'We wanted this intersection to be safe': Pride Corner on Whyte Ave a big win for local queer community

Edmonton’s newly minted Pride Corner is the culmination of over a year of work by queer activists and allies - and all those who came before them.

Nested at the intersection of 104 Street and Whyte Avenue, Pride Corner started small when Clarie Pearen started protesting the street preachers who congregated on the corner every Friday. With microphones and bibles in hand, to claim the busy intersection as a temporary pulpit.

Pearen was there to dispute what she, and others from the queer community, say was homophobic comments and hateful speech against the queer community - something she says put the safety of queer youth in the area into question.

With the Old Strathcona Youth Society and the Youth Empowerment and Support Services in the area, Whyte Avenue is home to many queer and unhoused youth. Organizers say these kids were a driving force in the initial protests, as they tried to make the streets a safer place, free from hateful or hurtful rhetoric.

“We wanted to just start showing up and change the narrative because ultimately we’re here for them,” organizer Erica Posteraro said. “And it’s been really nice seeing the great bulk of queer kids and allies that have come to support.”

Every Friday, when the preachers would come out, so would the rainbow flags. Eventually they took over, and a year and almost 11,000 signatures later, the corner was officially recognized by the City of Edmonton.

“We roll in with our wagons and our rainbows, and they pack up almost immediately,” Posteraro said. “It is a big win for us to arrive and them to leave. And that’s ultimately what we wanted.

“We wanted this intersection to be safe.”

HATE SPEECH

While some members of the LGBTQ2S+ community have expressed feeling unsafe or harassed by street preachers in Edmonton, it’s difficult to lay charges because street preaching is protected by the Canadian Charter of Right and Freedoms.

Some preachers have been charged with noise complaints by EPS. In 2020, a prominent street preacher was given a ticket for a noise complaint in the intersection where Pride Corner now exists, but it was dropped after his lawyer argued that the ticket was being used to stifle his right to peaceful public expression.

This is something the Pride Corner hopes to change.

Postero said there aren’t strong enough federal or provincial hate speech laws, and the next big steps for the group would be to try and bring in stronger legislation to protect queer people from hate speech.

However, she is clear that the group has nothing against religion or religious expression - granted it isn’t used to demean or deny the queer community. They don’t want conflict, just safer spaces for everyone.

THOSE WHO CAME BEFORE

At Pride Corner’s recognition ceremony, stonewall rioter and advocate Martin Boyce spoke about recognizing those who have fought in the past - chasing away street preachers of their own.

Like Michael Phair, who was arrested during the Pisces bath raid in May 1981. Him and 55 other men were arrested and charged with being found in a common bawdy house - a place where prostitution or indecent acts occur. During the trials, they were outed and ostracized. Many lost their jobs and reputations and families.

But it sparked something - a movement by the community to fight back and the protests that followed are a part of the city’s queer history. Phair went on to be the first openly gay elected official in Alberta and a former Edmonton City Councillor. He now has a school named after him, and was recently granted an honorary doctorate from MacEwan University.

Boyce gave the Pride Corner group an award for LGBTQ2S+ Action, and congratulated them for taking up that space as they continue to fight for queer poeple. Postero says the group is honoured by the group’s recognition by the city and Pride Corner’s acceptance into the area. She says there has been far more positive feedback than negative, and that says something about Edmonton.

“I think that it just shows how much this city is progressive, how they do want to show that there is support for the queer community, and acceptance and that we’re seen.”