Wellington International Pride Parade kicks off despite banks, rainbow groups abstaining

Saturday, 7 March 2020

A flyover by planes of the Royal New Zealand Air Force helped mark celebrations at the Wellington International Pride Parade (video published March 2020).

Wellington's pride parade may have lost support from all of New Zealand's major banks but one of the event's organisers says it didn't stop the city coming out to celebrate.

Six banks pulled out of Saturday's Wellington International Pride Parade after calls last month for a boycott of the event by rainbow groups over what they alleged was a lack of consultation with the rainbow community, and a corporate-tourism focus.

Co-chair of the parade Richard Tait told Stuff on Saturday that despite the boycott and banks withdrawing their support, the event went extremely well with the biggest turn-out he'd seen at the event.

'It was huge - absolutely amazing. I reckon we had between 45 [thousand] and 50,000 people lining the streets.'

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Six major banks pulled out of the Wellington International Pride Parade after several rainbow groups boycotted and criticised the parade.

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Tait said the absence of the banks - who were set to parade as a single group - had not spoiled the festive atmosphere.

The withdrawal of support from major banks came after Gender Minorities Aotearoa, rainbow charity InsideOut, queer venue Ivy Bar & Cabaret and other groups which make up the Wellington Rainbow Affiliation Towards Hope alliance, signed an open letter asking for people to boycott the parade.

An ASB spokeswoman said the six banks were represented by the Celebrate Together collective.

Banks were notably absent from Wellington's pride parade.

'Celebrate Together collective's goal is to provide a place for everyone - people who identify with the LGBTIQ+ community, allies and the public - regardless of their place of work, to join together and celebrate. While we're disappointed the collective won't be participating in the parade this year, we support the group decision.'

A BNZ spokesman said it supported and encouraged people to get involved in events which celebrated New Zealand's diversity and the importance of inclusion.

'BNZ’s involvement in all Pride events is led by our rainbow community and our Pride@BNZ network has decided, along with other banks, not to participate in this year’s Wellington International Pride Parade.

'It was a tough decision and in no way diminishes our support of Pride and the rainbow community. We enjoyed celebrating Pride together with the rainbow community at the Auckland Big Gay Out and Wellington Out in the Park earlier this year, and look forward to many more opportunities to celebrate together.'

Some rainbow groups argued Wellington's pride parade had a misplaced focus on tourism and corporate sponsorship.

A Westpac NZ spokesman said the decision not to partake was made by a broad range of people across the business. It was a staff-led decision, not a top-down one, he said.

'After thorough consultation with our staff, the rainbow community and other participating banks, we have made the difficult decision not to participate in the Wellington International Pride Parade.

'Westpac NZ is committed to supporting diversity and inclusion in Wellington and nationwide. We're in our second year of sponsoring the Rainbow Excellence Awards, and we continue to look for other ways to show our support for the rainbow community.'

A Kiwibank spokeswoman said the bank had been put in a difficult situation when community groups requested it to withdraw from the parade.

'After consultation with our team, we decided it was not appropriate for Kiwibank to participate in the parade at this time.'

ANZ pride network lead Robbie Ellis said 'the parade should be about love, friendship, inclusion and good vibes, and we don't want to put that at risk in any way so our Wellington Pride group made the difficult decision to not take part this year.'

TSB is also understood to have withdrawn from the parade and has been contacted for comment.

Ahi Wi-Hongi, national coordinator for Gender Minorities Aotearoa, told RNZ they hoped the move by the banks would improve the parade in the long-term.

'Ultimately, this will hopefully mean that next year's parade, the 2021 parade, will be really inclusive and there will be consultations at the planning stages, and that the rainbow community broadly can have a lot of input,' they told RNZ.

The parade started at 6pm on Saturday on Cambridge Tce, made its way down Courtenay Place and Taranaki St before finishing at Wellington's waterfront.