Vancouver Lunar New Year parade reverses decision to bar progressive, LGBTQ+ groups
Organizers of the Vancouver Chinatown Lunar New Year parade have changed course and rescinded their rejection of two progressive and LGBTQ+ groups that they previously barred from participating.
Organizing committee spokesman Frank Huang said letters had been sent to the groups Chinatown Together and Lunar New Year For All, approving their participation in Sunday’s parade.
Huang didn’t give any reasons for the reversal in a brief interview in Mandarin late Friday.
Chinatown Together’s organizer, Melody Ma, said in a statement that neither group had received a formally signed invitation from the parade organizing committee.
Ma said they’ll be seeking a public apology for harms caused to the LGBTQ+ community, and the youth and elders in Chinatown.
In previous letters and statements, the parade’s committee had told Chinatown Together that it couldn’t march because of a ban on “political activism,” while it rejected another group it didn’t identify because of “the potential for disruption and protests.”
Sunday’s Spring Festival Parade in Vancouver is celebrating its 50th anniversary and marks the year of the dragon, which starts on Saturday.
The event is organized by a consortium of six organizations - the Chinese Benevolent Association of Vancouver, the Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Vancouver, the Vancouver Chinatown Merchants Association, the Chinese Freemasons Vancouver Branch, the Shon Yee Benevolent Association of Canada and social service agency SUCCESS.
Ma is a community activist and vocal critic of gentrification in Chinatown. She has opposed projects such as a residential tower at 105 Keefer Street, which was approved by Vancouver’s permit board last June after years of dispute.
On Tuesday, she posted a letter from the parade’s organizing committee on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, which said Chinatown Together’s participation in the march had been rejected because “political activism finds no place within the spirit of the event.”
The letter dated Feb. 3 said the parade is “dedicated to a sense of unity” and is intentionally distanced from religious or political affiliations. It told Ma “your passion for advocacy has been recognized.”