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It’s been 37 years since a handful of participants bravely marched in Edmonton’s first Pride Festival parade, originally a protest of police raids on gay bathhouses that has turned into a celebration of inclusion and acceptance for an historically persecuted minority group.

But unlike the weekend’s cheery parade on Whyte Avenue, the march of societal attitudes in those four decades when it comes to tolerance and understanding has been halting — two steps forward and one step back.

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But this year, the flare-up of unexpected controversies and the resulting backlash hardly instills pride in how far we’ve come.

Sadly, even the rainbow Pride flag meant to symbolize diversity and tolerance incited divisiveness and hostility among Albertans instead.

On the weekend, a Canadian Pride flag — a banner combining the Maple Leaf and rainbow bars — raised at Lillian Osborne High School on Friday was cut down a few hours later as it flew on the mast. On Wednesday, the principal at Blessed Oscar Romero told students to tear down banners and wash off sidewalk paint intended to celebrate Pride Week for LGBTQ students and staff. The principal apologized and the school board blamed a miscommunication for the controversy but whatever the circumstances, there was no mistaking the aftermath of hate-filled comments that seeped into social media and news comment sections.