Voices from the 2010 Vancouver Pride Parade: What does Pride mean to you?

Xtra asked people at Vancouver Pride to tell us what Pride means to them. Check out their responses below and let us know what Pride means to you

PRIDE STATS:

SPECTATORS:
1990: 8,000+
2000: 110,000+
2005: 185,000
2006: 304,000
2007: 485,000
2008: 530,000
2009: 630,000
2010: 650,000

PARADE ENTRIES:
1990: 47
2000: 156
2010: 146

COST:
2010 projected cost: $500,000

More Vancouver Pride coverage:

• VIDEO: Vancouver Pride parade
• City shuts down Iron Rod party
• Queers Against Israeli Apartheid to march in Vancouver Pride parade
  
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• VIDEO: Vancouver Queer Arts Festival opening
• Pride weekend in Vancouver: Where do we go from here?
• What’s hot for Pride: Fashion dos and don’ts

“We should always remember that Pride is not just a celebration. Pride in any country, in any city, started as a human rights action when people were going on the streets to ask for civil rights. We shouldn’t forget about how it started. It’s the stage we’re at in Russia, in Belarus, in Ukraine, in other Eastern European countries where people are just starting to fight for their rights, where people are just starting to come out, and people are just starting to acknowledge that they’re homosexual, and this is exactly what happened here maybe 20, 30, 40 years ago.”
– Nikolai Alexeyev, international grand marshal

“To be proud of who you are and to not be afraid of showing who you are.”
– Karl Futrell-Fruhling, 19, South Granville

“It means equality and freedom of expression, freedom of all sexualities.”
– Barbara Seifred, 80, East Vancouver

“I’m proud of my country, my city, and I’m proud of society for the movements they’ve made to where we are right now. I feel lucky to be where I am and to grow up in this time in society.”
– Paul Wiens (front), 30, Cutting Edges

“Knowing that I can live my life the way I want to be — be who I want to be with — and not ever be persecuted for it.”
– Richard Koiter, 43, West End

“Gay pride means being part of a community — and to sing our gay hearts right out.”
– Mok Escueta, Vancouver Men’s Chorus

“To me, Pride means sexual freedom, which means that you can do anything — with your intact foreskin.”
– Glen Callender, 36, West End

“Pride to me is a celebration of who and what we are as individuals, as a community, and all of the work that we have done to get to this point, and all the work we have yet to do to carry it through to absolute total equal human rights.”
– Barb Snelgrove, local grand marshal

Photos and text by Richard J Dalton Jr.