Alexa DeGagné’s book unpacks resistance to police in queer spaces

Tensions sparked at this year’s Edmonton’s pride parade over police presence and community engagement. The disagreements that came up this year aren’t anything new in Edmonton, as Alexa DeGagné knows well. The University of Alberta Press published Resisting Police in Queer Spaces by DeGagné in May of this year.

DeGagné’s book dives into the history of policing queer and transgender identities and spaces, as well as the contemporary pushback over police presence at pride. 

DeGagné explained that pride parades started as a way to protest the police because of their abuses against the queer community. But eventually, police started saying that the parades needed protection from homophobic citizens. 

“Then over the years, that changes to police are going to march in the pride parade and they’re going to be part of it.”

In some cases, police even led pride parades. Often officers would attend in full uniform, guns and all. 

When Black Lives Matter came to the forefront of public conversations around policing, queer communities responded. People started to question police participation in pride parades.

After pushback from community members, police were told to stop marching in parades, but they still played a big role in security. 

Pushback over police presence in queer spaces

With her book, DeGagné wanted to track how queer organizations were navigating calls for change in the Canadian context. Too often, she found that people assumed that police violence was an American problem.

“That sort of thinking does a number of things,” she said. “First, it denies that there are systemic, racist, colonial issues with the police.”

“It also ignores the absolute amount of very effective activism that queer and trans and Two-Spirit communities have been doing in Alberta for many, many years. For decades, in fact.”

DeGagné looked specifically at the resistance to police in queer spaces in Etobicoke and Hamilton, Ontario, as well as in Calgary and Edmonton. 

Back in 2018, activists started mobilizing against police participation in the Edmonton pride parade. Demands ranged from not having police in queer spaces, making pride more accessible, and including a broader range of identities on the pride board.

“It’s really important to note that that intervention came after years of trying to engage Edmonton Pride in a discussion about why police shouldn’t be involved in those spaces, in events,” DeGagné said. 

DeGagné witnessed the group that blocked the 2019 pride parade. 

“They had [the intersection] shut down and they had created a large circle and people kept joining the circle,” she explained. “It was really moving.”

The efforts to engage in conversations with the organization responsible for organizing the pride parade continued to no avail. Then, Edmonton Pride put out a statement saying the parade would not continue due to the political environment. Many took that to mean the pushback over police presence. 

History repeats itself

It was only in 2025 that a new organization, Edmonton PrideFest, decided to bring back the pride parade. The parade was led by a trans march and people of colour. 

Then, this year tensions sparked once again after Edmonton PrideFest said there would be an increased police presence. 

“You have many community members who are saying ‘we don’t want the police in these spaces,’ and you have an organization saying ‘we’re going to do it anyway,’” DeGagné said. “They’re going to take this sacred sort of item of the community and bring the police, whether or not you like it.”

About 20 organizations pulled out of the parade, some choosing to host their own pride celebrations.

“I think it’s fascinating and troubling and frustrating that the same sort of dynamics have reoccured, five or six years later.”

Many of these conversations lead to larger questions about the role of pride, particularly large, corporate sponsored pride festivities. Some grassroots, community-based events have started to rise again in response to these questions.

“I think it’s important that these marches and these parades continue to happen, I think what they are going to look like is going to shift, and probably necessarily so.”