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[akira28]

I was wondering what the hell they did from 2003 to 2008 that took black gay marriage numbers from the 30s down to the 20s and back up again. And I always wonder who they're asking.

i get the feeling they're standing outside of black churches...

 

[Cybit]

I was wondering what the hell they did from 2003 to 2008 that took black gay marriage numbers from the 30s down to the 20s and back up again. And I always wonder who they're asking.

i get the feeling they're standing outside of black churches...

2004 could also have been an outlier?

 

[akira28]

2004 was big for civil unions instead of gay marriages which were going to happen over some Republican's dead body.

 

[Liberty4all]

Posted yet?

http://news.nationalpost.com/toront...sit-in-demonstrates-racism-black-lives-matter

Massive backlash with BLM getting hate mail etc...

Not sure what I think. The organizer of the parade basically admitted he signed just to get the parade moving.

 

[Gotdatmoney]

http://www.oci-bec.gc.ca/cnt/comm/press/press20131126-eng.aspx

For people wondering if Canada has a policing problem with minorities. Our whole justice system seems to have very large over representation.

None of this is particularly surprising if you pay attention but when I hear bitching about "why does Canada/Toronto need a BLM chapter" this is a pretty obvious indication as to why.

_____________________

The backlash against BLM over this isn't surprising either. Given Canadians think racism isn't a thing in this country this is obviously going to go over poorly. The legal system in this country is anti minority. It is anti black. It is anti first nations. I wish Canadians were more interested in all the stats the govt put out (or did before stats can was stripped down). At least in America the racism is obvious. Here its just vanilla.

 

[indigo lily]

http://www.oci-bec.gc.ca/cnt/comm/press/press20131126-eng.aspx

For people wondering if Canada has a policing problem with minorities. Our whole justice system seems to have very large over representation.

None of this is particularly surprising if you pay attention but when I hear bitching about "why does Canada/Toronto need a BLM chapter" this is a pretty obvious indication as to why.

_____________________

The backlash against BLM over this isn't surprising either. Given Canadians think racism isn't a thing in this country this is obviously going to go over poorly. The legal system in this country is anti minority. It is anti black. It is anti first nations. I wish Canadians were more interested in all the stats the govt put out (or did before stats can was stripped down). At least in America the racism is obvious. Here its just vanilla.

Not shocked either. Canadians have a certain smugness when it comes to being super progressive but at the same time dismissing many significant critiques/issues brought up by minority groups (see the Idle No More movement and many of the disgusting responses from Canadians then too). I'm sure the issues with the proposed Police float ban will be further hashed out.

I see stuff like this on my Facebook feed:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/the-bullies-of-black-lives-matter/article30746157/

r/Canada is a bit of a dumpster fire right now, and now I'm avoiding all BLM Pride protest article comments sections entirely...

Disappointing... but not surprising.

 

[akira28]

In America we use our prisons to cordon off low income low offense minorities for years on inflated sentences, and we've learned how to make money and make livings off of keeping them all incarcerated. And of course its a "social deterrent" or an icon of fear and symbol of control. A minority "gets out of line", he disappears. The business end of our "nation of laws", even though it gets applied without oversight or transparency and has shown to be a broken system.

I would like to believe that other countries would have different circumstances, but the more things that are different, there are probably even more commonalities, especially the social utility of institutional imprisonment.'

Canada had slavery, Canada had segregation, they had their share of fighting with Native Americans. It would not surprise me to learn that inequality still exists somewhere up there. It just depends on who you ask.

edit: and yeah the cynic in me said guy just signed the paper to keep things moving. He didn't see any contracts or legal documents, so you know symbolism and convenience, etc. I'm sure someone might have been hypothetically inconvenienced by the sit in. I'm sure it was very embarrassing, socially gauche and just plain bad manners. but you know those minorities can be rude. I'm sorry that Canada had to see that.

 

[excelsiorlef]

Honestly? Fuck them. This isn't the USA where police systemically and disproportionately arrest and kill blacks. I don't understand why BLM is asking for police to stay away from an LGBT Pride parade.

I've never heard of police in Canada performing systemic abuse against minorities. We have our problems but can someone explain to me why something like this would have been started in the first place? I'm glad to change my mind and admit my ignorance if proven wrong, if proven BLM Toronto has a leg to stand on. But it just looks like an insanely dumb decision and demand from them. It is so so shitty to try to ban police from attending and embracing the Pride parade. That's making things less inclusive, not more inclusive.

Despite years of growing criticism, Toronto police continue to disproportionately stop, question and document blacks — and to a lesser extent, people with “brown” skin — adding their personal details into a controversial database.

Proportionally, a new Star analysis of Toronto police data from 2008 to 2012 shows blacks here were stopped and documented to a higher degree than blacks who were stopped and frisked by New York City police under a policy there that has led to outrage, lawsuits and settlements.


Looking solely at young black male Toronto residents, aged 15 to 24, the Star found the number who were “carded” at least once between 2008 and 2012 — in the police patrol zone where they live — actually exceeds by a small margin the number of young black males, aged 15 to 24, who live in Toronto.

“Devastating” and “unacceptable” was how Alok Mukherjee, chair of the Toronto Police Services Board, described the lack of change in the Toronto contact card data and the comparison to the New York numbers.

“We’ve been saying … we are different,” said Mukherjee, who was presented with a summary of the Star findings. “We are world leaders. We get awards and recognition for all that we have done for diversity and human rights. And then you see that.

“There has been a focus on dealing with gun violence but it still raises the question about the justification of the legitimacy of potentially carding every single young black in the city,” said Mukherjee. He is expected to deliver a blunt report at the next police board meeting.
...
Between 2008 and 2012, police filled out 1.8 million contact cards, involving more than a million individuals, in stops that typically result in no arrest or charge. The data end up in a massive police database that currently has no purging requirements.
Officers search the database routinely following crimes and during stops. Police have cited cases where contact cards helped close homicide cases, and investigators value a database that makes connections among people, locations and times.
Police Chief Bill Blair has acknowledged that encounters that involve stopping, questioning and documenting people who might simply be going about their business do not always go well but, done properly, he considers them good policing.
He has also readily said racial bias is a reality in society, and policing, and may account for some of the differences.

