CALGARY, September 6, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Premier Alison Redford became the first Alberta premier to march in a gay pride parade when she acted as grand marshal for the Calgary homosexual event on Sunday.
“I was extremely honoured to be the first Premier of Alberta to march in the Calgary Pride Parade today,” said the leader of Alberta's Progressive Conservative government on Facebook.
“It was a colourful, fun afternoon and an event that reminds us how open, welcoming and dynamic is our great province,” Redford said.
She also hosted a “Gay Pride Brunch” during the city's homosexual festivities to raise funds for Camp fYrefly, which is, according to its website, “Canada’s largest leadership retreat for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-identified, two-spirited, queer, and allied (LGBTTQ&A) youth.”
Photos of the Calgary parade show Redford leading the group while holding on to a Camp fYrefly banner.
Camp fYrefly is project of iSMSS, the Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services at the University of Alberta.
The director of iSMSS is Kristopher Wells, a homosexual activist who advised parents to let their 11-year-old gender confused daughter say she was a boy. However, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) still considers gender confusion a mental disorder best treated by “gender dysphoria” psychiatric therapy.
Premier Redford also set a precedent last year for provincial government leaders to participate in homosexual events when she became the first Alberta premier to accept an invitation to speak at Edmonton's 2012 gay pride festival.
While Redford has proclaimed her support for homosexuality through her participation in “pride” events, homosexual activists are saying she is “half-hearted” and hasn't gone far enough.
Calgary Liberal MLA Kent Hehr attacked the Redford government's commitment to promoting and defending homosexuality for passing Bill 44, an amendment to the Alberta's Human Rights Act, which gives parents rights over their children's education.
The bill requires school officials to notify parents of directed classroom discussions about religion, sexuality, or sexual orientation, and gives them the option of pulling their children out of these classes.
The bill also enshrined placed “sexual orientation” on par with race and sex as prohibited forms of “discrimination.”
In an article in the Calgary Herald, Hehr, MLA for Calgary Buffalo, is quoted to say that the existing legislation continues to discriminate against Alberta’s LGBTQ community.
“Until those things are rectified, I can only take the premier’s actions as a half-hearted effort,” said Hehr. “She’s got to go further. She’s got to say, ‘It’s time for us to fully turn the page on Alberta’s dark history when it comes to the way we’ve treated people in the gay and lesbian community.'”
Contact:
Premier Alison Redford, MLA for Calgary-Elbow
Office of the Premier
Room 307, Legislature Building
10800-97 Avenue
Edmonton, Alberta T5K 2B7
Phone: 780-427-2251
[email protected]
Contact Alberta MLAs: https://www.assembly.ab.ca/net/