This year’s Yukon Pride Festival is set to kick off on Aug. 12, featuring several days of pride‑focused events such as a virtual craft‑along, fashion workshops and a film screening. The festival is set to run until Saturday, Aug. 15, when the headliner pride parade and picnic are scheduled to take place.

This year marks the 12th edition of the annual event since its inception in 2013. According to Selene Vakharia, program and outreach coordinator for the Queer Yukon Society (QYS), the festival has seen significant growth in recent years, with this year expected to be the largest attendance ever.

“We’ve seen the community grow quite considerably, our events have gone from 30 to 50 people who came out to the picnic a couple years ago and then the year after [that] there were about 400 or 500 people who came out,” said Vakharia.

Vakharia said she partly attributes the large attendance to the Yukon’s diverse and thriving LGBTQ+ community, highlighting the plethora of organizations and programs geared towards serving LGBTQ+ Yukoners.

“There’s a really great community here with a pretty diverse array of events and opportunities for people to get together, find their people, build community, and feel involved,” said Vakharia.

However, according to Vakharia the increased visibility and attendance has come with some challenges.

Vakharia said that as the event has grown organizers have had to evolve their safely plans in order to ensure a safe environment for attendees.

“The size of the festival has grown quite considerably. So it has gone from like 10s of people to hundreds of people. And with that, there is a necessary evolution and shift in how you manage events that size in a way that’s safe for the public,” said Vakharia.

Some of these shifts were recently detailed in a public announcement posted to QYS’ Facebook page and website.

According to the announcement, the society has worked with Whitehorse RCMP to develop a formal safety plan for the Pride Parade and Picnic. As part of this safety plan, Whitehorse RCMP officers will be on duty and visible at both the Pride Parade and Picnic with uniformed officers maintaining a visible presence through regular patrols of the picnic area.

The move has drawn criticism from some in the LGBTQ+ community who say that the police presence is unwelcome.

In the comment section QYS post of the announcement on Facebook, many commenters highlighted what they describe as both historical and ongoing injustices perpetrated by police against marginalized members of the LGBTQ+ community.

When asked about some of these responses from the community, Vakharia said that the decision to more directly involve the RCMP was not taken lightly and explained how organizers are trying to balance the needs of a diverse community in order to keep the most people as safe as possible.

“It’s something we considered very carefully. You know, some members of our community have a very complicated relationship with law enforcement, and that’s definitely was considered in creating the overall holistic safety plan,” said Vakharia.

An increase in public displays of bigotry and recent public comments in response to funding and support announcements from both the City of Whitehorse and the Yukon Government added an additional layer of complexity, according to Vakharia.

For organizers, balancing the need to guard against obvious threats while also creating a space that feels safe and inclusive for a marginalized community has meant adjusting the approach to safety to a more holistic approach.

“In a community where you do need to be concerned about violent acts taking place at your event, we’ve really taken a very layered approach to safety,” said Vakharia.

This year, that has included bringing in outside consultants to deliver bystander‑intervention and de‑escalation training to staff and volunteers, as well as working with the RCMP and other government partners to both deter individuals who might threaten the safety of others and provide as many outlets as possible for people in need of help to get it during the event.

“All this comes down to one simple goal,” said Vakharia. “People should be able to come to Pride, participate, celebrate, and feel supported.”

Contact reporter Noah Korver at noah.korver@yukon-news.com

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