Pride documentaries, discussion to be held this afternoon

A Desserts & Documentary event will conclude Pride Week in Weyburn today at 2:00 p.m. at the Weyburn Public Library.

"This is more of where the education aspect comes in. Pride is a celebration, but it's also about education," said Regan Lanning, Arts Coordinator with the Weyburn Arts Council. 

"We'll be showing three short films about the gay experience, the transgender experience, following people in their lives and they're all three are rather short. I don't think any of them are more than half-hour long, so we'll watch one, we'll have a little break, we'll watch the second, we'll have a little break, watch the third, and then we will gather in kind of a sharing circle around a table. We'll eat some wonderful desserts that are being provided by Southeast Newcomer Services, and then we will have a talk about the documentaries that we just watched and what we learned. And the talk will be hosted by the Weyburn Arts Council."

"It's a really good way to get the conversation flowing," said WAC president Natasha Hill. "That's our goal, is to get people to think about things that maybe they haven't thought about. Maybe think about things in a way in a way they haven't thought about, and just be in a safe place to discuss those things." 

"Our Pride theme is 'Beyond the Rainbow', so we're focusing on certain aspects of education. We want to have fun, we want to create, but events like this really show you who the allies are," Lanning noted. "If you are LGTBQ2S, it can be daunting to walk around Weyburn and not know who you can trust and who you are safe with. And events like these really show you who those safe people are."

She continued, "But we also wanted to provide an aspect of education because if you were a grandma and your kid comes to you and says, 'hey, grandma, I'm trans', you might not know how to support them like that's something maybe you don't have a lot of experience with. And we want you to know that you can come to the Arts Council and we will find you information and support. We have partners in our community that can get you that education and support. So much of Pride is also educating and learning to trust and who your friends are." 

Hill chimed in, "and learning resources. You may not personally be in that situation, but you may have a friend or your sister's child, you may be an aunt or there may be somebody in your life that needs these resources. We're just trying to bring awareness and be good allies. It goes back to that saying, 'when you know better, you do better'." 

Lanning added that the Arts Council has done extensive work on being trained as allies for the LGTBQ2S community. 

"If you're not, this could be a great introductory event for you. There's going to be concepts and ideas and discussions held that could help you better understand the  multi-faceted situations."