Anti-Racist & Proud @ Bristol Pride Parade

bristol | protests | news report Tuesday July 03, 2012 00:12 by bristol queercaf

Join the "Anti-Racist and Proud" block at Bristol's Pride Parade
14th July: 11am: from Berkeley Square (BS8)

We call on Bristol’s LGBTQI community, friends and families, to join us on the “Anti-Racist and Proud” block on the We Are: Proud Parade.

We encourage you to wear Black and Pink, colours of pride, solidarity and freedom for LGBTQI people.

NO EDL IN BRISTOL, NO EDL AT BRISTOL PRIDE

 
“A “Pride” event is nothing if not political: a supreme demonstration of communities coming together to celebrate their diversity and often in the face of negativity from the fringes of those communities. In that regard a “Pride” event must always confront prejudice and show those who hold prejudices that they are at the edges of society, standing increasingly alone.” - Imaan, a UK group which supports LGBT Muslim people, families and friends

In the summer of 1969, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex people in New York fought back against police violence at the Stonewall Inn. The following year Gay Liberation Day was organised to commemorate this Stonewall Uprising, to build a larger struggle of LGBTQI people and to work with other liberation movements. This is our history, and the history of Bristol’s We Are: Proud event.

The English Defence League, a far right movement, intend to march in Bristol on the same day as this year’s Bristol Pride. The EDL state that they are not racist, and claim that they are defending women’s and gay rights in the face of Islam. We challenge their position and know them to be a racist organisation who are attempting to use our LGBTQI communities to legitimise their racism.

The far right has been, and continues to be, an enemy rather than an ally in the fight for our sexual freedoms. On numerous marches staged by the EDL there have been racially motivated attacks and violence, as well as homophobic slurs thrown at any opposition

We, a collective of Bristol Queers, oppose all forms of oppression, including religious fundamentalism. We will fight homophobia, biphobia and transphobia in our daily lives, and we will fight racism, nationalism and Islamophobia within and beyond our own LGBTQI community.

We refuse to allow the EDL to use “gay rights” as a tool to further their racist agenda, and we believe that here in 2012 it is as important as ever for us to take a firm and explicitly anti-racist stand.

More info:
• Find Bristol Queercafe on Facebook
• Twitter: @stopedl #stopedl
• Updates on www.bristol.indymedia.org
• www.antifascistnetwork.wordpress.com