The new Star analysis shows:
In each of the city’s 70-plus patrol zones, blacks — and to a lesser extent people with “brown” skin — remained more likely than white people to be subjected to police stops that result in no arrest or charges being laid. The likelihood increases for blacks in areas of the city that are predominantly white.
The proportion of cards for black people in Toronto is three times greater than blacks’ share of Toronto’s population. In New York, the proportion of blacks stopped and frisked is 2.3 times greater than blacks’ share of that city’s population.
Carding is up, despite criticisms and questions of the legality of some stops. From 2008 to 2012, the number of street checks conducted rose 23 per cent. In 2012, police filled out 397,713 contact cards, involving 302,719 individuals. Since 2005, the year Toronto experienced the “year of the gun,” the number of cards has increased by 62 per cent.
More than half of the people documented between 2008 and 2012 lived in or near the patrol zone where they were stopped. That number increases in at-risk neighbourhoods, where incomes are lower and people less mobile.
With that in mind, from 2008 to 2012, the number of young black males, aged 15 to 24, who were documented at least once in the police patrol zone where they live exceeded the young black male population for all of Toronto.

It’s important to note that for each group, each year, a number of young people enter this demographic, as 14-year-olds become 15, and, if carded, they contribute to a higher count, and this would make it entirely possible that the number exceeds the snapshot census population estimates. But as police continue to stop, question and document hundreds of thousands of people annually, it becomes increasingly possible that all black, and to a lesser extent brown, youth in certain parts of the city could become part of the contact card database.

Blacks were charged with serious violent offences at a rate higher than their
baseline population. This has remained the case for more than a decade.

What police, repeatedly, have shied away from addressing head on are the Star findings that in each of the city’s patrol zones black people are more likely to be stopped and documented than whites, and that those likelihoods increase in more affluent, predominantly white areas.

The Star findings that blacks are treated differently are consistent with numerous academic studies and reports, including the 1995 Commission on Systemic Racism in the Ontario Criminal Justice System, which looked at policing, the courts and the correctional system.

The studies don’t suggest overt racism is a main reason for the differences, though it may account for some of it. Implicit bias, where people act on biases they are unaware of, learned behaviour and the way systems are set up are other factors.

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/kn...riticism_piles_up_so_do_the_police_cards.html

There were 135 Toronto police officers who filled out contact cards of blacks in certain patrol zones of the city at a standard deviation of two or more higher than their peers, according to the Star analysis. For cards of people with “brown” skin, there were 169 officers who were that high. Cards of people whose skin colour was classified as “other,” 190 officers were high. For people with white skin, there were 111 officers who had standard deviations of two or more higher than their peers.
There were 68 officers who had high rates for more than one skin colour category.
In the Star analysis, officers had to have 50 or more street checks in at least one patrol area to be counted —and have a skin colour rate two standard deviations or more above a peer benchmark.
...
As reported in Part 1 of this Star investigation into race, policing and crime, overall, blacks in Toronto are documented on police contact cards at a rate three times greater than the proportion they represent in the city’s population. Blacks are also more likely than whites to be documented in each of the city’s 70-plus patrol zones.
...
Street checks — typically non-criminal encounters where people are stopped, questioned and documented, and also known as 208s, field information reports or “cards” — are one of many factors that police look at.
Along with arrests, tickets and other measurable activities, contact cards are counted in performance reviews.
A Star analysis of Toronto police street-check data shows that officers with high numbers do climb the ranks at a steady pace. Improvements in rank means significant raises in salary. A newly hired cadet makes $54,400 a year. A first class constable, after progressing from fourth up to second, earns a base salary of $86,300.
In the case of one police division, 53 in central Toronto, a supervisor expected her officers to conduct at least three street checks per shift, according to an internal email made public this year. “Officers who are being reclassified to the next classification must meet the standards above, or their reclassification may be deferred,” read the email, sent by Insp. Joanna Beaven-Desjardin to station supervisors.
...
A former Toronto police officer, who asked not to be identified out of a concern of being labelled anti-police, told the Star carding was both necessary and a form of harassment in other circumstances. The officer described a system that encourages high card counts and rewards officers with timely access to training opportunities, which lead to scheduled promotions.
“It’s a situation where we judge without knowing and to basically find out, we have to go and stop them,” said the former officer. “But we don’t have a reason. So, hopefully, once we run them (through police databases), we’ll see that there have been contacts with police before. And that becomes our justification.”
...
Looking at all cards from 2008 to end of 2012, TAVIS officers have the highest card credits per officer of any other unit. Multiple officers can receive credits on a single card.
TAVIS officers are also most likely to be carding youth for “general investigation.” In fact, TAVIS officers received credits for one out of every three youth cards filled out where the nature of contact was “general investigation.”
Critics question the linking of cards to performance and promotion, particularly when black young men and, to a lesser extent “brown” young men, are carded at higher rates.

“If contact cards are indeed used as a performance measure, then what is to stop officers from targeting these young men just to get their own carding statistics up?” says Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, a University of Toronto PhD candidate who is studying black males’ experiences with Toronto police, including the perspectives of black officers.
“We have a situation where carding members of the public is not just about information gathering but about promotion and professional success.”

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/kn...ne_officer_five_years_6600_contact_cards.html

A jerky video image captures Toronto police as they confront a small group of residents of Mornelle Court, a TCHC complex well north of Danzig St., the public housing complex that only a week earlier was the site of the city’s worst mass shooting.
The exchange — in July of 2012 — is being filmed by a resident.
The situation is strained as police zero in on one man, asking for his identification, which he has so far refused to hand over.
“Leave him alone. Get out of here. Go to Danzig,” a woman yells, as she wraps herself protectively around the man and the two fall to the ground.
The disturbing imagery of the residents surrounded by eight officers is an example of the heightened tensions that can occur in Toronto Community Housing in the wake of a tragedy like the one last summer. At such times police are often on site to enforce the powers given to them by TCHC to enforce the provincial Trespass to Property Act.
“I’ve seen it. I’ve been in the community for years,” says Olu Quamina, a youth worker who has witnessed the police reaction to violence in downtown’s Alexandra Park complex. “TAVIS (Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy, a unit of the Toronto police) comes in and shuts the community down. They’re aggressive. They block off entrances and exits. Anybody coming through is stopped and carded.
“Grown men being searched,” he says. “Working-class people coming home at the end of the day.”
The standoff at Mornelle Court ends only when the woman reaches into the man’s pocket and gives police his identification.

