WATCH: Former Vancouver Pride Society Director Tim Ell talks about his recent resignation.
VANCOUVER — A director with the Vancouver Pride Society has resigned in light of controversy surrounding the signing of a pledge calling for new legislation to protect transgender people.
Tim Ell says he quit his position as a director this weekend, in part, because the politics have become too divisive.
Last week, it was announced the BC Liberal Party would not be participating in the Pride Parade coming up this weekend after it did not sign the pledge. Other political parties have signed the pledge that was originally launched in May. It is intended to support new legislation to change the human rights code in B.C., to include gender identity and gender expression.
READ MORE: BC Liberal Party will not be participating in Vancouver’s Pride Parade
“I stepped down because it has become clear over the last few weeks that there were going to be two sets of standards that are being applied to political parties to get them into the parade,” says Ell. “It has become too partisan. There are two standards being applied – one, clearly, to parties that are supposed to participate and supposed to look good in the parade, and there is another set of standards for those parties that never would have been able to march in the first place.”
Ell says the Pride Society has always been a very political organization, but in his view, “when you become partisan, you start excluding people in a different way.”
“We are moving from exclusion of one group of people to exclusion of another group based on the fact that they won’t sign or can’t sign this pledge due to whatever reason,” he says.
Ell says he hopes his resignation sends a clear message to the Pride Society that there needs to be some change. Despite the attention, Ell says he does not think it has tarnished the reputation of the Pride Parade.
“The pledge itself is an amazing thing to do, to say that we stand with transgender people and that we are going to fight alongside with them. Unfortunately, that message is being lost because people think it is a bigger priority to score some political points instead of actually making some meaningful change.”
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