Several members of the LGBTQ shared their stories as part of Expressions for the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia.
Nova Scotia native AJ is two-spirted — the 27-year-old shared the experience of living as a gender-fluid-person at the Windsor-Essex Pride Fest event at Walkerville Brewery. One of several upcoming events made possible year-round thanks to an Ontario Trillium Grant of nearly $460,000.
.@WEPridefest’s Expressions is underway at Walkerville Brewery as part of International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia. Several members of the #LGBTQ2 community are set to tell their stories. #cklw pic.twitter.com/YsuEVUySdZ
— Gord Bacon (@baconAM800) May 17, 2018
AJ came out after moving to Windsor at 19 and discovered she felt comfortable in both gender roles by 21 — AJ says there's been some challenges, but Windsor has always felt like a safe place to be who she wants to be.
"To come out and meet other people like myself and it was very comforting because back in Nova Scotia there definitely wasn't a group of two-spirted people or a group of gay people I could hang with," according to AJ, who says a beard on someone born a woman isn't something that would be easily accepted in an old-fashioned maritime-town.
AJ — who penned a story last year that is now used by several Canadian companies for diversity training — says sharing experiences at public events is important.
"I love events like this, I love meeting new people, I love listening to their stories and I hope they take something from mine because I always take something from whatever anybody says, It always seems to touch my heart," added AJ.
While progress allowing those in the LGBTQ2 community to be better understood and be more open in society is a great thing — AJ says it does bring social events to the forefront.
"We're not all together anymore, you can't just go to the local gay bar and find all your fellow people, so you kind of do have to come to events like this," says AJ.
Windsor-Essex Pride Fest runs from Aug. 8-12 this summer.