2022 Windsor-Essex Pride Fest celebrates 30th anniversary

Pride Fest has officially begun in the city. 

The 2022 Windsor-Essex Pride Fest is celebrating the 30th anniversary, and to kick it all off was the annual flag raising ceremony at Charles Clark Square on Tuesday.

Area residents, alongside members of council, and local employers all stood together as the flag was raised.

The symbolic ceremony of raising the flag in the city shows why diversity is so important to the 2SLGBTQIA+ community in Windsor-Essex.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens Twitter

Wendi Nicholson, President of the Windsor-Essex Pride Fest tells AM800 why having the Pride Fest every year is so important. 

"We are fighting for inclusively, and to be treated just the same as anyone else. People are asking me, 'why do we need a pride?', well it's because people are still having their rights being taken away."

Nicholson says they are fighting for the rights of everyone, however, they are fighting hard for the rights of those who are transgender.

"We're fighting, and it's a different thing every day, and we're fighting for the Trans rights also. They're getting their rights, and being able to get rid of their deadname and be called and addressed as to who they are."

She says what the 2SLGBTQIA+ is hoping for.

"We're all human. We're all people. And we just want to just blend into the rest of the community. We are who we are, and we do what we do, but we just want to be treated as anybody else in the community."

Windsor-Essex Pride Fest is a non-profit organization incorporated in the Province of Ontario, run by a volunteer Board of Directors. 

The organization brings together members of the Two Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer, Intersex and Asexual (2SLGBTQIA+) community, their friends, allies and supporters in celebration of the unique spirit and culture of our community by producing quality, inclusive and safe events and initiatives to celebrate.