Wayves magazine editor bristles about sanitizing Halifax Pride

Randall Perry, the editor of Wayves, a gay, lesbian and trans magazine based in Halifax, says that he's not sure where the co-chair of the Halifax Pride Festival is coming from when he says it is "less promiscuous" than other such Pride events across the country. Perry told Xtra magazine that attempts to bring in more people is a good thing, but the festival shouldn't be sanitized and is already fairly tame in terms of having a sexually charged atmosphere. He gets his back up when religious and social conservative groups start taking about making Pride "family friendly".

“It’s been trotted out for so many years to put us down, to keep queers as second-class citizens. Often hate groups have the word ‘family’ in their mission statement. Queers have families too, and often just as dysfunctional.”

“If you don’t want children to see what celebration is like, by all means keep them at home,” he says. “But every Pride I’ve ever been to in Halifax, there’s always been loads of kids.”