This N.S. brewpub is helping 2SLGBTQ+ people feel welcome in their rural town
Truro Brewing Company has become a hub for 2SLGBTQ+ in the historically conservative community
A portrait of Freddie Mercury embellished with a crown and pearl necklace hangs proudly over a stone fireplace above a sign that reads "be nice or be gone" as patrons of Truro Brewing Company laugh and sip locally made beer.
Displaying artwork of prominent 2SLGBTQ+ figures is just one way the brewpub in the rural town of Truro, N.S., seeks to make people feel welcome. But they're doing much more than that to achieve that goal.
What started four years ago as a humble brewery and taproom has morphed into a pillar of the 2SLGBTQ+ community in the historically conservative region, serving as its only dedicated and overtly inclusive bar.
"I think providing a space for queer folks is something that's greatly needed in the community, in every community," said Jana Dellapinna, who co-owns Truro Brewing Company with her wife Patricia Dellapinna.
"I've certainly not felt comfortable celebrating my queerness in this town and also in the craft beer industry, you don't see queer people represented all that often. So that was important to me to bring that forward with my own space."
A list of house rules in massive red lettering confronts patrons as soon as they enter the taproom on Inglis Place in the town's downtown, setting the tone for its environment: harassment and discrimination will not be tolerated.
Patricia Dellapinna said the rules were developed with a diversity consultant and Truro Brewing staff.
"We live by those and so do our staff," said Patricia Dellapinna. "So we promote a safe space and we expect our customers to share in those values."
The so-called "riot wall" is also emblazoned with colourful graffiti depicting phrases like "protect trans kids," "respect our existence or expect our resistance," and "dismantle white supremacy."
"It's very important to me. It reflects our values and it states that we're an inclusive space, we're queer owned. You have to be accepting of that or there's the door," said Jana Dellapinna, who has lived in Truro for 20 years.
Known as the "Hub of Nova Scotia" given its central location and proximity to a major highway, Truro has showed opposition to the 2SLGBTQ+ community in the past.
In 2007, the town's council rejected a request from Truro Pride to raise the pride flag, a move the society called discriminatory.
And while the Halifax Pride parade has been marching through the streets of the capital city almost every July since the late 1980s, Truro only held its first pride parade in 2016.
"Small-town Nova Scotia has some catching up to do in many ways," said taproom manager Patrick Burchill, who moved to Truro with his partner about seven years ago from Hamilton.
"Coming from a larger city, you see the difference for sure, but being able to kind of be at the forefront of the movement has been really amazing."
Burchill is one of the faces of Truro Brewing, ensuring the community feels reflected in the employees who work there and that they feel accepted and respected.
And although they seek to provide a space for 2SLGBTQ+ people, everyone is welcome.
"We're not just a gay bar or a queer bar, we're an everybody bar," said Burchill.
Raelee Rath, chair of the Truro Pride Society board of directors, said Truro Brewing fills a huge void in the community.
She described growing up in Truro during the 1990s as a "trying time," but much has changed since then.
"It's just been really important to have this kind of physical representation of how Truro is an open and accepting place now and how we are here in this community and thriving," said Rath.
"We're part of the business community. We're part of all the different aspects of the community."
She noted how difficult it used to be to plan Pride events in other spaces, and the exhaustive vetting process involved, such as whether there are gender-neutral washrooms or if employees would respect pronouns. Now they know Truro Brewing ticks all the boxes.
For Tris Chaulk, Truro Brewing has served as a place where they can find like-minded people within their own community.
"It's meant that the actualization of where I'm at right now on my queer journey is not a slow burn. It's a much faster process where I can talk to people who are like also trans," said the 27-year-old Chaulk.
"I can get information from them, learn things from them about myself, as well as how to go through certain processes that are helping me actualize myself into the person that I feel I actually am."
Kiley White, the bar's self-described number one customer, said the taproom means "everything" to her.
"It's changed the way that I understand my hometown and feel about my hometown," said White, who is also the program co-ordinator for the Truro Pride Society.
"Before Truro Brew, I think there was a lot of distrust and in the community because there didn't really feel like there was a safe space for me. But I know that there is now."
Jana Dellapinna said hearing what her business means to her customers makes her emotional, and she vows to continue fostering inclusively in Truro.
"It's much needed," said Dellapinna. "People really seem to love it here and we've developed our own little community within these walls."
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