Tag Archives: Toronto PRIDE

Toronto PRIDE Bans Uniformed Police From Parade

Toronto PRIDE Bans Uniformed Police From Parade Indefinitely

Ooops they did it again. And many people are not happy.

Uniformed police officers have been indefinitely barred from participating in Toronto’s Pride Parade.

On Tuesday night, Pride members voted 163-161 to keep uniformed officers out of the parade. Officers can still march, but not in uniform.

“What this vote has told us is we need to better understand what this community feels about police services and how they feel it negatively impacts their lives and so that’s what we’re going to try to do,” said Olivia Nuamah, executive director of Pride Toronto.

The members’ decision means police will be out of the festivities indefinitely, she said. Another vote would be needed to allow uniformed officers back in.

Mayor John Tory said the result of the vote was “deeply disappointing.”

“Division is the enemy to be wary of here for everybody,” Tory said Wednesday. “And so I will be continuing to exert whatever effort I can to see if we can achieve a different outcome. Pride is still some time away. I believe the police should be in Pride,” Tory said to reporters Wednesday.

The vote comes about three months after the organization lifted a ban on uniformed officers taking part in PRIDE, saying the force was welcome to apply to be a part of this summer’s festivities. After a push-back from members of the trans and QPOC . Who say they don’t feel safe with the uniformed officers participating.

In 2016, Black Lives Matter (a non-LGBT specific group) abruptly halted the Pride Parade march, demanding that uniformed police, their floats and cruisers be excluded. 

It must be noted that before becoming Executive Director of Toronto Pride Olivia Nuamah was behind and advocated the Black Lives Matters agenda of Police exclusion.

Toronto PRIDE Bans Uniformed Police From Parade

PRIDE Toronto Executive Director Olivia Nuamah Aligns w/Black Lives Matter, Forces LGBT Police Out of Parade

LGBT Police in Toronto have withdrawn their application to march in the 2018 Toronto Pride parade, after pressure from the Toronto Pride’s executive director Olivia Nuamah thus ending efforts to appeal a rejection by parade organizers. Toronto Pride initially banned police from marching last year after Black Lives Matter demonstrators interrupted the parade to protest police brutality.

The call for a ban is said to have intensified in recent months over police’s handling of a serial killer case that claimed the lives of at least six gay men. But many think that this may be being used as an excuse to hasten Numah’s personal agenda to ban LGBT police from marching because of a small group feel “unsafe” and “triggered” by the officers presence.

Toronto Mayor John Tory acknowledged the difficult situation but said hoped discussions between cops and organizers continue. “I want everyone to be in Pride,” he told reporters. But a rep for the Toronto Police’s union thinks he made the wrong call. “We think that this type of action drives a wedge deeper in the community and policing, and it’s disappointing to our members.”

Nuamah has been pushing her own and the Black Lives Matters agenda of Police exclusion since before she became Executive Director in 2017. Addressing a group of Councillors at city hall last year Nuamah was once again defending the decision to ban uniformed police from marching in the parade. For months, she had heard complaints of exclusion, seen the issue chewed over by political pundits, and has stubbornly stood firm on a decision made in response to a in by Black Lives Matter Toronto at the 2016 parade. They, and a few others others, argued that police uniforms, cars, and weaponry made the most vulnerable parts of the LGBTQ community, who had been targeted by cops, feel unsafe.

Pride Toronto describes Nuamah as a “community builder, mother and artist” with a background in government and non-profit work, as well as a love of music and DJing. 

That experience gives Nuamah “a unique understanding of the representation of trans and queer artists in cultural spaces,” the website states.

Unfortunately though it gives her no understanding of the sacrifice many LGBT police officers make every day and the discrimination that they themselves face from within their job as they try to educate fellow officers.  So Nuamah’s and Toronto Prides “exclusion for inclusion” is nothing more than discrimination and is against all that PRIDE stands for.

LGBT NYPD Police Invite Disenfranchised Toronto PD To March With Them At NYC Pride

After Police officers were banned from marching and participating in Pride Toronto, because of an outcry from the Black Lives Matter movement., the Gay Officers Action League (Goal) has invited Toronto police officers to march, in uniform with them, during New York City’s Pride Parade and March.

Members of Pride Toronto voted to ban police uniforms, weapons and vehicles from the parade earlier this year, after protests and a hi-jacking of their Pride parade from Black Lives Matter last year.

Many in the LGBT community and the Toronto Police Association has been vocally opposed to the ban, even going so far as to ask the city to pull funding from Toronto Pride, which the city declined to do.

“This type of restriction is a step backwards for both our gay officers and the relationship Toronto Police have tried to build with the community,” president of the Toronto Police Association said.

About 10,000 people have signed a petition on Change.org asking for uniformed police to be allowed to march in the parade.

Toronto’s police union said it hopes many officers will be able to participate in NYC Pride.

“We are honoured that they have invited Toronto police officers to attend and march in their parade with uniforms,”  said McCormack,.

Marching in uniform is an important part of any pride parade, said GOAL’s executive director William Shephard.

“We actually had to sue in the United States federal court in 1997 for the right to march in the NYPD uniforms in New York City Pride,

Janaya Khan, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter Toronto, objects  to GOAL’s invitation of Canadian police.

