Tolerance! Diversity!! Unity!!!
Pride Festival officials have failed to provide financial support and have engaged in obstructive practices. In 2010, they used “cattle gates” to attempt to funnel marchers into a beer-garden. In 2011, they used cisgendered volunteers to misdirect marchers. In 2012, they pushed marchers through market stalls that were still under construction. This is just a short list of the kind of tactics used.
In 2013, Pride Festival officials, yet again, claimed that the City of Toronto had objected to the March. When community organizers disproved this and obtained a “Notice to Demonstrate,” Pride Festival officials claimed that the march wasn’t “legal” or “safe.”
They sent out misinformation as to the route, the start time, and even went so far as to print thousands of copies of a route map that showed the march (incorrectly) ending up in one of their beer gardens.
And despite all of this, on June 28th 2013, the trans community self-organized the largest march of its kind in the world.
This puts Pride Toronto Inc. in a very difficult position. Their fund-raising activities rely heavily on the claim that they support things like the Trans March. A claim that is demonstrably not true.
