Tiffany Lepack: Arnprior

1.  I will absolutely continue to support Arnprior Pride’s initiatives within the community! During COVID, I participated in the Pride BINGO! When the Rainbow Crosswalk was installed in Arnprior, I took my children and we walked across it together and talked about how Love is Love and why the crosswalk was so important. I am also proud to have on my front lawn an Arnprior Pride sign that says “Everyone is Welcome Here.” A few years ago I also helped with the initiative ‘River of Rainbows,’ where Rainbow Flags were raised at a number of municipalities for the first time, I also spoke at one of the council in favour of the flag raising.
 I would like to see more fundraisers and events to support Arnprior Pride’s initiatives; I would like to see a Drag Fashion show or a Brunch event to help fund the instalment of the Trans Flag Crosswalk or other projects. I believe these events should run all year and not just during Pride month.

2.      The outgoing council has shown some support for Pride initiatives in the past, albeit fairly passive. Our hope would be to develop a more active and transparent partnership with the incoming councillors to allow for growth of our organization and better collaboration with the town of Arnprior. How do you see yourself making this a reality, and what can you do specifically to strength your working relationship with the Pride community?
Answer: If elected I would like to have a meeting with Arnprior Pride by the end of the year with the new council to listen to them and see what are their hopes and goals for the future.
I would also commit to open communication with Arnprior Pride during the new council term and not just during Pride month or festivities. I would like to strike up an additional committee or include in another committee, an update from Arnprior Pride on a monthly basis or every other month. I think communication is key and the town needs to be open to learning from the experiences of members from Arnprior Pride and the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.
As someone, who went to high school in the early 1990s, 2SLGBTQIA+ was not spoken about in high school. I the town needs to work on developing a strong partnership with Arnprior Pride and the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.
With that being said, I would like to bring in different speakers to educate people of all ages. This would include small business owners and different community organizations.

3.     I would like to see the Town work with local businesses and Canada's LGBT+ Chamber of Commerce to help all businesses become Rainbow Registered, which is a national accreditation for LGBT+ friendly businesses and organizations. For more information visit: https://www.cglcc.ca/
I would want to check with Arnprior Pride, but I think that we need to figure out a way to recognize and celebrate our 2SLGBTQIA+ leaders in our community. We need to make Arnprior’s 2SLGBTQIA+ community more visible in our community so they know they are in a safe space.
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4.    About ten years ago, someone close to our family died by suicide because they were being bullied, because they were a member of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. This broke my heart because I could not understand that this person did not know they were loved by so many people and my heart broke even more that people would bully someone else because of who they loved. I want to do everything possible that this does not happen ever again.
Love is Love and you should be able to love whoever you want.
I consider myself an ally and I want to work with the community to ensure everyone feels safe in our town. With that being said, I want to treat everyone with love, kindness and respect. To do this, I am teaching my children that we need to accept everyone and show them, love, kindness and respect. This summer I was proud to take my kids to the Drag Queen Story time, and participate in the Find the Flag Scavenger Hunt. I also took my daughter to a family friendly drag show and she loved it. She was so accepting and we had an amazing time.
My daughter’s love for Drag Queens is starting to rub off, as last week we were with another family and another child said ‘Boys can’t wear dresses,’ and my seven year old daughter responded by saying ‘Boys can wear whatever they want,” the other child responded again saying ‘Boys can’t wear dresses!’ and then my daughter said ‘Boys can wear dresses just like Holli Cow, she wears dresses!’ I was so proud of her, I supported her and then reminded them both that we needed to be kind to each other no matter what.
PS: My current favourite TV show is Ru Paul’s Drag Race