Regina’s Pride Parade shifts route for safety, but organizer says visibility remains key

Regina Pride organizers are preparing for a weekend of celebration and visibility, as this year’s parade takes a new route through the city.

Regina’s Pride Parade will take place on Saturday starting at 12 p.m. and Riviera Bonneau, one of the organizers, said this year’s route is intentional, as it’s keeping the movement’s protest roots front and centre.

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(Queen City Pride/website)

“We are going down 23rd, down Albert Street, right in front of the legislative building, and that’s really critical for us (because) Pride (originally) started as a protest. We want to be seen by the government, so we go right in front of the legislative building, and we end up in (Wascana) park,” she said.

Bonneau said the change was made in consultation with partners including the Regina Police Service to improve safety, while still ensuring the parade’s core message of acceptance, community, and visibility remains.

Once the parade wraps up, Bonneau said the celebrations will continue with a full day of community festivities at the Out in the Park festival.

“We have beer gardens and a kids area with face painting and a bouncy house,” said Bonneau “We have vendor markets with a bunch of local queer vendors and some nonprofits. We have a main stage where a bunch of local performers are showing up, it’s going to be absolutely incredible.”

Although Bonneau was disappointed the parade won’t be going through downtown, she said the route was chosen as the safest option for everyone involved.

“In previous years across Canada, we’ve seen a lot of vehicle incursions, a lot of harm coming to parade people or parade participants, especially in pride parades,” she said.

“We didn’t have to go across the bridge, which can be very concerning, as if something does happen, we have nowhere to escape. They’re trying to minimize potential harm.”

With safety taken care of, Bonneau said the message behind Pride remains rooted in visibility and respect, not confrontation or division.

“We’re not trying to like rub anything in anybody’s faces. We are just trying to show visibility, show that we are here, that we deserve love, we deserve respect, we deserve acceptance,” she said.

Bonneau addeds the goal extends beyond celebration, and that Pride also focuses on building connections between people.

“We are just trying to gain that love and acceptance from our community, as well as let people in Regina know if they don’t have that community that we are here and that there is someone there to be with them,” Bonneau said.

Although the parade is an event to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community, Bonneau said Allies will be more than welcome.

“Come join, celebrate, support our local community, our local queer people, or just Regina in general right? These are also Regina residents, Regina artists, Regina performers. We’re just supporting Regina with just the extra focus on the queer people,” she said.

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