This year’s Calgary Pride Parade will be as non-partisan as a parade can get.
That’s because Calgary Pride announced Wednesday that it has decided to not approve any political parties to march in this year’s parade.
“Calgary Pride received a record number of applications to participate in the Pride Parade this year, and we were not able to accommodate them all,” said Pride communications rep Kathryn Kolaczek, in a release.
The Pride board arrived at its decision following a ranking of each applicant, where they determined that the only political party that would have made the cut was the NDP.
That was offset by the request of several members of the board that they would prefer to have no political parties at all participate in the parade.
While Calgary Pride acknowledged the support of the NDP on various LGBTQ2S+ issues, they said that only inviting the NDP to the parade might send unwelcome messages to the community, including the suggestion that “some political parties would be unfairly perceived as against LGBTQ2S+ rights", as well as the suggestion that “community members who did not vote for the NDP might see their place in our community as less than.”
The Pride Parade takes place Sunday, September 1, at 11 a.m.
