Canadian Pride events ban anti-trans politicians
May 27, 2024Pride festivals in two of Canada’s most politically conservative provinces are taking a stand by barring lawmakers who are promoting anti-transgender legislation from participating in this season’s Pride festivities.
This week, nine Pride festivals across Alberta, including those in the largest cities Calgary and Edmonton, issued a joint statement declaring they will “not allow the participation of the United Conservative Party (UCP) in our 2024 Pride celebrations.” This announcement came just days after several Pride festivals in neighbouring Saskatchewan declared they had barred the conservative Saskatchewan Party from joining their parades, according to ‘Washington Blade’.
Both provinces have recently passed or announced policies detrimental to trans youth.
Last year, Saskatchewan enacted a regulation requiring schools to disclose gender non-conforming children to their parents. When the regulation was struck down by a court, the government enacted a law using the “notwithstanding” rule to bypass the federal Charter of Rights.
In January, Alberta’s conservative government announced plans to propose legislation in the fall that would ban gender-confirming surgeries on minors, restrict hormone treatments for minors under 16, bar trans children from participating in gender-appropriate school sports, and require parental notification for students to use a preferred name or pronoun.
“This is a direct response to Premier Danielle Smith’s stated intention to infringe on the rights, freedoms, and healthcare of the transgender community in Alberta,” the statement from Alberta Pride organisations read. “You may not join our celebrations in June when you plan to attack us in September.”
“Queer rights should not be a political decision. Trans rights are human rights. We invite Premier Smith to reconsider her harmful and damaging policies and engage in meaningful discussions with the Two Spirit, Trans, Nonbinary, and Queer community.”
Other Pride festivals barring the UCP from participating include those in Red Deer, Lethbridge, Banff, Canmore, Lacombe, Jasper, Fort Saskatchewan, and Okotoks. The statement was also supported by three queer service organisations.
Image Credit: Canva
“When queer people are being attacked by our government, we come together and get things done,” said James Demers, a community organiser with Queer Citizens United, the umbrella organisation of Alberta Pride societies that issued the statement.
Queen City Pride, which organises the annual Pride festival in Saskatchewan’s capital of Regina, was the first to announce it would not allow the Saskatchewan Party to participate in its events.
“We decided as a board that we might have to distance ourselves from the Saskatchewan Party. We were hopeful they would change course, but they’ve gone against our Charter of Rights. We’re not okay with this, and they’re not backing down,” said Queen City Pride Co-Executive Director Riviera Bonneau.
The Saskatchewan Party has participated in Queen City Pride in the past, with Premier Scott Moe even marching in the parade in 2019. At the time, he told CTV News it was the “right thing for a premier to do.”
“The thing that triggered our announcement was that the Saskatchewan Party had submitted a registration to participate in our parade,” Bonneau said. “I don’t know why they’d want to participate, but they did try.”
Bonneau communicated with other Pride festivals in the province before making the decision public to avoid pressuring them to make the same choice. Eventually, Pride festivals in Prince Albert, Moose Jaw, Swift Current, and the Battlefords announced they would not allow the Saskatchewan Party to participate. A spokesperson for Saskatoon Pride told CBC they would carefully vet any application to participate, making it unlikely the Party would be accepted.
While the federal Conservative Party has supported the anti-trans policies announced by both provinces, Bonneau says her organisation has not banned the federal party yet because it hasn’t applied to participate.
However, Demers states his group’s stance is that federal Conservatives are also not welcome at member festivals.
“They’re not any nicer to us than the UCP are. I think the consequence extends to them as well,” he said.
The federal Conservative Party often applies to participate in Alberta’s Pride festivals but is typically rejected.
“We have an application process for all of our Prides, and they never pass the process. They’ll typically hold a barbecue somewhere and call it a Pride event, but they have not been invited,” Demers said. “We’ve now formally disinvited them. We do not want them to show up and pretend that they care about us as their constituents. It’s us making it clear that they are not welcome.”
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