Tag Archives: Social Justice Warriors

Edmonton Pride Cancels Parade After Being Held Hostage By Demands of Social Justice Groups.

Edmonton Pride Cancels Parade After Being Held Hostage By Demands of Social Justice Groups.

Less than two months before the annual Edmonton Pride parade was set to take place, the Edmonton Pride Festival Society board of directors voted to cancel this years parade partly to do with demands made by two local social justice groups.

Last Thursday, a board meeting was held to discuss a list of demands put forward by Shades of Colour and RaricaNow, two organizations that represent queer people of color in Edmonton. The demands included spaces for queer people of color, a sober dance party, $20,000 to be given to both Shades of Colour and RaricaNow, and a “public accountability statement” of the harm EPFS has allegedly done against queer people of color.

The same two groups organized a demonstration that shutdown last year’s Pride parade for over 30 minutes calling for the organizers to uninvite Edmonton police, RCMP and military personnel, amid a Canada-wide debate over the presence of police in Pride parades.

Four representatives from the two groups were invited to speak at last week’s meeting, according to Clayton Hitchcock, co-chair of the Pride Festival Society. But roughly 30  showed up and pushed their way into the room. One of the members of the board feeling unsafe called the police.

V. Guzman of Shades of Colour, a Latinx non-binary person who uses they/them pronouns, said no one from the group was arrested and police were co-operative.

Later that day, the festival announced on Facebook the meeting had been moved to a second location and later decided to cancel the Pride parade.

“In light of the current political and social environment, it has been determined that any attempt to host a festival will not be successful,” reads the email from the board of directors. “Please keep in mind that we are a not-for-profit organization run almost solely by volunteers.”

Despite the cancellation of the parade the other Pride events are still going forward.

“Losing the parade is a blow,” said one of the owners of the Evolution Wonderlounge in Edmonton . “Losing that massive Pride in the Park party is certainly a blow. But Pride isn’t cancelled.”

TRIGGERED: Madison, WI Police Banned From Marching in PRIDE Parade

TRIGGERED: Madison, WI Police Banned From Marching in PRIDE Parade

Madison, Wisconsin law enforcement groups have had their applications rescinded and will not be allowed in the city’s upcoming Pride parade after receiving push-back from social justice activists in the LGBT community.

OutReach LGBT Community Center board member Jill Nagler told the Wisconsin State Journal that LGBT community members voiced concerns about feeling unsafe with officers participating armed and in uniform. OutReach announced Friday that event organizers are rescinding parade applications from Madison and University of Wisconsin-Madison police and Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney.

Parade organizer Michael Ruiz issued a statement:  “Our community is facing complex, unprecedented times, where power is a fleeting commodity for our most vulnerable members, especially queer and transgender persons of color…Those whose voices are silenced due to gender and sexual orientation, as well as the intersections of race, class, ethnicity, gender, ability, immigration status, age and lack of institutional power, need us to amplify their voices.”

Madison native Jason Harwood said he understands the concerns of LGBT people of color. But says police have supported the community in the past and should not be given their walking papers.

“I want them to continue to march. I think they should have the right to march in the parade,” Harwood said. “They’re at every fundraiser I’ve ever gone to here. They’re at sporting events. They make themselves known so you can feel safe. What they’re asking them to do is remove them from the parade, which shouldn’t happen.”

A recent poll shows that nearly 2/3’s of the LGBT community who participated DO NOT agree with banning police from marching at PRIDE

Madison police Lt. Brian Chaney Austin, who founded Madison Police Department Pride, said he’s disappointed but hopes to further dialogue between the groups.

“There were some hearts broken (by OutReach’s decision), there were some tears shed, but we know there’s work that needs to be done and we want to take that on,” Austin said.

The Madison, Wisconsin Fire Department issued a statement Monday saying it stands in solidarity with Madison Police and will not participate in the Pride Parade.

Despite the banning Police will still be on hand for security.

The parade is August 19.

Social Justice Warriors Accuse Bette Midler of Homophobia. OY GAVALT!

Social Justice Warriors are accusing Bette Midler is being homophobic after the long-time ally and Divine Miss M posted a tweet yesterday about US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

‘Trump and Putin are meeting in Finland next month,’ she wrote.

‘That’s a long way to travel for a blowjob, but hey — Putin’s got the money.’

Well that just shocked, shocked I say those within our community that are so “woke” it must be exhausting.

Bette has not responded to the “faux” uber-pc outrage.

But we have.

Philadelphia Gay and Lesbian Police Officers Org (GOAL) Hounded Out Of Philly Gay Pride Parade

Philadelphia Gay and Lesbian Police Officers Org (GOAL) Hounded Out Of Philly Pride Parade by Social Justice Warriors

Philly Pride, who runs the annual Philadelphia Gay Pride Parade asked the Greater Philadelphia Gay Officer Action League (GOAL) to serve as one of this year’s two grand marshals. But after pushback from certain factions of the LGBT community, Social Justice Warriors and a Change.org petition was started opposing them the gay officers group declined the honor to avoid any further controversy.

