The Rainbow Parade of the New State Religion

Happy Pride!

This past weekend, I attended the Calgary Pride Parade for the first time since 2016. My initial impression was that it was needlessly and ridiculously long. I quit after about 2 1/2 hours and it still continued. The reason for this egregious length was that every major corporation with a presence in Alberta had a presence at the parade. And while I feel that the corporatization of Calgary Pride keeps it very tame and family-friendly, I was ultimately left with the impression that this was fundamentally a showcase of the new corporate state religion.

Don’t get me wrong—the atmosphere was fun and festive but, for a very long time now, the pride parade has had nothing to do with gay liberation or gay acceptance. We already have that here. The constant shouts of “Happy Pride!” are not meant as shorthand for “Happy Gay Pride!” As my friend, Neil, remarked to me, the greeting was a little unnerving. We are simply celebrating pride for pride’s sake.

The only liberatory elements of the parade—…