SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Yellowknifers could soon be crossing the street on a crosswalk of many colours in support of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community, according to the city's mayor.

To mark International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia Tuesday, the City of Yellowknife hoisted a rainbow flag at city hall. Flanking Mayor Mark Heyck are It Gets Better Yellowknife co-chairs Nicole Garbutt, left, and Jacq Brasseur. - photo courtesy of Jacq Brasseur

Tuesday was International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, and the city hoisted a rainbow flag at city hall to mark the occasion. But, as Mayor Mark Heyck tells Yellowknifer, the flag raising was the backup plan.

According to Heyck, Fort Smith was looking at painting one of its crosswalks rainbow for the May 17 Day Against Homophobia, and Coun. Julian Morse asked if that was something that could be replicated in the city. Many cities across Canada have painted rainbow crosswalks in the last several years to support LGBTQ communities.

"Given the time available to us, it wasn't really feasible to do that but as a city we want to support our LGBTQ community as much as we can, so we determined that we would raise the rainbow flag," said Heyck.

But still, the crosswalk dream is not dead.

"I think we're going to look at what we can do by the time pride week rolls around (in August)," said Heyck.

He couldn't say how many crosswalks the city would consider, or where they would be located.

"That's probably a conversation we'll be having in the weeks ahead," he said.

As for the hoisting of the flag, Heyck said it's important to show the city is "tolerant and inclusive and everyone matters who lives in our community."

"We've really come a long ways. I think quite frankly that Yellowknife has been a bit of a leader in the country in terms of being inclusive of the LGBTQ community," said Heyck.

Eleven years ago, the city teetered on celebrating a Heterosexual Pride Day after proclaiming Gay Pride Day. But the former city councillor Alan Woytuik's idea was met with fierce backlash and the councillor ended up withdrawing his request and apologizing.

Jacq Brasseur, co-chair of It Gets Better Yellowknife, an outreach program for LGBTQ youth, said fighting against homophobia, transphobia and biphobia is a matter of safety.

"These are forms of discrimination that severely limit people's abilities to exist and feel safe in their communities," said Brasseur. This can range from a child calling another child a derogatory term on the playground to a medical professional refusing to acknowledge a child can have two mothers because only one is biological, said Brasseur.

"The reality is that rates of violence, addiction, mental-health issues, poverty and homelessness are all increased for people who identify as LGBTQ+ and these rates get even higher for indigenous LGBTQ+ people, LGBTQ+ people living with disabilities or LGBTQ+ people of colour," said Brasseur.

"When we're talking about all these social issues across the North, particularly things like suicide and mental health, we can't actively fight them unless we're also prioritizing tearing down these forms of discrimination that exist in our communities."

International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia started in 2004 to draw the attention of decision- and policy-makers to violence and discrimination experienced by the LGBTQ community. May 17 was chosen because this was the day in 1990 the World Health Organization decided to declassify homosexuality as a mental disorder.

Today, the day is marked in more than 130 countries.

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