New murals celebrate 2SLGBTQ+ community ahead of Calgary Pride Festival 2023

The 2SLGBTQ+ community in Calgary say its been a tough year for them, and as the city gears up to celebrate the annual Calgary Pride Festival, artists are painting their feelings in the form of murals at Central Memorial Park.

“It took just under 12 hours. We have 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. permitted with the city and we wrapped up just shy of that. This pretty much exactly hit the nail on the head for how ambitious I could be in that time cycle with all the figures that I was playing with in the grid process that I was using. And the work is called ‘Love and Liberty.’ So, for this work, I wanted to respond to the year that we’ve had in our city.

Simmers says even while painting this mural at the park, she had to face insults and hate speech from strangers.

Since the beginning of 2023, Calgary has seen multiple protests against the 2SLGBTQ+ community.

There were multiple protests against drag shows in January, and in February, Chinook Blast had to postpone two performances.

March saw more protests and clashes outside Calgary libraries in relation to drag story times.

The City of Calgary passed the safe access bylaw. But even that didn’t stop protestors from demonstrations against drag queen story times in April.

And in June, a rainbow-coloured crosswalk in nearby Okotoks was splashed with white paint. Even earlier this month, a hate speech incident took place at the pride walk at Central Memorial Park.

“This is something that a lot of members deal with on a regular basis,” said Anna Kinderwater, the communications manager with Calgary Pride. “And while it has heightened in the last little bit and become or not even last little bit, but the last several months years, it has heightened and I know that it has caused a lot of our members like members of our community, that sense of insecurity, that sense of fear.

“But we encourage people, members of our community, the friends and family who love and support them, there is nothing to be afraid of here and our strength is in numbers and we’re really encouraging that this year. If you’re going to show up to Pride now is the year to do that.”

Calgary’s Central Memorial Park is the site of the city’s first Pride protest over 30 years ago.

To kick off celebrations for Calgary Pride 2023, four new murals have been painted as part of a project, With You With Pride, in partnership with The City of Calgary and presented by Rogers together with Shaw.

Rogers is the parent company of CityNews.