Residents in community housing are stopped not only by local police, but by TAVIS officers, who card at the highest rate.
A Star investigation shows the result is that males aged 15 to 24 account for 22 per cent of people stopped and documented in a five-year period despite making up just 6 per cent of the city’s population.
An analysis of police data obtained by the Star also shows that in many of the city’s patrol zones, the number of young black males carded in a neighbourhood over a five-year period equals the total number of black youth living there.
Their personal information — names, address, “associates” — is entered in a massive police database that is used for investigations.
Both Jones and Deputy Police Chief Peter Sloly say the feedback they receive from TCHC residents is positive.
Local residents “want our cops in those neighbourhoods, in those stairwells, in the community meetings, at the resident group meetings,” says Sloly, “visible, accessible and ready to tackle the tough problems in there with them.”
That means in areas of the city such as Flemingdon Park, near Eglinton Ave. and Don Mills Rd., the police presence has been stepped up in the last few years.
Although Sloly says the area has always had a problem with violent crime, local Councillor John Parker says that was in the past.
“Flemingdon is a pretty peaceful, quiet community with folks who are just doing their best to cope with the challenges of life,” he says. “There’s a lot more good happening in Flemingdon than bad.”
Despite that, youths like 17-year-old Isaac Bobb say they are stopped at least twice a week.
The teen, who hasn’t had any legal trouble, acknowledges that drugs are a problem in the complex and that police are doing their job.
He worked as a youth mentor during Midnight Basketball to serve as a role model. “I’ve seen kids turn from good or respectful young men to drug dealers,” he says, “but I wanted to show them that isn’t the path.”
But he acknowledges that the police presence is so heavy that once you do something bad, “police will be on you every day.”
“Every day, they’ll come see you. Come check up on what you’re doing,” says Bobb, who has lived in the area his entire life.

“The more drugs are brought into the community, the more police are brought into the community,” he says, and “the less of a chance these kids have to grow and succeed.”
Some youth advocates say the relationship between Toronto police and TCHC is a “controversial” way to use the trespass act to legitimize carding.
“Police use this trespass enforcement power as an excuse for stopping people when they don’t have any other reason,” says Mary Birdsell, executive director of Justice for Children and Youth, a non-profit legal clinic.
“It really is policing of a whole other layer and order of people who live in housing,” she says. “It absolutely smacks of discriminatory policing policy.”
The clinic hands out cards to youth with information about what they are legally required to do when stopped by police in community housing.
As Birdsell notes, the act doesn’t require a person to identify himself.
What it does say is “that if you aren’t supposed to be on the property then you can be asked to leave.”
But if young people try to enforce their rights it can lead to disastrous interactions, like the one on Neptune Dr. in November 2011 that was caught on video.
Four teenagers – two 15-year-old twins and two friends aged 15 and 16 – were walking through a common area of the public housing complex near Bathurst St. and Wilson Ave. in Lawrence Heights when they were stopped by TAVIS officers enforcing the trespass act.
The situation turned ugly when one of the kids tried to assert his rights and walk away. The teens were on their way to a mentoring program that helps keep at-risk youth in school.
At one point an officer pulled his gun and punched the youth. The teens were eventually arrested and charged with assaulting police, charges that were later withdrawn.
Birdsell says she understands that TCHC tenants are worried about their safety and they want to know drug dealers aren’t hanging around.
But she says the frequency of the interactions cause many young people to question why police are stopping them when they didn’t do anything wrong.
“It leads to a mistrust of the police and widens the divide in the sense of whether young people think of the police as someone who might be able to help them.”
Birdsell asks if trespassing is a serious issue on TCHC property, why isn’t it dealt with by private security.
“Really?” she asks. “The police force is in the business of engaging with private landlords in enforcing the Trespass to Property Act? Hire a security guard on your own ticket instead of on the public purse.
“Then if you have a problem, call the police.”

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/kn...tense_times_in_policing_on_tchc_property.html

As part of the Known to Police series, the Star looked at a carding pattern in patrol zone 523, which includes the so-called Entertainment District—which was once a heavily concentrated area of nightclubs that has since been dissolved by City Council. “For young black males, the ratio of individuals documented to the population there is 252:1. For brown young males, it is 65:1. For young white males, 23:1,” the Star writes.
...

Despite the Star’s evidence, Meaghan Gray, Toronto police spokesperson, echoed Blair’s year-end interview, adding, “Racial profiling is illegal and so, as an example, any community safety note that was based wholly or in part on racial bias would be illegal and the officer would face significant sanction for any such activity.”

One way to think about the make-believe transparency that the police attempt to transmit in response to the recent publicity on carding is against a case like Clem Marshall, a former teacher who was pulled over in Parkdale in 2009 and subsequently filed a human rights complaint for racial profiling. The police didn’t admit liability, but they settled for an undisclosed amount of money.

But for the BADC, the lawsuits come after hitting a wall: the common tune of reform by police, and little action. Years of increased institutional enforcements—policing, incarceration, and deportation to name a few—coupled with ongoing attention to New York City’s racist stop-and-frisk practices has culminated in the perfect storm of scrutiny to the issue.

It can’t be ignored that part of the reason why the Toronto police’s carding practices have gotten even the smallest iota of attention is due to both NYC’s activism and juridical responses. Most recently, new mayor Bill de Blasio, who when running launched an ad saying he has talked to his black son about someday being stopped-and-frisked, settled his predecessor Michael Bloomberg’s appeal to a judge ruling in August that the practice was unconstitutional.

When I asked Rinaldo Walcott, Associate Professor of Humanities, Social Sciences and Social Justice Education at the OISE at the University of Toronto, he confirmed, and noted that the way in which stop-and-frisk news in the US has made waves internationally, it would make sense that a major Canadian newspaper would want to investigate something similar.

He continued: “What is striking is that they look into it, they use the police evidence to demonstrate the significant problem and at the same time, it doesn’t spark a national debate. I don’t think that the Prime Minister has ever made a comment about the egregiousness of these practices. There has been no sustained conversation about it at the provincial level. While activists have been adamant in trying to push conversations at the city level and have been somewhat successful, one would think that every day there would be stories about the ways in which this works in the newspapers.”

“By the mid-2000s, we get this so-called new police chief Bill Blair who is sold to the City of Toronto as the police chief who is going to be all for community policing,” Walcott said. “And what does he give us? He gives us something called TAVIS, which is one of the most paramilitary police organizations, segments of the police force that specialize in multijurisdictional raids, breaking down the doors of grandmothers and mothers to get boys who are selling weed and crack. The same boys who are selling weed and crack to our current city mayor, who’s walking the street, but they’re in jail.”

