CALGARY—Led by a rainbow flag, dozens of demonstrators paraded through downtown Calgary on Saturday morning to continue calling for the newly-elected United Conservative government to protect LGBTQ youth.

The demonstration came roughly a week after students across Alberta walked out of their classrooms on May 3 in response to impending provincial education reforms.

During the recent provincial election campaign, the United Conservative Party vowed to replace the School Act with the unproclaimed 2016 Education Act. This would mean the removal of Bill 24, a piece of legislation passed that requires school administrators to allow a gay-straight alliance if students request one and forbids staff from telling parents of their child’s involvement in a GSA.

Critics have said these measures could endanger LGBTQ youth by weakening protections for gay-straight alliances and the students who attend the inclusive school clubs, who face high rates of bullying and homelessness as a result of their identities.

Lea Cheeseman, one of the protest’s co-organizers, called for the provincial government to keep current protections in place for LGBTQ students, strike down any legislation with the potential to harm LGBTQ students and issue a statement in support of the community.

“Whenever a government switches hands, it’s important to make sure that our most vulnerable populations are protected and that current supports remain in place,” Cheeseman said to demonstrators at city hall.

While May 3’s student walkouts received plenty of media attention, Saturday’s protests were intended to allow people out of school to protest — and keep politicians aware of LGBTQ issues.

After listening to a speech, around 80 demonstrators marched down Stephen Ave., as their chanting (including “Love, not hate, makes our schools great!”) rang off the coffee shops and bars. Curious onlookers whipped out their phones to take photos as the throng tramped through intersections, flanked by Calgary police officers.

Cheeseman led the way with a massive rainbow flag on her shoulder.

On their return to Calgary city hall, where the event officially disbanded, demonstrators had to march right past the area’s typical Saturday occupants — roughly a dozen yellow-vest protesters, milling beside signs questioning the existence of global warming and calling for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to be tried for treason. Under the gaze of police officers, the parade filed past, although both groups later shouted slogans at each other from across Macleod Trail SE.

For Ryley Avery, a Grade 11 student who lives in Chestermere, maintaining protections around GSAs is quite important.

“Coming from a small town where there’s not really any support for those kinds of things, it’s super important to me to have GSAs and stuff like that in schools,” Avery said at the demonstration.

The crowd at Saturday’s demonstration skewed young, but not everyone in attendance was a student.

Hilary Chapple, 59, was part of the fight for same-sex marriage rights in Alberta. She also works in homelessness advocacy — which tends to overlap with LGBTQ issues. Around 40 per cent of LGBTQ youth are homeless, Chapple said. As a veteran of both struggles, she said anger alone won’t change government policy.

“You’ve got to keep talking about it. That’s the way we’ve gotten support over the years, purely by those conversations,” Chapple said as the demonstration marched up Stephen Avenue.

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Prompting those conversations is also part of Cheeseman’s game plan. She said supporters should speak to their friends and family about LGBTQ issues, help local GSAs and tweet at Premier Jason Kenney.

“We really encourage people to stay active in their communities, even without large gatherings like this, and to keep working and to bring the activism home with them,” she said.

Read more:

Edmonton’s LGBTQ community ‘nervous’ but not defeated after United Conservative election win

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