Oxford County Pride celebrating 10 years of growth and accomplishments

Emily Stewart, Echo Correspondent

Oxford County Pride has a decade worth of accomplishments to celebrate. This June, marked as Pride Month, will be a 10-year celebration for the organization.

"We're pretty excited,” said Tami Murray, Oxford County Pride president. “We're very proud of the accomplishments that we've been able to achieve in the last 10 years and the growth and we just hope to continue to grow to be bigger, better, and better in the future."

Murray said the organization experienced all kinds of growth from attendance at events to participation from business partners, political partners, and community members, as well as the number of flag raisings in Oxford County. In 2024, all Oxford County municipalities held Pride flag raisings after the Township of Norwich gave the green light for the Pride flag to be one of the non-civic flags raised in the community. It was previously banned from Norwich’s town property.

"Being able to raise Pride flags in all of the townships was a huge, huge road bump for us that we were able to overcome, so we're very proud of that,” she said.

Oxford County Pride expanded its programming over the years to include a Pride Dance, Drag Storytime, and Open Mic events in addition to Family Fun Day. The organization also paired with Gunn’s Hill Artisan Cheese in 2024 to host a Wine and Cheese event. There are more businesses in Oxford County running their own Pride events without Oxford County Pride reaching out.

"It's more now coming to us and saying what can we do to support you versus us having to knock on doors,” she said.

Although there is plenty to celebrate for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community in the past 10 years, in Oxford County and beyond, there are also safety concerns amid anti-2SLGBTQIA+ rhetoric rising in recent years.

"Our allies are a big piece of this in terms of coming out and sending that message that as allies, we're going to make sure that our general community is safe, let alone the 2SLGBTQIA+ community,” Murray explained. “I think there are still some significant concerns given the messaging that we're receiving in the South regarding transgender individuals and trying to essentially eliminate them, so I think that continuing to advocate and having those critical conversations is really important."

Oxford County Pride is prioritizing security to ensure the safety of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community at events and works with the OPP and Woodstock Police Service.

"Instead of being able to resource more opportunities and activities, we're going to have to spend more of those dollars on safety and security for our events - but we want to ensure that we will be keeping people safe,” she said.

Other organizations like Oxford County’s Queer Intersections and QUINN also have community events for the 2SLGBTQIA+ and its allies. Oxford County’s Rainbow Coalition held a 2SLGBTQIA+ inclusivity workshop for Allies on April 2. The second workshop is at the Station Arts Centre in Tillsonburg on May 7 from 6 to 8 p.m.

"With the discourse that we're experiencing in the world, I think community and connection are essential and I'm quite appreciative there's more of that happening and that people are connecting in safe spaces,” Murray said.

The Oxford County Pride Guide will be released May 1. The pride guide will be filled with full details of events during June, including the Family Fun Day at Museum Square from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. on June 14 and the Pride Party on June 20.

For more information and updates on Oxford County Pride, visit www.oxfordpride.ca or its Facebook page.