Yet the policing, surveillance, and imprisonment of black bodies in Canada is nothing new. Walcott pointed to the decades of activism by black communities starting most strikingly with the police shooting of Albert Johnson in his home in 1979. “When we look carefully at the history of this country, this kind of egregious policing has been happening for a very long time and at multiple levels of government,” Walcott told me.

Canada’s multicultural ethos, which some see as a full-on fable, tends to overshadow the country’s deeply rooted and brutal disregard for black people in Canada, which goes far beyond the recent carding “controversy.” We already know that individuals like Marshall (an officer allegedly taunted him by asking: “Who do you think you are, fucking Obama?&#8221, that is, those who stand out as “high-achieving” and “articulate” posterchildren for a post-racial society, aren’t exactly exempt from anti-black racism. But that’s hardly the point. More to the point is what Walcott cited: 40% of black people in Canada live below the poverty line. And according to the November report by Howard Sapers, Canada’s correctional investigator, the black inmate population has increased 90% since 2003, which is just one small piece of the ever-growing Canadian prison population.

http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/the-toronto-polices-carding-practices

 

[excelsiorlef]

So much info I can't even fit it in one post.

New figures show the number of visible minorities in Canadian prisons has increased by 75 per cent in the past decade, while the number and proportion of inmates who are Caucasian has declined significantly.

As well, Canada’s prison population is now at its highest level ever, even though the crime rate has been decreasing over the past two decades. Ten years ago, the number of inmates in federal prisons was close to 12,000. It’s now more than 15,000.

These are just some of the statistics expected to be examined Tuesday, when the annual report of Correctional Investigator of Canada Howard Sapers is tabled in Parliament. His report is widely expected to be a scathing indictment of federal correctional policy.


As well, Canada’s prison population is now at its highest level ever, even though the crime rate has been decreasing over the past two decades. Ten years ago, the number of inmates in federal prisons was close to 12,000. It’s now more than 15,000.

These are just some of the statistics expected to be examined Tuesday, when the annual report of Correctional Investigator of Canada Howard Sapers is tabled in Parliament. His report is widely expected to be a scathing indictment of federal correctional policy.

“You cannot reasonably claim to have a just society with incarceration rates like these,” Sapers said Sunday in a speech he gave at a church in Toronto.

Sapers gave his audience a litany of grim figures. He pointed out that close to a quarter of all inmates are aboriginal even thought they make up only four per cent of the population. The rate of incarceration of aboriginal women increased by 80 per cent in the past decade.

Sapers said the situation is particularly critical for black and aboriginal inmates.

“These groups are over-represented in maximum security institutions and segregation placements. They are more likely to be subject to use of force interventions and incur a disproportionate number of institutional disciplinary charges. They are released later in their sentences and less likely to be granted day or full parole,” he said.

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada-s-prison-population-at-all-time-high-1.2440039

Visible minorities' perceptions of the criminal justice system
Satisfaction with aspects of police performance lower for visible minorities
While the performance of the police was generally rated favourably by both visible minorities and non-visible minorities, visible minorities were less likely to rate the police as doing a "good" job with tasks that were related to police accessibility and attitudes such as: being approachable and easy to talk to (55% compared with 67%), supplying the public with information on ways to reduce crime (42% compared with 52%) and treating people fairly (50% compared with 61%).

Differences between visible minorities and non-visible minorities were smaller with respect to rating the police at doing a "good" job at: enforcing the laws (55% compared with 60%), responding promptly to calls (49% compared with 52%) and ensuring the safety of citizens (58% compared with 61%).


Those who have had contact with the police generally have a less favourable perception of them

According to the 2004 GSS, people who had come into contact with the police for one reason or another in the year prior to the survey had a less favourable opinion of them than did those who had not had any contact with police. For example, 43% of visible minorities who had come into contact with the police thought that they were doing a "good" job treating people fairly compared to 52% of visible minorities who had not come into contact with the police over the course of the previous year.

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85f0033m/2008015/5002072-eng.htm

The notion of a tolerant, multicultural Canada and a post-racial United States are but empty rhetoric, at least when one takes into consideration racial minorities’ experiences of equity and race relations. For African Canadians and African Americans in post-industrial urban spaces, the trope and rhetoric of national exceptionalism is not borne out by reality. The two groups, in fact, are in many ways inextricably bound. Notwithstanding the heterogeneity of current African North Americans, (8) major historical events going back to the United States Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Underground Railroad, twentieth-century cross-border migrations, immigration from the Caribbean and the civil rights freedom struggle, not to mention similar benevolent organizations and institutions of worship, have provided persons of African descent in Canada and the United States with a shared consciousness as diasporic peoples living in settler colonial societies with complicated racial histories. This cross-border consciousness, however, is particularly heightened where inner-city African Canadian youth are concerned. Black (9) youth in Toronto, Canada’s largest city, perceive their urban struggles against poverty, subaltern schools, drug-infested neighbourhoods, gun violence and police brutality and bias – among other challenges – within a similar vein as the structural inequalities and injustices that limit the life outcomes of inner-city (i.e., urban ghetto) African Americans, albeit on a different scale.

...

The statistical breakdown of documented police-civilian interactions in New York City and Toronto reveal how intractable racial profiling is as a social phenomenon. From January 2004 to June 2012, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) completed 4.4 million stop and frisk cases. African Americans made up 52% of those stopped and frisked, Hispanics 31% and whites 10%. In 2010, African Americans made up 23% of the NYC population, Hispanics 29% and whites 33%. In essence, the rate at which NYPD officers conducted stop and frisk investigations against African Americans is more than double this group’s census size. In a shorter time frame from 2008 to 2012, the Toronto Police Service (TPS) administered over 1.8 million contact cards in a metropolis three times smaller than New York City. In Toronto, African Canadians made up nearly a quarter (23%) of carding cases, although accounting for a little more than 8% of the population; whites made up 42% of contact cards and just over 50% of the population. In NYC, only 12% of stop and frisk incidents required additional law enforcement and judicial measures, compared to 7% in Toronto. (13)
The moral here is sobering: there is a greater propensity for police bias against blacks in Toronto than in New York City. That blacks in Toronto almost made up a quarter of all carding incidents from 2008 to 2012, coupled with the fact that the police are an apparatus of the state, is a strong indictment of a minority group whose presence and visibility in Canadian society continues to be a source of angst. The lived experience of African Canadians vis-à-vis the police reinforces their affinity with African Americans when discriminatory and other oppressive practices trigger public dialogue about arbitrary and unjust police authority. These ideas of cross-border kinship will remain strong and appealing, so long as bias and profiling remain a de facto police policy for managing members of Toronto’s African Canadian communities.

http://www.humanityinaction.org/kno...national-exceptionalism-in-a-canadian-context


I'm gonna stop there. Otherwise I'd be doing this all night.

