In solidarity with Calgary’s LGBTQ+ community, a local Unitarian church will celebrate Easter with a drag show in their Sunday service.
The “Drag Me to Church” service will coincide with Easter Sunday and the International Trans Day of Visibility, a day recognizing the contributions of trans people as the challenges they still face. The church service will also protest the introduction of legislation threatening the rights of transgender youth in the conservative governmental province of Alberta, Canada.
One city official compared a rainbow crosswalk to her mother not letting her sister have a birthday.
“No matter what tradition you’re from, I guarantee you that you will have people in your community who identify on the 2SLGBTQIA+ spectrum — whether they are free to say it or not,” the Rev. Samaya Oakley, the minister of the Calgary Unitarians, told the Edmonton Journal. “If we are truly people who believe in the goodness and the inherent love that exists in this world, then we would extend that to people on that spectrum.”
In January, Alberta’s conservative government unveiled a sweeping package of measures targeting LGBTQ+ rights and “woke” culture in the Canadian province.
The proposed legislation includes bans on gender reassignment surgery for minors and hormone therapy for children ages 15 and under, and limits on transgender students’ participation in sports. The proposals would require parental consent for a child to change their name or pronouns at school, and parental permission for kids to attend sex education classes.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith of the United Conservative Party also proposed creating “biological female-only” sports leagues in the province.
“Prematurely encouraging or enabling children to alter their very biology or natural growth, no matter how well-intentioned and sincere, poses a risk to that child’s future that I as premier am not comfortable with permitting in our province,” Smith said in a January announcement of the measures.
The all-ages Easter service, which the church calls a “sacred act of protest,” will feature drag performances, a drag queen storytime, and multiple speakers addressing the question, “What does TRANSformation mean today?” Unitarian minister Oakley said the event is designed to support transgender Albertans through the “current political climate.”
“One of our principles is the inherent worth and dignity of every person,” Oakley said. “And that’s where we come from in terms of this work.”
Collections from Sunday’s service will benefit Skipping Stone, a local not-for-profit that supports trans and gender-diverse Calgarians.
