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People from the Black Lives Matter lead the annual Pride Parade in Toronto on Sunday, July 3, 2016.

It only took 30 minutes. Thirty minutes to plunge Torontos queer community into a Queer Civil War.

Last July, Black Lives Matter Toronto (BLM-TO) held up the Toronto Pride Parade for 30 minutes. BLM-TO made a number of demands of Pride Toronto in order for the parade to get moving again. Among them was a ban on police forces marching in uniform or full regalia and carrying guns at the parade. All of BLM-TO demands were agreed to and later endorsed by Prides membership and board. But since then, Torontos queer community has been in a raging civil war.

The war rages between those who believe all gay rights are now secure and those who understand that rights are parsed out according to privileged identities.

On the one side, many are white male queers, and on the other side many are Black, Indigenous and bisexual people of colour (BIPOC), including poor queers, sex workers and people with disabilities. Those in the second group are still collectively fighting for fully accorded rights to be their full queer selves; to them, the police still represent a clear and present danger.

BLM-TO has emerged as the leading activist voice on anti-Black policing in North America. As a result of their work, Pride marches across Canada and the United States are being forced to have difficult conversations about how police participation represents a fundamental political contradiction. Just this week, the New York City chapter of BLM stated their full solidarity with the Toronto chapter and called for the removal of uniformed police from the NYC Pride Parade.

The debate has been vicious: racist, transphobic and anti-sex worker. The mainstream queer community has been brutal in its insistence that police marching in the parade represents progress and change that should be welcomed by all queers.

BLM-TO and other activist groups from Boston to Washington to Winnipeg to Vancouver offer a different perspective. These activists have long worked against policing abuses and other state interventions into their lives; they refuse to concede to business as usual.

The organization understands the importance of intersectionality as the philosophical and practical foundation of its organizing. They work together with queers, trans people and sex workers, people with mental health issues, poor people and people who are marginalized in a white capitalist heteropatriarchal society. These are also the people that modern policing most often subject to its brutal mechanisms of control, arrest and incarceration.

Within these groups, there is no debate about ongoing police discrimination and brutality. These constituencies have made clear to the queer communities of which they are a part that police and policing represents a clear and present danger for them and that police participation in parades contravenes their full participation as queer community members.

It is with these issues in mind that BLM-TO engaged in the direct action of July 2016 that resulted in a ban on police marching in uniforms in the Pride parade.

I participated in the sit-down protest last July. Invited as an OG (BLM-TOs word for older Black queers), I did not know their plans for action, but I knew that I would support whatever they did. I knew I would because since 2014, BLM-TO has demonstrated in no uncertain terms that political organizing, direct action and community building could be immediately complex, queer-centred, trans-centered, sex-work positive and hold all these together without privileging one over the other.

BLM-TO began and retains an honest and complex rendering of the Black community and beyond. It began in recognizing that colonization is land theft, (near) genocide and stolen bodies from Africa simultaneously. BLM-TO began in a place that many Black and Indigenous activists had long worked for.

Last year, on the streets of Toronto as we approached the main intersection of College and Yonge, BLM-TO slowed us down so that the Indigenous drummers could come forward, form a circle and lead us into a sit-down protest. I was there for all of it.

The co-ordination between BLM-TO and the Indigenous community signalled a different relationship to contemporary politics. It signalled that Black and Indigenous activists and thinkers are seeking ways to work together that bridge white liberal divides that seek to separate us. And what more powerful way to demonstrate that bridge than to come together around policing at Pride? The power of the continuous Indigenous drumming kept us centered in the righteousness of demands within our sit-down protest.

Policing continues to have a significant impact on the lives of Black and Indigenous peoples across Canada. It would be insincere to believe that those impacted by the brutalities of policing are not Black queer and Indigenous Two-Spirit peoples, because they are. As I write, Indigenous peoples in Thunder Bay are revealing the significant stories of police brutality that shapes their lives. And the Andrew Loku inquest continues in Toronto.

The queer civil war happening now is about Black, Indigenous, trans people and sex workers insisting that what we bring to queer communities is valuable, necessary and worth protecting. That some mainstream white queers and others want to insist that police marching in uniforms represents a progressive change is a repudiation of our very lives.

Police marching in Pride parades represents both symbolically and otherwise the ongoing colonial project of violently interdicting into the lives of Black and Indigenous peoples by making us less than human.

What BLM-TO started last July and continued this June by refusing to register as a float but taking up space to march nonetheless is a powerful movement. It is a statement that says: sub-human existence will no longer be tolerated by those of us most marginalized for the price of entry into something that will not have us anyway.

