BBQ and pizza part of Pride celebrations

Published date22 June 2022
Publication titleCourier, The
We’re holding a free Pride BBQ with music, fun and games next week Wednesday, June 29, from 11am-2pm in front of the Y at 23 Butler St, in Timaru. All are welcome

We’re also co-hosting a PPP: Pizza, Pronouns & Positivity event with the combined rainbow students’ groups of our local high schools and Ara Institute of Canterbury at 4pm on Tuesday, June 28, at Te Whare Pounama on Ara’s Timaru campus.

We asked some of the akonga (students) involved in those rainbow groups why celebrating Pride mattered to them. Here’s some of what they said:

■It’s important to celebrate people who often aren’t celebrated.

■Spreading awareness is important as it helps to support others in the community.

■ Pride Month can be a time to gain connections with like-minded people.

■It’s important because you should feel proud of who you are.

■We are lucky in New Zealand that we can celebrate freely, not like some countries.

Recent events underscore why we cannot take for granted the progress that has been made in securing equal rights and acceptance for the rainbow community: the suspicious fire that destroyed the Rainbow Youth/Gender Dynamix building in Tauranga, the vandalising of a rainbow church in Greymouth, the furore surrounding Tauranga’s Bethlehem College and investigations into alleged death threats and verbal attacks made against students showing support for the LGBTQ+ community there, and more.

Here at the Y, we are proud allies of the rainbow community. We celebrate Pride not to push any agenda but simply to affirm our rainbow rangatahi in the same way we affirm all young people. We think celebrating Pride matters for a lot of reasons, and we hope you will join us in that...

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