Edmonton's Opinions; Pride Parade Cancellation

Opinion pieces are about being honest, and honestly, I dreaded writing this previous article. As a gay youth in Edmonton, it wasn't fun to dive deeper into the depth of discrimination we face even within our community. It was a sad realization that our world works less so than I'd imagined previously. Despite this awful feeling of disappointment, part of me agrees with this cancellation. Part of that is about the fact that the demands, generally, I agree with; the corporate aspects have gone too far in a parade that originated in a protest against police oppression. However, in no way does that mean that I agree with the conflicts leading to it. Just last year, the parade was held up for around 15 minutes due to a protest at the head of the line about police officers no longer being allowed to participate in the parade, just imagine how long the parade may have been held up this year if the demands had been ignored. Personally, I'm not sure how I feel about police officers (in the parade and in life) but as a white cis person, I don't necessarily think that even if I had an opinion, I wouldn't have the standpoint to voice it. While the LGBTQ community has faced discrimination and oppression, I've been raised on the thought that they're out to do good and in my life, haven't faced anything which contradicts that, why should I get a say?

In the sense of the demands that began this series of unfortunate conflicts, I mentioned before that I agree with most of them. This is just a way to paraphrase, if I were to go through and explain in detail what I agree and disagree with and why, I'd be writing a novel. Sixteen specific demands with intricate definitions and ideas is a surprising amount but I have no disinclination to delving deeper into the more prominent few. To begin, the essential banishment of floats; later on in this article, you'll see more of the idea that corporations have been overpowering pride; to that, I totally agree. In life, we see businesses put pride flags on their logo and call that support, in the parade we see the same idea elevated. Companies offer designed floats reminding us of their support, but it's all too commercial. Pride began as a riot, a protest for our rights, now that lack of rights is no longer an issue. Celebration seems like the way to go, but amongst out community, just being queer isn't enough to fight for. We can't ignore racism with flashy floats or oppression by handing out key chains. Considering I've already touched on police officers, I'll move over to the final one I'll touch on, the vigil. The groups with demands had a point among the list about holding a vigil to those lost because of systematic oppression in racism, transphobia, classism, capitalism, etc. Whether to have this or not is an unquestionable yes from me but that's not all I think. The list of evils wherein we've lost lives is a long one and it seems as though the demands required remembrance for all of said discrepancies, I feel as though this is too broad. Specifically, the mention of classism and capitalism where lives have been lost for centuries. Overall, plenty of the demands were reasonable and others not as much, really though, they aren't what matters now.

Nonetheless, to every dark there is a light. So, I believe that in its own way this can help strengthen our community as a whole. In history, we've been mistreated, misunderstood and diminished (to phrase it in three mild terms)  but overall, we've stayed united as a community. Plenty of life is how we survive and get around tragedy, and while a tragedy this is not, a downfall it is and without sounding to cliché, it's a downfall we will withstand.

Now, for a more experienced opinion, I had the honour of interviewing local Edmonton drag queen, Ivy League. Recently graduated from the University of Alberta with a Bachelor of Sciences with specialization in Biochemistry, Ivy's been performing in drag for just over three years now and holds the many titles of Miss Arthouse (2017), Miss Gay Edmonton (reigning), Miss Evolution (reigning), and the place of runner up for Alberta's Next Drag Superstar 2019.

Here's what they had to say:

Were you supposed to perform in or around the parade?

I was going to be walking with the ICWR, it's a drag performance based charity organization so we raise money for certain queer charities. So this year supporting trans related issues which is geared towards Edmonton homelessness. 25%, so a disproportionate amount of kids that are homeless are queer.

What, overall do you understand about the controversy?

So one of the things that they [Shades of Colour YEG and RaricaNow] had wanted to have changed was to take away police and military presence in pride, right. Lot's of debate over that within the community. That was that discussion. Then this year, they  had more demands that they presented. The Edmonton Pride Society tried to listen; Shades of Colour, RaricaNow didn't present them in the best way, then the Edmonton Festival Pride Society got a little heated, they [the other groups] got a little heated. They started behaving like children there was no violence, at least no physical violence, and the police were called on the people protesting the meeting which was not okay. You can tell which narratives are being pushed by which story is being told.

