Black Lives Matter Protest Proves Pride Needs More Empathy, Less Prejudice [View all]

[KMOD]

Toronto's Pride Parade on Sunday was an historic success. An estimated million revellers were joined by, for the first time, a sitting prime minister as photos of a grinning, rainbow Canadian flag-waving Justin Trudeau conveyed the message that Canada is officially inclusive.

Officially, perhaps, but not always actually.

That became clear at the outraged reaction, in person, on social media and in old-timey media, to the sit-in by Black Lives Matter Toronto, a protest that lasted about 25 minutes after which their demands were met by Pride Toronto organizers and the parade progressed.

Twenty-five minutes is about the length of time we wait through commercials and trailers for a movie to start. Twenty-five minutes is how long it should have taken my six-year-old son and I to get to the Pride Parade from Parkdale rather than the hour-and-a-half that it actually took.

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But the members of BLM: Toronto are fighting for both, and that's what this brouhaha boils down to. The LGBT equality movement has been better for white people than it has been for people of colour because some folks are discriminated for more than just being LGBT.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/joshua-ostroff/toronto-pride-black-lives-matter_b_10801712.html

I thought I'd add this as a counter-balance to the discussion occurring in the LBN forum.