The petition started on Change.org by Andrew Spiers of Philadelphia who self identifies as a middle class, queer, transmasculine person and is co-coordinator of the Trans-Health Information Project (TIP), a resource and advocacy program run by GALAEI, a queer Latin@ social justice organization states:

In 1969, the night of the Stonewall riot, was a very hot, muggy night. We were in the Stonewall [bar] and the lights came on. We all stopped dancing. The police came in.” – Sylvia Rivera

As members of Philadelphia’s queer and trans communities, we are writing in response to the decision by Philly Pride Presents to host GOAL (the Gay Officer Action League) as one of the Grand Marshals for this year’s Pride Parade. We are deeply concerned about the message that this decision sends about which LGBTQ lives matter and the impact this will have on accessibility and safety at the Pride event for the members of our community most harmed by police violence. We urge the staff and volunteers of Philly Pride Presents to rescind their decision to make GOAL one of the Grand Marshals this year.

We believe that the honoring of GOAL is antithetical to the spirit and history of Pride, which grew out of the commemoration of the Stonewall riot – a riot against police violence -– started by Black and Brown trans women and drag queens, who were then and continue to be the most vulnerable members of the LGBTQ community. This choice is not only grossly ironic, but participates in a revision of history that erases queer and trans resistance to state violence as well as the ways in which the majority of queer and trans people have had to literally fight for survival in a system that has used every mechanism, including and particularly policing, to marginalize and harm us.

It is our understanding that GOAL grew out of a desire to recruit LGBTQ individuals to the police force. We are aware that institutionalized and interpersonal workplace transphobia, homophobia and racism harms LGBTQ police officers. We support all queer and trans people in their struggle for freedom from violence and oppression. However, we refute the notion that LGBTQ cops’ ability to be out on the job is a measure of our movement’s progress when the police, as an institution, continue to carry out racist and transphobic violence. Just last month, the Boston pride parade revoked the invitation for an openly gay police officer to serve as a grand marshal after it was discovered that the officer had written racist messages online shaming poor residents of Boston. As civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer said, “nobody’s free until everybody’s free.”

In the midst of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, which affirms the value of Black life and fights anti-Black racism and police violence, choosing GOAL as the Grand Marshals for 2016 is a move that is at best privileged and isolated, and at worst directly undermines this critical work. It indicates a disturbing lack of awareness for the existence of marginalized queer and trans people of color and ignores both the symbolic and practical consequences of such a decision. The Pride festival at Penn’s Landing is already financially inaccessible to many due to its entrance fee, but to literally place the police (gay or not) at the front of the parade through the gayborhood into the Pride celebration creates an environment that is unwelcoming and even unsafe for many members of our community. Additionally, it creates yet another barrier to accessing the critical resources available at Pride, such as free condoms, HIV testing, case managers, and information on community organizations for those who need them the most -– including LGBTQ youth.

So, as the theme of this year’s pride celebration is, “Are You Connected?,” we ask the organizers of Philly Pride Presents: What connections do you value? For at least the second year in a row, the marshals and friends of the parade have been chosen from the same pool of people, primarily centered in Center City and City Hall. Yet Philadelphia does not lack for inspiring leaders who are creating a new vision for the future. We are fortunate to have LGBTQ communities full of people and organizations doing transformative work to improve the lives of LGBTQ people, to create more space for marginalized voices, and to work towards a world with greater freedom from violence for us all.

It is for these reasons that we cannot condone Philly Pride Presents’ celebration of an institution that continually targets queer and trans people of color with deadly state violence. Instead, as stated above, we urge the staff and volunteers of Philly Pride Presents to rescind this decision, as well as listen to and engage with members of our communities who are working to dismantle the root causes of violence and create a new future for queer and trans liberation.

Signed,

Caitlin Barry, Dot Goldberger, Laura Sorensen, Andrew Spiers, Elisabeth Long, Kristina Mitchell, Qui Alexander, Elicia Gonzales, Matty Stardust, Mal Durham, Kai Yohman, Em Gormley, Asa khalif, Melissa Hamilton, Teresa Sullivan, La’Donna Boyens, Lane DiFlavis, Caitlin Shanley, Kel Kroehle, Lucy Gleysteen, Jose DeMarco, Mindy Isser, Seth Lamming, Erin Bree, Olivia C. Webster, Suzy Subways (survivor of police assault, former member of Grassroots Queers Philly), Sadie Flesher, Lauren Forst, Rowan Avery McWade, Naiymah Sanchez, TJ Burk, Timothy Colman, Phantazia Washington, Ovid, CA Conrad, Nova McGiffert, Lynne Demmer, Layne Mullett, Alexander Lopez, Ezra Berkley Nepon, Robert Winant, Basha Smolen, April L. Murdock, Sarah Morris, KMC, M Anemone Schlotterbeck…

ACT UP Philly, Juntos, Migrant Power Movement, Hearts On a Wire Collective, Workers World Party Philadelphia, International Action Center Philadelphia, Positive Women’s Network USA Philadelphia Regional Chapter, North Philly Food Not Bombs, Gran Varones.

 A representative with Philly Pride told the Associated Press that members “applaud the actions of Philly GOAL because this certainly avoided the tumult that would have resulted by the threatened actions to ‘shut down’ the 2016 parade.”

The petition has only garnered 366 signatures at the time of this posting.