BinBrook Pride takes place today, after a year of feeling both love and wrath of social media | CBC News

Social media has proven to be a double-edged sword for Binbrook Pride, which hosts its fifth annual pride celebration at the town’s fairgrounds on Sunday. 

Through platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Tiktok, the 2SLGBTQ+ organization in Hamilton has been able to reach new people and evolve from a hangout outside Tim Hortons to a vibrant Binbrook community festival.

Binbrook Pride has also used social media to find new sponsors quickly this year after some previous contributors pulled out, says Kasha Czech, a drag performer who heads up the organization.

But social media has also led to online harassment for organizers and participants after a video of a performer at last year’s event went viral, Czech added. Last time she looked, the video had 17 million views across all platforms.

“It was a performer, a trans entertainer, who was revealing their scars from top surgery in the performance,” said Czech.

She said the content was shared on anti-trans social media accounts and on various platforms.

The performer, 20-year-old Hamilton student Finnick Brisson, describes himself as a proud trans man, and said the performance, which happened two months after his top surgery, “went great.”

Then hateful posts and messages began flooding his social media accounts the next day, and a popular YouTube channel made a reaction video making fun of him, Brisson said.

‘We deserve to feel safe’

“There were a lot of anti-trans groups that started coming after me and slid into my DMs,” Brisson told CBC Hamilton on Wednesday.

“Police don’t do much. It was very difficult. For something that should be and is super positive to be turned into something negative, it was very painful.”

The furor calmed down after a couple months, but led Brisson to face serious mental health challenges that required hospitalization, he said. It also led to some positive outcomes such as the numerous local and international artists that reached out to support him, such as Priyanka, a winner from Canada’s Drag Race.

“There’s beauty being different and not fitting the binary,” Brisson said. “To attack humans just trying to be themselves who are no threat to anyone is saddening. 

“We deserve to feel safe.”

He said he is speaking out now to show people he remains proud of who he is.

Czech said the online mob also came after festival organizers, with people threatening to “dox” them. The term dox refers to the practice of searching and publishing private information, usually with malicious intent.

“We had to shut down all of our social media temporarily while it blew over,” she said.

She adds that the furor has been reignited in a smaller way since they’ve been promoting this year’s Pride online, but says organizers rely on the internet to advertise. The current political climate in the U.S., where politicians are openly targeting trans people, and people are protesting drag events, explains – but doesn’t excuse – the behaviour BinBrook Pride is encountering, she said.

“‘Trans’ is a buzzword or ‘drag’ is a buzzword people can use politically, even while not having a full understanding of what trans people are, or what drag queens do,” she said.

Hamilton Pride a new sponsor this year

Czech believes the political climate has also affected the sponsorship side of Binbrook Pride, which saw two of its previous sponsors, totalling about a quarter of its funding, pull out this year. Czech points to the pullback on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives happening at many American companies across the continent.

Fortunately, she said, a panicked call for new backing on social media led to several new vendors and a sponsorship agreement with Hamilton Pride, which is now a presenting sponsor alongside the Binbrook Agricultural Society.

Sunday event runs 12 to 5 p.m.

The family-friendly event takes place from 12 to 5 p.m. at the Binbrook Fairgrounds on Sunday, the day after Haldimand-Norfolk Pride kicks off Pride month in Port Dover. 

The Binbrook event is hosted by Karma Kameleon and Chimaera, and includes drag shows, musicians, information booths, vendors, a scavenger hunt and comedy.

It also has a stage this year, said event co-chair Vanessa Medina, noting past years’ performances happened on the grass.

“It’s so important to have people who live in or around our community showing up making themselves seen,” she said. “Hopefully that reduces any stigma of what people perceive a queer community to be like.”