Pride means different things to different people. To me, for instance, it holds a strong political component even while I recognize the celebratory aspect taken on in recent years but, I think, even that dawns a political aspect as we celebrate who and what we are as individuals and as a community.
Others don’t ascribe as much importance to the political nature of Pride. They may not even be aware of what Pride commemorates: the historical beginning of the modern GLBTQ movement with the 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York City. That's fine. Knowing, recognizing, and appreciating our history is, I believe, important, but so is being able to openly celebrate who we are, and have that recognized and affirmed by the dominant culture around us.
Given my perspective, I must admit to some reservations (for lack of a better word) about what I see as a trivializing – I might even say patronizing – observance on the part of non-GLBTQ folk. I absolutely believe those outside of our community should acknowledge and respect Pride celebrations in much the same way as any other cultural celebration is acknowledged and respected. I’m just not sure painting the Pride Rainbow on crosswalks, sidewalks, or a bus is the way to do that.
Really, what tangible benefit arises from doing so? Each of the painted streetways and the Calgary Transit bus that have been gussied up with the Rainbow colours (the sidewalk was done by the Alberta Treasury Branch (ATB) who is a corporate sponsor – and a welcome one – of this year’s Pride Week, the crosswalk by the City at the initiation of councillor for Ward 4 Sean Chu) cost several thousand dollars to accomplish; money that perhaps could have been better spent on funding programs within the GLBTQ community. ATB, it should be said, has significantly financially supported Camp Fyrefly and Fyrefly In Schools, two programs dedicated to queer youth.
Our community has certainly made some significant gains in recent years, but there still remains work to be done. GLBTQ youth, trans rights, addiction issues within the community – any number of social ills that can and do beset any community but which, when added in with being GLBTQ, are exacerbated – these all need to be addressed in a systematic and cohesive fashion. In order to do so, such programs are in dire need of funding. The estimated $1,000 Chu forked out to help defray the cost of labour and expenses related to the civic Rainbow Crosswalk, the additional $8,000 Pride Calgary paid for it, the $9,000 it cost to repaint the bus (and repaint it back again, I assume, or is that an additional cost?), and probably a similar amount for the ATB Pride sidewalk add up to a significant chunk of change; approximately $28,000, if not more (such projects always carry hidden or unforeseen costs, like repairing vandalism for instance). Think what $28,000 could mean to a social program, or a small and struggling GLBTQ volunteer-run organization.
Sun columnist Michael Platt, in an August 26th column, dismissed such concerns out-of-hand as the ranting of "bullies" who cannot forgive Chu for his comparing the struggle for, and eventual success of, Irish equal marriage rights to Calgary’s struggle with dedicated bicycle lanes in the downtown core. Yes, a flip and silly tweet; and one for which Chu, to his credit, has apologized for and taken steps to amend.
Pride Calgary sees Chu as an ally; I do too. I don’t think that he meant to be insensitive, let alone homophobic. He just didn’t think – in that insidious little way those who are not part of a particular culture or community can when it comes to comments or views about that culture or community. It happens all the time on Twitter.
So I am not one of the bullies Platt mentions who "find glee in picking on Chu" and who refuse to forgive him for one silly comment. I didn’t find the comment all that offensive when he made it, just weird and a bit dismissive. He has apologized, he has offered support to the community, and he has even put his money where his mouth is. I just happen to think it’s somewhat misplaced but, hey, it's his $1,000.
The reservations I have around painting the Pride colours on crosswalks and a bus have nothing to do with forgiveness for a momentary lapse in judgement, or about dismissing his attempts to make amends. He needed to apologize and he has. As far as I was concerned, that should have been the end of it.
My point is that it's easy to slap six bright colours on something and call it ‘support’, but it has no substance to it, which real support should have. Painting Pride Rainbow colours on something, to say nothing of the accompanying expense of doing so, is hollow.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of Pride observations in Calgary. That in itself is something to celebrate. That Pride would evolve into something this big, this accepted, was not something we, who organized that first small gathering in Central Park 25 years ago, ever imagined. Hoped for? Yes. Pride parades had been an established occurrence in many other cities, most notably American, for 30 years by the time a handful of activists from CLAGPAG decided it was high time Calgary got going on this. Looking back, I would have to say that, yes, we may have envisioned Calgary Pride eventually being like what we saw happening elsewhere, but I don’t know if we ever thought it would actually happen. Calgary was not San Francisco or New York City. Calgary in 1990 was still a very conservative environment. At the time, we had almost no rights whatsoever. In 1990, we had zero protection under provincial human rights legislation, and the possibility of being fired from our jobs, denied access to public services, evicted from rental accommodation, and being denied that accommodation to begin with, was a very real thing – all with no recourse.
That is what Pride, in part, is about: acknowledging where we, as both individuals and as a community, came from and what we have accomplished. Seeing our Pride flag still fills me with emotion. I love seeing it hanging from balconies and flying on flagpoles throughout the city during the week. It tells me we have ‘arrived’. The Rainbow flag was meant to be used as a visual cue to our presence in society.
Gilbert Baker, the San Francisco-based designer of the original flag (1978) never copyrighted it, and based it on any number of other rainbow flags like the Peace and Co-operative Movement flags used all over the world. The different colours in the flag represent the diversity of the GLBTQ community. The flag was originally designed with eight colours (pink for sexuality and turquoise for art/magic, but were removed for production purposes). The remaining colours symbolize aspects of GLBTQ culture and community (red-life, orange-healing, yellow-light, green-nature, blue-harmony, and violet-spirit). It is, therefore, an important symbol.
Yes, Baker’s intent was for it to be widely used in whatever manner those who used it saw fit. I understand that. Which is why I don’t have a whole lot of issues with the Pride colours being used on everything from coffee mugs to jewellery but, somehow, having them used on a pedestrian crosswalk seems, well, pedestrian. It just strikes me as somewhat disrespectful, although I know it is not intended to be. However, I do think it was ill-advised and a colossal waste of money that could have been better used elsewhere.
