Alternative Pride events cite increasing popularity in Ottawa

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Petties says she sees the Dyke March less as an alternative or opponent to larger Pride festivals and more as part of a long tradition of queer communities creating different spaces for people with different needs.

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Grassroots Pride draws growing interest

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That distinction is particularly visible in Ottawa this year.

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The Ottawa Trans Library announced it would not formally participate in Capital Pride, saying the festival currently did not represent its “vision of queer/trans community and liberation.” Instead, the library plans to participate in several other community events, including Ottawa Trans March and Ottawa Dyke March.

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The library also acknowledged Capital Pride’s “central role” in Ottawa’s queer community and said it was encouraged by the organization’s recent efforts to gather feedback and increase transparency.

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Capital Pride remains one of Ottawa’s largest festivals, drawing tens of thousands of people downtown. Its roots stretch back to Ottawa’s 1971 We Demand Rally, widely considered Canada’s first large-scale demonstration for gay rights.

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That appetite for a more grassroots, protest-focused Pride is also evident at Ottawa Trans March, another community-run event scheduled for Aug. 28.

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Organizer Quinn Blue describes it as both a demonstration and a community gathering. Participants will hear speeches and calls to action before marching, followed by music, drag, dancing and pizza in the park.

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Blue says the event is organized by trans people in the community and receives no corporate funding, adding the march has had increased attendance from people searching for something more community-based.

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“I think we’ve definitely seen a lot of growth in terms of attendance for Trans March for a lot of different reasons,” Blue said. “I think, including that people are looking for a space that feels more community-based, that feels like it’s for people in our communities.”

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He said another factor was a growing sense of urgency around trans rights in Canada and the United States.

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“Trans March is absolutely a protest,” Blue said. “It is a moment to demand trans rights, trans liberation, and it’s a moment to celebrate trans joy.”

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Pride as protest

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For Carleton University professor Patrizia Gentile, who teaches in the Feminist Institute of Social Transformation and Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies, describing events such as the Dyke and Trans marches as experiencing a “resurgence” risks overlooking how central such demonstrations have always been to Pride.

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“I don’t see this as a resurgence,” Gentile said. “I see them as something that has been part of what it means when we talk about Pride for decades.”

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In Gentile’s view, the large, corporate-sponsored Pride festivals familiar today are actually the historical anomaly. Political marches such as Dyke and Trans marches, she said, more closely resemble what Pride was historically.

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For Gentile, these marches are important because they create space to talk not only about LGBTQ+ rights, but also about broader questions of oppression, human rights and social justice.

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Gentile recalled attending her first Pride event at 16, when the march amounted to several blocks of people walking together in the street.

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“There were no floats,” she said. “There was no alcohol endorsement.”