TORONTO PRIDE PARADE

City Council to fund Toronto Pride 2011? Probably.

by Kim Koyama

The battle between LGBTQ communities and the homophobic right continues at City Hall. At issue is funding for Pride Toronto—the organization in charge of Pride Week festivities.

At stake is $125,000 toward cultural programming and another $250,000 for in-kind services (security, garbage cleanup, barriers, etc.). On May 24, the City of Toronto executive committee met to hear deputations from the public, arguing for or against continuing monetary support from the city for Toronto Pride.

Supporting Pride funding was a diverse collection of individuals, some speaking on behalf of LGBTQ programs and services, others simply speaking from the heart about their individual experiences with Pride.

Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA) submitted a video deputation which clearly and concisely laid out the facts of the history of their participation in Pride; showed that their message is political, peaceful and anti-racist; and revealed the smear campaign and the lies against them perpetuated by QuAIA’s opponents.

It was well received by the LGBTQ participants and largely ignored by Ford and some of the other right-leaning committee members.

Attacking Pride and urging the committee to withdraw funding were members of the Zionist community. Some seemed to be unaware that QuAIA had withdrawn from the Pride March. Most deputants spent their allotted four minutes speaking against hate speech in spite of the city manager’s report which vindicated QuAIA in finding there has been no use of hate speech and no violation of the city’s anti-discrimination policy.

Also among the right-wing deputants was Meir Weinstein, organizer for the Jewish Defence League (JDL)—recognized as a terrorist organization in the US. The irony of being lectured on hate speech by the JDL was not lost on many LGBTQ representatives in the audience.

The JDL is also a homophobic organization; JDL members recently picketed the office of Pride Toronto, and departed with the promise: “See you next week, faggots.”

Particularly offensive to the LGBTQ communities were the deputations from straight people—telling everyone what Pride should be about.

With 50 deputations, the session ran into the evening, but surprisingly, the executive committee of city council voted unanimously to fund Pride for 2011, but only after the event. This victory has been regarded with jubilation, but correctly with some suspicion. City Councillors can still present a motion to pull funding at any time. Some in the LGBTQ crowd are waiting to see the money before they believe it.