City of Toronto threatens funding for Pride Toronto
As mentioned in this babble thread, Pride Toronto was considering a censorship policy to prohibit groups like Queers Against Israeli Apartheid from participating in the annual parade and dyke march.
Pride Toronto has since backed down due to community backlash, but a leaked letter now reveals that the policy emerged as a result of pressure from City Councillor Kyle Rae:
Free speech is to be encouraged, but free speech of this nature is not in keeping with the expression of Pride. (link)
The City of Toronto provides funding to Pride Toronto ($175,000 last year), and Councillor Rae chairs the Economic Development Committee of City Council, which oversees funds for Pride.
Following Pride Toronto's refusal to censor parade participants, Rae wrote that "the City of Toronto must ascertain if the City's policies concerning anti-discrimination are compromised by QuAIA's rhetoric and messaging. Clearly some feel that the need to provide a safe and welcoming environment is not being met." He then cited the Peter Shurman motion condemning Israeli Apartheid Week as his rationale. (link)
According to Xtra, a meeting was held in Mayor David Miller's office yesterday with Councillor Rae in attendance, to discuss funding for Pride Toronto, and the issue is expected to come up at Council this week:
City council's next meeting is scheduled for March 31, with another for April 1 — in which the topic of Pride Toronto funding is expected to come up. Additionally, budget meetings set for April 15 and 16 could further address funding for the event. (link)
I am of 2 minds here. On one hand everyone should have the right to express themselves publicly within the borders of the law. On the other what happens if say Tamils from the LGBT community or LGBT Rwandan Canadians or gay Jewish Canadians protesting Nazi war criminals in Canada or others want to use the Pride parade for their legitimate and longstanding girevances? Should we allow Pride to become a parade with various political agendas? Will that not diminish what Pride was meant to be? This is a tough one.
Good point. Pride was meant to be a celebration of the isolation of LGBTQ folks from all political causes except their own; a rejection of alliances; a disdain for solidarity with the other victims of oppression in Canada and around the world. This free speech and assembly stuff could really undermine that aim...
[NB: Irony alert for the above.]
I am very sympathetic to your point Unionist. I just cannot reconcile the parade turning into a smorgasbord of political agendas instead of a celebration of the LGBT community. I have been to a number of Pride Parades, they were delicious fun on so many levels. I fear the injection of politics will turn off many.
Cookie, the history of Pride day is grounded in politics. In recent decades Pride has turned into a party, and a party only.
The politics that began Pride was a politics of standing together... queers, sex workers, allies... in alliance against oppression.
It was a march before it was a parade. Know your history.
Quite right it was a march before it was a parade but even then the agendas were LGBT. Issues around gender and trangender equality, same-sex recognized unions (today we actually have somewhat won that battle with same-sex marriages recognized here in Ontario), issues around treatment by police of Gays and Lesbians, bathouse raids, discrimination...it wasn't then and I argue it shouldnt be now a "March" that allows for all agendas all the time.
The Gay and Queer communities have precious few places where it can express its sexulaity and pride. There sre plenty of places to march in support of Tamils, or advocate against oppression and genocide. Yes the Pride Day was political but with a focus on LGBT issues. I want it to remain that way.
But shouldn't it be up to the Pride Day organisers which issues are included and which are not. I don't think it's right to have the city dictate the agenda because it in part funds the event.
Yeah, Maysie, like imagine what the CJC would be like if, instead of just uniting Jews around Jewish issues, it started allowing pro-Israel politics and Darfur and complaining about children's books and telling churches whom to associate with and stuff like that. It would rapidly become divisive and totally discredited.
Since I don't live in the centre of the universe, can someone please inform me, who the hell is this asshat Kyle Rae? Crap, next thing you know he is going to want to require participants to act (and dress) in a "dignified" manner.
If he is so concerned about imagery and rhetoric... tell him to take a walk along Huntley Street.
I couldn't agree more.
Great stuff Unionist :D :D
The Pride Parade has long included queer groups campaigning on a wide variety of issues, including the Simon Nkodi Anti-Apartheid Committee, which marched in the 1980s against South African apartheid.
Were you against their inclusion as well?
I honestly do not recall that and I would not have opposed it but would still feel that the focus should be LGBT...were there other such examples as well?
I'd like to suggest that anyone who is not a member of the LGBTQ community and is commenting here about what the agenda of Pride or any queer organizing "should be" to take a step back and think about that. That's what allies do.
Politics means politics. Not just LGBTQ politics. Sorry, it has always been thus.
In Toronto, women re-started the Dyke March in, jeez, 1996? 1997? I was there and forget the year. Why? Because the parade was already becoming too exclusionary for us. And too sexist and commercial. We still marched at Pride too.
Queers of colour have always included issues of racism in general, and in the LGBTQ community, on our banners and in our struggles / celebrations of Pride.
And yeah, queer Jews and queer Muslims have also integrated some/all of their identities into Pride struggles / celebrations. Imagine that.
No, we aren't all WASPs like Kyle Rae.
