Useful Idiots at Pride Resign...

I am delighted to see these resignations...perhaps this will help to clean up Pride and rid it of Israel bashing fro good.

On May 28, Pride Toronto’s choice for grand marshal of the 2010 Pride Parade rejected his appointment, citing the organization’s censorship of Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA). “I have been actively involved in many social justice movements locally and internationally for more than thirty years,” said Dr. Alan Li, a co-founder of Gay Asians Toronto, Asian Community AIDS Services, the multicultural Coalition Against Homophobia, and the first openly gay president of the Chinese Canadian National Council. “I thus remember very clearly our community’s battles against censorship that attempted to invalidate our concerns, minimize our struggles and silence our voices.”

Li listed his concerns in greater detail, explaining, “Pride’s recent decision to ban the term ‘Israeli Apartheid’ and thus prohibit the participation of the group Queers Against Israeli Apartheid . . . in Pride celebrations this year is a slap in the face to our history of diverse voices. Pride’s choice to take a pre-emptive step to censor our own communities’ voices and concerns in response to political and corporate pressure shows a lack of backbone to stand up for principles of inclusiveness and anti-oppression.”

On May 21, the Pride Week Board, already reeling from federal funding cuts, had voted to “disallow” the use of the term “Israeli Apartheid,” or “any combination of this notion,” in the Pride Festival. The board’s decision was taken in response to a motion by Toronto City Councillor and mayoralty candidate George Mammoliti to have City Council inform Pride Week organizers that the City’s funding for the event would be withdrawn if Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA) were allowed to march in the parade, one of the largest of its nature in North America.

Li’s announcement came one day after the original founders of Toronto’s Pride Week, which began in 1981, sent an open letter to current Pride organizers, saying “We stand totally opposed to the decision of the current Toronto Pride Committee to ban the use of ‘Israeli Apartheid’ at Toronto Pride events. (…) Solidarity with all struggles against oppression has been a crucial part of the history of Pride.” Today, another 23 gay activists previously honoured by Toront