June is Pride Month and the City of Portage la Prairie is hoping to showcase its inclusiveness.

Members of the LGBTQIA+ community as well as allies attended Portage City Hall on June 6th for a proclamation from Mayor Irvine Ferris, as well as a speech from Ryan Lucko, a youth intern from the PCRC. Lucko says while they celebrate pride in June to commemorate the Stonewall Riots, they don't hold back from celebrating pride all year long.

"We are not being like silenced by anybody, we're proud of who we are, and we have a voice," explains Lucko. "It's just to help others show allyship towards our community because that's a really big part of ending like the stigma and discrimination is just showing that allyship."

Along with the proclamation that was signed at city hall, a pride flag was also raised in support. Lucko mentions it's great to see Portage show support to their community and mentions one way that you can work on being an ally is with the use of proper pronouns, such as he/him, she/her, they/them, and others.

"That's a big thing lately where people don't really understand what pronouns are," notes Lucko. "If you don't know what someone's pronouns are like, just ask. No one should be offended by being asked what their pronouns are right, and just make sure you use the correct pronouns in sentences."

Lucko adds as they're non-binary, they'd prefer to be called by they/them pronouns.

Lucko hopes that people in Portage and the surrounding communities will continue to make strides and learn about more ways to be inclusive going forward.

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