Archive for the ‘Black Lives Matter’ Category

Some Good News for ‘Pride’ Month: Boston Gay Pride Parade is Cancelled Possibly Permanently After Accusations of Racism From Black Lives Matter and…

The month of June has become an insufferable time for normal people as corporations, schools, governments, the media, and leftists push Gay Pride Month into everyones face.

Over the past 50 years, Boston (like hundreds of other cities) has endured an increasingly massive and perverse Gay Pride Parade ending with a Gay Pride Festival at Boston City Hall Plaza. Its frightened summer tourists, scared away families, and destroyed the aura of a once beautiful city.

For a dozen years, MassResistance documented the depraved event, sharing photos and videos and exposing the participating corporations, schools, and politicians.

But this year there was no parade, no festival, and no plans for any in the future. The Board of Directors of the Boston Pride Committee, which planned, funded, and organized it, voted to permanently disband the whole organization. The streets of downtown Boston are (relatively) safe and sane again!

What happened? You cant make this up! According to multiple news reports, the gays who run the event were being accused of racism by Black Lives Matter (BLM). BLM also accused them of snubbing some of the weirder transgender groups, and not supporting the entire gay community.

The bizarre complaints from Black Lives Matter began back in 2015 but were pretty much brushed aside. However, the big eruption came during 2020 and 2021 while the event was postponed due to COVID. Black Lives Matter aligned with a gaggle of local fringe LGBT groups and targeted Boston Prides all-white (and gentrified) Board of Directors with a list of complaints and demands. This wacky list of complaints (which itself reflects a racist attitude) included:

The BLM coalition also persuaded most of the Pride volunteers to resign. Then they began organizing a boycott of the upcoming (June 2021) Pride event.

The June 2021 Pride event was postponed because of COVID. But that didnt quiet anything down. In July 2021, the BLM coalition publicly demanded that the Pride Board resign. A week later the Pride Board reacted by voting to disband the organization completely.

This whole thing isnt really surprising. By 2020, the City of Boston had become ultra-pro-LGBT, so there was basically nothing left for them to fight for. But left-wing, revolutionary organizations are made up of obsessive, dysfunctional, and irrational people. Without a pressing cause, these radical groups invariably turn on each other. This is typical for leftist revolutionary movements going back to the French Revolution and the Lenin-Stalin era in the Soviet Union. The revolutionaries eventually eat their own.

Since theres no 2022 Boston Pride Parade and accompanying festival to remind everyone what the LGBT movement is about, we are presenting below just a few highlights from our past reports to show everyone in Boston what theyre missing!

Editors note: To avoid highlighting vile, graphic images, The Stream is not reprinting this part of the article.

We never thought wed ever find ourselves cheering for Black Lives Matter! Lets hope that this conflict spreads across the country.

Originally published at massresistance.org. Reprinted with permission. For additional media content, see original post.

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Some Good News for 'Pride' Month: Boston Gay Pride Parade is Cancelled Possibly Permanently After Accusations of Racism From Black Lives Matter and...

Pride is ‘for everyone to enjoy themselves,’ Q&A with Pride Toronto’s International Grand Marshal Lady Phyll – CP24 Toronto’s Breaking News

After two long years, Torontos Pride Parade is back on Sunday where members of the 2SLGBTQ+ community and allies will march along downtown streets to celebrate diversity and protest for equal rights for everyone.

One distinguished guest who will be in attendance is this years International Grand Marshal Dr. Phyll Opoku-Gyimah, widely known as Lady Phyll.

As the co-founder and executive director of UK Black Pride and the the executive director of human rights charity Kaleidoscope Trust, Lady Phyll is a renowned advocate for the 2SLGBTQ community worldwide.

In January, Lady Phyll received an honourary doctorate from London South Bank University for her work in the fight against homophobia, sexism and racism in the U.K. and globally.

Toronto Pride is Lady Phylls first pride event after the global COVID-19 lockdown, but this is not her first time being honoured with a prestigious role. In 2019, she was the grand marshal at New Yorks World Pride.

CP24.com spoke to Lady Phyll about being Toronto Prides international grand marshal, her accomplishments in human rights advocacy and what work needs to be done to achieve equal rights for the 2SLGBTQ+ community.

CP24: Can you tell us a little about yourself and why you decided to work in human rights advocacy?

