A prominent Vancouver queer activist is calling out organizers of the Vancouver Pride parades for allowing the “hijacking” of the event by pro-Palestinian protesters.
Morgane Oger — who became the first transgender woman to represent a mainstream political party when she ran for the B.C. NDP in the 2017 election — said the protests brought fear and hate to an event meant to celebrate LGBTQ2+ solidarity.
In a series of posts on social media, Oger claimed the protesters “led genocidal chants” at one of this past weekend’s Pride marches and thereby “diminished queer resistance.”
“Some of you are my friends. And to you I say this in the most loving way I can: I feel the pain you feel seeing people die in war as a direct consequence of an unforgivable massacre Palestinians allowed to happen in their name,” wrote Oger on X.
Oger said, “Hamas kills and tortures more trans people than all the world’s TERFs combined,” referring to a group whom trans activists have called “trans-exclusionary radical feminists.”
“What is your end game here? I would love to know what you hope to accomplish that will make things better?” said Oger. “Why did you undermine queer equality like that? Why did you stop so many people from celebrating their pride in Sunday’s march?”
In contrast to Oger’s assertion about “genocidal chants,” pro-Palestinian protesters claim the genocide is happening in Palestine at the hands of the Israeli military as it hunts down Hamas, which launched the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that killed thousands of Israelis. They say the war has killed many thousands of civilians in the occupied territory.
A group called Queers Against Israeli Apartheid Vancouver has been calling on Pride organizers to stop “pinkwashing, gaslighting, obfuscation and exclusionary practices masked as democracy against queer Palestinians.”
Oger said the protests targeted one vulnerable population in the name of another. “When we kick down, we become the problem, and this weekend there was far too much kicking down,” Oger concluded.
Oger told Postmedia that the protests were out of place. “I feel that Pride events should make space available for queer liberation and protests related to the 2SLGBTQ community,” said Oger in an email.
“That said, there is a place and an approach to protests that we need to keep in perspective what the impact is on others.
“Protesting the powerful and those perpetrating an injustice makes sense, but making an event feel unsafe for marginalized persons the event is intended for is a different matter.”
She said people she knew said they were nervous about the protest’s impact on a normally joyous celebration.
“Protesting Vancouver Pride or bringing genocidal language to the trans march was not a victimless act,” said Oger. “People expressed to me fear of participating because of the concerns of the possible actions of so-called ‘Pro Palestine’ protesters. This is not acceptable.”
Oger claimed the activists who targeted Pride events did so in an attempt to intimidate. “There seems to be a growing trend among some activists that anyone who does not parrot their ideological line deserves to be targeted with harassment or hate-motivated sentiment until they comply.
“This seems dangerous to me, and downright un-Canadian. I think that this needs to change.”
Vancouver police said that while it deployed extra officers to keep things peaceful, they consulted “on numerous occasions” with Pride organizers and were asked to keep a low profile unless things got dangerous.
“We were aware that the majority of Pride event disruptions across Canada and the U.S. were a result of actions taken by protest groups,” said Vancouver Police spokesperson Const. Tania Visintin in response to questions about the weekend disruptions.
“The Vancouver Pride Society requested that the VPD take no action should their event be disrupted by any protest element, unless public safety was at issue,” said Visintin.
Similar protests disrupted the start of the Victoria Pride parade in July. Organizers from the Victoria Pride Society said all forms of expression were welcome at the event, noting that the Pride movement is and has always been innately political.
Postmedia reached out to Vancouver Pride for comment but did not hear back.