N.W.T. Pride's art director and co-founder steps down after 5 years
‘It’s time for more northerners to have a voice in this organization,’ says Iman Kassam
Iman Kassam was 19-years-old when she came out.
Growing up in a "very Indian, Muslim household," in Toronto, Ont. she says she went through most of her adolescent life not knowing much about her own gender and sexuality.
Away at university in Ottawa, she found herself nervously visiting Carleton University's LGBTQ centre. She took a member form and hid it in her binder to fill out in class.
"I pulled the paper out from the binder and covered the paper so no one could see what I was filling out," she recalls.
"I crumpled up my form in a little ball, ran down the hallway, threw the crumpled ball into the LGBTQ centre, and booked it! Ran out! I was horrified... My heart was racing," she says.
"The rest is kinda history."
From Toronto to Yellowknife
Coming out to friends and family back in Toronto was "really scary."
"It was about as bad as when I told my Indian family that I was a vegetarian," she says, laughing.
"I'm joking. It was worse telling them I was queer."
It was about as bad as when I told my Indian family that I was a vegetarian...I'm joking. It was worse.- Iman Kassam, Founder of N.W.T. Pride
"The scene in Toronto really, really supported me. The South Asian queer scene really took me in… I found a family with them."
A few years later, Kassam came to work in Yellowknife, N.W.T. where the LGBTQ community was less visible.
She realized that her support in Toronto was a privilege that didn't exist to the same extent in Yellowknife, she says.
'It's time for new leadership'
The grassroots organization has become a recognized institution over the past five years, helping drive dialogue and change within the territory — from yearly Pride festivals to raising rainbow flags and painting rainbow crosswalks.
- City of Yellowknife shows its pride with rainbow crosswalk downtown
- Yellowknife, Iqaluit, Whitehorse city halls fly rainbow flag
"Would that have happened five or six years ago? I don't know. I didn't see it," says Kassam.
"Over the past five years, I've seen the queer community have more of a voice."
"I think what I brought to the North was a more southern style of party" says Kassam.
Not just about 'throwing a party'
Reflecting on the most memorable moments as the organization's artistic director, Kassam says it was seeing liberation in her friends that meant the most to her.
"Some of the closest people in my life… have told me that they would not have come out in Yellowknife had it not been for Pride," she says.
"That's so special."
"For me, it was just about throwing a party, because that's the Toronto scene I came from. Gay pride is a party," she says.
"I didn't intend for it to turn into this amazing, beautiful, political, you know, big family."