The Toronto chapter of Black Lives Matter was recently invited to participate in the city’s gay pride parade.
At one point, the Black Lives Matter members stopped and sat down on the street halting the entire procession. Then they started issuing demands.
Global News reports:
Black Lives Matter gets police kicked out of future Pride parades say co-foundersSunday’s Pride parade was historic for the city in many ways.It was the first time a sitting Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, marched alongside thousands of members of the LGBTQ community and its allies. It was also the first time Black Lives Matter Toronto did the same, leading a passionate procession down Bloor and Yonge Streets.When their members reached College Street they stopped, sat down, and ground the parade to halt. As thousands along the route wondered about the delay, members of Black Lives Matter issued demands to organizers. One of them was for the removal of all police floats in the future – a significant request considering the police’s popularity and presence in Canada’s largest pride parade…Pride Toronto Executive Director, Mathieu Chantelois, met with the group and signed all their demands according to Black Lives Matter’s co-founders Sandy Hudson and Rodney Diverlus.The Demands
- Commit to BQY’s (Black Queer Youth) continued space (including stage/tents), funding, and logistical support.
- Self-determination for all community spaces, allowing community full control over hiring, content, and structure of their stages.
- Full and adequate funding for community stages, including logistical, technical, and personnel support.
- Double funding for Blockorama (to $13,000 + ASL interpretation & headliner funding).
- Reinstate and make a commitment to increase community stages/spaces (including the reinstatement of the South Asian stage).
- A commitment to increase representation amongst Pride Toronto staffing/hiring, prioritizing black trans women, indigenous people, and others from vulnerable communities.
- A commitment to more black deaf and hearing ASL interpreters for the festival.
- Removal of police floats in the pride marches/parades.
- A public townhall, organized in conjunction with groups from marginalized communities, including, but not limited to, Black Lives Matter- Toronto, Blackness Yes, and BQY to be held six months from today. Pride Toronto will present an update and action plan on the aforementioned demands.
Here’s a video report from Global News:
Just last month, Black Lives Matter activists backed out of participating in the San Francisco pride parade over the fact that the event would be protected by police.
The Guardian reported:
Black Lives Matter pulls out of San Francisco gay pride over policingSeveral of the honorees of San Francisco Pride, the nation’s largest LGBT pride event, withdrew on Friday from the “racial and economic justice” themed parade and festival this weekend in response to the increased policing measures put in place after the Orlando attack.“For us, celebrating Pride this year meant choosing between the threat of homophobic vigilante violence and the threat of police violence,” said a statement from Black Lives Matter, an organizational grand marshal; Janetta Johnson, a community grand marshal; and sex worker advocacy group St James Infirmary, a “Heritage of Pride” award recipient.“We had a tough decision to make, and ultimately we chose to keep our people safe by not participating in any event that would leave our communities vulnerable to either.”On Tuesday, SF Pride announced that this year’s events would have a “significant police presence” and that, for the first time in the celebration’s 46-year history, attendees at the festival would be required to pass through security screening. The decision was made in the wake of the mass shooting at an LGBT nightclub in Orlando, in which 49 people were killed.Many LGBT people of color expressed concern with that news, citing the historic targeting and harassment of communities of color by police.“I’m more afraid of police than terrorists,” Johnson, who is a black transgender woman, told the Guardian on Tuesday.
The left’s hierarchy of victimhood changes so fast and often, it’s hard to keep up.
Featured image via Global News video.
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