I wrote a column a little while ago that mused out loud if Barrie was in danger of being trapped in a state of 'thinking small' and behaving too insular.
I would venture to say that in many ways we do and it impedes our growth both economically, socially and culturally. But every now and then there are hints that we are getting prepared to put on our big boy and girl pants and ante up as the urbane municipality we should be.
A few weeks ago was Pride week in Barrie. Events, concerts and parades all celebrated the LGBTQ community in Barrie. Hundreds of people from all walks of life and ages, joined into the celebration. Long standing local businesses sponsored the events and the well organized festivities succeeded in showing our ALL members of our community how proud they should be to be a part of such a diverse and tolerant place.
Do we have some way to go in this regard? Certainly, we do as a community.
Its important to make one clear observation about this event and others like it across Canada, it welcomed everybody. It didn't matter if you weren't LGBTQ or where you were born or where you worshipped or if you even do.
All that mattered was that everybody came together to celebrate some of our differences instead of fight over them. That's a sign of a mature community. This is in light of some other groups and organizations that look to exclude others based on their skin colour, sexual orientation, religion or culture.
Their excuse for doing this is that “we've been excluded now its our opportunity to exclude and celebrate ourselves by ourselves". Incredibly narrow minded and certainly not helpful for their own plight or cause.
Hats off to Barrie Pride for hosting a great week of events for everybody to enjoy. It would also be prudent to give ourselves a pat on the back as a community and a nation. Still in several countries around the world homosexuality is a crime punishable by death; Uganda and Saudi Arabia just to name two. Anyone who has spent any considerable amount of time outside of Canada will tell you exactly how lucky we are to live in a place as peaceful and tolerant as Canada.
We may still have a distance to go in this regard but events like Pride week in Barrie remind me how far we've come. Ten or fifteen years ago it would have been controversial and now… not a blink. I saw one sign that read “I’m Straight - not narrow” maybe some politicians south of the border and a few on this side should take heed…times are changing with or without you.