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Black Lives Matter, police and Pride: Toronto activists spark a movement - The Conversation CA

Inspired by Black Lives Matter Toronto's demonstration at the Toronto Pride Parade last year, members of the activist group in New York City are now calling forthe removal of uniformed police officers from their city's parade.

"Let us start off by saying that we stand in full solidarity with our siblings of the Toronto Chapter of #BlackLivesMatter," read a statement byBlack Lives Matter New York City on Sunday afternoon.

In addition to the removal of uniformed officers, the group alsocalled for Pride organizers in New York to do more to emphasize queer and transgenderblack communities.

The statement comes the same day that a group ofsome 100 Toronto police officers banned from marching in uniform at the Toronto paradetravelled with a group of union representatives to New York City to participate in that city's paradeat the invitation of the Gay Officers Action League (GOAL).

Speaking to CBC Toronto ahead of the march, the force's ownLGBTliaison officer,Const. Danielle Bottineau, acknowledged many in the community saw that move asa "slap in the face."

The president of the union representing Toronto police officers said they shouldn't need to make the trip.

"It's pretty pathetic," said Mike McCormack. "We should not be down here. We should be in our own city, marching with our own community that we police each and every day."

During a30-minute sit-in at last year's parade, Black Lives Matter Toronto members demanded that Toronto police floats and boothsbe barred from future Pride parades and community events.Their demands also included a commitment to increase representation among Pride Toronto staff and to better support black events during Pride.

On Sunday, the group made an appearance at Toronto's Pride parade despite not being registered to march this year.

The group took to the parade route just before the end of the day's festivitieswith raised fists and posters bearing the words, "May we never again have to shut it down."

Speaking to reporters after the demonstration, co-founder Rodney Diverluswouldn't say how long the group had been planning to show up.

"I don't think that's relevant," he said.

"Pride is actually ours. Queer and trans people of colour actually started this. We don't need to register for a deadline, we don't need to tell you we're coming, we don't need to pay money for afloat. We're just going to take up space," said Diverlus.

Pride Toronto did not return a request for comment by CBC Toronto Sunday night.

"Our police can't just escape us and [hope] that they're not going to be held accountable," Rodney Diverlus said. (CBC)

On Sunday, also Diverlus responded to the move by those members of the Toronto police who decided to march in New York City.

"Our police can't just escape us and [hope] that they're not going to be held accountable. Folks in Black Lives Matter New York reminded Toronto police that no matter where they go black people will resistthem. We know where you are.We know what you've done."

"We are here at Pride 2017 to remind the community,that we are still standing up for them," the organization tweeted Sunday afternoon.

Diverlus said part of the reason for appearing at this year's march unannounced was to draw attention to the list of nine demands that the group presented at last year's Pride Paradeissues he says have been overlooked with all the focus on "where police are at" this year.

As part of their message, the group also drew attention to what it called "the violence of police anti-Blackness" in the recent inquest into the death of 45-year-old Andrew Loku, the father of five who came to Canada as a refugee from South Sudan and was shot by police in an apartment corridor while holding a hammer in July 2015.

The group hasbeen highly critical of the Special Investigations Unit assessment of the case and what they perceiveas a lack of transparency from the police watchdog.

Is Pride a party or protest?2:18

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Black Lives Matter NYC 'inspired' by Toronto chapter's call ...

Earlier this week a controversial Buzzfeed article titled What Happened To Black Lives Matter? circulated around the web; questioning the visibility, leadership, and impact that the organization has made following the 2016 presidential election.

Black Lives Matter is still here. Its groups are still organizing, wrote Buzzfeed reporter Darren Sands. But Black Lives Matter is on the verge of losing the traction and momentum that sparked a national shift on criminal justice policy.

After catching wind of the article, the collectivethat has taken a stand for numerous Black and Brown lives since its inceptionreleased a statement standing up for themselves. In a piece featured on Mic, the organization claims that there were several inaccuracies in the article and is demanding that it be retracted.

These are dangerous times for our people, read the piece. History tells us that we need responsible, thoughtful and brave journalism. But movements can be stopped in their tracks by uninformed and inaccurate hit pieces that trade in gossip. We must consider what we believe in, who we stand with, and what we are fighting for.

Black Lives Matter also claims that it isnt opposed to critique or focused on ego or celebrity but is centered on their mission to combat systematic racism and evoke real change.

In the Mic statement, the collective highlighted the work that theyve done thus far including efforts to help those who have been wrongly incarcerated, their #ReclaimMLK campaign, and the several protests that they have organized to inspire individuals to take action.

What are your thoughts about the controversy? Sound off in the comments.

SOURCE: Mic, Buzzfeed

SEE ALSO:

Black Lives Matter V. Trump: Whats Next?

