The Edmonton Pride Festival Society (EPFS) organizes the yearly Edmonton Pride Parade, and accepts applications from businesses, groups, and nonprofits who are interested in marching in the Parade.
Each year parade applicants are reviewed by a committee made up of Edmonton Pride Festival Society (EPFS) board members, EPFS volunteers, and community members. The purpose of this is to ensure applicants that are accepted into the parade are connected, engaged, and welcoming of the LGBTQ2S+ community. Applications are scored based on set criteria, which is:
1. How connected is the applicant to the LGBTQ2S+ community?
2. What policies and values do they have for the inclusion of all segments of the LGBTQ2S+ community?
3. What plans do they have for the future to be more inclusive of all segments of the LGBTQ2S+ community?
4. What is their plan to incorporate this year’s theme into their entry?
5. Does the application seem sincere?
Applicants are scored in each category as "exceeding expectations", "meeting expectations", or "not meeting expectations".
When the committee reviewed the application for the United Conservative Party (UCP), they found it did not meet expectations for the above mentioned criteria. This is the reason the committee recommended that the UCP application be declined. Some comments made by the committee were:
1. In their application the UCP did not speak to any direct action they take or will take to support the inclusion of all segments of the LGBTQ2S+ community. The answers were not direct and simply addressed the community as a whole.
2. Compared to other applications, the content was sparse. It did not include any details as to how they would be supportive of the community, only that they say they will.
3. With no official policies at the time of selection, the committee could only look at past policy of the organizations that formed the UCP, as well as the ideas and opinions shared publicly by their representatives, leadership, and membership, to determine the sincerity of the application that was submitted.
Every year, the Edmonton Pride Festival grows bigger. In the past few years, we have had to be more demanding of our applicants as we grew to a point where we didn’t have the space for everyone who wanted to march. In our applications, we ask very specific questions to elicit information about the applicant that pertains to our selection criteria. In their application, the UCP did not demonstrate that they should be chosen to march in the Pride Parade over other applicants, and thus were unsuccessful in their application to march in this year’s Pride Parade.
The decision made to decline the UCP application to the parade was based on the content of their application which did not sufficiently convince the selection committee that the UCP should be chosen over other organizations. We have invited the UCP to apply again next year, and have provided feedback on how they can improve their application.
It has been said that the UCP has been denied access to the Edmonton Pride Festival. This is not accurate. All are welcome at the festival and to watch the Parade. We welcome members of the UCP to attend the festival and participate along with all other festival-goers.
www.edmontonpride.ca
