Pride is a riot. Pride is a protest. Pride is QTBIPOC.
This post will document the ongoings of the Edmonton Pride Festival Society, some of the Pride Centre of Edmonton, and related. Updates will be appear as newest at the top first. This compilation and documentation is as it is received, learned, and posted on Facebook. Formatting will rough and raw.
Update Apr 11 @ 8am: Post from @Marisa Peters,
"Hey! Reminder that a bunch of PRIDE events are going to be popping up around the city and gaining traction as a knee jerk reaction to the Pride board of directors cancelling the festival this year.
Here's what you need to consider before attending:
White cis queers are going to be trying to recreate the PRIDE that we've all grown used to but the PRIDE we’ve all grown used to was cancelled for a number of incredibly important reasons.
Over the past couple of years, queer, trans, black, indigenous, two spirit, people of colour have been fighting hard to have their voices heard by the PRIDE festival of directors. I’ve had friends step down over their refusal to listen to the legitimate concerns of marginalized people in their own community. There is one non white member of the board and they recently locked one of the only two spirit folks from their own meeting. They also called the police on their own community. The white supremacy runs deep in this organization and the response to being held accountable by the community was for them, as a power move, to cancel PRIDE and blame racialized queer folks for it.
If events pop up make sure you
a) Check who is organizing and promoting it. Are they white, cis? If so, who is supporting the event? Are police invited? Are corporations being centered?
b) Check with RARICA and Shade of Colour YEG (the groups doing the most work to have Q2STBIPOC voices heard) to see if they will be supporting the event.
Let's learn from our mistakes, not repeat them because we like beer gardens and parades.
Link: https://www.facebook.com/marisaeden.peters/posts/10217219295048264
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Update Apr 12 @ 3:30pm: Post from @Jess Danielle,
So I was there the night the Pride board left Shades of Colour, Rarica now, and their allies out in the cold, and I have recently found out that the person who yelled at us "Get a life you f*cking losers" was the partner of Clay Hitchcock who is the chair of the Edmonton Pride Festival Society.
While I am sharing this I thought I would mention the other things I personally witnessed when it came to the way the people a part of the EPFS acted the evening of April 4th 2019.
-1 member while we were outside being blocked by security was smiling to themselves as they looked out at us, as if it was funny we were upset, as if the anger of the people from Shades of Colour and Raricanow at not being let in to a meeting they were invited to was funny.
-As WE LET THEM PASS perfectly freely without any harm several were smiling or laughing and I heard one person say how 'disrespectful' we were being under their breath, as if their actions which led us to be upset -not letting the people they invited in to make their speeches with their allies and calling the cops on invited people- was respectful
-They hung around on the grounds, not that far from us, of Mckernan Community League to talk to each other, most likely about moving the meeting
Now if this behaviour to you sounds like people who were 'afraid for their security' or called the cops because they were 'afraid for their safety' and the safety of others in the building (the owner of the building by the way didn't see us as a security threat at all since she allowed us to use the room EPFS had been using after they left, before we heard EPFS had moved the meeting) then well I don't know what to tell you other than you've probably never met anyone who feared for their safety.
More likely they were using the safety concern as a trojan's horse for their discomfort with being held accountable (something I see time and time again from other white people).
Because since the canceling of the Pride Festival and the blame that as more often than not been placed on QTBIPOC by white queers I have seen once again what people who actually feel like they are in danger act like.
Shades of Colour and Raricanow are getting a ton of hate messages and threats and friends of mine in those organization have talked to me and others saying how scared they are, that they don't feel safe, that their afraid of being hurt, that they can't sleep, that their hearts are broken.
Because when white people are 'afraid' of Black people, of Indigenous people, of people of colour they lash out in ways that put those groups in even more danger.
And what white fear boils down to, is fear of accountability, is the fear of the bodies of BIPOC and the threat that whites assume from them, it's the fear of loosing economic power and money for themselves or other white people, its a fear that has no basis in a persons actual physical safety and mental well being.
PLEASE SHARE THIS, especially the part about the actions of EPFS on April 4th. It doesn't have to be attributed to me. You can copy and paste the words or screencap it. Let people know what kinds of people that are in the EPFS and the type of people they're defending.
