Boycotting Pride over police issue

As a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community, I take issue with public funding for the Pride celebrations this year, based on the discrimination against Toronto Police Services. Black Lives Matter has issues with Toronto police and many of those issues are righteous. But BLM is not representative and not a part of the LGBTQ+ community. It has held the Pride organization ransom. Sadly I will not take part in Pride festivities this year and I know of many others who will also be absent. Stephen Bloom, Toronto

I personally, as well as several of my friends, will be boycotting all Pride festivities this year due to the Pride committee’s decision to not include our police in the parade. I find this to be embarrassing and shameful. Wasn’t the whole purpose of Pride to be about acceptance and inclusiveness? We have been working for years to establish a relationship with the police and all levels of government and this decision is just not right or acceptable. Building and maintaining a good, healthy and strong relationship with our Toronto police must be your most important mandate. There will be serious repercussions from your very unwise decision. Joseph D. Hagger, Toronto

Like so many others in the GTA, I am angered by the Pride parade issue. We have somehow allowed a small, but vocal group to hijack an event that has helped pioneer equal rights for members of our LGBTQ community. The sheer audacity of this group to make demands that demean our well-respected police force is totally unacceptable. Our politicians should make it clear to such militant groups that demands such as these regarding publicly funded events will not be tolerated. Where does this type of intimidation end? John Wright, Markham

Pride’s policy toward LGBTQ police, which requires them to hide themselves and their profession and to not express their entire pride during the day exclusively set aside for them to do so, is a massive failure of the original spirit of Toronto Pride. Pride means to stand up for whom and what you are and in any way you choose. To be restricted in celebrating this is to ultimately declare that Pride no longer maintains a policy of inclusivity. Today it may be the police uniform that is not welcome at the Pride parade. What, or who, will it be tomorrow? To fund Pride, while actively discriminating against the uniform of those who would protect us, will only add to the acrimony among all participants in this debate that has undermined the LGBTQ community’s ability to express itself unhindered. Funding will knowingly embrace the values of this organization that no longer speaks for LGBTQ ideals of acceptance, equality and pride. Troy J. Young, Toronto