Fort Erie Pride festival fights U.S. politics seeping over the border

Fort Erie’s Pride festival returned to the Leisureplex on Saturday for its eighth year, and its chair and opening performer used the stage to cast local pride as a year-round defence of 2SLGBTQ+ rights they say are under threat across the border.

The free festival ran from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at 3 Municipal Centre Drive, with about 32 vendors and drag performances starting at noon. It dropped its bar this year to go alcohol-free for the first time, which chair Noel Leboeuf said keeps it a fully family event.

Leboeuf told Fort Erie Radio the festival is run entirely by volunteers–performers, vendors and kitchen staff–and said that level of support in a town the size of Fort Erie is invaluable. He was blunt about why visibility still counts, pointing to losses he sees for 2SLGBTQ+, women’s and trans rights in the United States.

“If we do not keep reminding people that we are here and that we have as much right as everyone else to do things, then things can go sideways for us,” he said.

Opening performer Chantal Cartier called Pride a riot at its root, born from the fight for queer people’s right to exist.

“Pride is more important today than it has ever been. The history of Pride, it started as a riot, because we needed to stand up for our rights,” said Cartier.

Cartier, also known as Marc Poisson, who has performed in drag for 40 years, said American politics carry weight in a border town like Fort Erie.

“Right now, what’s happening in the U.S., it is scary because whatever happens over there, it trickles right over the border. And we’ve seen it here already,” he said.

Cartier left home at 16 in 1981, moved to Toronto to become a hairstylist, then started performing in drag during the AIDS epidemic to raise money for patients without government coverage. Over four decades, Cartier said that work has raised more than $1.2 million.

“Gay pride is not one month a year, it is 12 months of the year. It means that if you hear and see something, say something,” said Cartier.

For some at the festival, Saturday was just a starting point. Kim Ansell, chapter lead for PFLAG Niagara Region, said the group covers the whole region but runs nothing in Fort Erie or Port Colbourne, and she spent the afternoon trying to change that.

“I’ve been talking to some folks today who are very eager to get something happening for the community,” said Ansell.

Mayor Wayne Redekop tied the festival to Fort Erie’s stated commitment to diversity and inclusion.

His appearance follows a falling-out between the town and Pride Niagara. Redekop said in April that Fort Erie would skip the regional flag-raising because participating towns were asked to buy gala tickets.

The town raised its own Pride flag on June 3.

The Greater Fort Erie Secondary School art club painted several Pride murals decorating the walls around the Leisureplex. Art teacher Ben Featherston thanked principal Fred Louws and the festival for giving students a way to show what Pride means to them.

Leboeuf, who covers any shortfall himself because the festival gets no grant money, would not say much about next year–only his hope that the event continues to grow bigger and louder.

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