Shawn Kelly: Our Mark of Pride

Former Consulting-Executive Director, Shawn Kelly, talks about the “Time Is Running Out” ad and Celebration ’90’s response.

Kelly: “I was the Consulting Executive Director here in Vancouver when those ads come out, and holy moley, we opened up the newspapers one Saturday afternoon and there were full page ads saying time is running out for the Gay Games and then quoted every spiritual and biblical condemnation they could contrive. And our reaction at the time was not to get into an argument with them about this, and not to counter-protest, or to take out ads protesting them; but rather to say “We’re not protesting anything; we’re not condemning anyone. We’re putting on the best possible show and festival that we can develop.“  And so, we immediately poured our energies into mobilizing support in the community, not to counter-protest, because we’re never going to change those people’s minds, but rather to say this is our mark of pride. We’re going to take the energy this gives us and turn it around and make this a truly spectacular event.”