Lady Phyll: I guess I've always known that I was different and I've always asked questions, been really inquisitive about justice and social justice. I went to a school which was predominantly white. And, you know, we were taught everything about the Battle of Hastings 1066, Christopher Columbus, but we were never taught enough about our histories and Herstories. So I think I dug deeper, I wanted to read about Audre Lorde, Bell Hooks, James Baldwin. And I also came out and had a greater understanding of self and wanted to dig deep and know what have our communities looked like in the past? What hasn't been done, what activities do we do to amplify ourselves? So that has been that whole trajectory and I've also been a really staunch trade unionist. So you know, workers rights have been incredibly important to me and when you connect and intertwine all of that it just makes for all the ingredients about moving forward where social justice is concerned.

CP24: Can you tell us about UK Black Pride and Kaleidoscope Trust?

LP: I lead this amazing international LGBT+ organization called Kaleidoscope Trust, which works to uphold human rights for LGBT+ people across the globe, primarily in the Commonwealth. Ive been in that role for three years now and I have the fortunate pleasure of working with some of the most amazing activists.

With UK Black Pride, it's been in existence since 2005. We are really about that education piece; that love, hope, joy, celebration and protests and understanding the different intersections where our communities meet. So from Black and brown peoples, who are looking at race, gender, class, religion, faith, belief, maturity, and our young people looking at housing and all other aspects of what 2SLGBTQ+ people really, really want to focus on.

CP24: When did you find out about being Pride Torontos International Grand Marshal and how excited are you?

LP: I think I found out about three months ago and when I was told by the executive director of Pride Toronto I literally jumped off the chair and I started screaming with excitement. Because to be the international grand marshal is not just sending a message of solidarity, but it's connecting all of the work around the world and bringing love, joy, hope, the elements of being part of this wider global movement of 2SLGBTQIA+ people. It's just thrilling.

CP24: Have you been to Toronto before?

LP: I've been to Toronto before. I've seen some work out here, working with activists and leaders, and grassroots community activists, I should say, around global Black pride, and we're speaking about a human rights conference that will be coming to Toronto in July.

CP24: What do you like about the city?

LP: The people. You know, I'm single so I can actually mingle with beautiful people, beautiful energy. The hospitality is just so on point. I haven't actually been to other places and felt this much love. And it's not just because I'm the international grand marshal. I think people genuinely, especially after this lockdown period where we haven't had a pride (event) for two years, haven't been able to connect. It just feels like it's meant to be.

CP24: What pride events are you attending this weekend?

LP: I'll be making sure I'm present at the trans rally. I'll be there at the Dyke March. I'll be there at the main stage. But also just connecting with as many people as possible through the parade, seeing families come out for the first time, meeting young queer people who this may be their first experience of pride and also finding time to eat and breathe as well. That's quite important.

CP24: Are you familiar with past conflicts between Pride Toronto and Black Lives Matter Toronto? How do you think the organizations should collaborate going forward?

LP: I guess this is not about me being familiar with the history of Black lives matter here in Toronto, but it's being familiar with the issues that face Black people and Black queer people. So if there's anything that Pride Toronto and organizations like Blackness Yes and Blockorama should be doing is working collaboratively and understanding the nuances and complexities and the beautiful nature of how our organizations and individuals should be able to coexist together.

I would say there's things that need to be addressed and looked at, and this could be the ways in how structural, systemic issues play out for for Black queer people in terms of housing, education, in terms of poverty. And some of that has to be looked at in line with how MPs take forward their work, how communities are well resourced and well funded. And more importantly, what visibility and amplification of the great work that they do takes place.

READ MORE: Black Lives Matter stages sit-in at Toronto Pride Parade

CP24: What does pride mean for you?

LP: I guess pride means so many different things. It can mean a home, it can mean chosen family, it can mean love, it can mean solidarity, it can mean togetherness, it can mean connecting. I think what this pride is going to be showing us today is the power of movements. And the power of movements when we come together and we turn up the volume on society. It means it makes it absolutely impossible to ignore us, erase us and to forget about us.

I just like to add that I think that we've got to understand pride is a movement and it's a process and it's one that has to be celebrated with so many different people because that's what makes our movement strong. It's not just for one particular group, it is really for everyone to enjoy themselves and that's exactly what I'm gonna do.

CP24: What other projects are you working on?

