Vancouver Pride Week begins

Pride flags have been raised at Vancouver city hall, to mark the beginning of Pride Week in the city.

Officially running from July 26 to Aug. 4, members of the Vancouver Pride Society, City of Vancouver, and other dignitaries came together on Monday to officially launch the week-long event. This was marked with the reading of the Pride Week proclamation, as well as the raising of seven flags: the Transgender flag, Progress Pride flag, Two-Spirit and Pride flags from the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, and the Greater Vancouver Native Cultural Society.

Justin Khan, co-chair of the Vancouver Pride Society Board of Directors, says this year’s Pride Week will run for 10 days and is expected to draw 300,000 people, marking Vancouver Pride’s “largest celebration to date.”

In addition to some new events, Vancouver Pride will also be hosting its inaugural Queer Rights Summit, focused on “2SLGBTQAI human rights issues in Canada.”

“We’re continuing to see a shift in narrative, a shift in reality in relation to 2SLGBTQAI humarn rights issues in Canada. If you look at across our provinces, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Alberta, there are school boards that are wanting to put a shift on gender-inclusive language, gender inclusion generally, and it’s important that we bring those conversation to the forefront of the work that we’re doing here in Vancouver Pride to ensure that our members of our community, all members of our community are accepted and feel safe and respected,” Khan, a human rights lawyer, explained.

Of course, the week’s marquee event — the Pride Parade — is also part of the schedule, and just like everything else, it’s expected to be the biggest the city has ever seen.

“It’ll be our largest parade to date. We have over 150 confirmed registrants as part of the parade,” explained Khan.

The groups will make their way down an over-three-kilometre route, new as of last year. The route was changed to be more accessible and allow for growth of the event.

“Pride Week in Vancouver symbolizes our progress towards acceptance, safety, and equality thanks to enduring efforts of community activists in the City of Vancouver,” said Vancouver Deputy Mayor Mike Klassen.

Some Pride parades in North America have seen disruptions by pro-Palestinian protesters in the last month, such as in Toronto.

Khan says no matter what, safety is top of mind.

“There are ongoing conversations. A big reality of the work we want to do is listening to our communities. We know that memebrs of our community, some of the most marginalized folks, some folks with intersectional identities, have concerns around Pride and what the future of Pride looks like. Really thinking back, Pride started as a protest, remains a protest, it’s a fight for human rights. We’ll continue to listen to our community and we’ll have to play it day by day. We also recognize that the right to protest is a cornerstone of our democracy and it also takes us back to our roots,” he said.

“It’s certainly on our minds, it’s on our radars. As I mentioned, we’re having ongoing conversations with the city to ensure just the safety of folks, and it may mean that Pride looks a little bit different this year.”