The Vancouver Pride Society began a series of community engagement roundtables on Sunday, Dec. 14 intended to shape the 2026 Pride Parade and Festival. About 20 LGBTQ2S+ folks, members of several groups, met at the Roundhouse and participated in a facilitated discussion. Three members of QUIRK-E attended. We mainly listened to the voices of others who participated in the 2025 event as well as previous years and who had strong opinions about the staging of this annual massive celebration. Organizers are reaching out to the community to understand the diversity of needs and make improvements based on this feedback.
Perhaps the widest agreement during the session was about the need for improved communications between Pride Society organizers, queer community groups, Vancouver police, transportation providers, and the general public.
Some people spoke about their feelings for honouring our roots in the West End community. Others pointed out specific challenges. There was discussion around the cancellation of East Side Pride.
Among a host of constructive comments was the call for:
- A greater effort to ensure that the participation of queer community groups is valued, respected, acknowledged, and that their needs are being honoured.
- An established venue with a familiar layout and parade route.
- A focus on accessibility to accommodate people with limited mobility, energy, sensory, and neurodivergent issues, including sidewalk and street conditions, access to toilets, etc.
- Open expression, not censorship or suppression.
- Keeping dykes on bikes.
- Larger covered viewing area(s) for elders and those with disabilities.
- Ways to improve transportation drop-off/pick-up points.
- Corporate/business interests sponsoring the participation fees of queer community organizations as part of their contribution for having a presence in the parade/festival.
- Communication with the wider public about this event (for example, making a social media video on what the event is, what it means to the queer community, and what to expect).
During the last few minutes, an inquiry was raised about what the police presence should look like. Participants voiced several concerns, such as improving relations, safety of participants, past trauma, guns, and harassing behaviour. There was a suggestion that police could identify themselves with t-shirts rather than uniforms. This was, again, seen as a communication issue with the police and more discussion is promised to address the matter at future roundtables.
Additional sessions are planned by the Pride Society for Sunday, Jan. 25, Tuesday, Feb. 17, and Sunday, Mar. 15.
The QUIRK-E members who attended this first session led a discussion with our whole group at our weekly meeting. We discussed services that would help seniors attend, what triggers trauma for LGBTQ2S+ folks, police presence at the event, and the importance of recognizing security measures the queer community provides on our own. Our members said they appreciate these engagement roundtables as a way to gather community perspectives and broaden participation.
