Winnipeg's LGBT community gathers at Pride vigil to honour lives lost

With a candle in hand, members of Winnipeg's LGBT community gathered to honour the lives lost in their community Sunday night. 

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Shandi Strong, a Winnipeg trans activist, helped organize the Pride vigil at the Manitoba Legislature.

She said while violence against LGBT people in Manitoba is rare it's not unheard of and always unsettling.

"We go OK, is today going to be the day that I step out my door and face something like that?

"It's something that keeps us all vigilant."

'They're not here now'

Jim Kane went to the vigil to remember close friends and past partners who died in the city from the HIV crisis in the 1980s.

"This is where I loved a lot of men and they're not here now," he said.

Kane said of the 32 men living with HIV in a support group he was part of, just four remain alive today.

He's a survivor of the AIDS crisis and considers himself one of the lucky ones after being able to get on life-saving medicine.

But Sunday night was more that just remembering his peers who have passed on. Looking at the crowd of many young people, he said it's important to educate them about gay history.

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"They don't remember the loss that our community suffered."