Fredericton Pride marks 40th anniversary of the Great Moncton Picnic

FREDERICTON, N.B. -

This summer marks the 40th anniversary of the Great Moncton Picnic, an important event in the early fight for LGBTQ rights in the Maritimes.

"Moncton in the 1980s was a very difficult place for the LGBT community people.There were frequent gay bashings or f*g beatings at the time as they were known, there was no human rights legislation at that point,” said Meredith Batt, the president of the Queer Heritage Initiative of New Brunswick.

Following the lead of other Maritime cities like Halifax and Fredericton, Moncton activists organized a peaceful picnic at Centennial Park in the summer of 1981.

"Rumors started swirling around the city that it was in fact a gay picnic which caused a lot of uproar among citizens, they were writing their councillors requesting that something be done to cancel the picnic,” Batt said.

A by-law was created by Moncton Council the following evening, preventing gatherings of more than 40 people without a permit, targeting the picnic.

"It's a relatively small event that happened, but it's important to understand that instead of conceding to this new bylaw gays and lesbians did actually come out in force and did attend this picnic,” Batt said.

Batt would like to see the event marked annually for people to remember and reflect.

"It's definitely an example of resistance that we can look to, an early one where, like I said, there were other organizations popping up around the Atlantic provinces but this one just shows how stressful it was organizing a gay and lesbian organization,” they said.

Batt hopes future generations will think about this example and learn about the history of LGBTQ peoples.

Fredericton Pride has events ongoing until Aug. 28.