Fort Erie drag brunch breaks ground for queer Indigenous Pride

Fort Erie Native Friendship Centre launched Niagara’s first annual queer Indigenous Pride event Saturday, giving Two-Spirit and gender-diverse youth a local gathering space that co-ordinator Bella Recinos Athanasas says has forced queer Indigenous people to travel to Toronto for decades.

The pay-what-you-can brunch at the centre’s gymnasium featured Canada’s Drag Race Season 5 performer Jaylene Tyme, a Two-Spirit trans Indigenous artist who headlined with two drag numbers and a meet-and-greet.

The event is also the only Pride Niagara-partnered event in Fort Erie this month, after the town declined to participate in Pride Niagara’s regional flag-raising over a dispute about financial terms.

Athanasas, Indigenous mental health and wellness co-ordinator at the centre and the event’s lead planner, told Fort Erie Radio she built the event from her own experience growing up queer in Niagara with nowhere local to go.

“I grew up in Niagara Falls and I had never seen any type of queer Indigenous Pride event ever happen,” said Athanasas. “I’ve only ever gone to Toronto for these events, so I was like, ‘Well, I know there are community members here who would love this.'”

Athanasas, now a graduate student at Brock University studying social justice and equity, described dating someone in Fort Erie as a teenager and moving through the area quietly, without local programming for queer youth.

“We didn’t have these events. We didn’t have anything,” she said. “In fact, we were always just sneaking around every now and then, making sure nobody saw us.”

Tyme, a 60s Scoop survivor registered with Zagamay Anishinaabe First Nation with Cree and Métis roots, won Miss Congeniality on Canada’s Drag Race Season 5 before taking her advocacy work across the country. She addressed the crowd before the buffet opened, connecting her drag work directly to her own healing.

“I rely on this art form, the power of the medicine of expression, to be able to guide me in my journey to my role as a Two-Spirit kin to you,” said Tyme.

She pressed the crowd on what allyship requires in practice.

“Allyship is actions, so wherever you fit in your identity, your sexuality, what we need to do is strengthen that circle of ceremony,” said Tyme.

Athanasas said the centre wants permanent recognition as a safe space for queer and gender-diverse youth in Fort Erie.

“The youth want to be able to see themselves in the community and know that there’s a place for them and there has always been a place for them,” she said.

Several community organizations supporting queer youth across Niagara set up tables at the event, distributing information and Pride materials.

The centre partnered with NAPAM Indigenous Youth Employment and Training, which commissioned Two-Spirit youth to design limited-edition crewneck sweaters given to the first 100 guests.

Niagara College’s Indigenous Education Team and Pride Niagara’s Enzo, also known as Claudia Silva, co-sponsored the event the event and supported planning throughout.

Athanasas said the centre will hold the event annually and grow it each year.

“We’re here and we’re going to keep working towards building a gender-diverse community and welcoming our queer relatives,” she said.

The Fort Erie Pride Festival is scheduled for June 27 at the Fort Erie Leisureplex at 3 Municipal Centre Drive.

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