The Arctic Pride parade this weekend in Rovaniemi, Finland, was tiny compared to LGBT pride marches in Sydney, New York or San Francisco. But it had two things none of those parades ever had — an entire pro team marching with a gay teammate and a reindeer wearing a rainbow flag.
Chris Voth, an openly gay pro volleyball player from Canada, plays for the Perungan Pojat pro volleyball team in Rovaniemi, a town of 58,000 near the Arctic Circle. For most of his teammates, Voth was the first gay person they had met and he was quickly accepted. They enthusiastically marched in the Arctic Pride parade with him this weekend.
“It was a pretty cool event,” Voth told Outsports. “It was smaller than other Prides I’ve been to but also had a different structure. Everyone there was walking, which was around 400 people. The spectators were only news people and some tourists. But it was fun and I think my team was happy how it went.”
It was awesome of Voth’s teammates to march with him and you can’t get any cooler than a reindeer with a rainbow flag.
Contact info: Chris Voth, 26, plays for the Perungan Pojat pro volleyball team in Rovaniemi, Finland. He is also a Canadian national team member. He can be reached at Instagram (@chrisvoth); Twitter (@vothster) or on Facebook.com/vothster.
