Prince Albert pride for Canadian gay teens
A group of gay teenagers who live in a small city in the heart of the Canadian prairies have asked their local council for permission to stage their very own pride festival.
Prince Albert is in the far north of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan and has 40,000 inhabitants. It is most famous as the home of Anne of Green Gables author Lucy Laud Montgomery.
The parade, scheduled for June 9th 2007, is the brainchild of Gay-Teen Alliance Youth Group co-ordinator Jennifer Brockman.
She told the Prince Albert Daily Herald that her inspiration came from attending the province’s first ever gay pride parade in Saskatoon earlier this year.
Despite its reputation as a rural backwater, the Pride event was greeted with enthusiasm by residents of the province’s largest city.
In stark contrast to attitudes south of the Canadian border, the mayor of the city welcomed the request for a Pride event, which has been referred to council officials for approval.
The Saskatchewan government have already given a grant to the Gay-Teen Alliance to fund the parade. The teens hope to march through the city and hang a rainbow flag from the City Hall.
