I don't know that I agree with BLM's approach to having the police floats removed from future parades, but I'm not seeing much drama here between the LGBT and BLM movements. From the Star article:
Quote:
The parade resumed after Pride executive director Mathieu Chantelois and board co-chair Alica Hall reviewed and signed the list of demands on the spot.
“Their [BLM's] requests were extremely reasonable,” Chantelois said. “Everything was making a lot of sense.”
|
Doesn't really sound to me like they took "a giant crap on the carpet" of the parade. But maybe there is other info out there to the contrary. Anyway, the theme of this year's parade was social justice, which included black rights with the LGBT community (as explained in the article), so I'm not getting the outrage over this (police issue notwithstanding). Seems like the parade organizers and BLM attendance organizers were all effectively on the same page.
Interestingly, the tension between whether the pride parade is a family fun day or an activist moment isn't new to this year or exclusive to BLM. From the article itself
Quote:
The need to return Pride to its community roots hit a flashpoint in 2010 as debate raged over the inclusion of the Queers Against Israeli Apartheid group, programming for Dyke Day was moved away from the locus of activity, the Trans March was organized without consultation, and Blockorama was moved to a smaller location.
“At that point I think a whole lot of people in the community realized that this was no longer an event that had notions of community as its central focus. It was becoming more of a tourist event that had making-money for people as its focus,” McCaskell said.
|