July 17 2025, Calgary (Moh’kinsstis) – Calgary Pride Reviews Annual Pride Parade Application Process and Continued Pause of Political Participation:
Every Labour Day long weekend, Calgary comes together to celebrate the city’s vibrant 2SLGBTQIA+ community during the Calgary Pride Parade and Festival. Our priority first and foremost is to ensure that Calgary Pride continues to be a celebration of our community and an opportunity to stand up for our rights – to be represented, safe, and respected for the diversity of our lived experiences.
Each year we face complex, often high-profile decisions about which entities or individuals we accept as participants in the parade. While we appreciate the growing interest in showing support for the Calgary 2SLGBTQIA+ community, we at Calgary Pride have a responsibility to ensure our partners and their allyship is proven to be genuine and reflective of our best interests, both as Calgarians and as members of this diverse community. After careful review of recent feedback, established data, and considerations for the future of Calgary Pride, we are continuing to hold the position that this year’s Calgary Pride Parade will take place without any participation from political parties.
Calgary Pride encourages politicians and political party affiliates to attend the Parade and Festival as individuals – not as political representatives – to celebrate Pride with us. We recognize that many politicians are authentic in their allyship and that some are indeed members of our community, which is why this decision was not taken lightly. We would like to emphasise that politicians and political party affiliates are invited to walk with non-political organizations who have been approved to participate in the Parade.
This is a sacred time for our community to celebrate our pride, which has not always been possible throughout history. As the geopolitical, social, economic, and environmental climates undergo rapid evolution this year, it is imperative for us – more than ever – to listen to our community and implement feedback week to week, month to month, and year to year.
We believe this continued pause of political participation will support our mission of genuinely representing Calgary’s 2SLGBTQIA+ community, and further strengthen our support for each other. Calgary Pride would like to thank members from all generations of our community who have laid the groundwork for allowing Calgary Pride the honour of representing the authentic diversity of our lived experiences in Calgary/Moh’kinsstis; as well as all allies who have supported the 2SLGBTQIA+ community through ever-changing circumstances.
We encourage members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community to provide feedback, ask questions, and share thoughts and experiences with us! Please send any questions/comments/queries to board@calgarypride.ca, and we look forward to enhancing the Calgary Pride experience for our community in 2026. Please note that due to the volume of feedback, we may not be able to respond directly to every individual, but will strive to have your voices and opinions represented to the Board of Directors at Calgary Pride.