 

[IISANDERII]

They don't kill as many people, but I am sure there's still a ton of problems with racism and racial profiling. Canada has a larger native population (percentage wise) than the US, and the treatment that Native Canadians have received in the past few decades hasn't been very good.

There's awful, blatant racism, internally too.

 

[indigo lily]

.

Thank you for this. It's frustrating but with minimal effort you can find so many examples of the issues being brought forth by BLM TO but yea... Still easier to just say "Fuck them" for a lot of people

 

[excelsiorlef]

Thank you for this. It's frustrating but with minimal effort you can find so many examples of the issues being brought forth by BLM TO but yea... Still easier to just say "Fuck them" for a lot of people

It took me about 1000 times longer to compile it all then it did to find it.

 

[lenovox1]

My brother, a married gay male, told me that there are more gay black people (percentage wise) than any other race. Does anyone know if that's true? It seems to me that homophobia comes more often from the black community than others but that's just an anecdote.

No, that's misconstrued data that I guess many media outlets made. According to Gallup polling done in 2012, a higher share of the American black population (than asians, than latinos) identify as LGBT. Not a higher overall share.

http://huffpost.com/us/entry/1989859.html

 

[excelsiorlef]

"the blacks are mad at the police for no reason! fighting exclusion with exclusion! reverse racism!"

You could basically make a bingo card and you'd score a win everytime BLM does anything.

 

[MrCunningham]

Canada's treatment of its first nation's population is fucking disgusting. And the worst part is the vanilla racism is literally ingrained in people where they feel they can say any stupid bullshit and it's suddenly okay because "oh we are just talking about natives"

Yeah, the way the Canadian government treats the first nation groups is still a mess and have even corrupted many tribal leaders in to not giving a fuck about their own people. But I have seen a lot of racism from both sides, it is still not completely uncommon for the RCMP to harass native people just for being native. It does lead to native people acting out in retaliation with random stabbings and such (I've seen this first hand). Granted, it is not all bad as I do know many natives that are generally good people, I have extended family and many friends growing up that are first nation. But there will always be those pockets of people that will continually generate violence and/ or racism from both sides.

 

[ryan-ts]

The rest is hard to find right now and I imagine a lot of is local/behind closed doors/off line stuff.

Thanks for the info. You're probably right about most of it not being available online or to the general public.

 

[Gotdatmoney]

Not shocked either. Canadians have a certain smugness when it comes to being super progressive but at the same time dismissing many significant critiques/issues brought up by minority groups (see the Idle No More movement and many of the disgusting responses from Canadians then too). I'm sure the issues with the proposed Police float ban will be further hashed out.

I see stuff like this on my Facebook feed:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/the-bullies-of-black-lives-matter/article30746157/

r/Canada is a bit of a dumpster fire right now, and now I'm avoiding all BLM Pride protest article comments sections entirely...

Disappointing... but not surprising.

That article, literally just drenched in falacies. Even pulls the "my friend is black" line. But I mean, I don't even see a point in my personal life to address anything relating black people in Canada. Everyone is apparently living in a fairy tale where institutions of racism don't exist and 5 minute google searches are pHD level research.

Stuff like this always invites controversy but as far as I'm concerned BLM should just keep on keeping on. Those who can't take time to actually understand issues in society should be ignored. I hope they arr not discouraged by the hate.

 

[HarryKS]

It was more than 30 minutes. Closer to an hour. Very annoying. Waste people's time.

 

[excelsiorlef]

Not shocked either. Canadians have a certain smugness when it comes to being super progressive but at the same time dismissing many significant critiques/issues brought up by minority groups (see the Idle No More movement and many of the disgusting responses from Canadians then too). I'm sure the issues with the proposed Police float ban will be further hashed out.

I see stuff like this on my Facebook feed:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/the-bullies-of-black-lives-matter/article30746157/

r/Canada is a bit of a dumpster fire right now, and now I'm avoiding all BLM Pride protest article comments sections entirely...

Disappointing... but not surprising.

Oh christ Margaret Wente. That's what anti-BLM people are passimg around?

 

[The Elite]

Did she write that herself or copy and paste it?

 

[Kinitari]

Of course there is going to be backlash. This strtegy of essentially yelling at people who are trying to be happy, while simultaneously blackmailing an organization representing a minority cause after they expressly gave your group special representation because they have positive feelings towards your movement and your cause....

We can pretend that everyone is secretly very racist, heck we can pretend I'm an uncle Tom, orrrrrr we can just stop pretending that this strategy doesn't understandably get met with frustration and anger.

There are totally racists who are revelling in this moment, who don't ever in any circumstance give BLM the time of day. That's not what the organizer of pride was. There are a lot of people who are actually confused about how to go forward this topic here, because they WANT to be supportive of BLM but don't like stuff like this.

I'm not confused. I knew right away this shit would happen, and it always happens when you come in with righteous indignation, divisiveness (trying to get the police off the float was fucking idiotic) and interrupting the celebration with a list of demands...

I don't like it when it happens in other countries. I call it out and call it dumb, counter productive and divisive. I REALLY don't like it here.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

BLM doesn't care about anyone's support, and it's ridiculous that this still has to be explained years later.

Being nice enough to people so that they "support" you or else they'll derail and criticize you isn't a strategy anyone who wants to change the world is going to implement. You guys have to figure out first why your support is conditional.

 

[Gotdatmoney]

The world as a whole has had since forever and a day to listen to what the black community has to say. I honestly do not give a fuck at this point that BLM is ruining everybody's "fun" with their brashness.

It's abundantly obvious that sitting around and trying to talk quietly isn't going to work. Haters gon hate but the way to get what you want as a minority isn't to stfu and take the scraps you're given. Its to take advantage of your platform when you have a prime opportunity.

I don't agree with the police float demand but even so I really do not think it matters to the main point. What, so those who fight for social justice cannot make any possible mistep but the general populace talking from thier ass can say any dumb uninformed nonesense because "they ruined our fun". Yeah okay.

