A Port Moody group is hoping to make the crossing from Brewers Row to Rocky Point Park a lot more colourful. The colours of the rainbow in fact.
Amy Anne Lubik, of Creating LGBT+ Community in Port Moody, says it’s time for the city to have its own rainbow crosswalk as a symbol gay pride and support of the LGBTQ community. Since the first permanent rainbow crosswalk in Canada was painted in 2013 at the corner of Davie and Bute streets in Vancouver, similar crosswalks have been installed in various cities around the province, including New Westminster, Victoria, Kelowna, Squamish and Maple Ridge.
“It’s extremely important to show as a community that we are accepting,” says Lubik, who making her pitch for the colourful crossing to Port Moody council on Tuesday.
She says while society has become more accepting of different orientations, recent events like the mass murder of 49 people at an Orlando gay nightclub in June, 2016, show there’s still a long way to go.
“We’re definitely moving in the right direction when it comes to inclusivity,” Lubik says.
She got the ball rolling on the idea of putting a rainbow crosswalk in Port Moody by posting to a Facebook group. That started a conversation with others to make it happen.
Which is exactly what a rainbow crosswalk is supposed to do.
“It creates conversations about people’s issues and concerns,” Lubik says.
Putting the rainbow crosswalk in the heart of Port Moody’s downtown, linking two of the city’s most popular and beloved attractions, also reinforces the notion that the LGBT+ community no longer has to lurk on the fringes.
“It’s so public, a lot of people go there, everyone passes by it,” Lubik says. “It really is a public statement.”
