“People in other parts of the world are still struggling,” he says. But he says that while the Pride Parade and Festival is an opportunity to celebrate advances in equality and acceptance, there are still challenges here - and it’s a time to remember those who haven’t seen change. “It’s sparked people’s interest in the history of the community, how it’s come so far so fast,” he says. And of course Jon Cornish, whose mother is a lesbian, will be riding on the Calgary Sexual Health Centre float.įor Kevin Allen, the sea change is staggering when it comes to showing support. Two years after then-premier Alison Redford became the first premier to attend a pride parade, premier Dave Hancock will also be on hand, as will Wildrose leader Danielle Smith, Liberal Leader Raj Sherman and NDP leadership candidate Rachel Notley. The year 2014 is a different animal altogether.
In 2001, a radical American church protested then-MP Joe Clark’s decision to be the parade marshal. “I remember seeing men in pickup trucks with baseball bats, hunting in the Beltline district.” Young men in that inner-city neighbourhood suffered beatings, some being seriously injured, while “some lost their lives.”Īt some of those annual Pride events, protesters would show up with placards toting slogans like “No Pride in Sodomy” many would stand on the sidelines yelling and jeering, some bringing their pit bulls to intimidate the participants. “Gay bashing was at its highest,” he says. Through the 1990s, he says, the pride parade “limped along” in a tense environment. “He later said he regretted it,” says Allen. The next year, then-mayor Al Duerr’s declaration of an official Gay Rights Week to coincide with its first parade was met with furor both in city council and amongst the public. Some participants, he says, wore paper bags over their heads to protest the lack of human rights protection for sexual orientation, while others “donned Lone Ranger masks.” The organization recently launched a kick-starter campaign for a book on the city’s gay history, which is set for a release date in September of 2015, the 25th anniversary of Pride Calgary.Īllen recounts those fledgling early years, when an organization called the Calgary Lesbian and Gay Political Action Group staged its first pride rally on the steps of the Memorial Park Library. “It’s become a tourist event, it has a lot of buzz,” says Allen, research lead of the Calgary Gay History Project (calgarygayhistory.ca). When I mention this naive observation to Kevin Allen, it’s greeted with a knowing laugh. For those of us who’ve been around for a while, that’s what you’d call a 180. These days, it’s almost scandalous if you’re a politician who doesn’t show up to support the LGBT community at its biggest soiree of the year. Mayor Naheed Nenshi will be there once again, likely in his purple “Straight But Not Narrow” T-shirt, while players from the Roughnecks, Calgary Stampeders and Calgary Flames will join Olympians. This year, all three provincial Tory leadership hopefuls will be on hand at the festival, though Ric McIver - who apologized after attending a June March for Jesus after finding out its organizer had posted anti-gay comments online - won’t be in the parade itself. In just a few short years, the annual event celebrating the city’s LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community has gone from one that attracted only a few hundred souls to one now attracting such big name sponsors as TD Canada Trust. “It’s just amazing how Calgarians have embraced it.” “There are a lot of last minute things everyone’s doing right now, but we’re all looking forward to the weekend,” says Wong, spokesperson for Pride Calgary (pridecalgary.ca). On Friday afternoon, Tansy Wong sounds unusually calm as the hours count down to Sunday’s Pride Parade and Festival - an event which will bring out more than 40,000 participants and spectators, making it the second biggest annual parade in the city next to that other one in July where everybody dons cowboy hats and boots. There are more than 100 entries that include floats, vintage cars, cute animals and dancers galore sporting multi-coloured wigs and wild outfits.
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