Annual Dyke and Trans March brings politics to Calgary Pride

Calgary's annual pride parade is expected to draw tens-of-thousands of attendees to the celebration on Sunday.

But on Saturday, marchers gathered for what they described as a more political event.

Roughly 200 people walked up Fourth Street S.W. for the ninth annual Treaty 7 Dyke & Trans March with no floats, or corporate representation in sight.

Marchers carried signs with statements of advocacy and support for the LGBTQ2S+ community, like "trans rights are human rights."

Others took a stronger tone "we're here, we're queer, we hate the f--king government."

Amelia Newbert, founder of Skipping Stone Foundation which supports trans and gender-diverse youth, said both eventsare extremely important for different reasons.

"I think tomorrow during the pride march to me is about celebrating the accomplishments of our community, our resiliency, all of the beautiful people. But it doesn't allow a lot of space for people to be able to express their hurt and their anger and those are equally as valid. So that's what today was all about," Newbert said.

"The parade on Sunday is fantastic but it's also become quite large and quite commercial."

While the march was open to all community members and allies, the focus was to give a voice and bring visibility to groups that are often marginalized even within the greater LGBTQcommunity, like trans, lesbian, two-spirit and non-binary people.

Whether pride events should centre around celebration or protest has been a matter of intense debate among LGBTQ activists.

Calgary's first pride parades were actually protest marches in the 1980s, when police denied marchers permits for their event and defiant marchers walked to city hall anyway. The first official parade wasn't held until 1991.

The debate has led to clashes over whether or not police or certain political partiesshould be welcomed at the event.

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Emma Ladouceur, one of the board members of the group behind the event, said they would be marching in Sunday's Pride Parade as well.

"We as an organization have not been in the parade before but we will this year, to make sure we can bring our political messages to the parade and kind of being there in recognition of our history of our roots and the foundation of pride as a movement," Ladouceur said.

This year's parade takes place on Sept. 1at 11 a.m. along Sixth Avenue downtown.