 

[Kinitari]

BLM doesn't care about anyone's support, and it's ridiculous that this still has to be explained years later.

Being nice enough to people so that they "support" you or else they'll derail and criticize you isn't a strategy anyone who wants to change the world is going to implement. You guys have to figure out first why your support is conditional.

There are plenty of organizations that thrive off the support of the community. Let's just look at the pride festival here - it's now a part of the cities culture and it is a celebration. No one gets yelled at, people get offered alcohol and a good time and that softens edges and gets people to embrace diversity. Look at Caribana, and see how many non Caribbeans we have celebrating it and literally dancing in the streets, or even participating in the parade itself.

Getting people pissed has done what for BLM here? You think they're not trying to figure out if they want to invite BLM back next year? Even if they did, a lot of who is in the parade is driven by the community - you think the community is going to be as warm and receptive now? You think they're going to get people like me supporting them? You don't think that this will be used as an opportunity by racists to drive a wedge between the group and others?

The support is conditional because everything is conditional. But the support was there BEFORE they pulled their shit. Is it still there after? Will they get more done now, or are people going to start ignoring them?

There's a group downtown that hands out pamphlets about black history. When people see them, they basically try their hardest to avoid them. People in Toronto know who I'm talking about. You think that BLM wants to be relegated to the same status?

If they make an about face, if they are passionate but apologetic, if they encourage dialogue and try to resolve this issue with a conscientious voice, maybe they can salvage their reputation and continue to do good. As it is now? They just made their own lives harder.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

You think they're going to get people like me supporting them?

They don't care about this. They care about ending oppression to minorities and groups.

You don't think that this will be used as an opportunity by racists to drive a wedge between the group and others?

Why should they care about this? Everyone's gladly doing this for them anyway.

If they make an about face, if they are passionate but apologetic, if they encourage dialogue and try to resolve this issue with a conscientious voice, maybe they can salvage their reputation and continue to do good. As it is now? They just made their own lives harder.

They don't need support. They never had it anyway.

 

[Kurdel]

They don't need support. They never had it anyway.

The movement will just die out then, and fade into irrelevance, like Occupy.

 

[excelsiorlef]

What BLM is great at is extracting even subtle racism out of people.

I think that's actually crucial because it doesn't allow for complacency and false safety.

I mean shit people were actually convinced that there was no racial bias in Toronto or Canadian police.

That's actually why I'm all for not allowing police in uniform to march or have floats, same with that mural of "apology" that they paid for (whose artist chanted All Luves Matter at BLM folk). It's cheap and easy PR that convinces people that the police are cool and awesome and unoppressive. It's cheap amd easy PR that convinces people that police here don't have the same racial issues as in the US because look how great they are here, they match in pride parades. It's practically pro police propaganda. It's completely rational why the LGBT subset of BLM don't want the police there as an institution on floats.

I mean fuck the bar is set pretty low when people use the fact that police don't murder black folk like they do in the states to argue that there isn't a racial bias issue.

Police don't get a cookie for not murdering.

 

[Kinitari]

They don't care about this. They care about ending oppression to minorities and groups.

Why should they care about this? Everyone's gladly doing this for them anyway.

They don't need support. They never had it anyway.

If their strategy is honestly "we don't care if we're supported" then... good luck.

If they want to make things better, if they want to have a voice that is respected, not ignored, then they should care.

Now, people who would previously love to work with them are going to second guess that idea. When before they would be celebrated in a parade, now they'll be ignored and boo'd. I don't see how that helps anything.

I feel like shit even bringing this up, but I spend a lot of my donated time on community outreach, specifically around my profession. I really want to start reaching out to the poor community I grew up in and teach them how to develop, and I've mentioned this in my office during appropriate meetings. I'm also well respected and people actually like me as a person. Because of my passion, sincerity and because of the support I've garnered through the years, we started a pilot program teaching a few people how to become professional developers internally. I spend 6 hours a week teaching, and double that reviewing PRs, commenting code and preparing challenges for the handful of women (half who are black, because many kind voices have talked about reaching out to the underrepresented groups in our company) who are in the class.

If this is successful, we'll expand the program to a larger group, and I'll most likely be able to drive the introduction of young people from my old borough, and help them get strong careers.

You think if I just yelled at my boss and made him feel like shit, if I was always making everyone feel bad around me and I had no support, that I'd get this far?

 

[ClosingADoor]

What BLM is great at is extracting even subtle racism out of people.

I think that's actually crucial because it doesn't allow for complacency and false safety.

I mean shit people were actually convinced that there was no racial bias in Toronto or Canadian police.

That's actually why I'm all for not allowing police in uniform to march or have floats, same with that mural of "apology" that they paid for (whose artist chanted All Luves Matter at BLM folk). It's cheap and easy PR that convinces people that the police are cool and awesome and unoppressive. It's cheap amd easy PR that convinces people that police here don't have the same racial issues as in the US because look how great they are here, they match in pride parades. It's practically pro police propaganda. It's completely rational why the LGBT subset of BLM don't want the police there as an institution on floats.

This makes no sense to me. There are probably plenty of problems within the Canadian police, I don't really know much about it.

But if you want to have a more inclusive police, shutting them out of these things is not the way to go. It should be applauded to have LGTB people in the police force and show themselves as such, or have others show their support for the LGTB community.

 

[Oxn]

They don't care about this. They care about ending oppression to minorities and groups.

Why should they care about this? Everyone's gladly doing this for them anyway.

They don't need support. They never had it anyway.

Thats cool, as long as they understand that their cause will never amount to anything if they stay on course.

 

[Gotdatmoney]

The movement will just die out then, and fade into irrelevance, like Occupy.

Then it dies. If you want to inflict imstitutional change it doesn't occur by just hoping if you show people you're nice and try to not be seem.

Here is reality. The bulk of the people at the parade do not give a shit about the cause of BLM and they are not goimg to come to plate for the issues of black people in instiutions of power. People in this thread domt even think judicial racism is a thing in Canada.

What a winning strategy it is to.hope they care because you made yourself unheard.

I know it sounds mean and pessimistic but show me where social change occurred with no resistamce.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

Thats cool, as long as they understand that their cause will never amount to anything if they stay on course.

It's still here years later getting shit done despite no support from the world.

Not surprised you guys are making this all about winning you over instead of ending oppression.

 

[mlclmtckr]

Black Lives Matter is an activist group about police violence. The TPS is a government institution. Why are people acting like the two groups should have equal consideration at Pride?