Hey bagkitty, Kyle Rae is the outgoing city councillor for Ward 27 (not running again thank the goddess of cats) which is the downtownest of the downtown Toronto municipal wards, and the area that includes the Gay Village at Church and Wellesley. Rae has been a Liberal / liberal hack for as long as I can remember. Enough said.
Actually p-sto, it should be up to the participants... while I have a certain amount of respect for some of the organizers of various Pride marches I have been involved in (Calgary and Montreal) and I do appreciate the hours of crappy committee work many have undertaken on a volunteer basis, ultimately it is the LGBT communities that set the tone - and this is how it should be, despite the "career" ambitions of some of the organizers (especially those who are in paid positions for some of the larger organizations). If funding is being made available by a municipal government, that is nice.... but not essential -- and if people want to see a march get "political" just try and see what happens if any municipal government refuses to issue the required permits to use the public streets to hold a parade/march. (Actually, that would be one I would love to participate in.)
Cross posted with my bud bagkitty.
What bagkitty said.
Thanks Maysie, he is obviously still an asshat though. (Is this the point to quote Vito Russo's classic comment about comfortable, white, middle class gays?)
Perhaps I should have been more clear but I was implying that bagkitty. The organisers should be representing the LGBT community. If the community feels they are being misrepresented by the event it's up to organisers to make it right. The city financially supports the event because it's a big tourist draw and a good investment for the city. For the city to attempt to set the agenda of the event is offensive.
Maysie said ..." I'd like to suggest that anyone who is not a member of the LGBTQ community and is commenting here about what the agenda of Pride or any queer organizing "should be" to take a step back and think about that."
How about if I'm wearing Bernie Farber's "Nobody knows I'm Gay" T-shirt as I post. Does that make it ok? just askin'
There is no evidence that a) the first clause of this sentence will actually happen and b) that the second clause cannot occur in concert with the first.
bagkitty, sorry i wasn't clear. Liberal = asshat. Who's Vito Russo?
oldgoat, I will need some photographic proof and then you can say whatever the hell you want.
No problem p-sto, I pretty much interpreted that as being your intention but I thought it was worth clarifying. Further, and this is important particularly in light of what is happening to the south of most of us on the DADT front, we must remember that while the organizers of Pride (or EGALE or HRC or whatever organization) may be doing good work on behalf of the communities, they by no means have a mandate from the communities -- there will always be tensions between the organizational interests of these groups (and their funding) and the actual interests of the communities. The assumption that these groups "represent" the communites is something that can and should be challenged. While it may be hard for some (especially MSM) to understand, they don't necessarily speak for us, we speak for ourselves.
Maysie, see that is why I always refer to LGBT communities (plural) rather than the LGBT community.
Vito Russo, was an author, academic, film historian, LGBT/AIDS activist, yadda yadda... his most important work was The Celluloid Closet (originally published 1981, updated 1987), which was made into a documentary film in 1995 -- it was the first major discussion of how American popular culture (Hollywood) portrayed the gay and lesbian communities. While it is a bit dated, it is well worth reading (the documentary, well, not so much).
As to those not who are not part of the communities who are commenting here... I say let them speak as much as they want, but I personally would appreciate it if they clearly identified themselves as part of the hetero horde so I could weigh their "input" accordingly.
bagkitty, you are wise, and yes, I like how you use the word "communities".
Although I do a "multiplicity of communities within the community" thing when I say LGBTQ community but that might not be obvious.
And post #21 was great, thanks for that.
lol @ hetero horde
This old urban legend should be put to bed. Farber was at last year's pride parade marching with Kulanu. He and about 75 others purchased these T-shirts as part of a kulanu (jewish LGBT group) fundraiser.
Then Farber and Zerbisias got into it when Zerb took umbrage at Farber's attending the Pride parade and made a silly, what was suppose to be sarcastic/ironic/ God knows what comment about Farber being gay. The issue escalated when Farber reported this to the star's Ombudsperson...it was discussed here ad nauseum. Zerb had no clue Farber wore this shirt until someone saw a pic of him wearing it in the parade and then the nonsense began. It was all silly and when oldgaot and others perpetuate and feed this myth it gets sillier.
I don't get it. What's the urban legend? Farber wore the shirt and then complained when someone pointed out that he was wearing the shirt. No one mentioned the wonderful Antonia Zerbisias until your post. What "myth" is being "perpetuated" and "fed"?
At the risk of being labeled as part of the CJC/Farber calvary, thank you prophit for explaining the t-shirt business. However I assume there will be people here who will continue to revise the historical record for their own purposes.
Okay children, the sandbox is over here for you to play in, all sorts of lovely links for you to lose yourselves in, now shooo, shooo
Yes'm. Sorry'm.
You sound like my son, Catchfire. He said that to me a few weeks ago when I said something to him in a stern voice (but with a twinkle in my eye). He said, "Yes'm," and hopped to it. It was all I could do not to burst out laughing.
Sorry, bagkitty! I won't commit any more drift, I promise! :)