Journal Apologizes For Excluding African Americans From Black Lives Matter Analysis

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Black Lives Matter Responds To Claims Of A Dying Movement

Its my beautiful Appalachia, too, and I want to re-imagine it safe, black, and queer.

zrfphoto/Thinkstock

I live in the thick of Appalachia. Whats beneath this sun here? A local auto parts store, ferocious trees, nearby trails, plenty of lakes, and a vast sky. We are a small town just above the cut of the coal mining district. Its a majority white town, about 97 percent with, surprisingly, a black mayor. I see him during Sundays service at the towns only black church. I hug him and ask if hes building us a movie theater or underground monorail this year. He asks if I would want to run for the infamous school board.

Im fearful to live in Appalachia sometimes. Simple rural imagery can be beautifully treacherouslike a child propped in the flatbed of a truck, eating ice cream, inhaling the saltire of the Confederate battle flag from his T-shirt. A Blue Lives Matter flag flaps behind me across the local fire department. Not too far from my home, dipping into the state of West Virginia is a sign that shouts White Lives Matter. The list of Ten Commandments are displayed across businesses and landmarks. Across the street from my home is a barbershop door masked in Bible verses, gun idioms, and a meaty sign that always stings me: The Silent Majority Support Trump. Oppression and silence are wickedly evil bedfellows, and although I carry faith, I curdle at its manmade kinship to governance, marginalization, and guns. But I live in this beautiful thicket, and I walk outside black, beautiful, and queer. It was the Black Lives Matter movement that helped get me to this place.

Several years ago, I read a story about a man being lynched in Georgia from Debra Walker Kings work, African-Americans and the Culture of Pain. For a time, the winds carried the flames and smoke directly in his face so that he could not speak. Later the winds shifted and members of the mob, unaffected, recognized the hymn he sang as Nearer My God To Thee. At the time, that story lodged itself into my throat. When I went hiking, every tree, bulbous with strong branches, became a depraved site of lynching. I couldnt see innocuous beauty or my black joy in terraform.

KIMBERLY WILLIAMS

How Black Lives Matter Gave One Black, Queer Woman the Confidence to Be Visible in Appalachia

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The Left Loves Visibility PoliticsEven When It Gets in the Way of Actual Progress

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Kings 2008 book came out nearly a decade after Matthew Shepard was mistaken for a scarecrow. Shepards death came two years before two lesbian hikers were horrifically killed on a Shenandoah hiking trail. Gradually, the wilderness that I always envisioned as queer turned against me. Eventually, I did get over the nightmare as I hiked more often with friends and by that time, in 2010, I identified as queer. Then Trayvon Martin was murdered. Instead of being afraid, I was angry and wanted white folks to feel my wrath. I protested, shoved my loneliness and bitterness down to my feet. Racial justice or even revenge was more important than anythingeven eating right, caring for myself. But at these organizing meetings, women and queer folks were chorus again, shooed like houseflies. I became more bitter and helpless.

Honestly, I didnt do much research into BLM strategies at the beginning of the movement. I followed the crowd and group-think until I finally sat, slowed down to study its leaders and their principles. It brought me to this interview with co-founder Patrice Cullors with On Being. She talks about re-imagination:

When BLM created their website, I read and was surprised to find that queer affirming and loving engagement were guiding principles. My sexuality and desire to hold hands with another man or woman was beautifully embracednot when I get liberation, or when police training changes, or when George Zimmerman gets punishmentbut now. I deserve to be visible in my joyful, queer, black selfnow. Through BLM teachings and BLM mentors, I started to realize that I needed to reimagine blackness to include queer love and self-preservation. I was separating, suffocating my sexuality preemptively and casting it aside if I felt it got in the way of black liberation. I also bound my identity to overwhelming trauma and death instead of expanding new life and love.

Slowly, I was starting to recognize how I was ignoring my body, suppressing emotional fixtures of loneliness, desperation, and restlessness. I defined blackness as a roar against whiteness. There was no time for love, kinship, and vulnerability. But then I could barely get up in the morning. I didnt want to acknowledge my ire against an America that had betrayed me. After ignoring my body for so long, Ive come back to heal the consequences: plantar fasciitis, stomach issues, and emotional anxiety. What I forgot was how much I love being in love. This is the part I want to slowly embrace again. I love women, and I want my feet to leave the ground againvisibly queer and unapologetically black in Appalachia.

