Thunder Bay has come a long way in respecting and celebrating the LGBTQ community according to local Thunder Pride organizers.
Pride Chair Jason Veltri tells us they’ve made headway, but there’s always room for improvement.
“You know ten years ago we wouldn’t have been able to hold these kinds of celebrations in public, there was still lots of discrimination within the city. I think now we have come a long way, but we still have work to do.”
Veltri points to countries that still don’t treat the LGBTQ community fairly.
“There are still over 70 countries all over the world where being gay; you could be imprisoned or put to death just because of that.”
Pride organizers recently held a special flag raising at City Hall to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Partial Decriminalization of Homosexuality in Canada.
In 1967, Federal Minister of Justice Pierre Elliott Trudeau tabled an omnibus bill containing several provisions that would decriminalize certain sexual practices between consenting adults age 21 and over.
