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A coalition of LGBTQ stalwarts and veterans has launched apetition to counter Black Lives Matter Vancouvers efforts to havepolice forces removed from the Pride parade.

Arguing that the police is an instrument of state violence and oppression the Vancouver chapter of Black Lives Matter launched a campaign earlier this summer asking for the withdrawalof any and all presence of uniformed police officers from the annual celebration of LGBTQ communities.

But for the activists behind Our Pride Includes Our Police, this misrepresentsthe history of the relationship between local LGBTQ communities and police.

Vancouvers LGBTQ community has a long history of positive engagement with the Vancouver Police Department, readsthe petition.

One of its co-signatories, trans activist Sandy-Leo Laframboise, a 46-year veteran of LGBTQ organizing, told the National Post: Banning the police from the pride parade will undermine our commitment to diversity and inclusion and all the work weve done.

They want to remove an entity that weve been working with for over 40 years.

Gordon Hardy, co-founder of Vancouvers Gay Liberation Front and another of the petitions organizers said he had no problem with Black Lives Matter members marching in the parade and expressing their opinions.

What we object to is that they come along and start telling the rest of us in the community who can and cannot be in the parade he said.

Earlier this month, BLM Vancouverlauncheda petition to request, for the second time, that the Vancouver Pride Society have the police department withdraw all of its uniformed, armed officers from the parade.

Theyhad already issued an open letter tothe Vancouver Pride Society in July asking the police to voluntarily withdraw from the parade and participate instead in a public service float that would include firefighters, paramedics and others. The matter appeared to have been settled after the the Vancouver Police Department agreed to remove an armoured vehicle from the parade.

Although it concedes that the police can of course be present to do their jobs and show support, the chapter says that having the institution participate on a float in the parade is not appropriate, and insulting to those who made Pride celebrations possible and even died for the cause.

If some members of the queer community do not feel comfortable at Pride events we must be the priority, the petition continues.

While organizers of Our Pride Includes Our Police acknowledge the historic and ongoing injustices against the black communities in major American and Eastern Canadian cities, they argue that they do not reflect relationships between Vancouvers LGBTQ communities with local law enforcement.

Vancouver Police are one of the most progressive police forces in the country, Velvet Steele, a trans and sex worker activist who has worked on police relations, told the Georgia Straightearlier this week.

This summer, members of the Toronto chapter of Black Lives Matter successfully hijacked theToronto Pride parade, grinding it to a halt, and forcedorganizersto agree to a list of demands including removing oppressive police floats from future parades before ending the blockade.

As of Friday, the pro-police petitionhad collected2,501 signatures compared to 792 collected for Black Lives Matter Vancouvers petition.

Read more:
LGBTQ Activists Rally Against Black Lives Matter's Bid to Shun Cops From Vancouver Pride Parade - Heat Street