Protesters disrupt Vancouver Pride Parade for pinkwashing

Protest at Vancouver Pride

by Imtiaz Popat

Protesters disrupted the Vancouver Pride Parade for pinkwashing by accepting sponsorship from the TD Bank.

Toronto, Montreal, Victoria and Vancouver Pride continue to pinkwash by accepting corporate sponsors who want to also fund Israeli genocide of of Palestinians including the including raping and murdering LGBTQ Palestinians.

There were also protests to disrupt the Toronto, Montreal and Victoria Pride Parades this year. Ottawa’s Capital Pride has stopped pinkwashing as have Pride festivals is the Atlantic including St John’s and Fredericton Pride.

In BC, Burnaby Pride and Surrey Pride have also stopped pinkwashing this by dropping the TD sponsorship. Surrey sent back the sponsorship money to the TD back explaining why they can no longer support their funding of Israel by taking their sponsorship money. White Rock and New Westminster Pride continue to pinkwash by taking sponsorship from the TD Bank. Delta, Coquitlam and Chilliwack have committed not to pinkwash by not taking sponsorships from corporations that also fund the Israeli genocide of Palestine.

Many community organizations in Vancouver are also boycotting Vancouver Pride by not marching and participating including the Rainbow Refugee Society, Salaam, Trikone, Seeds, Queers Against Israeli Apartheid and Queer Collective for Palestine. Vancouver Pride has lost a lot of its corporate sponsorship this year including lulu Lemon which also funds the Israeli genocide of Palestine and has had to downsize. But they refuse to drop The TD bank as their major sponsor.

The Vancouver Downtown Eastside Pride, Trans March and Dyke March as well as the Surrey Trans and Dyke March are to be Pinkwashing free and promote groups supporting LGBT in Palestine. Many Pride events are also Pinkwashing free.

Sunder Pride Film Festival also dropped their sponsorship of the Royal Bank this year to stop Pinkwashing. However, the Vancouver Queer Film Festival still accepts sponsorship from the Royal Bank which they are reviewing. The Vancouver Asian Film Festival also continues to accept Royal Bank sponsorship.

The Summer Bhangra Jam in Surrey has the Scotia Bank as their main sponsor. Other Vancouver Festivals in including the Indian Summer Festival, Vancouver Folk Festival and the Vancouver International Film Festival hare free of corporate sponsors that fund the Israeli genocide of Palestine.