The most watched person at this year’s Halifax Pride parade will be a straight white man with a penchant for rainbow socks.
It was announced Monday that Justin Trudeau will be marching this weekend in Halifax, becoming the first sitting prime minister to take part in a local Pride parade. But some members of the LGBTQ+ community say Trudeau’s historic visit isn’t worth celebrating.
Kehisha Wilmot, head of the Mount Saint Vincent University Queer Collective, says Halifax Pride is breaking its promise to centre marginalized voices in this year’s festival.
“We have people of colour doing things in this parade,” they say, “and the big thing we’re currently now looking at is we brought down a white guy in a high-position role to be our focus.”
Festival executive director Adam Reid tells The Coast there was a “standing invitation” for Trudeau to visit Halifax since last year’s parade, but the organization only found out he’d be coming a couple of days ago.
“I understand the community concerns,” says Reid, about the pinkwashing criticisms given Trudeau’s prominent placement in the parade. “But I also see this as a real opportunity for growth. I don’t think we grow as a community or grow as a festival if we are shutting down each others’ opportunities for discussion.”
Halifax Pride as an organization is trying to bounce back this year after a disastrous annual general meeting last fall. Members of the Queer Arabs of Halifax and supporters were shouted-down by a gaggle of seemingly straight and cis outsiders who took issue with a proposed resolution to ban any government or corporate pinkwashing efforts at future Pride festivals.
As a result, several groups are boycotting Pride this year—including Wilmot’s Queer Collective and Dalhousie University’s South House.
The festival and Reid have spent the last several months trying to regain community trust through efforts meant to centre the city’s diverse voices—efforts like choosing The Magic Project as the parade’s grand marshals and helping Halifax Regional Police decide to only march out-of-uniform. Wilmot says those steps have all been positive signs of a more intersectional, inclusive Pride.
Unfortunately, Trudeau.
“There’s all this progress and instead of focusing on that, they’re like, ‘Hey, look at this really big name we have,’” Wilmot says about the festival’s celebrity get. “It just seems like the people we need to be focusing on, now we’re not focusing on.”
Reid counters that Trudeau’s presence can help “shine a light” on Halifax’s LGBTQ+ community.
“The festival is more than just the participation of any one person,” he says. “We’re going to use this opportunity to celebrate the community…to take that opportunity to talk to that wider audience about all the amazing things that are happening here.”
But Pride is still a political movement, says Wilmot. It should do a better job of listening to the concerns of Black, Indigenous and Muslim individuals, and acknowledge how much vulnerability those people are giving up when taking part in the parade.
“This feels like once again we’re in the room, but we’re on the back shelf in the corner,” they say about Trudeau’s visit. “We got a chair [full] of tacks; he got the throne.”
This year’s Pride parade begins Saturday at 1pm, and will travel along Barrington Street, Spring Garden Road and South Park Street to finish at the Garrison Grounds.
Related Stories
Halifax Pride announces new speakers series
Canada’s myth of multiculturalism
Halifax Pride addresses pinkwashing by discontinuing community fair
Halifax police opt out of Pride parade
Trudeau’s refugee cap undervalues Canadian values
Halifax Pride’s new director, uncertain direction
South House offers alternative Pride event
Mending fences at Pride
Pride is political and Pride is a party
This article appears in Jul 13-19, 2017.
Prime ministers attending pride parades is an important symbol, but it’s important to remember that Justin Trudeau is a politician, and not part of the LGBT community. Allies are welcome (and encouraged!), and the best way to be an ally is to help those that need to be seen and heard do just that. Politicians, especially those that are not members of the LGBT community and those who are not taking risks on our behalf should be conscious of how much space they take up.
There are really important LGBT organizations and projects that deserve attention, such as the Cape Breton Ally Centre which has been struggling with federal funding cuts, The Magic Project, trans people struggling for better health care access, two-spirit people struggling for reconciliation, etc. Consider giving them a donation or volunteering some time with them!
