In a win for the Black Lives Matter movement, Pride Toronto has voted to adopt a list of demands from the racial justice group that includes removing police floats and marches from the city's future Pride parades, among the largest LGBTQ Pride marches in the world.
Last year the Toronto chapter of the international Black Lives Matter movement halted the annual Pride festivities with a sit-in to protest police participation as well as the Pride parade's history of anti-Black racism, shutting down the parade for about half an hour. The action ended when leaders of Pride Toronto signed a document agreeing to a list of demands.
This protest also followed similar actions led by Black Lives Matter in U.S. cities in 2016. The movement pulled out of Pride events in San Francisco over heightened security measures, while Black Lives Matter New York issued a statement on state violence expressing discomfort with "being policed during a time of Pride."
Black Lives Matter activists also followed suit in Vancouver, where the movement boycotted the Pride parade over the inclusion of a police-only float in the event.
Pride Toronto's decision came as somewhat of a surprise, according to local media, as the topic of police participation at the parade was initially not scheduled to be part of the meeting, which was slated to focus on finances and electing new board members.
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The membership also endorsed prioritizing the hiring of "Black trans women, Black queer people, Indigenous folk and others from vulnerable communities."
However, the decision was not welcomed by all sectors of society, especially by police departments who lamented the decision. Toronto Police Association president Mike McCormack called it a “major setback” for police and LGBTQ relations.
The Toronto Pride is traditionally held over the last full weekend of June to commemorate the Stonewall rebellion of 1969, when the LGBTQ community—led by trans people and people of color like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera — rose up following police raids on the Stonewall bar in New York.
Black Lives Matter Toronto led the city's Pride parade last year as the event's honored group.