Whanganui Pride Week to honour Georgina Beyer

Drag queens performing at Whanganui Pride Week's Youth Fest.

Rainbow flags are flying high on the Whanganui City Bridge as Pride Week festivities start to amp up.

Pride Walk, the week’s main event, will take place on Saturday, March 11, beginning at the River Traders Market and touring the bridges over the Whanganui River. This year, it has been coupled with the Hope Walk for suicide prevention.

Pride Whanganui trustee Christina Emery said she expected a big turnout of 300 - 350 people for the walk alone.

“It’s an incredible opportunity for everyone to come together to show a visual representation of how far Whanganui has come in terms of supporting the rainbow community.”

Emery said it was also a chance to celebrate the life of Georgina Beyer, who died earlier this week and was the world’s first openly transgender mayor and MP.

“She was an incredible leader in the rainbow community. She opened so many doors, not only for the rainbow community, but for the transgender community.

“We couldn’t be out in public walking around the bridges if it wasn’t for people like Georgina Beyer, so we will be making a point of honouring her.”

There will also be a Pride Party on Saturday evening, with Wellington’s 40-person queer choir The Glamaphones set to perform.

A Pride Art exhibition with pieces made by local and national artists who are members of the rainbow community is currently on show at the new Pride office at 64 St Hill St.

Pride Week began on Saturday, March 4 with the Youth Fest in Majestic Square, which an estimated 200 people attended, followed the next day by a Long Lunch catered for by Mischief Café on the Dublin Street Bridge.

Despite the successful festivities, Emery said Pride Whanganui and members of the rainbow community still had to fight bigotry every single day.

“When we were having our lunch on the bridge we had people yelling out slurs, and we had a mother with her three kids yelling out homophobic slurs to one of our people at the Youth Fest.”

But Emery said compared to the first Pride Week in 2018, when Emery had to ask friends to be security guards and for police to attend the events, those hostile voices were not as loud as they had once been.

“I never thought that in five years’ time, we could have rainbow flags flying across the City Bridge, or have a big youth festival out in public where I knew our young people were going to be safe.”