Virtual pride parade wraps up Pride Week with Miss Capital Pride 2020 Icesis Couture

It may be the last day of Pride week celebrations with the virtual Pride parade marking its end, but it’s hardly the last day to keep LGBTQ+ issues top of mind — especially for Icesis Couture, 2020’s Miss Capital Pride.

The newly-shaped pride parade will march online starting at 2 p.m. Sunday, a parade that is usually celebrated in Ottawa’s downtown along Bank Street. 

But much like every other event this year, Pride has had to get creative if it wanted to continue running — and for Pride, that mean having a mix of very carefully coordinated events in the community and online programming. 

However, that didn’t stop Couture from getting crowned the city’s top queen for 2020 in front of a modest, but enthusiastic crowd.

While born in Ottawa, Couture was raised drag queen with family roots planted in El Salvador. 

Her career might have spanned 13 years, but it took her two runs at Ottawa’s contest to become the city’s top queen.

Finally, 2020 was her year.

While not quite the same type of celebrations as queens before her, nonetheless, Couture still had her moment to shine and the opportunity to perform her duties like a true pageant queen.

“This year makes it different because it is during a pandemic,” she said. “Even though everything was done virtually, I still enjoyed and we were still able to come together as a community.”

But it all came down to the ability of Couture and the rest of the drag community to get creative if they were going to continue to carry the rainbow flag with pride into 2020.

“Drag queens at their basis are creative creatures,” Couture said. “So during the whole pandemic, drag queens had to adapt to the pandemic and they were doing virtual shows, doing art and selling it. Now that everything is slowly starting to open again, things are different, but it feels so much better to see our fans, to see people who love our art in person — nothing compares to being in person.”

But the pandemic did bring a bit of a silver lining, Couture says. 

As she explains, queens work on their own extravagant costumes, but rarely have the time to put as much effort as they’d like — between life, shows, work and more. 

For Couture, this gave her — and other queens — time to really work on their craft, whether it was fashioning new costumes or working on their show routines. 

So what does that mean for the grand finale for the queen in Sunday’s virtual pride parade?

She explains the invited queens have come together — putting in their own time and money — to put together a video. 

“It gives us a chance to be more creative,” she said. “Instead of just seeing us walk by, you’re able to see us express how we feel about pride, how we feel about our own drag — it’s more personal that way.”

For more information on how to watch the virtual pride parade, visit Capital Pride’s website.