Pride in Toronto started after the infamous Bathhouse Raids, a serious rash of police brutality against gay people.

Now, the white LGBTQ community has made a lot of hard-earned progress, and police openly march in the parade. I respect the officers that take part. But this isn't the 'LGBTQ Police Association' or 'Toronto Police Pride Network' or whatever. It's the actual official TPS with a presence at Pride. The white LGBT community has made such great strides that the police department comes and marches at Pride - the event has gone from anti-police agitators to official state-sponsored corporate interests.

The problem - and the thing that some people in this thread don't understand - is that queer people who are visible minorities have been left behind by many of the advances that the queer white community has made. In areas like HIV/AIDS, suicide, victimization, police brutality and others, there is a big slice of the LGBTQ population that is still suffering.

BLM wanted to remind Pride (and the wider Toronto community) that there is a political element to the event, and that while the organizers have their Scotiabank sponsorship and uniformed cops to think about there are also still queer people suffering from discrimination in this city.

People saying 'cops are people too, why you wanna be exclusive?' are missing the distinction between individual cops and the actual state apparatus of the TPS. Has Pride completely abdicated their original political purpose? I really hope not - I really hope we're not seeing a case of the queer white community saying 'fuck you, I got mine' to the queer minority community.

 

[excelsiorlef]

This makes no sense to me. There are probably plenty of problems within the Canadian police, I don't really know much about it.

But if you want to have a more inclusive police, shutting them out of these things is not the way to go. It should be applauded to have LGTB people in the police force and show themselves as such, or have others show their support for the LGTB community.

And what about minority LGBT, specifically black folk in this case, who see it as letting their oppressors march alongside and obfuscate the oppression they commit against minority communities.

How is that necessarily acting as inclusion.

 

[Oxn]

It's still here years later getting shit done despite no support from the world.

Not surprised you guys are making this all about winning you over instead of ending oppression.

What have they gotten done?

 

[Kinitari]

What BLM is great at is extracting even subtle racism out of people.

I think that's actually crucial because it doesn't allow for complacency and false safety.

I mean shit people were actually convinced that there was no racial bias in Toronto or Canadian police.

That's actually why I'm all for not allowing police in uniform to march or have floats, same with that mural of "apology" that they paid for (whose artist chanted All Luves Matter at BLM folk). It's cheap and easy PR that convinces people that the police are cool and awesome and unoppressive. It's cheap amd easy PR that convinces people that police here don't have the same racial issues as in the US because look how great they are here, they match in pride parades. It's practically pro police propaganda. It's completely rational why the LGBT subset of BLM don't want the police there as an institution on floats.

Trying to equate the police to the police in the US is problem enough. They have plenty of issues, but the issues are not even kind of comparable, no matter how much you want to pretend they are.

But aside from that, having the same relationship with police as people do in the US is not one I want to adopt. And they simple two dimensional picture you paint of them is not reflected in the work they do, the community outreach they have in bad neighborhoods is high, they money and effort they spend trying to combat issues that predominately affect minorities in poor neighborhoods is high. Their demographics are extremely diverse, with men and women from all walks of life.

Being pragmatic and understanding, and reaching out with compassion consistently gets more shit done here than anything else. Like non stop. It's that compassionate nature that drove the inclusion of BLM in the parade in the first place. It's probably why even though they pulled the shit they did, a lot of their demands will still be met (I'm guessing extra money in black oriented events for example). Though I think that's as far as they'll get with pride after this debacle. If they wanted to come back year after year, if they wanted to really push for long term change and a perception shift, they're not gonna get it now.

 

[Rembrandt]

Thats cool, as long as they understand that their cause will never amount to anything if they stay on course.

They've made strides in the US but okay, sure, whatever you say.


And you can Google what they've done. From our current election to the increased focus on police brutality to giving minorities a larger platform to speak from

 

[Kurdel]

It's practically pro police propaganda. It's completely rational why the LGBT subset of BLM don't want the police there as an institution on floats.

For LGBT people, knowing they have the police as an ally when they get gaybashed is incredibly valuable on a community level.

Attacking the police though the pride parade is the most misguided things BLM toronto could have done.

Also, requesting to hide the police under the rug to protest unfair racial profiling is the most millenial solution possible. It doesn't accomplish jack shit, your problem still exists, but at least you made a loud scene and an inconsequential victory, here is a cookie.

 

[Vicetrailia]

For LGBT people, knowing they have the police as an ally when they get gaybashed is incredibly valuable on a community level.

Attacking the police though the pride parade is the most misguided things BLM toronto could have done.

Also, requesting to hide the police under the rug to protest unfair racial profiling is the most millenial solution possible. It doesn't accomplish jack shit, your problem still exists, but at least you made a loud scene and an inconsequential victory, here is a cookie.

But that's what got your attention now isn't it?

The rest is just you deciding to ignore and oppress concern.

 

[excelsiorlef]

Trying to equate the police to the police in the US is problem enough. They have plenty of issues, but the issues are not even kind of comparable, no matter how much you want to pretend they are.

But aside from that, having the same relationship with police as people do in the US is not one I want to adopt. And they simple two dimensional picture you paint of them is not reflected in the work they do, the community outreach they have in bad neighborhoods is high, they money and effort they spend trying to combat issues that predominately affect minorities in poor neighborhoods is high. Their demographics are extremely diverse, with men and women from all walks of life.

Being pragmatic and understanding, and reaching out with compassion consistently gets more shit done here than anything else. Like non stop. It's that compassionate nature that drove the inclusion of BLM in the parade in the first place. It's probably why even though they pulled the shit they did, a lot of their demands will still be met (I'm guessing extra money in black oriented events for example). Though I think that's as far as they'll get with pride after this debacle. If they wanted to come back year after year, if they wanted to really push for long term change and a perception shift, they're not gonna get it now.

I mean sure if your bar is murder.

In terms of bias and stop and card as I have literally statistically shown there isn't much difference between what Toronto PD does and Stop and Frisk in NY.

Many of the same machinations are absolutely there, they just don't end in death nearly as much.

 

[excelsiorlef]

For LGBT people, knowing they have the police as an ally when they get gaybashed is incredibly valuable on a community level.

Attacking the police though the pride parade is the most misguided things BLM toronto could have done.

Also, requesting to hide the police under the rug to protest unfair racial profiling is the most millenial solution possible. It doesn't accomplish jack shit, your problem still exists, but at least you made a loud scene and an inconsequential victory, here is a cookie.

