Black Lives Matter leads alternative Pride march in Vancouver

The only uniformed Vancouver police officers at the Black Lives Matter March on Pride this weekend were watching from the sidelines.

The Sunday event at Emery Barnes Park in downtown Vancouver was organized in response to the continued presence of police officers in Vancouver's mainstream Pride parade, organizers said.

They were also protesting what they described asrising corporate involvement in the city's annualPride parade.

"As a black queer person in Vancouver, I have never felt that there was an event that felt good or safe for me to go to," Daniella Barretosaid.

The local chapter of Black Lives Matter has been pushing to end the official police entry in Pride for the last year, arguing that many members of the LGBTQ community have had negative experiences with officers.

They also point out that Pride began as a protest that grew out of the Stonewall riots in New York City, where transgender women of colour were at the forefront of LGBTQ demonstrations in response to a police raid of a gay bar.

The debate over police participation in Pride began last year in Toronto, when members of Black Lives Matter held a protest that stalled the annual parade for about an hour. Pride Toronto has opted toban uniformed officers from the parade.

Pride tolimit police presence

This year, the Vancouver Pride Society and police agreed that officers will march as part of the City of Vancouver entry to the parade instead of on a separate float as they have in previous years. Police vehicles and the use of sirens will no longer be allowed in the march, scheduled for August 6.

However, about 20 per cent of officers will still wear their uniforms.

Supporters of Black Lives Matter say the compromise doesn't fully address their concerns.

"As queer and trans people of colour, we don't feel safe in a parade that celebrates a violent institution that consistently contributes to violence against black, Indigenous and people of colour," Barreto said.

She said that while she believesVancouver police have a more inclusive and peaceful image than their U.S. counterparts, the department's interactions with the black and Indigenous communitieshave generatedcriticism.

Most recently,Solomon Akinoye, a black man,allegedhe was beaten and wrongfully arrested in a case of mistaken identity.

Racism, threats directed at organizers

Black Lives Matter's stance on police in Pride has attracted large numbers of racist comments and threats of violence, mainly to the group's Facebook page, organizer Cicely-Belle Blain said.

"If people recognize us in the street they'll say it to our face as well," Blainsaid.

"Today we have lots of security because we don't know what people's reactions will be and we feel a little bit unsafe," Blain said.

This weekend,about 100 Toronto officers and union representatives travelled to New York City to march in uniform in that city's Pride parade in response to an invitation from an American group.