“It’s disgraceful that these sort of organizations within the police departments are reaching out to each other in this way in an act of solidarity,” Khan said. “The police are not a marginalized group. They are a political and militarized institution.”

Khan claims that GOAL’s decision to invite Toronto police officers revealed a “significant tone deafness.”

Longtime Toronto Gay Activist Boycotts Toronto Pride Over BLM Hijacking of Event

Longtime Toronto Gay Activist Boycotts Toronto Pride Over BLM Hijacking of Event

 

69-year-old, longtime Toronto gay activist Brian Provini  is boycotting the June 25th. Tornoto Pride parade this year as are many others  because of the push by Black Lives Matter — Toronto (BLM) to ban police participation.

“I find it to be totally unacceptable,” said the retired community college professor and senior policy officer with the provincial ministry of training, colleges and universities said  Provini Thursday, a few hours after he e-mailed a letter to Pride Toronto and the police advising them that he cannot “support a Pride that is not inclusive of the police.”

He said the LGBT community and the police force have done a lot “to build bridges” over the years and as far as he’s concerned, after this that Pride no longer represents Toronto’s LGBT community.

The Toronto Sun released an exclusive Forum poll earlier this week that showed nearly 50% of Toronto voters surveyed disapprove of the fact that the Toronto Police will not have a float (or booth) in this year’s annual celebration of LGBTQ rights.  Only 21%, mostly those under 34 and living in the old city of Toronto, approved of the ban.

BLM disrupted last July’s Pride parade with a 30-minute sit-in, presenting a list of demands that included a call to ban police from the event in the future.

In mid-February, Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders announced the police would bow out of the parade this year. He had no choice, given the lack of support from his political masters and the self-appointed leaders of the gay community.

Provini said the only reason BLM and its supporters were able to take over the AGM, was because Pride is a “weak” organization.

“They are weak and allowed themselves to be bullied,” he said, adding that people he knows were “furious” that BLM hijacked last July’s parade.

“Pride has lost its way … You’re either inclusive or not inclusive,” he said.

Christine Drummond who sits on the Ottawa Police Service’s GLBT Liaison Committee echoes these sentiments. She started a Change.org petition imploring Pride Toronto to allow police services to march and be present in uniform at this year’s festivities. At the time of publication, the online petition had over 7,400 signatures.

“Things needed to be discussed, things needed to be agreed upon. It shouldn’t have been a one-sided vote,” Drummond says. “I found it very, very hurtful considering I have a lot of friends that are LGBTQ officers and who are allied officers as well.”

She says the Black Lives Matter demands run counter to spirit of Pride.

“Pride is based on inclusion,” she says. “At the end of the day, officers can’t take off their uniform. They can’t. They’re a police officer 24-7, 365 days a year. It’s part of who they are.”

Anti-Gay “Christians” Dress As Gay Zombies to Infiltrate Toronto Pride and Spread Hate

Gay Zombies Toronto pride

 

In 2013 the Supreme Court of Canada found anti-lgbt “Christian” street preacher Bill Whatcott guilty of “hate speech” against homosexuals for pamphlets in which he warned that “children will pay the price in disease, death, abuse and ultimately eternal judgment if we do not say no to the sodomite desire to socialize your children into accepting something that is clearly wrong.”

But that did not stop Whatcott and about a half-dozen other his Christian anti-gay co-horts to go undercover with masks wearing green skintight suits and pay the $100 fee to parade organizers to register as “Gay Zombies Cannabis Consumers Association” so that they could move more easily along the parade route to deliver their anti-gay message. 

Registered as the “Gay Zombies Cannabis Consumers Association” using the ruse of receiving free condoms and sex tips from gay zombies PRIDE celebrants actually received info packets about the physical and spiritual dangers of homosexual practices.

“Our delivery was a bit creative,” said Whatcott to LifeSiteNews, “but, we wanted to give people this message because it is truthful.”

Whatcott said that as a street preacher in other Pride parades he seldom handed out more than a few dozen pamphlets. But this time, dressed as gay zombies, he and his crew managed to hand out thousands of pamphlets. 

“I asked them if they wanted ‘Zombie safe sex.’ Everyone loved it. But, if you try to give out a Gospel pamphlet, they swear at you and throw slushies on your forehead. But, give them some wackadoddle thing that looks like a condom, and they really can’t grab it fast enough. I had three thousand out in 20 minutes,” he said. 

The front side of the pamphlet shows graphic images of diseases associated with same-sex behaviors, including anal warts and AIDS.

“Natural law is clear, homosexuality is incompatible with human nature. Disease, death and confusion are the sad and sordid realities of the homosexual lifestyle.

 “Natural law is clear, homosexuality is incompatible with human nature. Disease, death and confusion are the sad and sordid realities of the homosexual lifestyle. The ‘Gay Zombies’ are concerned about the spiritual, psychological and physical welfare of all potential homosexual pride attendees, so we want to give you this accurate information and encourage you to abstain from the homosexuality,” states the pamphlet..

Whatcott called his most recent stunt and pamphlets a statement against the Canadian Supreme Court ruling. 

Poor Toronto Pride.  After the high of having his Canadian Hotnesss Prime Minister Justin Trudeau march in the parade to having to deal with Undercover Zombie Christians and Black Lives Matter Divas its all just too much to bear.