BLM are made up of many LGBT people. These aren't outsiders demanding stuff from queer folk they are queer folk asking for things within their own community.


This complete erasure of the LGBT identity of these BLM activists is one of the core reasons they are protesting and I see it time and time again, from that woman who couldn't get a shirt on. Treating black queer activists like they are outsiders.

 

[Gotdatmoney]

For LGBT people, knowing they have the police as an ally when they get gaybashed is incredibly valuable on a community level.

LGBT people or white LGBT people? Because it largely strikes me that given the other demanda and Toronto's issue with minority targetting by the Toronto police you're missing their entire point of contention.

I don't even agree with their police demand but the only point I here as to why its bad is this one and it entirely ignores that Toronto policimg has an obvious racial bias. Does that suddenly not matter now because it's pride?

The entire sentiment you are expressing is entirely why they do not give a shit about support. Why even try to appease this mindset?

 

[Guevara]

BLM doesn't care about anyone's support, and it's ridiculous that this still has to be explained years later.

Being nice enough to people so that they "support" you or else they'll derail and criticize you isn't a strategy anyone who wants to change the world is going to implement. You guys have to figure out first why your support is conditional.

This is exactly why the LGBT community has made so much progress so fast while others have not. Look at the incredible gains that have been made by garnering a broad base of support, rather than viewing everyone as your enemy all the time.

As recently as 2011, for example, Obama was officially against gay marriage (his position was "evolving"). Now everyone who matters is for it.

As recently as 2009 you couldn't serve in the armed forces as an out gay or lesbian person. Now of course you can, we have an openly gay secretary of the Army, and transgendered people can openly serve as of last week.

As recently as 2008, gender/sexual orientation weren't protected categories in the same way as race or religion. In 2009 Obama signed the first major civil rights legislation for LGBT people; the Matthew Shepard hate crime prevention act.​

Incredible strides for a group that represents less than 4% of the U.S. population.

 

[Infinite]

Some of you guys remain clueless and hopelessly idealistic.

 

[akira28]

they would just as soon assume they don't have your support and rely on you using your own eyes and brain to see hypocrisy where it stands and take their side.

But they are the hypocrites you say? Well then, there it is.


it seems the police are valued more than minority lgbt at pride, which is fair enough, I guess. The police being such powerful allies to the LGBT community.

 

[excelsiorlef]

This is exactly why the LGBT community has made so much progress so fast while others have not. Look at the incredible gains that have been made by garnering a broad base of support, rather than viewing everyone as your enemy all the time.

As recently as 2011, for example, Obama was officially against gay marriage (his position was "evolving"). Now everyone who matters is for it.

As recently as 2009 you couldn't serve in the armed forces as an out gay or lesbian person. Now of course you can, we have an openly gay secretary of the Army, and transgendered people can openly serve as of last week.

As recently as 2008, gender/sexual orientation weren't protected categories in the same way as race or religion. In 2009 Obama signed the first major civil rights legislation for LGBT people; the Matthew Shepard hate crime prevention act.​

Incredible strides for a group that represents less than 4% of the U.S. population.

Dude gay rights have been a fight since goddamn stonewall and that wasn't nice.

Also gay rights benefited from having a white male contingency who wanted rights and who could be shoved to the forfront. I mean it's no coincidence that HRC is such a white gay male dominated organization.

 

[Cyframe]

It's like a good portion of people forgot what pride is. They've forgotten events like Stonewall and would rather ally themselves with police that subjugate LGBT members who are Black and other PoC, rather than work to be more inclusive.

It's also baffling to see people who don't understand the problems that Canada has with Black people and Native populations. Anyone who shifts blame and says "it's not as bad as the US" is overwhelmingly missing the point and shows that they don't really care about marginalized groups.

BLM stages in a sit in and you'd think that they threw rocks at police. Very peaceful, they had a list of things that they wanted and they were viewed as antagonistic rather than seen as "Wow we need to do better here." To even say Black people and Police have an equal role to play when BLM is not enforcing predatory laws or upholding governmental oppression, the comparison just doesn't work. Police should be actively courting the Black community and work to do better.

That gay police officer who said "Well, I don't have an issue so BLM is the real problem here" just highlights racism in the gay community. Why would you want to be a dressed officer in a pride parade? Why not come as a community member?

The gay community is so disappointing. If you say nothing then you get confronted with racism and fetishism, and if you say anything you get called bitter and wanting to tear the community apart. I don't like the gay community because it's white centric. People would rather look at minorities holding events like Black gay pride and Native pride and other prides as segregation rather than say we need to do better as a community.

Pride is about protest, if you don't understand and recognize that and would rather support police who brutalize marginalized demographics, you've forgotten history and you're ignoring current events. And that's not Black people's fault, it's yours.

 

[akira28]

if only the blacks could learn something from the gays and just be nice and protest quietly with their flags and sometimes have parades. And now we have gay marriage...in some places. It was just a matter of time, it was all inevitable, and I don't see why people have to be so rude.

anyway, I got my rights, my acceptance, my safe space, why can't you people just be quiet?

these black loud mouths do this every time I see them in the news. so fucking tired of it.

 

[Kinitari]

if only the blacks could learn something from the gays and just be nice and protest quietly with their flags and sometimes have parades. And now we have gay marriage...in some places. It was just a matter of time, it was all inevitable, and I don't see why people have to be so rude.

anyway, I got my rights, my acceptance, my safe space, why can't you people just be quiet?

these black loud mouths do this every time I see them in the news. so fucking tired of it.

If you're going to call people out for apparently being racist, why tip toe around it?

This sort of "talking to an invisible person in a chair" roundabout accusation is so juvenile.

 

[mlclmtckr]

This is exactly why the LGBT community has made so much progress so fast while others have not. Look at the incredible gains that have been made by garnering a broad base of support, rather than viewing everyone as your enemy all the time.

"We're here, we're queer, get used to it!"

Pride parades used to be seriously contentious events. Straight people used to complain about homosexuality being shoved in their faces, about the flamboyant behavior and naked men and public displays of affection seen at pride. People used to say "well, it's not like we have straight pride parades" like that actually meant something (kind of like "all lives matter" today.)

I don't know if you realize that you're telling people to sit down and shut up, but you are. The gay rights battle has been a long and painful one. Don't minimize that struggle, and don't rewrite history just to tut-tut at black people who are standing up for themselves.