Silence and invisibility no more for LGBTQ Nunavummiut

The first rule of Nunavut Pride Society is opposite of the first rule of Fight Club: “You talk about Nunavut Pride Society.”

Transgender activist Delaney Drachenberg, 25, co-founded the society to spark constructive conversation about the potential for LGBTQ advocacy across the territory.

“We need to be firm about the fact that we accept all identities,” Drachenberg said in an interview.

“Everyone deserves to be loved, accepted and welcomed.”

The new organization’s loud and proud mandate includes assisting would-be LGBTQ organizers and their allies to establish active Pride committees in all 25 Nunavut communities.

The supposition is that by talking openly and positively about LGBTQ pride — along with some federal funding — parades, performances and potlucks promoting Pride will pop up in the smaller hamlets as they have done in larger northern centres.

Groups in Iqaluit, Rankin Inlet and Kuujjuaq have all planned Pride events in recent years.

Catherine Lightfoot, left, and Del Drachenberg organize Iqaluit’s Rainbow Rally for Equality in August 2024. The Pride event took place at the city’s Four Corners intersection. (Photo by Jeff Pelletier)

“The goal of the Pride society is to unite all of the Prides across Nunavut — many of them really don’t exist at the moment — but the goal is to unite the communities,” Drachenberg said. “The smaller communities deserve to be heard, seen.”

Official incorporation as a non-profit society is the first order of business, Drachenberg said, so the group can access various grants.

“We want to become an incorporated non-profit so that we can gain access to a lot of funding opportunities so that we can fund pride parades, pride barbecues, etc.,” Drachenberg said.

Drachenberg works a day job as a northern grant consultant for Cuso International, which funds economic development projects to help lift global communities out of poverty, and through that has experience leveraging various pots of money in an effort to effect positive change.

People in several hamlets have already spoken up in support of the society, after Drachenberg posted a callout on social media early last week.

Drachenberg first spoke up as proudly transgender in Grade 10 at Inuksuk High School in 2014.

Three years later, gender identity and gender expression became protected under Nunavut’s human rights act. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms included protections for people who identify as transgender later that year.

“While we need to accept others’ rights to opinions, identities and thoughts we don’t agree with, this doesn’t give us the jurisdiction to restrict their fundamental rights as a human being,” Drachenberg said.

“If your opinion infringes upon my right to be safe and OK, then it’s not an opinion, it’s bigotry, harmful and unjustifiable.”

The inaugural Nunavut Pride Society organizing meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Iqaluit Public Library.