I've also shared in a seperate post the email shades of colour and raricanow got about time being alotted for them to speak at the April 4th meeting. Spread that around as well."
Link: https://www.facebook.com/jessica.clarke.1610/posts/10155880855727407
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Update Apr 10 @ 10:15pm:
A summary of some of the events and situation thus far -
In June of 2018, members of the QTBIPOC (queer, transgender/two-spirit, black, indigenous, people of color) community and allies held a protest that stopped the parade for approximately half an hour to protest the presence of uniformed police officers and military participating in the parade. They included a number of other demands such as more QTBIPOC Board Members and a request for funding and resources that they did not have. Since then, the Pride Festival Society and Pride Centre had been working with these groups and individuals to try and meet those requests and demands. It had seemed progress was being made.
**Note: The groups involved in the 2018 protest who held demands were NOT Shades of Color and raricaNOW.**
Unfortunately, the Pride Centre of Edmonton has been found to have been silencing, oppressing, and firing their only QTBIPOC staff and members. The Pride Centre of Edmonton has a history of silencing, walking over, dragging, and claiming the work of QTBIPOC folks. In the wake of the criticisms regarding all this, the Director and Board Members of the Pride Centre have failed to answer any questions or concerns, let alone take responsibility or accountability. Instead, they have taken to tone policing, respectability politics, and ultimately deleting their social media.
After the events of April 4th, and the outpouring of criticism against the Pride Festival Society, they resolved to cancel the Pride Parade and Festival entirely.
This has nothing to do with the monetary requests and discussions that were a part of the demands. This has nothing to do with the current political climate of the UCP vs NDP. This isn't even necessarily related to the white supremacists marching the streets near daily. This is simply another event in the long line of the white supremacy, racism, and colonialism that had co-opted and capitalized upon Pride.
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Update Apr 10 @ 7pm: Shades of Colour Community YEG has released a statement.
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Update Apr 10 @ 6:45pm:
City News released this article.
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Original Post and Documentation, April 10 at 6pm:
The Edmonton Pride Festival Society and Pride Centre of Edmonton have a current and historical context of racism, white supremacy, transphobia, and ultimately (and literally) stonewalling QTBIPOC folks.
Recently (and since the Pride Protest that stopped the parade in 2018), communities such as Shades of Colour Community YEG and Organization for all Lgbtiq+ refugees in canada were working with the Pride Festival Society to meet their demands (for representation, resources, funding, and a voice) - which had been seemingly and prospectively hopeful until April 2019. The Board of Directors of the Pride Festival Society blocked the QTBIPOC (Queer, Transgender/Two-Spirit, Black, Indigenous, People of Color) members and allies, called the police on them, and failed to be responsible or accountable.
The Pride Centre of Edmonton has been behaving similarly, and due to an outpouring of criticism of them, has since shut down their social media.
The first image is the email regarding the cancellation of the Pride Festival, the following is documentation of events.
I encourage people to also read the following: https://www.facebook.com/michelfoucko/posts/2153117454979635?__tn__=H-R
And watch the following: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2453573951543406
Image #1: screenshot of an email, assumed to be from the Edmonton Pride Festival Society, reads,
"It is with heavy hearts, that we inform you that the Board of Directors has voted to cancel the 2019 Edmonton Pride Festival. In light of the current political and social environment, it has been determined that any attempt to host a Festival will not be successful.
Please keep in mind that we are a not-for-profit organization run almost solely by volunteers.
It has always been the goal of the Edmonton Pride Festival Society to host a safe and enjoyable event that is as reflective and encompassing of the entire community as possible; however, given current events, we do not feel that this is attainable this year.
We will be releasing further information via select media sources over the next week which will hopefully provide answers to the many questions you undoubtedly have. Due to the large volume of messages we are receiving at the...(the rest of the email is cut off)."
