A lineup of high school students snaked around the block at the new Fall Down Gallery Aug. 26. People adjusted their dresses and ties while nervously holding their date’s hand. It’s a scene quite common at any high school dance or prom. But this wasn’t just any prom.
Jer’s Vision and Pink Triangle Services (PTS), both Ottawa-based queer advocacy groups, have partnered with Capital Pride to present the Capital Pride Youth Prom. The dance is a key component in Capital Pride’s youth activities, said Capital Pride youth coordinator Jodie McNamara.
“The youth prom is about how queer youth tend to be left out of their high school proms,” McNamara said.
“An alternative event like this is filling a gap that shouldn’t be there in the first place.”
For PTS youth events coordinator Erica Butler, an alternative event like this can give queer youth an opportunity to be themselves.
“I just think it’s important for the kids to have a space in the community where they can feel comfortable coming out as themselves,” Butler said.
“A lot of people didn’t get the prom experience they wanted so here’s another chance.”
Many LGBTQ youth still face discrimination and persecution in Canada today. It’s a social climate that brings queer youth like Kenzie Smithson to events like the youth prom.
“It’s so nice to have an event that targets not only queer people but queer youth,” Smithson said.
The theme of this year’s Pride is ‘Courage to Be.’ It’s a celebration of the bravery and tenacity many LGBTQ Canadians show in the face of adversity. McNamara said youth are the perfect examples of courage.
“You do not have to be afraid here,” McNamara said.
“These kids are here, they have the courage to be themselves and to be here. This is the place for them.”
With Top 40 music blaring and coy dancing, the event was undoubtedly youth-oriented. However, the rainbow balloons and blurred gender lines made the night worthy of any Pride celebrations.
That same night, another dance took place. The Pride edition of Queer Slowdance at The Legion focused much more on the intimacy of a slow dance, Carleton graduate Luna Allison said in an email.
The night is billed as an event that “welcomes all queers and queer-queer lovers to be part of the glorious experience of dancing slow and sweet all night long.”
The event raised money for the Falling Open project, which is a play on childhood sexual abuse that Allison wrote and co-produced.
Allison, former coordinator of the Carleton Womyn’s Centre, said she helped organize the event, which creates a sex-positive and intimacy-positive space.
“[The event] shows how amazing consensual touch is for all of us.
“It’s especially cool for queers and survivors of sexual violence to experience a safe environment like that, given the kind of fears that tend to come along with either experience (bashing, more sexual violence, etc). But we all need touch and intimacy when it comes down to it,” Allison said.