This article and these concerns make me angry. Have we come so far that people will bemoan the PRIME MINISTER of our country attending the pride marade?!?! We have it so good now that we have time to be upset by this?! Wake up! It was only a few short years ago we had a prime minister we would not have imagined attending pride. A mayor of Toronto refusing to attend pride. This is something to be celebrated. We have a Prime Minister that supports our cause and brings positive attention to our struggles. Black Lives Matter movement is not what pride is about. And please stop hating on straight white men, it’s as much his fault he was born a straight white man as it is mine for being being born a lesbian! Being upset about his attendance doesn’t even make sense!
Well said John and thank you for welcoming me, as an ally, to your parade. Not joking, I genuinely appreciate the gesture. I just want to celebrate with you and support my friends. I’m not there to white up the place with my whiteness or shoot heterosexual beams from my oppression ray.
Also Jacob, is anything ever good enough for you (or your extreme left zombies)? The PRIME MINISTER OF THE FUCKING COUNTRY showing support for the +2LGBTQ community by actively marching in the parade is unprecedented…and all you can do is whine that he’s straight, white, and male? Do you have a stick perpetually lodged in an unmentionable location? Like frig, JT is pretty much the puppet master of the SJW dregs and you’re even harping on your own overlord for being too white? Too male? Not gay enough? Do people actually take you seriously in some circles?
Yes and if he didn’t show up, people would accuse him of not being supportive…sometime ya just can’t win
Hi there – a few definitions for the word “Gaggle” below:
1
: flock; especially : a flock of geese when not in flight compare skein
2
: a group, aggregation, or cluster lacking organization a gaggle of reporters and photographers
3
: an indefinite number participated in a gaggle of petty crimes
Not sure that members of the Jewish community of Halifax are winged, and pretty sure we aren’t engaging in any petty crimes, so that must mean we’re the group lacking organization. No-one can accuse the Jewish community of being homogenous…and many different points of view were expressed by the straight, queer, Holocaust survivor related, Rabbis, affiliated, and non-affiliated Jews present at the AGM. But there was a pretty united viewpoint, and it’s this: there should be no room for anti-semitism at a gathering that states it’s for all. But instead, Pride should “do a better job of listening to the concerns of Black, Indigenous and Muslim individuals.” Jews needs not apply, I guess. And personally I welcome our PM to show his love and support for Pride. Maybe Halifax’s Jews will even feel safe walking with him.
Instead of saying ” we brought down a white guy in a high position role to focus on” we should be focusing on and celebrating the fact that the Prime Minister of our country (for the first time in history) is marching side by side with our brothers and sisters to promote equality, acceptance, and inclusiveness.
I am so sick of everyone voicing who they think should and shouldn’t march in this parade. (isn’t that the definition of exclusiveness?) EVERYONE should have the choice to march in this parade, friends, family, allys, businesses, police, DND, EVERYONE. Isn’t that what we have been fighting for?
I am a strong ally in the LGBTQ community. I am a straight white woman. The LGBTQ community needs to acknowledge that often strong visual vocal allies help to advance their agendas. Please remember that as a community you can be your own worst enemy when you don’t welcome and accept allies who have had a history of being vocal for your community.
The main problem groups like Queer Arabs, South House and the Mount Saint Vincent University Queer Collective are upset they are trying to censor a group they do not agree with. They are simply out of touch with the vast majority of Halifax’s LGBT community. I know their 500 names wasn’t from Halifax area and simply have their own agenda. Let anyone say what ever they want. There was time when the LGBT community did this, we see the some still forget those days.
I definitely get John’s comments, but despite the things that still need to be done at the community level, I still think this is a step forward though in terms of big picture. After spending some time in countries where LGBT communities have little or no support, I think having our PM at this parade is setting an example for the rest of the world…and for those still backwards thinking folk we have in Canada.
The title of this article should be “Prime minister of Canada gets flamed before attending a pride parade for being too straight, white, and male”. All I see is some petty jealousy and infighting. The militant left and right fringe groups moaning about minutiae, all modesty and integrity thrown out the window. How embarrassing for the more moderate majority.