Members of a Jewish contingent at the 2024 Montreal Pride parade.Supplied/The Canadian Press
Just before the launch of Montreal’s Pride celebrations in late July, the event’s organizers promised that this year’s edition would be the “most inclusive yet.” That boast by Fierté (Pride) Montréal appeared, in part, to be a response to a boycott by several LGBTQ activist groups over the organization’s refusal to denounce Israel’s military operations in Gaza and exclude Jewish groups from Sunday’s Pride parade.
Upset at the sight of Israeli flags at last year’s parade, dissident groups had demanded that Fierté Montréal exclude Jewish groups from this year’s edition and sever its ties to corporate sponsors that had alleged ties to Israel. Instead, Fierté Montréal’s directors stood their ground and refused to be intimidated by pro-Palestinian radicals.
“Fierté Montréal does not take political positions at the international level,” executive director Simon Gamache explained in a February statement. “In the current context of trans and non-binary identities being denied or erased . . . and the very real rollback of 2SLGBTQIA+ community rights around the globe, Fierté Montréal calls for our communities to seek common ground, i.e. to rebuild solidarity.”
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The theme Fierté Montréal picked for this year’s parade – Fleurir ici, maintenant, or “Blossoms here, now” – hence sought to emphasize the core mission of Pride in championing the rights of LGBTQ persons “to blossom fully, to shine brightly, and to love freely.”
Indeed, if Pride festivals still have any raison d’être at all, it is to remind all Canadians that the equal rights of LGBTQ persons are the result of hard-fought battles against the discrimination, hate and ignorance against them that long permeated society. Focusing on that one unifying theme, amid the political backlash against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that has left sexual minorities feeling particularly vulnerable, should be a priority.
Until last week, Fierté Montréal – which had sought to move on from a rocky few years characterized by governance chaos and internal bickering – appeared to be on track to deliver on the promise of a bigger and a more inclusive 2025 edition. That is, until Québécoise singer-songwriter Safia Nolin cancelled her planned performance at a Fierté Montréal free outdoor concert after learning that members of Quebec Jewish LGBTQ group Ga’ava would be allowed to march in the Aug. 10 Pride parade.
“Last year, the Israeli flag was at the parade. How does that make you feel? It’s unacceptable,” Ms. Nolin wrote on Instagram. “I do not want to close my eyes and participate in a Pride that does not listen to its own groups, that does not want to take a stand on the genocide and that is not on the right side of history.”
Within hours of Ms. Nolin’s post, Fierté Montréal issued a statement denying participation in the Pride parade to “organizations spreading hateful discourse,” adding: “We denounce all forms of violence, we amplify the voices of queer communities who, on our stages and in our spaces, express their support for oppressed peoples, particularly the Palestinian people, and their opposition to genocide.”
The statement did not name any banned groups, but Ga’ava and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) revealed that they had been suddenly disinvited from the event. In a Facebook post, Ga’ava said the explanation given by Fierté Montréal for its exclusion was related to Ga’ava’s description of certain groups that had previously demanded the organization’s banishment from the parade. Ga’ava’s and CIJA officials had said the groups were “pro-terror” and “pro-Hamas” in a Jewish newspaper article. Ga’ava president Carlos Godoy denied those terms constituted hate speech.
On Tuesday, Fierté Montréal reversed itself and lifted the ban on Ga’ava and the CIJA. It apologized to the Jewish community, and particularly Jewish members of Quebec’s LGBTQ community, who felt it had sought to exclude them. What exactly transpired remains unclear, but it is a safe bet that government and corporate sponsors – which account for about 80 per cent of Fierté Montréal’s budget – had something to do with the move. The chairman of Fierté Montréal’s board of directors also resigned on Monday.
Fierté Montréal’s reversal angered the pro-Palestinian groups that had called for Ga’ava’s exclusion. But it was the correct move. There are legitimate grievances to be aired about the Israeli army’s increasingly disgraceful conduct in Gaza. Yet, attacking Ga’ava appears to have more to do with the role such groups play in underscoring Israel’s protection of LGBTQ rights, in contrast to the oppression LGBTQ persons face in most Arab jurisdictions. That is not a contrast pro-Palestinian activists want to emphasize, perhaps because it exposes their own cognitive dissonance, if not hypocrisy.
These pro-Palestinian LGBTQ activists accuse Israel of “pinkwashing,” or playing up gay rights in Israel to distract attention from its treatment of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. But what they are really seeking to do is to silence anyone who suggests otherwise.