What's your overall opinion? Do you think it was a good idea to cancel? Could it have been handled differently?

I think there could have been an agreement struck between the groups. On one hand the demands by the group protesting or wanting the change were a little ridiculous considering they're a not for profit organization and they wanted $20 000 for each group  and an additional $2 000 for a sober dance party. I think if there has been more of a "okay we'll do our best to communicate" and "we'll do our best to communicate" they would have had a much better result than the cancellation of pride. They were both obviously fed up and not happy with each other and it's not good, it's not bad it's just something that happened and then they just pulled the power card and cancelled pride. They could have been a bigger person and try to work with them more but it's hard when you're being told "we're gonna protest your event if you don't do every one of these things." It's not good on either side

What about the demands do you agree with? For example, not having floats…

I think it's an interesting perspective because something that those groups have addressed  is the corporate nature of pride, how it's more of rich white gays being able to walk around and have fun and less of an actual advocacy for those who need it now.  I think there's a huge thing to be said about how far we've come in the community because if you go back 50 years ago that was when homosexuality was decriminalized but even then after that things were still brutal for people. So like gong away from the corporate nature and back into the protest would be good for people to get the representation that they need I think is an excellent idea but I think it should be done strategically in a way that invites everyone to the table because when you're just being like "you're a freak" people aren't going to be as inclined to listen as compared to when they're invited to the table to really learn with and celebrate the positives because I find that celebrating the positives makes the negatives more manageable. I think that completely eliminating the celebratory component just drives people away when you're marginalized you need people to speak up for you and you're driving away the people who speak up for you.

How do you feel about police officers in the parade?

Police and military haven't always treated queer/trans, people of colour the best and that's a gross understatement. As a white cis gay male, I don’t think I should have any say because I haven't experienced that oppression and that trauma I shouldn't have a voice in the matter. I think the people who have should be listened to and should be taken seriously, because they're not. So they're saying that they don’t want police in uniform in the parade until repromations are made, totally down for it. And now the Edmonton Police Service is starting to make those reparations and repair things, so I'm optimistic that in a couple of years, they'll be back in the parade marching and celebrating with the community.

How does this relate to our current political climate?

I think it [the recent election] made tensions higher, when the political climate gets more turbulent, especially for queer people, we have our history of people wanting to take our rights away, just look at our neighbors down south. It's just not great when the super conservative groups are projected to be successful, and they're here now, and although I don't think it has any direct tie in I think it made everyone watching on the edge of their seats, it was just another thing our community did not need right now.

What should be different about our current pride festival?

I do enjoy the idea of making pride less corporate because it is just a big corporate party essentially where businesses are like "I donated this much, I get to feel good about myself regardless of whether I've done anything to agree to celebrate or help queer people." More celebrating and advocating for people who have no voice is the biggest thing and I think that's something pride has lacked in the last few years.

What experience do you have with others in the community? How are they reacting?

So many different opinions. I mean, look at social media, the one rule with social media is that everyone is right no matter what. So people are disagreeing with each other, so many different opinions. It's wild. I think they [members of the community] have opinions similar to mine, and those who don’t, that's okay.
 

How will this help our community? For example, make it stronger…

I'm optimistic that the community will settle down after a while. Though the cancellation of pride, obviously it drew a lot of attention, so I'm hoping those people that aren't necessarily as involved in what's happening see this as a wake-up call to "woah we need to be actually communicating with each other." Then moving forward so that we're all on the same page to work towards a better future for queer people. So, I'm optimistic that these shitty occurrences will lead to something better down the road. The only question I have is how long they'll take.

This interview was a wonderful opportunity for me to search deeper into such an important issue. The ideas and opinions of others in this community are just as important as creating our own. So with that I leave you with a quote from the interview in which I wasn't quite sure of where to place:

"Talking to old people about their experiences, it’s heartbreaking. I think that those who are most vulnerable now would benefit from talking to those who were most vulnerable then and lived through that; because then they'll realize they have so much in common."