Right now Im feeling a vertigo because the KKK is hosting rallies in college towns and white nationalist groups are having membership BBQs while advertising with grass-roots language. Because time traveling is happening, Im researching Appalachian history and found a group of folks that migrated to Chicago and formed an organization in the 1970s called the Hillbilly Nationalists. They worked collaboratively with the Black Panthers, and there were also other, similar white working-class groups forming coalitions with black groups. Frustratingly, gender and queer issues were hardly integrated during the 1970s racial justice movements; but at the very least I stumbled on a forgotten history: Appalachian folks fought against the silent majority.

If all this time traveling continues, perhaps there is a chance these same alliances can form again but, following the example of BLM, with the integration of gender and queerness this time. This keeps me going as I talk shop and broach light politics with my neighbors. We have different experiences and values, but we have a shared history. Its my beautiful Appalachia, too, and I want to re-imagine it safe, black, and queer.

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Black Lives Matter Gave Me the Confidence to Be Visible in Appalachia - Slate Magazine (blog)

CINCINNATI -- Black Lives Matter Cincinnati and several other groups plan to protest at the FC Cincinnati soccer game Wednesday at Nippert Stadium.

A Facebook event titled "Justice for Sam DuBose at UC" tells participants to meet at the University of Cincinnati College - Conservatory of Music Wednesday at 6 p.m. The event is hosted by Cincinnati Socialist Students, Cincinnati Socialist Alternative, McMicken FreeSpace, Democratic Socialists of Metro Cincinnati, Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless, Students for Survivors.Peaslee Neighborhood Center,BLVCK SEEDS and the AMOS Project in addition to Black Lives Matter Cincinnati.

"A grave injustice occurred in Cincinnati when the Tensing retrial resulted in a hung jury, yet again a police officer walks free for the murder of a black man," the event page says. "The City of Cincinnati, and more broadly the American criminal justice system, told us once again that you can murder a Black man, lie about what happened, wear a confederate flag shirt under your uniform, and still walk free."

The event page tells those who plan to attend to wear black and bring signs.

"We will show up at the FC Cincinnati game to tell both UC administration and the City of Cincinnati that we demand justice for Sam Dubose," the event says. "We must show and stand up for justice."

Former UCPD Officer Ray Tensing's second murder trial ended with another hung jury Friday. Tensing is charged with murder and voluntary manslaughter in the July 2015 fatal shooting of Sam DuBose during a traffic stop in Mount Auburn.

The prosecutor's office said Joe Detersplans to announce a decisionduring the week of July 10. Deters has until July 24 -- the scheduled date for the next hearing in the case -- to make a decision.

RELATED:Majority of jurors wanted to acquit Ray Tensing, defense says

The protest event description also names Officer Phil Kidd and David Lindenschmidt, two officers who arrived at the scene of the shooting, who originally said they saw Tensing being dragged by DuBose's car. The protests calls for Lindenschmidt and Kidd's firing; both are UCPD officers.

The Countdown to Conviction Coalition, made up of groups including Black Lives Matter Cincinnati and the AMOS Project, are planning protests for Wednesday to put pressure on city officials. It's unclear whether these protests are in addition to the FC Cincinnati protest Wednesday.

"My goal is to simply get a verdict for someone who is killed by the cops," said Brian Taylor of Black Lives Matter Cincinnati. "That message that's sent by that cop going to jail for a long time will do eons, mountains more than campaigning for legislation."

Mayor John Cranley said Friday thecity is readyfor protests and demonstrations.

"It's understandable and justified, and our police and everybody will make sure that people can also express their anger about what happened in court," Cranley said.

Sam DuBose's family said they were "outraged," but asked that only peaceful protest ensued.

"The family commends the prosecutors for their strong presentation in this case, but we are outraged that a second jury has now failed to convict Ray Tensing for the murder of our beloved Sam DuBose," the family said in a statement distributed by their attorney, Al Gerhardstein.

"We demand another retrial. We call on the community to join us in peaceful protest of this unjust result," the statement said.

RELATED: How did we end up with another hung jury? What happens next?

Sam DuBoses family is also demanding that the Cincinnati police chief investigate the officer who testified that Ray Tensings shooting of DuBose could be justified.

In a complaint to Chief Eliot Isaac, attorney Al Gerhardstein said Sgt. Shannon Heines testimony undermined the prosecution's case, suggesting that Heine prevented the jury from convicting Tensing and contributed to a second hung jury.

Isaac responded briefly to a question about Heine during a Friday news conference.

I am concerned about a number of things that occurred during the trial, not only Sgt. Heines testimony, but also some of the comments made during the closing statement," Isaac said. "The matter is under review, and I will have a little bit more later regarding that.

For complete trial coverage, visit wcpo.com/TensingTrial.

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Black Lives Matter plans to protest at FC Cincinnati game Wednesday - WCPO