Estevan City Council refused in this week’s council meeting to grant a group's request to display a straight pride flag outside of city hall. .The meeting had intense emotions, passionate speeches, and occasional arguments..Concerned Citizens SK, a group of 15 individuals led by Myles Fichter, addressed the councillors asking for the straight pride flag to be flown..“Concerned Citizens finds this denial extremely disturbing, in lieu of the City of Estevan currently hosting a similar type of event with a contrasting view titled 'Celebrate Pride Month with Estevan Public Library,'” said Fichter, referring to an event that happened on Tuesday night at the library..Since 2016, the Saskatchewan Pride Network, based in Moose Jaw, has expanded its Pride events. What started as weekly celebrations has now grown to include monthly recognition events in different communities throughout the province, including Estevan..“Skip forward to where we are presently … this promotion has been expanded to now Pride Month with the Estevan Public Library,” said Fichter..As part of their request, the group also asked for a proclamation to designate July 10-17, 2023, as “Mom and Dad Week” and to have the flag raised during that week..“Concerned Citizens fully supports the concept of pride inclusivity, which is essentially enshrouded by the Canadian Charter,” Fichter said. .“The public promotion of sexual diversity by the City of Estevan, however, we do not.”.“This can and often does by nature provide a setting violating constitutional rights of parents to raise and educate their own children,” said Fichter. .“These rights include parents knowing where their children are, who has access to them, and what materials they're exposed to, and whether or not they are safe.”.During the council meeting, the topic dominated nearly half of the discussion, lasting approximately 25 minutes. Councillor Rebecca Foord, along with several other council members, expressed their disagreement with Fichter. .Foord read a prepared statement..“Our flag and proclamation policy specifically states that flag raising or proclamation requests will not be approved if it's considered controversial, contentious, or divisive within the community,” said Foord, while wearing a pride shirt during the meeting. .“It is my belief that flying the straight flag at city hall will be all three of those things. In our country, people who are out or still finding their place in the LGBTQ2S+ community is getting increasingly dangerous and scary.”.“Our world seems to be moving backwards when it comes to being accepting to all people, no matter who they are,” said Foord..Also, Councillor Kirsten Walliser took the floor while wearing a pride ribbon..“This community remains underrepresented and marginalized at the decision-making table to this day,” said Walliser. .“Pride is a fight for equality, pride matters because I want to live in a world where everyone is safe to be who they are.”.The statements made by each councillor received applause from other councillors and attendees at the meeting..“I come from the same type of group as you are, where we marginalized, we oppressed those people. It was OK to walk down the street and say bad things about the gay community and to make them uncomfortable to live in our community,” said Councillor Lindsay Clark. .“I'm so glad that the next generation has accepted them. For my generation, it's a long ways to go yet. I think we still see it as a negative in the community.”.“Heterosexual people have ran this country for 150 years. And we're out there going, 'now things are bad in Estevan' and we want to come here and change Estevan. This isn't an Estevan issue … this is how we treated these people. We treated them awful. And now we need to say 'you know what, they have their day,'” said Clark..Councillor Shelly Veroba had a heated exchange with a member of the Concerned Citizens group in the gallery..“I couldn't figure out, how can somebody hate somebody they haven't even met. And I just still can't get it, and I can't understand how you think you can stand behind a straight pride flag and act like it's not filled with hatred,” Veroba said to the man..“I have a gay son,” the man replied..Following the conclusion of the councillors speeches, Fichter clarified that any feelings of hatred did not drive his group's request..“I didn't indicate anywhere in here that we have any form of hate to these people,” said Fichter. .“I stated that the interest of our group is we fully support inclusivity of the Pride community. The issue for us is the diversity.”.“Concerned Citizens does not understand council's decision to deny a symbol of straight pride, representing the worldview of over 90% of the citizenry,” said Fichter. .“At the same time, while hosting a library event promoting symbols of sexual diversity. That's not very inclusive and diverse.”.After expressing their support for flying the pride flag, the council dismissed the matter and addressed other items on the agenda.
