UCP holds Pride breakfast near parade after application rejected
People trickled in and out of a subdued United Conservative Party Pride breakfast Saturday, held just blocks away from official festivities after the party ’s application to march in the parade was rejected.
“This is just a relaxed, family event,” said UCP Leader Jason Kenney, who was joined by party MLAs Tany Yao and Mike Ellis outside the McKernan Community League.
“We don’t judge people based on what god they worship or who they love or where they came from,” he said, repeating a phrase he has used when talking about inclusivity in the party. “Alberta believes in the frontier spirit of live and let live.”
The UCP’s application to march in the parade along Whyte Avenue was rejected by the Edmonton Pride Festival Society in May.
“My mom told me not to show up at a party I’m not invited to,” Kenney told reporters earlier this week. “We’ll be doing our best to support the broader community while respecting the decision of the organizers.”
The festival society said the UCP application failed to speak to any direct action “to support the inclusion of all segments of the LGBTQ2S+ community.”
The NDP and Alberta Party applications were approved.
Ahead of marching in the nearby parade, Premier Rachel Notley told reporters that Pride is a chance to celebrate community members “who have done nothing but demonstrate tremendous courage for decades.”
Thirty years ago, people didn’t enjoy the same acceptance they currently have in Edmonton, she said.
“I remember watching a small group of people (marching) ... and people yelling at them and saying awful things,” she said. “And now we’re here.”
At the UCP breakfast, Kenney spoke about the importance of helping gay refugees move to Canada, referencing his time as a federal cabinet minister.
He also told a story about volunteering at an AIDS hospice as an undergraduate student at University of San Francisco in the 1980s.
“I was just there doing menial work helping with laundry and chores,” he said. “But what I saw was these men enveloped by unconditional love offered by those missionaries of charity ... who treated them with tremendous dignity.
“That for me was a life-changing experience.”
Two protesters dressed as handmaids — referencing Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale about a misogynistic society — showed up at the UCP event.
“I find it ironic the handmaids are here and they’re protesting a Pride event,” said UCP volunteer Spencer Bennett.
He said the breakfast aimed to show LGBTQ community members that they’re supported.
“We’re here to show them that we love them,” he said. “There are still a lot of negative things that happen to that community.”