LP: We have UK Black Pride which is Sunday the 14th of August. As you know, everyone is welcome. It's going to be a beautiful celebration and protest of, you know, Black and POC (People of Colour) queer people celebrating themselves, loving on one another, enjoying the space that's been created for them and by them.

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Pride is 'for everyone to enjoy themselves,' Q&A with Pride Toronto's International Grand Marshal Lady Phyll - CP24 Toronto's Breaking News

Capitol ringed with fencing after days of Roe protests – The Associated Press – en Espaol

PHOENIX (AP) The Arizona Capitol was ringed with a double barrier of fencing with concertina wire strung between the barriers Monday after three straight nights of protests prompted by the U.S. Supreme Courts ruling overturning womens constitutional right to abortion left some memorials damaged.

The protests were mainly peaceful and led to only a handful of arrests, but the actions of small groups of people led to the damage and decision to erect the fencing Saturday, authorities said. The Arizona National Guard added the razor wire on Sunday.

The protests on Friday night, which came hours after the Supreme Court issued its opinion striking down Roe v. Wade and as the Legislature was meeting to complete its 2022 session, were the largest. The Arizona Department of Public Safety estimated that between 7,000 and 8,000 people gathered at the Capitol.

All was peaceful until about 8:30 p.m., when a small number of protesters began beating on the glass front of the state Senate and at least one person tried to kick in a sliding glass door. Dozens of state troopers were lined up just inside, but the group did not stop until an unannounced volley of tear gas was launched toward them from the second floor of of the old state Capitol building less than a hundred feet away.

A spokesman for the Department of Public Safety, Bart Graves, confirmed that no warning was given. He said state troopers were protecting lawmakers working inside.

These rioters knew exactly what was at stake here and knew what our job is there and they continued to try to bust in anyway, Graves said.

The commotion led senators to cut short an ongoing vote and flee to the basement. They returned about 20 minutes later, but lingering tear gas pulled into the large room by the buildings ventilation system forced the 30 senators and staff, reporters and the public to move to a meeting room where the air was fresher for the sessions final hours.

After the tear gas was deployed, most of the crowd either left or went into a nearby plaza packed with dozens of memorials. Tear gas was again deployed, this time with a warning and announcement first.

On Saturday morning, damage was obvious, with memorials and walls and concrete walls spray painted with Abort the Court and unpublishable phrases. Efforts to scrub it off were ongoing Monday.

No arrests were made Friday night, Graves said. On Saturday evening a crowd of about 1,200 people protested. After most had left, and as midnight approached, several people pulled down a section of fencing, leading to four arrests.

Fewer than 200 people protested Sunday night and five people were arrested on minor charges. No injuries were reported all weekend.

Many Republicans hailed state troopers and criticized the protestors. Democrats also praised state police and denounced protesters who were violent, while saying they want an investigation of the state police action.

Abortion providers across Arizona stopped performing the procedures Friday because they feared prosecution. Arizona has a pre-statehood law banning all abortions and a law granting legal rights to unborn children that abortion providers fear could be used to bring charges.

The Capitol was last ringed with fencing after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by backers of then-President Donald Trump and after Black Lives Matter protests following the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in May 2020.

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Capitol ringed with fencing after days of Roe protests - The Associated Press - en Espaol

Trump’s insurrection stole the strategies of Black Lives Matter – Salon

Donald Trump never gave a direct order to hang Mike Pence. In fact, Trump didn't even come up with the specific idea of hanging, but when the insurrectionist mob he sent to the Capitol developed this idea on their own, he was only to happy to roll with it. As Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said during the first night of hearings, Trump responded to the chants of "hang Mike Pence" by saying the rioters "had the right idea" and that Pence "deserves it."

The "hang Mike Pence" moment became the centerpiece of Thursday's hearing of the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot. The third televised probe focused on the pressure campaign Trump waged against his own vice president to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The committee revealed that, once Trump realized how close the mob he had sent to the Capitol was to Pence, he sent out a tweet to egg them on. As video footage from the riot shows, the message was received, as insurrectionists read the tweet out loud and redoubled their efforts to find and execute the man they were falsely told could steal the election for them but wouldn't.

RELATED:Trump defends supporters' threats to "hang Mike Pence" in new audio: "People were very angry"

The timeline is important for the committee's work of establishing Trump's mindset and how he very much was using the mob's violence as a weapon to pressure Pence and other power players in D.C. to give him what he wanted: illegal control over the White House. But it also underscores one of the most frustrating aspects of this entire investigation.

