With pride parade season coming to a close, Black Lives Matter is setting its sights on other forums for spreading its message in the coming months, organizers say.
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“This should not be about excluding the police, it should be about including all of the positive things we have done”.
“As queer people of color, we are disproportionately targeted by both vigilante and police violence”, said BLM member Malkia Cyril. “Militarizing these events increases the potential for harm to our communities”. It is especially ironic, considering that Pride Toronto decided to make them a “honoured group” for that very reason. Of course, “parade float representation” is itself a somewhat identitarian issue to begin with, but BLM is bringing racialized class politics to the politics of representation.
“One of the tensions that really come up is who feels safer in our communities with police presence and who doesn’t”, Khan said. Among them: Banning police floats from all future marches and events. “Here in Toronto we also saw a type of political maneuvering by Toronto police services. There was a lot of negative publicity, there was a lot of pushback”.
While the parade and festivities continue to grow in mainstream popularity, it is becoming harder for people in parts of LGBTQ+ communities to organize events that reflect themselves and the reality of their lives. A co-founder of the Toronto chapter, Yusra Khogali has come under fire for comparing Canada to the KKK (“KKKanada”), calling Toronto City Police a “terrorist organization”, and imploring Allah to give her “strength to not kill these men and white folks” in a series of vitriolic tweets. Toronto police have not released an official attendance count, but organizers had expected one million attendees.
Last week, DeRay McKesson, a leader in the BLM movement, told USA Today that the group may mobilize protesters at the upcoming Republican and Democratic conventions.
The “we are more important than you” demands of Black Lives Matter has gone global as activists shut down Canada’s largest gay pride parade on Sunday. He also expressed frustration with Pride Toronto.
“Not only did it hijack the parade, it hijacked the objective”, McCormack said.
“The Toronto police have and continue to make significant efforts under the leadership of Chief Saunders to build bridges with the LGBTQ2S community”, the statement reads.
Pride Toronto said it hopes to gather feedback on this year’s Pride events at a public town hall scheduled for August.
Mathieu Chantelis, Pride’s executive director, said he signed the list of demands presented only to get the parade moving again.
“My priority [on Sunday] was to make the parade move”. We had a million people waiting, including people from marginalized communities.
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Dana Giardino, who’s new to Toronto and was attending the parade for the first time, said seeing those names was a stand-out moment for her.
