Officers angry about possible ban on police floats at future Pride parades

Canadian media observers are offering a variety of opinions on Black Lives Matter’s interruption of Toronto’s Pride parade – and the Pride organization’s reaction to Black Lives Matter demands.

“I for one appreciate both the support for Pride and all that it represents coming from the police officers who march as well as the professional way in which they have kept Pride and its participants safe all these years”, Tory said in the letter.

But while Pride Toronto’s executive director signed the document during Sunday’s parade, organizers are now saying that they were really just commiting to “having a conversation” about the list.

Ever since the sit-in, Black Lives Matter Toronto has been the target of “dozens and dozens” of vicious and racist e-mails – some from members of the LGBTQ community – said co-founder Janaya Khan.

Among the celebrities expected to appear in the parade were some stars of the Netflix prison dramedy “Orange is the New Black”. “I speak as an individual, one who saw his first PRIDE, only to be excluded from the next”, Const.

Black Lives Matter didn’t consult with the organizers of Toronto Pride ahead of time, because they wanted it to be a dramatic and confrontational display.

Toronto Police Service Constable Chuck Krangle, a Canadian Armed Forces veteran, responded to the demands Monday, writing, “Exclusion does not promote inclusion”.

For observers of the identity wars, what some have called a hijacking of the Toronto Pride Parade by Black Lives Matters activists could have been predicted.

“And we really need to start teasing out what it means when increased police presence means that numerous LGBTQ-identified community members feel less and less safe”, she said Monday. “Frankly, Black Lives Matter is not going to tell us that there are no more floats anymore in the parade”. “They should know by now that we are not the ones”, she said – meaning not the ones to be messed with. He also committed to hold a town hall to consult with his community.

Just days before Philly Pride in June, members of the Greater Philadelphia Gay Officers Action League (GOAL) declined an invitation to be grand marshals after opponents complained about police discrimination and violence against minorities.

BLMTO staged a 25 minutes long sit-in during the Pride parade on Sunday, asking the organisation to address the deeply embedded “anti-blackness of the festival”. “It’s uplifting to see so many people come to Toronto from across Canada and around the world to celebrate the history, courage and diversity of our community”.

Last week, DeRay McKesson, a leader in the BLM movement, told USA Today that the group may mobilize protesters at the upcoming Republican and Democratic conventions.

“I have lots of wonderful gay cop friends who do incredible work for the community and they damn well should be allowed to march”, he wrote on Facebook this weekend.