Social media technologies are remaking what we think of as "organizing" an event.

Trump was remarkably skilled at using public communications speeches, and crucially tweets to convey his wishes to his followers without coming right and giving direct orders to commit crimes. It's a strategy that works to shield Trump from legal consequences, as he can always pretend that he was "merely" criticizing Pence or "merely" promising that Jan. 6 would be "wild," and that how people reacted was all on them and not what he intended at all.It's a strategy that wouldn't work, however, without the feedback loop made possible by the internet. Trump was able to receive feedback on how his followers were receiving his communications and react in real-time by feeding more communications to them through social media.

Trumpism is very much a top-down movement, with Trump as the leader. But the way it is organized and the strategies it uses borrow heavily from leaderless movements on the left like Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter, both of which have long used social media to organize on the fly, without relying on the traditional top-down decision-making models.

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Social media helps facilitate decision-making by ecosystems. It can be chaotic, but it also means that activists can react swiftly to changing circumstances, instead of getting dragged down by bureaucratic decision-making. A lot of the Black Lives Matter protests were hastily assembled after George Floyd's murder by people throwing out ideas for places and times to assemble. The result sometimes was three or four protests in any given city at once. That chaos ended up being a strength. Here in Philadelphia, the protests spilled out in every direction, with marchers converging and diverging all over town, making it significantly harder for authorities to blunt the impact of the march by shepherding it to a part of town where it could be easily ignored.

An elaborate and secretive conspiracy for the insurrection itself was not necessary because Trump and his allies could communicate publicly through social media.

As Heather "Digby" Parton noted Friday at Salon, it appears that the original idea behind the Capitol riot was very different. It seems that Trump and his allies were thinking more that a violent riot especially if it was met with resistance from the left would give Trump a pretense to invoke the Insurrection Act and seize power with military force. But when it became clear that wasn't going to work, Trump and the mob were able to shift strategies on the fly, focusing on shutting down the electoral vote count by force. That kind of flexibility in goals and tactics is a real asset, one that leaderless movements have been using for years. Now Trump has adopted it for his fascist agenda.

RELATED:Trump wanted a different insurrection: Jan. 6 hearing reveals violent intent behind Pence plot

While the committee has hintedthat there may be evidence of direct coordination between Trump and the Proud Boys to make the Capitol insurrection happen, what is an even scarier realization is that the plan could have gone off without any such direct communication. Instead, what happened evolved the way protests and other actions have developed among Black Lives Matter, Occupy Wall Street, and other leaderless lefty movements: via online chatter.

The idea of stopping the electoral count evolved in large part through people sharing conspiracy theories and spreading documents online. Trump was just as much an audience for these conspiracy theories as he was a leader.An elaborate and secretive conspiracy for the insurrection itself was not necessary because Trump and his allies could communicate publicly through social media. The goal, the place, and the time were established through these public channels. Trump could trust that groups like the Proud Boys and Oathkeepers knew what he wanted from them, without having to say so directly. Trump was well aware that there were rising groups of right-wing thugs who wanted to commit violence. His role was more of a traffic director than traditional general giving orders. He was, in many ways, reacting as much to what his followers were signaling they wanted to do as he was telling them what to do.

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Of course, when people organize a Black Lives Matter protest or an underground rave, they aren't engaging in a criminal conspiracy to overthrow the government. But it all goes to show that social media technologies are remaking what we think of as "organizing" an event. Increasingly, it's not about leaders setting an agenda, but about collective groups formulating a plan together by talking online. In most cases, that's a good thing (such as with Black Lives Matter protests) or largely harmless (underground raves). But there can be no doubt that the far-right, with Trump right in the middle, has figured out how to co-opt these same strategies.

Just last weekend, authorities arrested 31 members of Patriot Front for what appears to be a plot to attack a Pride event in Idaho. As with Jan. 6, it seems the plot evolved and formed from the swamp of online chatter. We can expect to see more violence like this, especially as January 6 really demonstrated to the larger American right the power of plugging into these online channels. Law enforcement needs to adapt quickly and find ways to prosecute people for these new-fangled methods of criminal conspiracy, or this situation will just get worse. The place to start is with Trump. Merrick Garland must charge him based on all the evidence of criminal intent developed by the January 6 committee.

