A Marshall of Public Opinion

Evan Wiens, Honored for Social Activism

Evan Wiens, of Steinbach, named 2013 PRIDE Parade Honorary Youth Marshall

21 May, 2013, Winnipeg, Manitoba

  Steinbach's seventeen-year-old Evan Wiens has been honored by Manitoba in being named honorary youth marshal of the 2013 PRIDE parade through downtown Winnipeg.

  Wiens is being honored for standing up to a legacy and faith Mennonite community in Manitoba that too often resists seeing, let alone acknowledging or protecting its own LGBTQ population.  While Steinbach, Wiens' hometown, is increasingly multicultural and multi-faith, it remains a Mennonite heritage center and has often had difficulty in relating to its own LGBTQ minority.

 “Evan set an amazing precedent for LGBTTQ youth in Manitoba and Canada,” said Jonathan Niemczak, president of Pride Winnipeg. “We’re honoured to have him lead this year’s parade. He is an excellent example of what equal rights can look like in our community.”

  Wiens made national headlines in Canada when he petitioned his public school administration to establish a Gay Straight Alliance club on the school campus.  He had earlier been denied permission to advertise or promote such a club.

  Wiens' case was made more difficult by City of Steinbach's public resistance to implementation of Bill 18, an anti-bullying legislation for Manitoba that includes specific mention of the needs of bullied teens amongst the LGBTQ community.

  Wiens took his case to the community and turned out to be quite capable of interacting with the media to promote his cause, even managing to keep his cool while being verbally harassed during a CBC interview just off school grounds.

Our Proud Pride!

    WOW!  A GREAT big thank-you to Anthony Whelihan, for our best Lavender Pride Edition cover ever, a 3-D masterpiece; to Mavrik Realty, Miller Lite, Malibu Passion Fruit, and Wilde Roast Cafe for sponsoring Lavender's Summer of Pride(TM).

    As a GLBT community, we clearly are showing our pride.

    June is the month of Pride, an annual celebration of who we are and who we are becoming.

    Pride reports literally are pouring in from all over the world.

    Brazil is putting on the world's largest GLBT festival.  Many Eastern European cities are planning their first events ever.  Asia officially has awakened to the gay consciousness.

    All is not color and pageants, however. 

    GLBT communities in fundamentalist Muslim nations still are being persecuted with imprisonment and beatings. 

    Even int eh world's most free societies, kids continue to be ridiculed, if not physically harassed, for being different.

    With few exceptions, civil and religious authorities do not recognize gay marriages.

    At the North Star Classic in Eagan over Memorial Day Weekend, it hit me.  We have moved beyond having pride to becoming [a] pride -- a worldwide family of men and women who know each other, look out for each other, and enjoy each others' company.

    Think of it:  Throughout the world, we have our own embassies, in the way of GLBT bars, cafes, and coffee shops.

    As a gay male, I am as at home in the Marais of Paris, the clubs of Berlin, or the bars in Sydney as I am here in the Twin Cities. 

    We fall in and out of love with men and women from Canada, France, Korea, the United Kingdom, Panama, and Israel, not to mention the east and left coasts of the United States.

    We even have our own international games.

    At the North Star Classic, I played for a team from Chicago that is a sort of family, with members from Montana, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and rural INdiana.

    This fall, I will be in San Diego with another family group, this time from Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Toronto, Montreal, Jamaica, and Vancouver. 

    Leafing through the Lavender Lens photographs of the North Star Classic in this issue, it is also apparent that we come in all shapes, sizes, ages, and colors. 

    Diversity among gays, gay supporters, and gay families goes beyond all stereotypes.

    At this summer's Pride events and other gatherings, we celebrate these friendships, and renew this mutual support for another year.

    So, have at it!  Have some fun, and meet some new people.  Just be safe, be responsible, and help build up the Pride for another year.


originally published 10-23 Jun, 2005
Lavender Magazine, v 11, no 262
Minneapolis, Minnesota