London LGBT Pride, Part Two: The rubbish bit

EDITED TO ADD: 

This link https://twitter.com/daily_politics/status/615482050385047552  shows Michael Slater, Head of London LGBT Pride, speaking about how he managed to get UKIP into the Pride parade “Safely”  It starts with him talking about how the Islamaphobic banner, seen at Pride is funny.  Then he moves on to UKIP shortly after.

UKIP, a fascist political party has its own LGBT group.  They applied and were accepted to march with the Pride parade in June.  However, there was a bit of a backlash from LGBT PoC and others, who said a hate group had no place at Pride.  Pride had accepted the inclusion of this group without telling anyone on their Advisory Board about it, including me as the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic member’s representative.  I was so disgusted at this underhand tactic that I resigned my post.  I wanted nothing to do with an even where UKIP would appear.

As a result of this, and heaps of bad publicity, London Pride issued a statement saying that UKIP’s LGBT group would no longer march in the parade, due to “safety concerns”

All of this came to nothing when UKIP’s LGBT group crashed the parade, pushing their way past the Lesbian and Gay Immigration group.  For more info on this see: http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/ukip-sneaks-march-pride-london270615

I would never have attended Pride if I had known a hate group would be in the march, that wants to see people like me dead.  I feel as if London LGBT Pride has once again, screwed over People of Colour, in allowing this entire debacle to happen.  There were hundreds of stewards and police along the parade route; why did they do nothing when this incident occured?

Because they don’t care about us.

At the start of the parade, a man protested over Barclay’s Bank being present (and at the front).  He was wrestled to the ground by a Pride steward, and then arrested by the police.  The same people did nothing when UKIP barged in.  That group hadn’t paid a marching fee, and they hadn’t signed the code of conduct agreement.  Many small charities had to pay to be part of the parade, but UKIP got in for free by shoving black people out of the way.

I am incredibly upset about this.  So I’m going to cheer myself up by looking at Part One of this, over on the Bi’s of Colour site: http://bisofcolour.tumblr.com/post/122742976253/london-lgbt-pride-part-one-nice-bits-i-attended

This is the report I wrote from the Bisexuals of Colour History survey.  If you’ve ever wondered what our lives our like, how we mesh our cultural and sexual identities in a harsh world, click on the link!

Bi’s of Colour History Survey Report

NO PLACE FOR FASCISM AT PRIDE

UPDATE: UKIP will no longer be part of the parade.  Official statement rom London LGBT Pride http://prideinlondon.org/news/2015/06/statement-ukip-presence-pride-london/

UKiP aim to march at London LGBT Pride.  For those not in the know, UKIP are a political party that wants the UK to have laws in place that would stop HIV+ people entering the country.  They want Christians to be able to discriminate against LGBT people.  They want Immigrants out, and whites in.  This party is incredibly poisonous.  However they have a LGBT group, and this group wants to join in pride, complete with UKIP banners and a sense of hatred.

London Pride has a history of being aimed at white gay men, with anyone else pretty much ignored.  UKIP marching at Pride isn’t just something that will affect People of Colour though; it affects everyone.  UKIP may not have a policy on LGBT people, but their councillors have said some very LGBT-phobic things in the past.  There is no place for them at this celebration.

On a personal note, I have recently taken over as the Black and Minority Ethnic persons rep on the Pride Community Advisory Board.  I wasn’t told that UKIP were marching on the parade.  It was only by accident that I found out about it. I feel that the officers of Pride have ignored non-white LGBT folks yet again.  But this time I am not going to be silent, and you don’t have to be either.

Send an email to http://prideinlondon.org/contacts/ and let them know what you think.

You can also sign the petition here: https://www.change.org/p/the-board-and-senior-team-pride-in-london-board-remove-ukip-from-london-pride-march-2015