Pride flag raising at Oxford County building draws enthusiastic crowd

Preparing for the Pride flag raising were, left to right, committee member Katie Schutt, president of Oxford County Pride Tami Murray, Oxford warden Marcus Ryan, Oxford Pride co-founder Phil Vander Mallen, South-West Oxford Mayor David Mayberry, Pride vice-president Jordan Kent and East Zorra-Tavistock Mayor Phil Schaefer. Photos by Emily Stewart

By Emily Stewart

Many community members attended Oxford County Pride’s flag-raising ceremony to kick off Pride Month.

The Pride flag rose at the Oxford County municipal building at 23 Reeve St., Woodstock, last Friday. The crowd applauded as it reached the top of the flagpole and mingled after the ceremony.

"This is amazing. You can just feel the support, the love, the community around us, and I'm just really proud and really grateful,” said Tami Murray, president of Oxford County Pride.

Murray admitted there is still some discourse towards the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, but she still feels support from allies in Oxford County.

“I'm born and raised in Woodstock and Oxford County, so luckily I know enough people. I've gone to school here, where I feel those relationships have built a strong foundation for acceptance. There's discourse, but at the end of the day, I always look at it that when one person steps forward, it will hopefully prevent someone else from taking two steps back.”

Ahead of the flag raising, Oxford County Warden Marcus Ryan spoke about the destruction of the Pride flag at Emily Stowe Public School in Norwich. In his statement sent out on May 22, Ryan called the tearing down and burning of the flag gutless and he emphasized that in his speech again at the Pride flag raising ceremony in Woodstock.

“When you do it at night and you cover your face and you don't say who you are, I think that's the definition of cowardice,” he said.

He added showing up as a member of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community at events like the Pride flag raising ceremony is an act of courage.

“When you look at this … today, as I said again, publicly notified in advance so that anybody can come, done in daylight and people who have some reason to be afraid coming out and saying, ‘No, here I am, let's do this,’ I think speaks volumes about the people involved.”

The warden was also pleasantly surprised by the turnout at the event.

“You never know in a given year for these things, how many people are going to show up. For sure, there were a lot of people here with Oxford County Pride, but there were a lot of people who were allies who just came to say, ‘I support this, I think this is good,’ ” he said. “It's good that people in our community feel included and can participate, so great crowd. But also, I'm not surprised because it's always a happy event.”

Oxford County Pride has many events planned for June during its 10th anniversary, including the popular Family Fun Day at Museum Square on June 14. More information about Oxford County Pride programming can be found by visiting oxfordpride.ca.