The Goat reached out to two young people who grew up in Valemount to submit a reflection for Pride month.
Sam Plamondon
If I could stand in front of the community and talk about my thoughts on being queer in Valemount it probably would not be kind. Mainly because it hasn’t been very kind to me. The community has come leaps and bounds from my high school experience, but it seems a little manufactured. Nothing quite like it becoming more globally accepted to get a small community on the wagon. There have been queer people around for as long as I’ve looked for them and it’s never been a visibility issue. It was an interactive issue. The complete flip between myself and other people, before and after it became more commonly known that I was queer. The side eyes. The wider berth. The chilly demeanor from people who previously had nothing but kind words for me. The community does a great job of mass exclusion without even actively doing it.
