A number of corporate organisations will be walking in the parade, including Tower Insurance, Countdown, ZM, KiwiRail, Fire and Emergency New Zealand, and members of the police force. Several high-profile sports organisations are also planning to take part in the parade in a move to make sport more inclusive.
Event manager for Rainbow Pride Shaughan Woodcock said he was “delighted” a new date for the parade had been found so quickly. The parade was originally scheduled to go ahead on February 20 but when it was announced on Sunday that Auckland would be moving into alert level 3, Woodcock said the decision was made to postpone.
Several high-profile sports organisations were also planning to take part in the parade in a move to make sport more inclusive. The national governing bodies for netball, rugby, cricket, football, hockey, and rugby league were part of the parade, and had been encouraging community sports groups to register too. Woodcock said event organisers had taken the health and safety of everyone into account in making the decision to postpone. “The last thing we want to do is put on a Pride parade where our rainbow whanau and allies are put at risk.”
STUFF
The parade became mired in controversy when police were banned from marching in uniform. (Video first published in Jan 2019)