An open letter from community orgs denounces Fierté!

By Louve Rose

Three LGBTQ+ youth organizations denounce Fiertés Montréal and cut ties with the festival.

On March 19, three organizations posted an open letter on their networks. Signed by Jeunesse Lambada, Alter Héro and the Coalition des groupes jeunesse LGBTQ+, it explains their joint decision to cut ties with Fierté Montréal.

Since 2017, Jeunesse Lambda, AlterHéros and the Coalition des groupes jeunesse LGBTQ+ have been organizing the Espace Bienveillant Jeunesse at Fierté Montréal. We've questioned this collaboration on several occasions, but had concluded that the importance of offering such a space to 2SLGTBQIA+ youth outweighed any criticisms we had of Fierté Montréal.

This year, however, Fierté Montréal took inexcusable action, refusing to support the liberation of Palestine, collaborating with companies that finance Palestinian genocide and supporting police violence against people and organizations who denounced this injustice during the parade.

This is what it said on a Facebook post by the Jeunesse Lambda group.

This move by the organizations comes as the festival begins to put its 2025 organizing machine into operation. Other groups also put an end to their collaboration this winter by withdrawing their membership from Fierté Montréal, including Helem Montréal an the Centre de Solidarité Lesbien. Often criticized, Fierté Montréal was targeted by militant groups last year, notably for its silence in the face of genocide in Palestine and its continued links with complicit groups and companies. Our first text as a media outlet was on the subject.

Radical queer activist groups and their allies led two mobilizations against the festival. the second Radpride, which aimed to replace the Pride Parade with a combative demonstration, had been held the evening before, denouncing pinkwashing and the festival's complicity. The following day, a peaceful disturbance organized by the group FAGS had brought the parade to a standstill.

On the eve of the opening of Fierté Montréal's call for community projects, Jeunesse Lambda, AlterHéros and the Coalition des groupes jeunesse LGBTQ+ have decided not to respond to this call. We also call for community solidarity, and invite community organizations to follow suit.

In the summer of 2024, Jeunesse Lambda and AlterHéros once again organized the Espace jeunesse bienveillant at Fierté Montréal.

With 955 young people in attendance, it was a great success.

As every year, this success cannot be attributed to Fierté Montréal.

Financial collaborations with companies financing genocide, refusal to take political responsibility, instrumentalization of 2SLGBTQIA+ identities and experiences for pinkwashing purposes, cooperation with the police to repress and brutalize pro-Palestinian organizations, Fierté Montréal's actions and words once again this year took a stand against our most marginalized communities.

- Excerpt from the letter

The three signatory groups are calling on the community to follow suit by cutting ties with the festival, and are urging more people to sign the letter. Last year, the McGill Graduate Student Employees' Association (GGSEA) and the Concordia Research and Education Workers' Union (CREW-CSN) had already launched a joint call for denunciation and non-participation in the pride march. The two unions also invited their members to take part in the Trans March and RadPride.

A number of community groups tried to walk the fine line between denunciation and participation, refusing to cut ties while expressing their criticism of the festival. Helem Montreal, Mubaadarat and Voix juives indépendantes had notably co-signed a denunciation of the festival, while organizing a contingent in the parade.

This letter marks a clear break with Fierté Montréal and is reminiscent of the unions' approach, with the difference that here the organizations are not encouraging their members to take part in other initiatives in place of Fierté.

Instead, the groups submit applications that the Festival will have to fill out in order to obtain their participation. 

As community organizations by and for 2SLGBTQIA+ youth, we are committed to representing the interests of our communities by bringing to the fore the issues experienced by the most marginalized among us. In light of Fierté Montréal's recent and not-so-recent actions, we have decided to end our activities and collaborations with the organization. We will only reconsider this decision if the following demands are put in place by the 2025 edition of Fierté Montréal.

We ask:

That Fierté Montréal take a clear stand for the liberation of Palestine and recognize that the actions taken by Israel constitute genocide against the Palestinian people;
That Fierté Montréal recognize and denounce the role of local elected officials(notably through discriminatory immigration policies) and companies established on the so-called territory of Québec in this genocide, and refuse association, collaboration and funding by these actors;
That Fierté Montréal cease all collaboration, financial or otherwise, with organizations that have financial interests linked to Israel;
That Fierté Montréal center the various demands and criticisms formulated by Helem Montréal, Mubaadarat, the Faction Anti Génocidaire et Solidaire (F. A.G.S) and the panelists of Navigating the Tides of Identity: Voices of Trans and Non-Binary Youth, as well as to the criticisms formulated in the present letter;
That Fierté Montréal commits to respecting our communities' right to demonstrate and disassociates itself from the SPVM. The police have no place in our demands;
That Fierté Montréal question the organizations with which Fierté Montréal collaborates and maintain ties only with organizations that put forward the struggles for the most structurally and materially marginalized people in our communities and break ties with organizations that engage in pink washing.

- Excerpt from the letter

We'll be keeping a close eye on how this case unfolds, curious to see whether other community groups will jump on the bandwagon, and whether the signatory groups will join the mobilizations that take place alongside Pride every year. 

Neither the trans march nor RadPride have yet been announced, but invitations are expected to arrive shortly. With criticism of Fierté Montréal mounting year after year, it's possible that we're witnessing a weakening of the event and a strengthening of alternative activist initiatives, which are mobilizing in this period of commemoration of the Sex Garage mobilizations to reaffirm the political character of queer/trans struggles.

What's certain is that we'll be keeping an eye on the direction the organizations take, as well as Fierté Montréal's reaction.