Sunday, June 28, 2009

Toronto Pride Parade 2009 - 1 of 5



I'm told that these two signs enraged the Palestinians. The truth hurts, eh, fellas?

An estimated 150 people marched with Kulanu Toronto in today's Pride Parade, up from their usual number of 30-35 participants. Kulanu Toronto is a Jewish queer group that decided to fly the Canadian, Israeli and rainbow flags this year.

Everything went smoothly, although there was an attempt at intimidation by the pro-Palestinians when someone videotaped their group. We're not in Gaza, guys and gals, so stop trying to enforce Hamas's rules on Canadian soil.

More on that later (probably tomorrow).

Part 2 of 5
Part 3 of 5
Part 4 of 5
Part 5 of 5

As always, click on the photos to enlarge them.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

"We're not in Gaza, guys and gals, so stop trying to enforce Hamas's rules on Canadian soil."

Wait. You're the ones trying to silence the freedom of these people to express their opinions by INTIMIDATING Pride Toronto. You're like the anti-gay groups that say taking a stance against bigotry is itself bigotry. It's not, and frankly the queer community is used to these tired old tactics.

BTW You've got proud homophobes linking to your post. It's obvious what's behind this: plain old homophobia.

Finally, I know plenty of proud Jews that support the Queers Against Israeli Apartheid.

Now let's see YOUR dedication to free speech. Will this comment be posted?

Josephine said...

You are quick to call names, Anon @ 12:19 pm.

You don't know what (or who) you're talking about.

Admin said...

Oh look, an anonymous homosexual is upset that the 90+% if the population does not think highly about sodomy.

Dragon Lady said...

Nobody is trying to silence supporters of the Palestinians. They are only telling the truth about life under Hamas, Fatah, Hezbollah, etc. vs life in Israel and the disputed territories.

Israel is not an apartheid nation. Far from it. It was thus labelled by a UN motion decades ago, at the behest of countries which really do suppress religious minorities brutally and are equally brutal, if not more so, in their treatment of women and homosexuals.

This is not to suggest that Arab citizens in Israel and Palestinians in the territories have no legitimate grievances against Israeli policies and society. But Israel and Jewish antipathy towards "the other" is not their worst problem. Their worst problem, by far, are their own corrupt, homophobic, myscogenistic leaders,whether they are "secular" like Hosnai Mubarek, or religiously inspired members of Hezbollah, Hamas and the Muslim bros.

Anonymous said...

As the Toronto Pride committee is trying to censor participants in this years, 2010 parade, and creating one hell of a stink considering the way censorship has been used against the gay and lesbian community I'd just like to say the proper response to groups like QAIA is not to censor them but to have other groups such as this marching with a pro-Israel message. Censorship has no place in the gay community or Canada for that matter, if you disagree with something someone or a group has to say the best response is to say so, not to censor them since that just creates sympathy for those being censored and does nothing to present a different message. I don't support the views QAIA but I certainly support their right to express their beliefs and to march in the Pride parade, the parade is for all LGTB folk and not just those with the common or "acceptable" political beliefs.

Josephine said...

I see your point, Anon, and I acknowledge that it's a tricky issue.

The trouble is that the QuAIA group is presenting its beliefs and those beliefs aren't supported by facts, which makes them lies. So they are using the Pride Parade to present lies against a country and a people.

The lies they are spreading tend to inflame emotions and this raises the danger level.

Did you see the QuAIA contingent last year? Their angry faces and chanting was so out of place.

They turned a joyous celebration into an angry, frightening display, complete with people who looked like terrorists.

I believe this has been incorrectly framed as a freedom of speech issue.