Pride Festivals in two of Canada’s most politically conservative provinces have put their feet down and banned lawmakers who are pushing anti-trans laws to this season’s Pride Festival.
This week, the nine Pride Festivals in Alberta (including the largest cities in Calgary and Edmonton) appeared. Joint Statement They “will not allow United Conservatives (UCP) to participate in the 2024 Pride celebration.” The move comes days after several Pride Festivals in nearby Saskatchewan announced that conservative Saskatchewan parties had banned them from participating in the parade.
Both states recently passed or announced policies that harm trans youth.
Last year, Saskatchewan enacted regulations requiring schools to excrete unsuitable children of their parents. The government then enacted the law using rules “regardless” that allow the government to do so. Avoid the Charter of Federal Rights.
In January, the conservative government in Alberta announced it would submit the law in the fall. Prohibiting gender to confirm surgery for minorsrestricts hormone treatment for minors under the age of 16, prevents Bartran children from playing with gender-friendly school sports, and requests parental notifications to ensure that students use priority names or pronouns. I will.
“This is a direct response to the intentions stated by Prime Minister Daniel Smith to violate the rights, freedoms and health care of the transgender community in Alberta,” a statement released by the Alberta Pride organization said. . “We may not be taking part in our celebration in June, where we are scheduled to attack us in September.”
“Queer rights should not be political decisions. Trans rights are human rights. We will rethink her harmful and harmful policies, and we will be revisiting two spirits, trans, non-binary, queer community and We invite you to engage in meaningful discussions of the
Other Pride Festivals attended by UCP include the festivals in Red Deer, Lethbridge, Banff, Canmore, Lacombes, Jasper, Fort Saskatchewan and Okotox. Three queer service organizations also participated in the statement.
“When queer people are being attacked by our government, we work together to get things done,” the community organizer at Queer Citizens United, the umbrella organization of Alberta Pride Society, which compiled the statement. James Demars says.
Queen City Pride, which hosts its annual Pride Festival in the capital of Regina in Saskatchewan, was the first city to announce that the Saskatchewan party would not be allowed to participate in the event.
“As a board, we decided that we might need to have some distance between us and the Saskatchewan party. We were very hoping they would change courses, but they were opposed our Charter of Rights. Riviera Bonaud, co-executive director of Queen City Pride, said:
The Saskatchewan Party has participated in Queen City Pride in the past, and Prime Minister Scott Moe even marched in the parade in 2019. At the time, he told CTV News, “He believed it was “.The right thing the Prime Minister does.”
“What sparked our announcement was that the Saskatchewan party advocated for registration to participate in our parade,” says Bonneau. “I don’t know why they want to participate, but they tried.”
Bonneau says he didn’t want to put pressure on other festivals to make the same decision, so he spoke with other Pride Festivals in the state before publishing the decision. At the event, Prince Albert, Moose Jaw, Swift Current and the Prince Festival of Battleford announced that they would not allow the Saskatchewan party to participate, but a spokesman for Saskatoon Pride would be required to join the CBC for any application. It is unlikely that the party will be accepted, as they will be careful to refuse.
The Federal Conservatives provide support for anti-trans policies announced by both states, but Bonneau says her organization has yet to ban the Federal Party for simple reasons.
But Demars says his group’s attitude is that federal conservatives and membership is not welcome.
“They’re not better for us than UCP. I think the outcomes are also widening for them,” he says.
DeMers says federal Conservatives often apply to participating in Alberta’s Pride Festival, but are usually rejected.
“We have an application process for all our pride. They never pass the process. They usually have a barbecue somewhere and call it a pride event, but they’re not invited.” Demars says. “We’ve now officially kicked them out. We don’t want them to show up and pretend they care about us as their constituents. That they’re not welcome. It is us who are revealing it.”
Source: Washington Blade: LGBTQ News, Politics, LGBTQ Rights, Gay News – www.washingtonblade.com
