A giant rainbow flag is carried down Robson Street during a Pride parade. Photo from The Canadian Press, Darryl Dyck.
It’s Pride week in Vancouver, a week of celebration in Davie Village leading up to one of Vancouver’s most colourful events: the Pride Parade. The parade starts at noon at Robson and Thurlow Streets on Sunday, July 31. This is the 38th annual parade and the event is expected to attract a crowd of 650,000 people. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is scheduled to join this year’s festivities.
The parade originated in 1978 as a peaceful protest and has evolved into a huge annual celebration of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender pride. The Parade is put on by the Vancouver PRIDE Society, a non-profit organization that brings together members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,Transgender, Two-Spirited and Queer (LGBTQ2) community, their friends, allies and supporters in celebration of the unique spirit and culture of the community. The theme for this year’s parade is Better Together.
In a story published in 24, Alan Jernigan president of the board of directors for Vancouver Pride Society, says that the theme addresses the need for the community to look out for one another to guarantee basic human rights. On July 25, the province of BC introduced a bill to add “gender identity and expression” to the Human Rights Code to protect against discrimination based on gender identity or expression.
United Way British Columbia’s vision is a healthy, caring, inclusive community.