Tofino will hold a pride march today, the final and biggest event of a month of Pride events organized by the Coastal Queer Alliance.
It’s the first Pride march that has happened in the community, organizers said.
“Pride means many things, both within the queer community and in society at large, but it has always been about visibility,” the organization said in a statement. “A march is only the first step in supporting the queer community, not the last.”
The parade starts at noon in the parking lot of Beaches Grocery. The route runs along the Pacific Rim Highway to Hotel Zed Tofino, where a party with live music and DJs will run 1-4 p.m. The event is free and everyone is welcome to attend.
“We are honestly honoured that Coastal Queer Alliance is working with us on this,” said Hotel Zed spokesperson Nikisa Banks. “If you’re in town and you want to celebrate, we’d really love for you to come and join us.”
The march will be low key and participants are encouraged to bring their own signs, Banks said.
Coastal Queer Alliance was founded in 2021 by John Sweeney and Sully Rogalski.
The two childhood friends from Saskatoon who moved to Tofino during the pandemic found that there were few ways to connect with the LGBTQ community beyond going on dating apps.
“It was quite surreal to see the lack of any visible signs of queerness. It was like queer people didn’t exist here in any formalized setting,” Rogalski said in a statement posted on the group’s website. “We posted on the online bulletin boards asking if there had ever been a pride, or a queer community group, and we came back with very few answers and nothing that was current.”
“There was no formal acknowledgment of the queer community from a municipal standpoint … this is the climate in which Coastal Queers was created,” the two founders said in a letter.
Their first organized meeting that discussed barriers queer people face in the region was funded by a grant from the Clayoquot Biosphere Trust, a community foundation.
Sweeney and Rogalski, along with former Tofino Coun. Andrea McQuade, established Coastal Queer Alliance as a non-profit society shortly after.
Since then, the group has created resources on how to access and advocate for queer-affirming health-care service in Tofino in addition to hosting regular meetups and events.
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