As the community celebrates Pride Month throughout June, Queen City Pride announced it is cancelling the provincial flag-raising and is excluding the Saskatchewan Party from participating in the celebrations.
According to a release, Queen City Pride has made some changes to the annual Pride festival.
“Normally, it is our great honour to gather June 1st at the Provincial Legislative Building in Regina and provincially proclaim Pride month,” the release read. “This year, due to the actions of the current Saskatchewan government, we are not holding this ceremony. We do not believe the current Saskatchewan government is our ally, and we do not believe it would be appropriate to allow them to take part in such an important event for our community.”
The release cites the Saskatchewan government’s passing of Bill 137, also known as the Parents’ Bill of Rights, in October 2023, and invocation of the notwithstanding clause to pass it.
“Based on the actions of this provincial government, we are not allowing them to be part of our celebrations,” the statement read. “This includes the Pride month proclamation as well as parade entry.”
CUPE Saskatchewan released a statement in support of Queen City Pride’s decision to ban the Sask. party from celebrations next month.
“Scott Moe is a threat to all queer and trans people,” said Kent Peterson, president of CUPE Saskatchewan. “We stand in solidarity with Queen City Pride and all pride groups across the province that decide to ban Scott Moe for the safety of the 2SLGBTQI+ community.”
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The Opposition leader responded to the Queen City Pride’s decision as well saying the provincial government says one thing when they are in a Pride parade, but people see something different.
“This is a concern that we continue to hear from people that the government likes photo ops, they like announcements but they completely stopped listening and respecting what they hear from groups like Queen City Pride,” said Carla Beck.
Saskatchewan Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill responded to the decision of Queen City Pride in Monday’s question period.
“It’s obviously disappointing,” said Cockrill. “When I look at Bill 137 … the focus of that legislation was to make sure that parents were included in the important decisions and important conversations in their children’s lives.”
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