The statement left members of the Jewish community feeling ostracized and could contribute to already unprecedented levels of antisemitism being recorded across Canada
People celebrate at the Toronto Pride Parade on Sunday June 26, 2022. Photo by Ernest Doroszuk /Toronto Sun / Postmedia
Pride Toronto has recently joined the list of “inclusive” organizations hypocritically choosing to ignore the heinous atrocities committed against Israeli civilians on Oct. 7 and the suffering of the more than 130 hostages still held by terrorists in Gaza.
The non-profit is responsible for planning the city’s annual LGBTQ+ festival, and whose vision is a world “where all people feel safer, valued, celebrated, and included, regardless of how they identify or who they love.” However, there seems to be a caveat to their mission. Following Pride’s entirely there is genuine concern amongst members of Toronto’s Jewish community, particularly LGBTQ Jewish Torontonians, that this year’s Pride festivities will not be a welcoming or safe space for them due to their Zionistic beliefs.
Not only has the statement left members of the Jewish community feeling ostracized, but the egregious statement also has the propensity to contribute to the already unprecedented levels of antisemitism being recorded across Canada. Ironically, the text espouses people to advocate for “solidarity with innocent civilians” in the region, but fails to acknowledge the 1,200 plus innocent civilians slaughtered by Hamas on Oct. 7. The biased nature of the statement is self-evident to the reader. The text depicts Israel as largely, if not entirely, responsible for the war and resulting tragedies. Nowhere does Pride Toronto so much as acknowledge Hamas’s responsibility for initiating the conflict by choosing to launch its barbaric assault on Oct. 7, and only a cursory reference was made to the one hundred plus hostages that remain trapped in Gaza.
B’nai Brith has serious doubts that Pride Toronto can fulfil its mission of providing an open, inclusive, and safe place for everyone — including LGBTQ Israeli and Jewish individuals, many of whom have indicated they feel abandoned by Pride. The feeling of betrayal expressed to us by LGBTQ members of the Jewish community, in the wake of the March 28 statement, prompted the organization to reach out to Pride Toronto to implore them to correct their statement in order to ensure that Jewish participants would be welcome at, and able to feel safe at, this year’s event.
Pride Toronto has often refrained from weighing in on complex geopolitical issues. After all, its entire purpose is to create as welcoming, open, and non-judgemental a place as possible for LGBTQ individuals and allies from all backgrounds and all walks of life. Perhaps for this reason, Pride Toronto did not release a statement in the wake of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Nor did they comment on the increasing oppression of LGBTQ individuals in the Russian Federation. They were also silent following the recent decision by Uganda’s constitutional court to uphold a bill that re-criminalized homosexuality and instituted the death penalty for anyone caught engaging in certain homosexual acts. In this context, it is worth questioning Pride Toronto’s motives for weighing in on the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas in such a controversial and contentious manner. The statement was a stinging betrayal of one of Pride’s longest-standing allies.
For decades, Jewish activists and organizations have played a vital role in advancing LGBT rights in Canada. In 2022, Pride Toronto thanked B’nai Brith Canada after it exposed the nefarious intentions of a contingent of Black Hebrew Israelite extremists from the United States, who planned to travel to Canada and disrupt that year’s Pride festival. B’nai Brith, after unravelling the homophobic plot, passed the information on to law enforcement and Pride Toronto, allowing them to act before the hatemongers could create a disturbance.
Despite this long history of solidarity between the city’s Jewish and LGBTQ communities, Pride Toronto recklessly chose to present the Israel-Hamas conflict in an unnuanced and problematic manner. In doing so, Pride Toronto has contributed to the caustic and misinformation ridden discourse fuelling the worsening incitement targeting Toronto’s Jewish community.
More damning than sullying the relationship between the Jewish and LGBTQ communities is the impact that the statement has had on the the LGBTQ members of the Jewish community. The authors of the Pride Toronto statement callously subjected those who identify as such to further marginalization. A terrible and unnecessary predicament for a minority within a minority that has already been excluded from other traditionally progressive spaces.
