thatfloatingcat:

covenesque:

allthecanadianpolitics:

Toronto Police: “If Police can’t have floats in Pride, we’ll ask the city to defund the Pride Parade.”

Why these people acting like a police uniform is something you born with.

If the uniform is on they’re on the clock ie working. It’s not a costume you draw on for fun or to show off. Do these nerds wear work clothes for fun or specifically when they’re at work? Cops can still come to the parade as civilians and out of the uniform and still celebrate pride, which they did every year

What infuriates me is that these people are willing to hold funding for queer and trans youth esp black and brown queer and trans youth hostage just to dick wave and “get one over” on the mean black people and insert themselves in a space they still actively terrorize and refuse to work with.

Canadian myopic pettiness and passive aggressiveness combined with white supremacy is the absolute worst.

Meanwhile councillors are arguing over this pittance of funding while Toronto roads fall into disrepair and affordable housing costs skyrocket. Cops are arguing over this funding while this city falls into ruin while they sit comfortably with a billion dollar police budget for a city with barely any crime compared to us cities of our size and density. Most if not all of these cops do not even live in Toronto proper and commute here from outside. So how can they even claim inclusion with a community when they don’t live here

I am willing to bet these council are coming for caribana next. Watch

Honestly the sheer level of pettiness around this decision is appalling, from so many people (even lots of LGBT+ people). Maybe the police should be examining WHY many LGBT+ people (especially those from racialized groups) might be uncomfortable having them promote themselves with floats in the parade rather than retaliating like this.

This kind of brings us back to the age-old discussion around “how to be an ally”….. being an ally doesn’t make it about you. Being an ally should not be contingent on you getting a stage/platform in our community. Being an ally doesn’t mean damaging the community you claim to support when they maybe aren’t comfortable with your brand of allyship, or with the role you’re taking trying to be an ally. Being an ally doesn’t mean being petty and damaging the community when we point out that being an ally doesn’t entitle you to that stage. 

The police are not an LGBT+ organization. The police, as a collective, are not LGBT+. Individual members of the police might be LGBT+, but then they can come as they are and leave their job (which has nothing to do with Pride, which has a negative history with the community) out of it. That is being respectful of the community – that is acknowledging that there are many LGBT+ people (especially POC, trans women, sex workers) who may feel threatened by heavy police promotion at Pride.

Claiming that the police as a collective organization, which isn’t even an LGBT+ organization, somehow have more right to a safe space at Pride than actual LGBT+ people is ridiculous. If the police were genuinely being good allies, they would understand this. The fact that they’re pushing for a withdrawal of funding, to me at least, means that they really don’t care – it’s about self-promotion.