As Pride faces 'backlash,' Norfolk County flies the flag

Norfolk County councillors hope seeing the Pride flag waving outside town hall in Simcoe sends a message to residents locally and elsewhere in Ontario.

“It’s important to lead in having an inclusive community that everyone can feel safe and included and able to be themselves in,” Mayor Amy Martin said on Wednesday by the county’s newly installed community flagpole, where non-governmental flags can fly without displacing any others.

Martin noted the decision to raise the Intersex-Inclusive Pride flag — which includes a circle representing intersex rights — one day ahead of Pride Month in June was intentional in light of the recent controversy in Norwich, where town council banned Pride flags on government property, a decision that prompted one Norwich councillor to resign in protest.

“It’s a great symbol to the rest of Ontario and our neighbours that you don’t need a prescriptive month to be inclusive,” Martin said.

Coun. Kim Huffman pushed the county to raise the Pride flag for the first time in 2020. On Wednesday, she said the movement to embrace the LGBTQ+ community has hit some roadblocks.

“Now all of a sudden there seems to be some backlash,” Huffman said, citing pushback against LGBTQ+ initiatives in professional sports and the “unfortunate situation” in Norwich.

“I feel that it’s important that we stand by our values and morals, and we stand by everyone in our community,” Huffman said.

A move spearheaded by a local youth to install a rainbow crosswalk in Simcoe received some hateful response on social media, but that furor has died down, Huffman said.

Ryder Mandryk and her mother, Melissa Reu, were on hand for the flag-raising and said they are eager to see the crosswalk — which is funded entirely by community donations — installed next week at Union and Norfolk streets.

Ryder Mandryk, third from left, who successfully lobbied for a rainbow crosswalk for Norfolk County, took part in a Pride flag-raising event outside the county administrative building in downtown Simcoe on Wednesday morning. Also on hand for the ceremony was, from left, Celine Atkins, a student in the Norfolk CAO’s office, Norfolk Mayor Amy Martin, Coun. Alan Duthie, Coun. Kim Huffman and student Keali Squires. The flag will fly throughout June for Pride Month. REFORMER STAFF jpg, SR, apsmc

Huffman hopes the Pride flag prompts residents to think about “their neighbours, their friends, anyone that they may love.”

“This is a community and a province and a country for everybody, and we need to be more mindful of that,” she said.

J.P. Antonacci is a  Local Journalism Initiative Reporter based at the Hamilton Spectator. The initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.