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—and even then, it wasn’t a real one—were signs about “trans rights” like “stop anti-trans legislation” (no doubt referring to policies being adopted by some Canadian provinces that say parents must be informed of children’s name and pronoun changes at school).

Trans and gender were a major focus of the event. In fact, the Grand Marshalls were a group representing “trans voices.” As the parade approached us, I thought it was being led by a bunch of drag queens, which was essentially the case.

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A post shared by @calgarypride

They were followed closely by the Black Lives Matters contingent, because intersectionality.

Shortly thereafter, I noticed a sign approaching that seemed to say simply, “ALL AGES,” which caused me to raise my eyebrow. As it got closer, I could make out that it actually said, “Drag is for ALL AGES,” which caused me to raise both my eyebrows.

Another float that caught my eye early on was Skipping Stone, a Calgary-based charity that encourages youth transition. I have previously written about Skipping Stone for their Trans Sex Work Peer Group, which had no age limit on participation.

After that, it was an endless stream of corporations and institutions eager to show off their progressive credentials. This included all of Canada’s major banks and airlines, Alberta Health Services, Calgary teachers, and Calgary’s post-secondary schools.

If you need any more proof that the parade and all of “pride” no longer has much to do with same-sex attracted people, consider the inclusion of The Society of Alberta Asexuals and Aromantics. People who have a low libido (or a perfectly normal one that they think is low in an oversexualized culture) are just another group being encouraged to endlessly naval-gaze about their identity and don themselves in stripy flags to show that they too conform with “pride” in their own way but within the acceptable parameters.

Obviously, the parade does not have to be oversexualized. On the one hand, I am actually glad that our parade is not the debacle of debauchery that you see elsewhere. On the other, this veneer of respectability makes it palpable to the public at large, which makes it an easier sell as the quasi-religious spectacle that it actually is.

What is happening at pride parades nowadays is a display of Canada’s new state religion, which law professor Bruce Pardy laid out very well in a brilliant piece for the National Post earlier this summer, writing:

Four academic doctrines — critical theory, postmodernism, social justice and critical race theory — are moving the world, or at least the West, from this triumph to decline. These doctrines reject Enlightenment values such as open inquiry, individual autonomy, free speech, scientific skepticism and even reason itself. They claim to champion equality, peace and social cooperation, but instead promote identity politics, elitism and centralized control. They are the four doctrines of the apocalypse.

Unlike traditional academic inquiry, these “neo-Marxist” doctrines are less theories than programs. They are activist and political. “The philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways,” Marx famously wrote. “The point, however, is to change it.” Critical theory is not to be confused with critical thinking, for to think critically is to reason, explain, critique and challenge. Instead, the purpose of these doctrines is to condemn. They largely consist of ideological assertions not based on data or deduction. They lead with their conclusions.

“Pride” is the fun and friendly public face of this religion, subsuming all with its rainbows and slogans. Unfortunately, while many people are catching on to this reality, they still see it as “gay pride” and connect all of its excesses to same-sex attracted people. This is especially funny, in a sad way, when the majority of those marching in the parade itself were no doubt straight. In fact, I saw many, many young children clearly accompanied by their mothers and fathers, both as participants and spectators.

Don’t get me wrong—plenty of same-sex attracted people are happy to take part in “Pride,” but it is no longer for us or in our best interests. In fact, the entire Pride movement is causing a backlash against us as those who are tired of its demands simply blame the gays and wash their hands of us.

Despite what I really do think is the real seriousness of the situation, I did have some fun with my friend Lois, who marched in the parade wearing a liberated pride flag hoodie and cape. We even snapped a selfie together with the former provincial premier and current New Democratic Party leader, Rachel Notley.

There was one other pleasant surprise that day. After the parade was over, we stopped inside the nearby public library—one of the best features of Calgary’s downtown core. There was a small pride showcase that included this display of Stormé DeLarverie.

My friends and I groaned, wondering what type of revisionism we might read, as Stormé is sometimes posthumously transed and her role in the Stonewall uprisings credited to “trans women of color” instead. But, aside from the use of the ridiculous 2SLGBTQIA+ acronym, it was quite a refreshing read.

“Stormé DeLarverie,” the display said, “was a trailblazing Black lesbian activist… DeLarverie’s resistance against police harassment in the early hours of the Stonewall Uprising in 1969 is often credited with being the catalyst that sparked the protest.”

Maybe not all hope is lost. While the parade came off as a totalizing display of the new state religion, most people seemed to me to be captured only on the surface level. They seem to believe that they are still marching for and supporting people’s right to love who they love, and somewhere in there, the confusing message of gender has wedged itself in.

But I think that they are waiting for something more meaningful to come along because it’s clear that many just want to be part of a good cause that is bigger than themselves. Unfortunately, in the absence of a good cause, they are just opting for a cause.