Image #2-3: screenshots of a comment on the Edmonton Pride Festival Society's page from Simone Alaine Polo reads,
"Some notes, on April 4th 2019 the Edmonton Pride Festival Society held a meeting that included only 2 people of colour and had a vastly white crowd being defensive about "their party". One of the members decided to call the cops on the people they locked out of the meeting (including some board members and stakeholders, all them people of colour). On top of that they hired security to keep people out; not even inviting them to participate despite the fact that the space they hosted the meeting at had a number of open seats and spaces they could have opened up to the public. And even moreso, moved said meeting to a location that was not openly disclosed to the more sympathetic members of the board (we are talking not answering their phone calls and concerns about what was going on). Evidently, the Edmonton Pride Festival Society is scared of its own community and it is willing to mobilize institutions against whoever they deem inconvenient.
They are willing to deploy the very institution that they are still under fire for fetishizing and defending at the expense of racialized and colonized members of the 2SLGBTQ+ community. Edmonton Pride Festival Society just took multiple backwards steps in reassessing and reasserting its commitments in the community---whatever was called progress last year is but a platitude when they are willing to put vulnerable communities into further vulnerable positions. Here we are talking immigrants and refugees that have already been persecuted, policed, and incarcerated as LGBTQ2S+ folks, it takes a certain lack of tact to do this.
It is official, the Edmonton Pride Festival Society is not an advocacy group, as it actively acts against its community. It takes a /certain/ degree of irony to have EPFS have their theme this year be "Stonewall".
P.S. fun fact, having some folks talk to police, even police were confused because they lied in their report about having children in the meeting and being worried about the safety of children. We have confirmation on having checked prior to the meeting that there were no children in site."
Image #4: screenshot of a post made by the Edmonton Pride Festival Society on their page reads, "Thank you to everyone who attended our planned meeting of the membership this evening. Due to safety concerns, the meeting was moved to another location. As this was not communicated to all members, the meeting was not considered official, and therefore no motions were made."
This was in regards to the meeting mentioned in the aforementioned descriptions and commentary from Simone.
Images #5-7: screenshots of a comment on the post (from Image #4) from Tom Edwards reads,
"Impact is greater than intent. Expressions of outrage are valid. Yes all white people.
The impact of what the victims feel outweighs the intention of the person causing harm. Mistakes and accidents happen, this is okay and understandable - as long as we learn from them and grow from them. When we accidentally step on someone or bump into them, we don't blame them for the hurt they feel but take ownership, apologize, and learn to be more careful.
Expressions of outrage by marginalized and oppressed peoples are just that - expression of outrage. When marginalized and oppressed groups are doing so, they are not targeting specific individuals or peoples, but the systems, structures, and oppressor classes. Noting that in this specific instance, there is a duality because the Edmonton Pride Festival Society is a notably smaller group of people and therefore involves specifically a small number of people. At the same time, those white folks are actively perpetuating those systems and structures that QTBIPOC have been working to dismantle this past year.
All white people inherently benefit from the structures and systems of white supremacy, colonialism, and racism. We also implicitly (unintentionally) perpetuate white supremacy, colonialism, and racism because we are a part of those systems and structures, and are socialized as such. These are learned behaviors and it is our responsibility to unlearn said behaviors and ideologies - of which we will never be done unlearning. As white folks, it is our jobs to listen to QTBIPOC, to reconcile our guilt on our own, and to (at minimum) make the effort to become aware and do better.
Progress on the intersection of marginalized and oppressed groups is an exhausting, painful, uncomfortable, and unending process. Yes the local pride groups have made strides and progress, but we cannot forget this has been done with our privilege as white folks, while QTBIPOC have not only been left behind but also stepped on in the name of our progress. We can acknowledge the work that has been done while also listening to those in need and those who are an important part (and an imperative) of the queer community.
Learning not to center is extremely difficult - but all we're asking is that you step back and listen. There is a lot of energy and reactions right now, and they are totally valid. If you need education and emotional labor, there are allies who can do such, resources and articles out there, and possibly those who can provide you that emotional labor.
But what is happening right now is very valid and respectability politics, tone policing, and silencing will not help in any way, shape, or form. You need to stay in your lane and step back."
Includes additional comments in Image #7 from Colleen Sutherland stating that the post should be taken down because it is doing more harm than good.