Hundreds of people celebrated LGBTQ2 joy and resilience during Calgary’s Pride Parade on Sunday.
The parade started at around 11 a.m. at the intersection of 9th Avenue Southwest and Fifth Street Southwest, ending at around noon at Fort Calgary. An all-ages festival was to be held in Prince’s Island Park throughout the afternoon and evening after the parade.
Many attendees describe Pride as an event to showcase the diversity of the LGBTQ2 community in Calgary. For them, Pride is a day to tell others that they have the right to feel comfortable in their own identities and bodies.
“The queer community is incredibly strong and diverse and incredibly helpful,” said Rocket Mercury, who attended the parade earlier on Sunday.
“You’ve got to be ready for everybody. … You need to be ready to support everybody. You need to be learning and educating yourself and diversifying your friend groups.”
“It’s all about the confidence. It’s being able to feel comfortable in your community and being able to feel beautiful in the community,” said Kenney Mercury, another parade attendee.
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Others say Pride is a way to connect people with the LGBTQ2 community in Calgary and a way to stand in solidarity with queer and trans people.
Allison Vickery of the Canadian Pride Historical Society told Global News the Pride Parade brings everyone together which helps queer and trans people feel safe.
“In Alberta, we are taking a bit of the turn and there’s been a bit of backlash against the LGBTQ2+ community. Some people are feeling less safe to come out to events like this and that’s why it’s important to come together and help people feel safe,” she said.
Vickery said it is also important to document LGBTQ2 history to highlight the accomplishments of queer and trans people and the resiliency of the community.
The first Pride marches were held in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago on June 28, 1970, according to the Library of Congress. Thousands of LGBTQ2 people gathered to commemorate the Stonewall Uprising a year ago, when LGBTQ2 people fought back against the police during a raid of the Stonewall Inn in New York City.
In Canada, the Pride movement is made up of multiple protests and activism efforts across the country. However, the catalyst was the decriminalization of homosexuality in 1969, according to the Canadian Pride Historical Society. The We Demand rally in Ottawa was organized in response because queer and trans people felt the legislation did not do enough to protect LGBTQ2 people.
The historical society launched research and education materials in Alberta to educate children about LGBTQ2 history in Canada, which has never been taught before in the province.
“Over the last year, we’ve been researching all the Pride communities in Alberta. We’re trying to discover this hidden history and the stories that have not been told and making it available for everyone,” Jonathan Niemczak of the Canadian Pride Historical Society told Global News on Saturday.
The organization also launched the Capture Pride History campaign, which encourages everyone to submit photos of Pride events to a live photo database.
“Both the education and the research project are meant to connect people to that history and what we fought for and what we accomplished,” Vickery said.
“It’s a reminder of how strong we are and how important getting together as a community is.”
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