Council in favour of celebrating pride week, to consider painting rainbow crosswalk

by Tristan Turner
Morinville News Correspondent

Morinville Council, in general, noted their support for Pride Month (June) being recognized officially by the Town following a casual discussion at their Committee of the Whole (COW) meeting on ideas for how to observe the annual month recognizing LGBTQ+ folks internationally.

The discussion at COW included a presentation from administration on the cost of painting a crosswalk rainbow (a common practice in cities across North America, including Edmonton), at a cost of a maximum of $760, including paint/equipment, labour and traffic control. Director of Public Works Claude Valcourt noted that this number is much higher than the actual likely expense, as the staff that would be completing the painting are salaried, so their time would be applied to the painting in-kind. Valcourt did add the caveat though there might be some overtime costs required if the painting takes longer than is anticipated. The cost for just supplies is $280.

Council seemed generally supportive of the idea, with only a couple of comments from Council saying that the price may be a bit high for them to approve the sidewalk plan and may support other less expensive options instead. Councillor Fitzgerald suggested putting up the pride flag outside of town hall for at least some of June, in addition to painting a sidewalk.

Councillor Boutestein also suggested getting the schools involved to have students produce pride posters in June. Mayor Holmes responded: “Do we think that initiative to support pride will be supported by both schools?”, insinuating that the Greater Saint Albert Catholic Schools (GSARCD) may not be as supportive as the public Sturgeon School Division.

Administration that evening stated that a simple direction from Council on where to proceed would be enough to approve any small-scale project, but Council opted instead to discuss the issue at a future meeting of Council.

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12 Comments

  1. No problem with the thought behind this, but maybe this money would be better spent as a donation to the Food Bank as food banks generally are always low on product, especially now in the current Alberta economy. The donation could be made in recognition of the LGBTQ+ folks. Just saying…paint doesn’t fill tummies.

  2. This is great: it would be huge to send a message of positivity to queer people in Morinville. Maybe a local business (or a few) would be interested in sponsoring a crosswalk as a way to show their support for the queer community.

  3. Very sad.

    I was once propositioned by a woman and rejected her. Not to offend her, but to honor my wife. I don’t know if she was offended or what she thought, and I don’t care. Maybe that sounds callous, maybe some he-man thinks I’m a loser. I don’t care, I’m not out to be pleasing to others, nor displeasing. I’m out to please my wife. If that bothers anyone, so be it.

    So with God. What he says is right, is right. What he says is wrong, is wrong. He says there’s male and female, and what society calls sexual diversity, he calls sexual sin. I take his position because he is God, because he so loved me to willingly give himself to die in my place to free me from sin. Not to offend society, but to honor him. If society is offended, so be it. It’s an offense society takes, not one I give.

    • Sure, he “says” there is male and female, but then he goes ahead and creates a whole slew of people who are genetically coded on a full spectrum inbetween. Not everyone is just XX or XY … there are many other combinations like XXY. These different combinations affect our physical appendages, hormone levels, and many other biological processes. So what does this mean? That’s right class, not everyone fits on the gender binary. So does God make people fundamentally flawed and predetermined to sin? I guess that depends on what you believe. Which you’re entitled to, as long as you’re not acting in ways that are harmful to others. Because I’m pretty sure Jesus also preaches things like tolerance, peace, acceptance, love, respect, and dignity for everyone.

      But hey, what do I know…

      • I don’t have any rights, only responsibilities – to love God with all my being and treat others as I’d want to be. But thanks for the thought.
        He didn’t create a slew of people, only two, and they were genetically binary. They had no fundamental flaws or predetermination to sin. They were perfect, and loved him and each other. The flaws and sin didn’t come by creation but procreation, after they rebelled and brought the curse on creation, which messed up everything ever since with flaws and failures. No one fits the chromosomal ideal. I’m told the average 60 year old man has something like 44,000 broken genetic links. Some of them show up medically, like heart disease and cancer, or as you’ve pointed out – none of those things were even on my radar; guess I should have said so. Some of them show up morally, about 3 dozen or so different ways in my case (I hope you don’t want to know because I don’t want to tell). But I’ve noticed that none of them ever gets put on a flag and celebrated. And the genetic non-binaries aren’t the first reason the flag came out, and I’ve yet to see any fundraising for a cure.
        The love Jesus preached was to tell an adulteress, neither do I condemn you, go and stop sinning. The respect he preached was to call religious racketeers a den of thieves and a brood of vipers. He ate with sinners, but not to endorse them. His love was to forgive ‘that kind’ of woman who wept over her lifestyle, and to tell a repentant tax extortionist there was acceptance coming, on a cross. The peace he taught was with God through admission and forgiveness of sin. The tolerance he showed, to accept the sinner but not the sin, isn’t tolerated today. I wonder how many phobias he’d be labelled with.

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