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Trump's insurrection stole the strategies of Black Lives Matter - Salon

Judge dismisses case in which Home Depot is accused of banning BLM from uniforms – NPR

A Home Depot logo sign hands on its facade, Friday, May 14, 2021, in North Miami, Fla. Wilfredo Lee/AP hide caption

A Home Depot logo sign hands on its facade, Friday, May 14, 2021, in North Miami, Fla.

A National Labor Relations Board judge has ruled to dismiss a case filed by a Home Depot employee who alleged the company wrongly banned workers from wearing the Black Lives Matter slogan on their aprons.

An employee at a Minnesota store first filed a complaint against the home improvement company in March 2021, after allegedly being suspended, and later resigning, for having the phrase on their uniform.

NLRB lawyers became involved in August 2021, arguing that Black Lives Matter should not fall under The Home Depot's uniform policy, which bans political or religious messages "unrelated to workplace matters" from employees' aprons, or elsewhere on their clothing.

The employee was "required to choose between engaging in protected concerted activity, including displaying the 'BLM' slogan, and quitting employment," the complaint said.

The NLRB defines concerted activity as any action taken with coworkers in an effort to improve working conditions, including talking with coworkers about earnings, petitioning for more hours and speaking with media or government agencies about workplace issues.

Lawyers representing the former Home Depot employee did not argue whether BLM was political messaging, but rather that not allowing employees to display the slogan on their aprons interfered with their right to concerted activity.

NLRB Judge Paul Bogas wrote in his opinion that the plaintiffs had not sufficiently reasoned their argument. In order to meet the standard of concerted activity, the prohibited messaging has to be a group effort and a means of improving working conditions, he said.

"Rather, the record shows that the message was primarily used, and generally understood, to address the unjustified killings of Black individuals by law enforcement and vigilantes," Bogas wrote. "A message about unjustified killings of Black men, while a matter of profound societal importance, is not directly relevant to the terms, conditions, or lot of Home Depot's employees as employees."

However, the company does encourage employees to personalize their aprons with names, doodles and other additions.

"The record shows that the additions employees make to the aprons are sometimes extensive," Bogas said.

The employee, who worked at the store from August 2020 to February 2021, wore the slogan on their apron for the duration of their employment, Bogas said.

The store is located in New Brighton, Minnesota, nearly 12 miles from Minneapolis, where George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, was killed by police in May 2020, sparking nationwide protests.

The employee said that Floyd's death, as well as racist behavior from a coworker such as making stereotypical remarks and being unhelpful to Black and Hispanic customers sparked the donning of Black Lives Matter on the apron.

"It's a symbol of alliance," the employee testified. "I have never seen it as something political myself. It's something that I put on so that people know to approach me. I am a person of color myself, so it's a form of solidarity. It's a way...for people to feel safe around me."

Lawyers for both The Home Depot and the NLRB submitted documents and news articles with different interpretations of what the Black Lives Matter saying and movement means.

Home Depot, Inc. said the BLM movement has caused infighting within the company and "occasioned civil unrest in the vicinity of the New Brighton store and elsewhere," according to Bogas' opinion.

Bogas wrote, though, that none of the documents submitted "are representative of the public discourse on the meaning of Black Lives Matter/BLM or were authoritative regarding either what that phrase encompasses or everything the Black Lives Matter organization or movement does, or does not, support."

The employee said they were told by a district manager that if she allowed them to keep BLM on the apron, she'd also have to allow employees to wear a swastika in fairness.

Two other employees at the store were asked to remove BLM messaging, and one employee was asked to remove "Thin Blue Line" messaging. They all complied and returned to work.

The employee in the complaint refused to remove the messaging, and the district manager offered up alternative wording, such as "diversity," "equality" or "inclusion."

That employee, "... agreed that there were 'plenty of other ways' to express support for racial justice, but that insisting on continuing to wear the BLM message was 'the best way,'" Bogas wrote.

The employee said he was willing to be fired and later resigned.

Home Depot has said it interprets its policy of not allowing political messaging on its uniforms to include Black Lives Matter, but that the rule was not communicated to management at the Minnesota store, according to Bogas.

Bogas did say the employee engaged in protected activity by discussing and emailing with team members about racist allegations about a coworker.

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Judge dismisses case in which Home Depot is accused of banning BLM from uniforms - NPR