Conservative MP Joan Crockatt has announced her plans to participate in Calgary’s annual Pride Parade this September but some Calgarians fear the federal representative for Calgary-Centre’s voting record contradicts the support she plans to show for the LGBTQ community.

Croackatt voted against Bill C-279, a gender identity amendment to the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code of Canada, in 2013. The amendment aimed to provide equal rights for trans people in Canada by:

Making it illegal to discriminate on the basis of gender identity under the Canadian Human Rights Act

Making it illegal to advocate genocide, or willfully and publically incite hatred, based on gender identity under the Criminal Code of Canada

Requiring judges to increase sentences when a crime was motivated by bias, prejudice or hatred based on gender identity

Despite Crockatt’s stance, Bill C-279 was approved in the house but has stalled in the Senate.

Liberal candidate Kent Hehr will oppose Crockatt in the upcoming federal election. As an MLA, Hehr has been a Calgary Pride Parade participant for the last ten years.

“Given that it’s an election year, people are going back and checking the voting records of politicians,” said Hehr. “Ms. Crockatt’s record on standing up for the LGBTQ community is rather suspect with her votes against the transgender community.”

Craig Sklenar Pride Calgary’s Director of Government Affairs, says the organization has reached out to Crockatt for an explanation on her opposition to Bill C-279. The undisclosed explanation offered by Croackatt satisfied Pride Calgary and the board believes she had, and continues to have, the best interests of the transgender community in mind.

“We have made sure that our position is known, that we want transgender right in those acts today, but we want to make sure they’re done in the right way,” explained Sklenar. “With that conversation with Joan, and with our other elected officials, we know that we are that platform to make sure that we can continue to have that conversation.”

“We encourage our community to have that conversation with our organization and with elected officials across the board.”

Pride Calgary’s board of directors includes Scott Crockatt, Joan’s son, who holds a volunteer position as the organization’s director of marketing.

Sklenar says the decision of another high profile Calgary M.P., Conservative leader Stephen Harper, to not attend Montreal’s Pride Parade on Sunday disappoints him. Thomas Mulcair, Justin Trudeau and Elizabeth May, the leaders of the NDP, Liberal and Green Party respectively, were all in attendance.

Pride Calgary says a number of politicians from the municipal, provincial and federal level of government plan to participate in the Pride Parade on Sunday, September 6, 2015 along 9 Avenue Southwest. Organizers hope politician support for the LQBTQ community is not limited to parade day.