Demise of Edmonton Pride

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Coming soon to a Pride march near you!

>>Global News has obtained a copy of an email sent out by the Edmonton Pride Festival Society explaining why the 2019 edition of the annual event, which aims to educate people and create a spirit of unity by celebrating gender and sexual diversity, has been called off. …
The society was presented with a list of seven demands including ending the Pride Parade and providing annual funding for Shades of Color and RaricaNow. …
“So no floats, no corporate, just community groups and it would be a protest march instead, and then they asked for each group to receive $20,000 a year in funding from us.”…
The Pride Society’s decision not to act on a call to ban police and military officers from taking part in the festival boiled over during the Pride Parade last summer.
The parade was stalled for about a half-hour when demonstrators blocked the route to demand that police, RCMP and military members be banned from marching in future parades.<<

18 Comments for “Demise of Edmonton Pride”

  1. posted by Tom Scharbach on

    The LGBT movement has always been fractious and disruptive internally, at least since Stonewall, when young activists told the veterans of the Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis to get the hell out of the way of progress, and the veterans were shocked and offended, writing long articles in the Voice and other publications echoing Walter Olson’s sentiments.

    Things didn’t get better after that, either. The movement has seen turmoil over Act Up!, deep and bitter arguments between gays and lesbians over goals and tactics, and a half million other things. Hell, today we can’t even agree over whether we should be an “LG” movement or an “LGB” movement or an “LGBT” movement or an “LGBTQ” (an so on) movement.

    Pride has changed, too. In the early days, Pride was a statement of defiance, and it was a bit dangerous to participate, with blacklisting and all. The cops participated mainly by looking for any excuse to make an arrest. No businesses other than niche businesses serving the gay/lesbian community, would touch Pride. Pride has ossified over the years, becoming a corporate production, a “nice thing”/”safe place” event in which anger and defiance are seen as a disruption and a threat.

    I have neither a clue nor an opinion about the issues involved in the Edmonton dispute, or who is right and who is wrong. But I’m not falling into Walter Olson’s nostalgia trap. I know better. The progress we’ve made toward “equal means equal” was a long, hard fight, won on the ground and in a million confrontations by hundreds of thousands of gays and lesbians who were willing to forgo “nice things” and “safe places” for the sake of equality. So if “nice things” and “safe places” go by the wayside as the next round of the fight develops, so be it.

  2. posted by JohnInCA on

    And again, Miller is complaining that (group X he largely despises) isn’t supporting (person/place/thing he largely despises) that he also doesn’t support, because they’re not doing it for his preferred reasons.

    Like I said: he’s arguing in bad faith.

    • posted by kosh III on

      Again, focusing on something almost no one knows or cares about while ignoring the continued hate and abuse spewing out from the GOP/Conservatives/Theocrats.

    • posted by Tom Scharbach on

      What conservative homosexuals seem to want is for Pride to become pablum, a corporate-sponsored paean to the beneficence of traditional culture, an homage to gratitude and contentment. How many times have you heard these folks argue that now that we’ve won marriage, we have everything anyone could ever want and should stop asking for anything more? No anger, no disruption, no acting out, no nothing you won’t find at a Baptist hospitality hour.

  3. posted by mike king & David Bauler on

    Minneapolis Pride has businesses, nonprofits, political parties, etc. all without too much complaining.

  4. posted by Jorge on

    This smells of either liberals proving water is wet or something born from the age of Trump. Either way, nothing stays dead forever.

    “Non-negotiable demands”? Give me a break. When faced with one who is both a narcissist and who has had their dignity violated, there is no such thing as negotiation. Neither can you deny your own just self-respect. You must do the right thing, deliver the justice that is needed, be transparent, and accept that you won’t be thanked for it.

    They wanted the festival canceled to remove a source of evil from their sight. And now they have it. All is right in the world.

    • posted by Tom Scharbach on

      … born of the age of Trump …

      Canadians are no doubt grateful that they have their own country and aren’t much affected internally by “the age of Trump”.

      • posted by Jorge on

        There aren’t many good excuses for mass hysteria.

        • posted by Tom Scharbach on

          … mass hysteria …

          What’s that? Three Canadians raising their eyebrows at the same time?

          Don’t hype out of proportion. The situation in Edmonton is nothing more than a dispute within the LGBT community in Edmonton. There is no mass hysteria.

          • posted by Jorge on

            The list of “non-negotiable demands”. The verbal and physical harassment of board members and their meeting, and the relatively shrinking leadership. Did you even read the article?

          • posted by Tom Scharbach on

            Yeah, I read the article. What the article describes is a dispute within the LGBT community in Edmonton, a somewhat nasty dispute to be certain. It does not describe mass hysteria.

  5. posted by Lori Heine on

    Pride has indeed become a corporate festival. It’s now almost impossible for ordinary people to afford. In Phoenix we have the Rainbows Festival, which is what Pride used to be. Other things will continue to arise to take its place.

  6. posted by Mike King & David "TJ" Bauler on

    Lori;

    I thought that a libertarian — such as yourself — would love the involvement of our supreme corporate overlords ;0)

    But seriously now. Minneapolis Pride certainly has businesses (large and small), but it also has nonprofits, religious and secular groups, major and minor parties, etc. Maybe people just need to shut up and let a Minnesotan organize Pride.

    • posted by Lori Heine on

      Well, we have supreme corporate overlords in the first place because we have big, corporate-run government. Nothing libertarian about that.

      But if you want to come to Phoenix and organize our Pride festival, it could only be an improvement.

  7. posted by Tom Scharbach on

    Maybe people just need to shut up and let a Minnesotan organize Pride.

    Don’t cha know, could be worse, you betcha, but we Wisconsites don’t even want you coming across the border unless you plan to spend a lot of money in our tourist traps.

    • posted by Jorge on

      Nothing says MAGA like spending carpetbagger cash on tacky Made In China craftsmanship.

  8. posted by mike king & David Bauler on

    lori :and big business could do what evil it does, more so, if the govt treated big business like soverign nations

    wisconsin; your men are sexy, but your tourist traps not so much.

    • posted by Lori Heine on

      But government already does treat big businesses like sovereign nations. You’re talking about things that are already happening, and about which “progressives” have done nothing but make matters worse.

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