Straight, white, cisgender, male politicians in Toronto seem awfully invested in the celebrations and expressions of queer people. For at least the third time in the past seven years, such politicians are threatening to pull funding from Pride Torontos annual celebrations.
The latest objection comes from Coun. John Campbell, who says the city should pull its financial support if Pride doesnt let the Toronto Police march in the annual Sunday parade in their uniforms. Chief Saunders has agreed to the demand, but Campbell sees benefit for himself in continuing the conflict.
Pride is extremely useful to Campbell and other conditionally supportive councillors, so long as it expresses a version of queerness they find comforting and profitable. When Pride expresses its radical political roots the rejection of police brutality and challenges to state power many of the council bros no longer see their stake in it. The great value of Pride funding for self-interested councillors is the ability to deny that funding, to control the radical politics of queer people in the name of unity.
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Federal Conservative leadership candidate Brad Trost took his opportunity within hours of Campbells suggestion to defund Pride. I have not marched in any gay pride parade, Trost bragged in an email to his supporters in the hours following Campbells announcement (the scare quotes around the words gay pride are Trosts, not mine). Brad is not a big fan of the gay lifestyle, Trosts spokesman declared later for anyone who didnt get it the first time.
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BLMTO, with its uncompromising stance against police brutality, threatens to ruin the veneer of unity politicians use to sell Pride and Toronto, and the politicians know it. Mayor John Torys response to Campbells defunding proposal is particularly telling.
Yes, there are still issues between the queer communities and the police, Tory conceded in an interview this week, but those issues should be addressed with the ultimate objective of having the police in the parade.
The issues Tory refuses to name include studies showing that 24 per cent of trans people in Ontario say they have been harassed by police, and that black trans people continue to experience especially high rates of police violence. The mayor is also threatened by BLMTOs insistence that Pride itself has excluded black people for decades, a fact the organization acknowledged last fall.
