she said. “We’re not gay so it’s a kind of a learning [experience] about a new culture for us.”

Melanson said he’s been to Ottawa's Pride parade in the past, but was surprised at the diversity of LGBTQ groups in the parade this year.

“I think it represents how society is changing and how there’s a large diversity of discourse in our society and I think that Pride is particularly special way of illustrating that.”

While Capital Pride officially closes on August 26, events run until August 28 with a screening of the movie Love, Simon at the Ottawa Public Library Main Branch.