Moose Jaw Pride responds to stolen flags with compassion
Kelly Malone | CBC News | Posted: March 31, 2016 12:05 AM | Last Updated: March 31, 2016
Pride chair Nillin Dennison says the theft has shown how important the flags are
Moose Jaw Pride is handing out free gender-queer and transgender flags in their community to express compassion after historic flags were allegedly stolen from the south-central Saskatchewan city.
Last week, members of Moose Jaw Pride, gay-straight alliance groups and local residents gathered to raise the gender-queer flag for the first time in any public, official capacity in the province. They also raised the transgender flag.
I decided to take another look at whoever it might have been and I sincerely hope it went to somebody who really needs them right now. - Nillin Dennison, Moose Jaw Pride chair
"These flags served as beacons of hope and inclusivity, respect and love for everyone who calls Moose Jaw home," Moose Jaw Pride chair Nillin Dennison said on CBC Radio's Afternoon Edition.
Dennison said a few days later they noticed the flags were missing.
"We assumed that somebody out there wanted to hurt us and destroy everything we had worked so hard to accomplish," Dennison wrote in a post on the Moose Jaw Pride website.
In the post, Dennison said members of Moose Jaw Pride decided they were not going to be intimidated and they were not going to give up.
That post is being shared online with people commending Dennison's optimistic approach to the person who stole the flags.
"We started to imagine that maybe the person who took our flags was struggling to accept their own gender identity and expression," Dennison wrote.
Dennison wrote whoever took the flags must have wanted them very badly to "shimmy up — not one, but two —gigantic flag poles!"
"I decided to take another look at whoever it might have been and I sincerely hope it went to somebody who really needs them right now," Dennison said.
In response, Moose Jaw Pride decided to give away its entire stock of transgender and gender-queer flags to anyone who would like one.
"We hope that these little flags will help you find the strength and courage to be yourself," Dennison wrote in the blog.
Dennison said they are having fun handing out flags and they actually thank the person who took the flags for showing them just how important the flags are.