Pride Month in Milton kicked off at Milton Town Hall on June 1st with the Pride Flag Raising. The ceremony was organized by PRISM Milton’s 2SLGBTQIA Group.
The Town of Milton started official raising the Pride Flag back in 2018 and this is the 5th year running with a record turn out at Town Hall. There were several youth speakers representing local schools in Milton talking about both the progress that has been made as well as challenges still to be overcome.Melanie Kay-Tremills who helps run PRISM introduced the youth speakers. The first youth speaker spoke about the community and trying to uplift one another, as well as politicians not providing funding for preventative groups. The 2nd speaker, a Grade 9 student from Milton District spoke about the connections she’s made at school as well as the tireless school staff who have worked to make every student welcome. But also about the gender neutral washrooms are actually being used by all students making it difficult those that actually need it to have access. The final speaker spoke about his transition and how emotionally difficult it was and learning to love himself again with support from his family, friends and community.
Charles Parchem, one of Milton’s original gays, or an “OG” as he likes to refer himself as talked about progress. Charles talked both about the past, “It wasn’t easy growing up here, it wasn’t, it was a challenge every day” as well as the substantial progress made since then. “Being anything but straight, anywhere, wasn’t safe at all, until there was progress”. He gave a brief history of both the Pride Flag and progress that has been made and ended his speech saying “Milton has developed into a community where people feel safe accepted, so let’s keep this progress going. Happy Pride everyone.”
Halton Pride Fest is being held on June 24th at Country Heritage Park organized by Pflag Halton. Tickets and more information can be found at www.pflaghalton.ca/halton-pride-fest The Milton Chamber of Commerce is also supporting local businesses show their Pride by providing a free sign, more information on this at www. miltonchamber.ca/pride/
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