Discourse around Pride and Palestinian rights part of history of activism in the 2SLGBTQ+ community

In the wake of the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7 last year and Israel’s subsequent military assault in Gaza, Halifax Pride and other organizations in Canada have faced calls from parts of the 2SLGBTQ+ community to support Palestinian people. 

Community educator Aaliyah Paris is one non-binary and queer person in Halifax who’s made that call.

She wants more transparency from Halifax Pride, and for it to divest from companies on the Canadian boycott, divest and sanction (BDS) list — a group of firms, organizations and people that pro-Palestinian groups say should be boycotted to put pressure on Israel.

“I really don’t think I’m free until everybody is free,” Paris said, adding that people “in places like Congo, Palestine, Sudan … are unable to even be out and celebrate.”

TD Bank has sponsored Halifax Pride and other Pride organizations in Canada, and is one of the companies on the boycott list.

Following community pressure, Halifax Pride released a statement July 5 saying it had renewed its agreement with TD last fall, but that it would commit to exploring other funding options for next year’s festival. 

This followed the organization’s March call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and its statement of solidarity with Palestinian people. Halifax Pride did not respond to requests for an interview.

Meanwhile, in other parts of the region, St. John’s Pride and Fredericton Pride named pro-Palestinian advocacy groups as grand marshals for their parades this year and committed to divestment.

All of these actions by Pride organizations are part of a long history of politics and activism in the 2SLGBTQ+ community, with the idea that “Pride began as a protest” being a common refrain. It’s also not the first time pro-Palestinian activism has been a part of Pride.

“The origins of Pride absolutely are 100 per cent political,” said Daniel MacKay, who runs an online encyclopedia detailing history and events within the 2SLGBTQ+ community in Halifax. People made “a place for themselves right … in their own communities,” said MacKay.

TD Bank landed on the boycott list because of its financial entanglements with American weapons company General Dynamics. 

As of March 31, TD Bank had directed tens of millions of dollars of investments into General Dynamics, according to one of the bank’s latest financial disclosures to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. TD may not necessarily own those shares itself and could, for example, be investing some or all of them on behalf of clients. 

In a statement to CBC News, TD said it has “long supported” the 2SLGBTQ+ community, pointing to its philanthropy and 2SLGBTQ+ business development team, and that it would continue to engage with the community to find ways to show its “unwavering support.”

Of course no group is a monolith, and within 2SLGBTQ+ history there’s division as well — this moment is no exception.

MacKay believes it’s not Halifax Pride’s job to comment on international politics.

“Pride has a job to unite people here in Halifax,” MacKay said. “Their mandate is to run a festival, and that festival is supposed to be for everyone.”

But others don’t see things that way.

The idea that Pride “has always … brought the community together is a kind of fiction,” said OmiSoore Dryden, who is the James R. Johnston Endowed Chair in Black Canadian Studies at Dalhousie University.

“I remember the first time I marched in the Halifax Pride and I had my Black Lives Matter T-shirt on,” Dryden said. “The amount of trash I got from people saying … ‘You’re being disruptive.’

“How is the racism in queer communities not the thing that’s disruptive?”

In 2016, Black Lives Matter Toronto members held a sit-in during the city’s Pride parade to challenge “Pride’s anti-Blackness.” And in 2020, Halifax Pride centred its festival around conversations about systemic racism and violence against Black, Indigenous and people of colour.

“Pride organizations over the last 30, 40 years have often stepped into these moments,” Dryden said, pointing to anti-apartheid activism against South Africa as an example.

“Racism is a queer issue. Genocide is a queer issue.”

On Tuesday, a group of 11 independent human rights experts mandated by the United Nations released a statement that said the recent deaths of several more children from malnutrition indicate that famine has spread throughout Gaza.

The statement condemned “Israel’s intentional and targeted starvation campaign against the Palestinian people.”

Israel’s diplomatic mission in Geneva called the statement “misinformation” and said the country has “continuously scaled up its co-ordination and assistance in the delivery of humanitarian aid.”

Israel has also denied charges of genocide brought against it by South Africa at the International Court of Justice.

While some may view Halifax Pride’s stance in support of Palestinian people as divisive, Cape Breton Rabbi Naj Siritsky sees potential to help build bridges across communities.

“The act of solidarity and allyship, of being alongside people who are feeling abandoned by the world, that is something queer people know really, really well,” said Siritsky, who is non-binary and a second-generation Holocaust survivor.

In his work advocating for a ceasefire locally, Siritsky said he and other advocates have been focused on community-building.

“The way to really heal division is through relationship and solidarity and compassion and interacting with each other to realize that we actually are more similar than apart.”