UPDATE: JULY 21, 2009
When Expect shameless behaviour from politicians during Pride week was first published by The Georgia Straight, it recommended to Pride organizers that they ban the NPA from marching in this year’s Pride Parade. I found the suggestion highly irresponsible and wrote the article below in response. Since then they’ve removed the suggestion. It’s nice to know The Straight is listening.
I should point out that Charlie Smith, the author, is a balanced writer that slams the other guys almost as much as he does us. But I felt he went too far in seeking the banning of a major political party from this year’s parade, and I’m glad The Straight has seen fit to retract the offending statement.
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The NPA has a proud history of championing gay candidates throughout our history too numerous to list. Our new Board of Directors is the most diverse in our history and matches any political organization in this city for its broad inclusiveness. The NPA also happens to have an openly gay man in the top leadership, yours truly as the External VP for the organization. I also ran for the NPA last fall as an openly-gay, married man and proud, past-President of Gays and Lesbians of UBC. (That’s what it was called back when we were organizing the gay rights movement in Vancouver to respond to the AIDS crisis.)
Our elected councillor, Suzanne Anton, was at the forefront of efforts to help the Odyssey and the endangered drag community that rehearses and performs there. According to Xtra West, “Odyssey supporters left city hall outraged Apr 9 after council turned down the popular gay club’s application to relocate to Denman St. NPA councillor Suzanne Anton cast the only vote in favour of the Denman St location. Vision Vancouver councillor Kerry Jang compared the loss of one of Vancouver’s longest-running gay spaces to his father’s favourite Chinese restaurant closing. His father found a new restaurant and got over it, Jang told council.”
Perhaps the reason Dr. Jang can’t tell the difference between the Odyssey and a chinese restaurant is because he never took the time to meet the patrons. Suzanne went a number of times, and took me with her one night. The Odyssey is far more than a dance club – it’s a cultural space, a community space, and a support system for an embattled minority within a minority. We met a DJ and his bride to be, who were sustained through more than a decade by the club’s generous support of the transgendered and drag community. They were very emotional as they told us how much the Odyssey meant to them, how supportive the club was – providing the rehearsal and performance space they needed, and providing a much-needed focal point for their community.
What Suzanne Anton made possible was a reprieve that gave the Odyssey a little more time to find a new home, and a chance for its patrons to be heard, in contrast with a hard-hearted government willing to throw the drag and trans-gendered community out onto the street, insulting them in the process.
The NPA celebrates Vancouver’s diversity which is our own. We embrace and reflect the multicultural nature of our society, and celebrate the contribution of the GLBT community to making Vancouver a better, more vibrant and fun city to live in.
Vancouver’s Pride Parade is the biggest and most broadly supported parade in the City. I worked hard along with others that worked even harder at a time we weren’t greeted with applause in those early years. Why does the Georgia Straight want to prevent me from marching now?
My suggestion would be that we should all be working together to keep narrow-minded bigotry out of the parade and ensure that everyone that wants to can march in it, rather than attempting to politicize the parade and risk eroding any of the broad-based support it now enjoys.
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