Pride Month a success for Alberta towns this year, despite an increase in backlash
Political leaders, LGBTQ groups see growing support despite threats and vandalism
On a sunny evening last week, a crowd of revellers celebrating Pride Month in Westlock, Alta., painted a rainbow crosswalk for the first time in the town's history.
Despite some worries that the event could be disrupted by protests, it went off without a hitch.
"I know that this is a kind and loving and compassionate community," Mayor Ralph Leriger said at the event. "I had faith that they would show up to support, and they have."
The crosswalk project had been proposed by the Thunder Alliance, a group that supports members of the LGBTQ community at R.F. Staples Secondary School in the town 90 kilometres north of Edmonton.
In May, councillors voted unanimously to support painting the crosswalk on 106th Street, between Westlock's town hall and the Royal Canadian Legion. But at a council meeting June 12, some people showed up to voice angry objections.
Protesters asked if the town should use its authority to support a group's interest. One resident wrote to council comparing the Pride crosswalk to the Nazi flag, calling it a means to promote an agenda.
"We did receive a lot more pushback than we anticipated," Heidi Mills, a school social worker and a lead teacher with the Thunder Alliance, said at the crosswalk-painting event.
"Despite all of the hate that we've received, look at this crowd," she said, gesturing to the group of more than 200 people. "It's giving me goosebumps right now."
Like Westlock, other small towns across Alberta this June celebrated the LGBTQ community with crosswalk paintings, parade floats and outdoor events.
Every year, more communities are embracing Pride. But politicians, police and LGBTQ groups are growing increasingly concerned about outspoken backlash promoting division and hate.
Hate incidents on the rise
Alberta RCMP saw a spike in reported hate incidents in June compared to previous years.
By the end of the month, police had received 14 reports about incidents targeting LGBTQ people, compared with five reports in June 2022. Reports included graffiti, the theft of a Pride flag and tire burnouts on rainbow crosswalks.
"There's been more sidewalks created this year than ever, which is great," said RCMP Supt. Mike McCauley. "But unfortunately, it's leading to more damage and more acts of hate."
He cited incidents of crosswalk vandalism in Okotoks, south of Calgary, and Ponoka, north of Red Deer.
At the end of May, a rainbow painted on the front steps at Ponoka United Church was splattered with black tar. The steps had been painted every year since 2018, but this was the first time they had been vandalized. They were repainted on June 1.
The backlash has made members of the LGBTQ community feel unsafe, said Chris Struik, a member of Ponoka's Pride Society.
"Those voices are getting louder to quiet our own," Struik said. "We really need to deeply support the community, not just a little bit, but loudly and obviously."
The website stophateab.ca, which documents hate incidents in the province, has also seen a rise in reports of anti-LGBTQ hate this year.
"In previous years there's been more visibility around Pride. This year it's still there, but I think this year we've also seen the most conflict," said founder and researcher Irfan Chaudhry.
"I don't think we want to go backwards."
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Regulating hateful speech has become increasingly challenging for civic politicians.
On June 26, a city council meeting in Leduc, south of Edmonton, was shut down after speakers showed up to oppose a rainbow crosswalk and the city's decision to raise a Pride flag.
Leduc had painted a crosswalk using the Progress Pride flag, which adds a triangle with stripes of brown and black to the rainbow, representing solidarity with people of colour, and light blue, light pink and white to represent support for the transgender community.
At the council meeting, people in the gallery applauded as a man spoke out against the flag.
Coun. Ryan Pollard asked the speaker to follow procedures and watch his language. Then another speaker stood up to voice conspiracy theories that the flag was about criminal behaviour and sexual abuse.
A few minutes after her speech began, the online stream of the meeting went dark.
Pollard said a recess was called to allow tempers to cool, but after he left the room he could still hear screaming.
The meeting was derailed as people ignored repeated requests to leave. Some in the crowd began threatening others who support the LGBTQ community, Pollard said.
It marked the first time city staff and council had been concerned about their safety and unable to control speakers, he said.
'Particularly hard year'
St. Albert Mayor Cathy Heron has noticed people feeling increasingly emboldened to spread hateful messages since the restrictions phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Political divisions in the United States have added fuel to anti-LGBTQ sentiments, she said.
"This has been a particularly hard year," said Heron, who is also president of Alberta Municipalities.
Each June for several years, St. Albert has painted a rainbow crosswalk. This year the city painted a Progress Pride flag. It had to be repainted several times after being defaced with tire marks, Heron said.
"As mayors and any kind of community leaders … you have to stand up, you have to say this is wrong, and you have to support those who need support," she said.
Heron has consulted with other Alberta communities as they have painted rainbow crosswalks.
'Loved and accepted'
Members of the group Outloud St. Albert attended the festivities in Westlock when that town's Pride event went ahead.
A single protester showed up. The vast majority of people were there to paint and celebrate.
"All of these kids, who are going through the same things I did, know from this crosswalk that they are loved and accepted," said 17-year-old Shaylin Lussier, a recent graduate of R.F. Staples school and member of the Thunder Alliance that had proposed the crosswalk.
"That's something I would have wanted."
In Ponoka, Pride organizers said they have been motivated by the positive feedback they received this year, in spite of the vandalism and anti-LGBTQ sentiments, including from now-MLA Jennifer Johnson.
During the provincial election campaign, a leaked recording from September 2022 emerged with Johnson likening transgender children in schools to adding feces to a batch of cookies.
Johnson was running for the United Conservative Party but is sitting as an Independent.
During this year's Pride Month, a teenager wrote to the Ponoka Pride Society to say the local events had given them the courage to come out to their parents, said member Jessica Jones.
"We do feel this Pride has been the most successful Pride we've seen in the history of Ponoka," she said.
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With files from Madeline Smith and Brendan Coulter