City of Surrey Pride Month Celebrations
The City of Surrey is actively involved in embracing its true diversity and the Surrey Pride Society provides a safe place for all genders, norms and sexual orientation but with specific emphasis on the LGBTQ+ community. This year's Pride will be hosted virtually due to COVID-19.
LGBTQ+ Pride Month is celebrated in June to honour the 1969 Stonewall riots in Manhattan. The riots were a tipping point for the Gay Liberation Movement in the United States. These protests against police raids, harassment, and ill-treatment helped motivate the LGBT community and allies across the US, giving birth to the modern LGBTQ rights movement.
LGBTQ+ Pride is a celebration of diverse sexual and gender identities, histories and cultures. It is also a positive stance against discrimination and violence toward the LGBTQ+ community.
Surrey is celebrating Pride Month this year with:
Surrey Pride 2020 – A Virtual Party, an online community event put on by Surrey Pride
Surrey Civic Plaza will be lit, displaying the colours of the pride flag during the week of June 21 to 25, 2020
Online Pride Movie Night presented by Surrey Civic Theatres
Heritage Surrey is celebrating Pride Month on social media by highlighting recent Surrey LGBTQ+ additions to its archival and artifact collections. Watch for a new post each week that shares stories of Surrey’ LGBTQ+ community.
The June edition of Selections from Collections at Museum of Surrey has a Pride focus as well. The monthly exhibit, spotlighting unique objects in Surrey’s Heritage Collection, currently features a pin, commissioned by the Surrey Pride
Society, to celebrate 50 years since certain same-sex acts were decriminalized in Canada. More on Surrey’s Pride can be found at the Museum’s online Weekly Feature as part of their #MuseumFromHome initiative during the temporary closure.
PRIDE MOVIE NIGHT JUNE 26
On June 26, at 8pm, tune in for Surrey Civic Theatres first Pride Movie Night. This event is part of SCT’s newly launched Digital Stage, a recent initiative to support local and Canadian performances that audiences can enjoy from the comfort and safety of their own homes.
This free online event will feature two movie shorts, Beauty and I Am Skylar as well as the feature film, Standing on the Line, all of which are produced by the National Film Board of Canada.
Written and directed by Nova Scotian filmmaker, Paul Émile d’Entremont, Standing on the Line tackles the stigma of being gay in sports. Through a series of touching personal stories, the documentary explores the difficulty and impact of coming out in this competitive world whether it’s in the context of elite sports or among student athletes. Specifically, the documentary showcases the lives of student athletes at L’Odyssée, a school in Moncton, New Brunswick, that promotes diversity and inclusion. The movie also features candid interviews with Canadian professional athletes who identify as gay, lesbian, or queer, including Olympic speed skater Anastasia Bucsis, who first came out to her family and friends after the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. When she headed to Sochi 2014 in Russia, Bucsis came out publicly, making her the only openly gay North American Olympian at the time.
The movie has been shown at several film festivals across Canada, included being selected for Vancouver’s 2019 Doxa Festival. He is thrilled that Standing on the Line is a part of Surrey Civic Theatres’ Online Pride Movie Night. “I’m honoured Surrey Civic Theatres has chosen my documentary as the feature film, particularly as I am a new resident of the province, so to have my film presented like this, I’m so happy, because it makes me feel a part of things, and I’ve found the people of BC to be so welcoming. I love living here.” All three films are presented with the kind permission of the National Film Board of Canada and can be seen on June 26 at 8pm on the Pride Movie Night Event Page
Follow @HeritageSurrey and @MuseumOfSurrey on Facebook or Instagram to learn more about the important objects featured.
Follow @SurreyCivicTheatres On Facebook or @SurreyArtsCtre on Twitter to learn more about the upcoming Pride Movie Night.
Media contact: Nic Enright-Morin Publicist
604-501-5189 | Nicola.Enright-Morin@surrey.ca
About Surrey Civic Theatres (surrey.ca/theatre)
Surrey Civic Theatres presents a curated mix of professional performances ranging from theatre, music, dance, stand-up comedy, and puppetry with an invitation to connect, laugh, dance, have thought-provoking conversations, and be inspired.
About Museum of Surrey (www.surrey.ca/museum)
Vibrant, interactive and ever changing, Museum of Surrey is a free local venue for wonder, dialogue and fun for the whole family. Experience the museum from home by visiting www.surrey.ca/museum.
About Heritage Surrey
The Surrey Archives helps you explore Surrey's past through photographs and documents. Friendly and knowledgeable staff are available for remote inquires and online heritage tools are accessible online. Visit www.surrey.ca/archives to learn more.
If you know of any virtual events of interest to queers during the Covid-19 Social Distancing times please send them over to us at whatsonqueerbc@gmail.com
Press Release