Rural community members unite against pastor's anti-2SLGBTQ views, as Altona readies for 1st Pride parade

Manitobans will take to the streets of a rural town's first Pride parade Saturday, and while there's cause for celebration, organizers and community members are also calling out a local pastor who is publicly opposing it.

Pembina Valley Pride published a social media post on Friday encouraging people from the 2SLGBTQ community to take care of themselves, ignore protesters and "celebrate you" ahead of Altona's first Pride parade on Saturday. 

It came on the heels of a blog post by Grace Covenant Church lead pastor Riley Toews, espousing views condemning the celebration.

"It is inflammatory," Pembina Valley Pride president Peter Wohlgemut said of the blog. "It's disappointing to hear that sort of thing still."

Toews, 30, who lives in Gretna, plans to hand out pamphlets at the Altona parade, just as he did in Morden at that community's first Pride in 2019.

He suggested the core of his message is consistent with that of Christianity.

"The whole question of Pride in general, it's a celebration of something that the Bible would say is sin," Toews told CBC News on Friday.

"The main message of the gospel is that Jesus came to die for our sins, to reconcile us to God, and so the way that we receive what Christ has done is by turning from our sin and turning to face him. So, something like Pride is celebrating that which actually separates people from God."

Wohlgemut said to many in the region, Toews' blog reinforces stereotypes about the area and local attitudes toward the queer community.

At the same time, Wohlgemut says they know the parade and marchers have the full support of the town of Altona, mayor, leaders of other local churches and many local allies.

That includes Tamara Franz, 56, who has lived in Altona off and on for 23 years. She posted a response calling out Toews' blog.

Her father was a Mennonite pastor in the community who led with a sense that "everyone is welcome at the table." 

Franz said Toews' views seem to be coming from a place of fear and justify "shame and social stigma" as a way of deterring people from being who they are.

"I was raised with a very strong sense of social justice so it kind of is in me to rush to the defence of people when I feel that they are under attack," she said.