The past week, I cleansed a lot of my social media feeds. First, it started with all the people who failed to see that Black Lives Matter’s sit-in on the parade was important. They failed to hear their fears of the police, using the argument of “exclusion”.
BLM weren’t saying that LGBTQ police officers weren’t allowed to march. They merely didn’t want armed, uniformed officers promoting an institution that often makes them feel unsafe. If you back at Pride’s history, it was originally founded on protests, not the colourful corporate thing it is today.
As honoured guests at the parade, I believe that BLM’s message deserved to be heard. Are honoured guests supposed to be complacent and be token eye candy? Exclusion is not a great argument regardless because is exclusion for one day bigger than lives eliminated forever? Police officers are an entity that if individual officers aren’t deciding to question the system, the deaths than they are just as complacent in letting it happen.
If you’re reading what’s happening in the USA and still don’t get what BLM was protesting for, maybe just keep silent and educate yourself. I for one stand as an ally to my friends and POC.
Tiana Feng 