It is that time of the year again. See the Calendar of Pride events Vancouver Pride Events.
Union members from all the sectors will be marching under the MultiUnion Pride banner. British Columbia Federation of Labour sponsors a float and the all the unions hand out great swag! CUPE’s is the best.
Sunday August 5, 2012
Meeting Place: Thurlow and Haro in front of Section C (Beside the Firehall)
We should be there by 11.00 AM (no entry after 12.00 noon)
Marchers must be at the site by 12.00
History
Vancouver’s earliest Pride celebrations began when the Gay Alliance Towards Equality (GATE) organized a picnic and art exhibit in Ceperley Park. The August 1973 edition of GATE’s newspaper, Gay Tide, features coverage of “Gay Pride Week ‘73.”, and was followed shortly thereafter by the first Pride Parade in 1978. In 2011 some activists claimed that the actual Pride Parade did not start until 1981. The parade, which covered only one side of the street while the other remained open to traffic, ran from Nelson Park to Alexandra Park via Thurlow, Pacific and Beach.
The annual Pride Parade is the largest Parade in Western Canada, and one of the largest in North America. Starting at 12 noon on the day of the Pride Festival, at Robson Street and Thurlow Street, the Parade heads West down Robson to Denman Street, follows Denman to Pacific and Beach Avenues and finishes at the Sunset Beach Festival Site.
The Parade has a contingent of approximately 150 entries, including cars, floats and marching units. Among the regulars are the Vancouver Police and Fire Departments, Dykes on Bikes, PFLAG, Little Sister’s Bookstore, and many of the bars and clubs from the Davie Village. A regular feature of each Parade is an institution of Parade Marshalls. Often it is a person representing a country where simillar events are banned and gay people are still persecuted. 2010 Parade Grand Marshall was Nikolai Alekseev from Moscow, Russia.
With thanks to the Vancouver Pride Sooiety and Wikipedia
in solidarity – See you there with the rest of the world. I will be marching with Union Pride – Alex