Under overcast skies on Saturday, hundreds of people in rainbow colours marched through downtown Orillia, Ont. They walked past the Orillia Opera House, past the local businesses and past intrigued residents at what was the town’s second-ever Pride march.
Volunteers with Lake Country Pride only started the Orillia Pride march last year. The group was founded in 2022 by Celeste Lalumiere, an Orillia resident and gay woman. She was inspired to create a Pride scene in her town when she attended a drag queen story time at the library, which attracted both enthusiasm and vitriol.
The backlash to the event showed Ms. Lalumiere that there was a need for queer visibility in Orillia, a town 150 kilometres north of Toronto.
Celeste Lalumiere and her partner Meg McGowan walk in the Pride march together. Celeste was inspired to facilitate Orillia Pride celebrations in 2022, after seeing both enthusiasm and backlash towards the library’s drag queen story time event.
Community members gather ahead of the second annual Pride march in Orillia on Saturday.
Orillia has been gradually changing and growing, but there was a larger uptick in its population during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many new people moved to the town from the GTA and beyond, and some Orillia-born people moved back to their hometown after years away.
One of those Orillians is Stevie Baker, who returned to the town and in 2023 started a Queer Cabaret, which features drag artists, singers, poets, and other performers from the LGBTQ community.
”A lot of people moved back during the pandemic,” Ms. Baker said. “We need to carve out a space for us, and for people who were already here. There were always queer people here.
“I think we’re building a really beautiful community.”
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