A request to paint a sidewalk on Banff Avenue with a rainbow to celebrate the community’s Pride event was successful at council this week.
Council voted on Monday (Aug. 17) to have town staff paint one crosswalk in rainbow colours for Pride in October – Councillors Chip Olver and Stavros Karlos were absent.
Banff Pride organizer Joe Bembridge appeared before council to make the request and while he asked for all crosswalks at two intersections of Banff Avenue to be painted in rainbow, the reality of how much it would cost soon restricted what council would consider.
Last year, Bembridge approached the municipality about raising a pride flag as part of the event, however, municipal flag policies don’t allow any other flag to be raised at town hall.
This year, he said the popularity of painting the rainbow on crosswalks has been a way for municipalities to show support for LGTBQ (lesbian, gay, transgender, bisexual and queer) communities.
“I have come up with a great idea for our town to show its pride and that is a movement happening across Canada,” Bembridge said. “The rainbow is our flag and it is what represents us as a culture of people.
“What this does is shows us as a town that we support you and celebrate the LGTBQ community and travellers will know Banff has pride.
“I am looking for the Town to do something and say we are with you on this.”
Bembridge suggested council consider painting the entire scramble crosswalk at Banff Avenue and Caribou Street with a rainbow. But at a cost of $1,000 for each 25 metres to paint a rainbow crosswalk, according to operations manager Paul Godfrey, council voted to approve one crosswalk if Banff Pride contributed the cost of supplies while the municipality covers the staff cost.
The motion, put forward by Mayor Karen Sorensen, set out that the municipality would cover labour costs of painting the crosswalk rainbow and Pride as an established event would pay for the supplies.
“From the Town’s perspective, in terms of supporting this, we can put in the labour towards getting this done,” Sorensen said.
