They’ll come all dolled up to strut their stuff on the catwalk. Expect feather boas, wacky costumes, and pageantry at Kelowna’s City Park on August 14, starting at noon.

It’s the Okanagan Pride Festival, and it’s the main event in the five-day queer celebration in the region, from August 11 to 15.

But don’t expect two-legged revellers on the runway. Rather, it’s their dressed-up canine friends on display. They’re also counting on a lot of company. The pooch parade, which will be marking its third year, has become a popular local event, attracting not only members of the LGBT community but straight dog owners as well, according to Charmaine de Silva.

De Silva, a local radio journalist, is also the vice chair of Okanagan Pride. In a phone interview from Kelowna, she noted that the festival, which features a children’s zone with inflatable play structures and face-painting, as well as musical performances by guest artists, is the closest thing to a pride parade in this part of B.C.

According to de Silva, there’s a reason the Okanagan pride celebration looks staid compared with the extravagant expression of gay identity in big cities like Vancouver, where the annual Pride parade takes place on Sunday (August 1).

“The idea is it’s a family-friendly pride festival, which reflects our community,” de Silva told the Georgia Straight.

Although local LGBT residents have been holding pride gatherings for several years, de Silva noted, until recently these were mostly promoted within the community.

“The [Okanagan] is so conservative, there were many members of the gay community that”¦didn’t feel comfortable with having such”¦formal celebrations that were advertised to the public,” she said. “Even now, there’s still members of our community that fear retribution from employers.”

Nicholas Simons knows these challenges. The NDP politician is the MLA for the Powell River–Sunshine Coast constituency. According to him, this makes him the only rural member of the legislative assembly who happens to be gay.

“What I find interesting is that more rural communities are proclaiming pride week,” Simons told the Straight in a phone interview. “Gibsons did just that. Last year, [it was] the District of Sechelt.”

There are no pride parades in his communities, according to Simons. But he also pointed that out prodding such areas may not be what’s needed.

“What we should be encouraging is acceptance and celebration of diversity in all its forms, and that can happen to a better degree,” he said. “In many rural communities, people aren’t comfortable being out, and that’s just part of the rights movement of the LGBT community.”

The LGBT crowd in Prince George, on the other hand, is downright assertive.

The northern B.C. community had its 14th annual pride parade on July 17. The Prince George Pride Society has declared it’s already preparing for the next one.

“We’re stubborn,” society president Valentine Crawford told the Straight by phone. Crawford, 27, is a trustee on the local school board. He was a young teen at the time of the community’s first pride parade, in 1996. Citing accounts from the older generation, he noted that the late 1990s were the most difficult years. Parade participants were taunted and had things thrown at them, and anti-gay placards were hoisted along the route.

The open hostility toward the parade is long gone, Crawford said. He added that straight people have even started to join the procession. “We’re the only pride celebration in northern B.C.,” he said. “Our celebration really services all the communities up here.”

But Crawford also acknowledged that the Prince George pride parade doesn’t draw big crowds. “It’s a stigma that being gay and lesbian is against God’s will,” he said, describing rural perceptions of gay sexuality. “[It’s] against the Bible, that sort of thing. Those are the biggest hurdles. And a lack of understanding. Some people think it’s absolutely wrong.”

Over on Vancouver Island, Victoria is known for its huge pride parades. Thousands showed up for this year’s march, held on July 4. In Nanaimo, a local paper reported that municipal councillors declared a pride week in June, starting with a picnic at Bowen Park.

On Salt Spring Island, a small group started to meet during the 1990s for informal gatherings like potlucks, dining out, and movie nights. This eventually led to the formation of the Gays and Lesbians of Salt Spring Island. On September 11, GLOSSI will hold its third annual pride parade.

Closer to Vancouver, Surrey recently held its 11th pride celebration, culminating in a festival at Holland Park on July 11.

The LGBT community in New Westminster, by contrast, has never had a pride festival. But that is going to change this year. A six-day party kicks off on Tuesday (August 3) with a reception and film screening at the Westminster Club. The highlight of the festivities will be an August 7 walk to City Hall, where councillor and acting mayor Jonathan Coté will proclaim the city’s first official pride day.

Guy Dubé, president of the Royal City Pride Society, stressed in a phone interview that the walk isn’t going to be a parade with expensive floats. Rather, it’s going to be a fundraiser for charity. Still, Dubé said, it will be a colourful event, with drag queens and many participants wearing high heels for the uphill march from the bottom of 6th Street to City Hall.

“It’s a community at home,” Dubé told the Straight, referring to the local LGBT crowd. “They moved to New Westminster to live their family life, not their going-out life. It’s very diverse. There’s couples and kids.”