We Spoke With Montreal Pride About A Shift In The Rainbow Flag's Meaning This Year
June is such an important month. While it marks the beginning of the summer season, it's also Indigenous History Month and LGBTQ+ Pride Month. As the world sees a myriad of different changes in 2020, we reached out to Montreal Pride to discuss the potential shift of meaning in the rainbow symbol this year.
The rainbow flag has been used since 1978 to honour the diversity among LGBTQ+ people.
Each colour on the flag represents a different element. In order, they're life, healing, sunlight, nature, magic/art, and spirit.
But this year, rainbows started popping up in storefronts, businesses, and windows across the city during the month of March. This time, it had a different message: ça va bien aller.
And as the aftermath of George Floyd's murder in the U.S. continues to spark social change all around the world, the rainbow and the LGBTQ+ community stand with those who need it the most.
Resulting in unifying events like the upcoming Black Trans & Queer Lives Matter rally in Montreal.
We got a chance to speak to Éric Pineault, the Founding President of Montreal Pride , about what the rainbow flag and pride mean in 2020.
This year, the rainbow has represented solidarity in the face of the pandemic. What does the rainbow now mean to you?
It reminds us that we're all different, but we're still in this together, like the colours of the rainbow. We're unique, but part of something bigger.
We don't own the rainbow. In fact, the peace flag is the rainbow flag. I'm happy to share it with everyone!
This year's pride month comes at a very vocal and political time in relation to other marginalized groups in our society. How do you feel about the way that people are raising their voices?
What we've learned in this pandemic is that the world needs to change and we can reinvent the way that we can do things.
Montreal Pride is proud to support Black Lives Matter and be a resource for all the different intersections of the movement.
We want to be part of the solution; not the problem. So, we're offering our platform this month to Black Lives Matter.
What role do you think the LGBTQ+ community has to play in the Black Lives Matter movement?
When you, yourself, have suffered discrimination, you know what it means to be treated differently. We have to fight all isms.
At the end of the day, we're all just trying to make a better world and we all should be working towards exactly that. This isn't just about talking about the problems, but about finding solutions.
