LEVY: Banning Toronto police from Pride disrespectful to gay warriors of the 1970s

Article content

Doc von Lichtenberg was sent for aversion therapy using electroshock treatment at the age of 14 in 1971 to get rid of his gayness.

“I wasn’t sick…all I wanted was a boyfriend,” the president of LGBTory said Friday in front of Toronto police HQ after a short ceremony recognizing the tremendous strides Toronto’s gay community has made with the cops.

But it wasn’t just the police that were enemies of gays — the churches, synagogues, government institutions and even all three political parties (the NDP included) were no “friends of ours,” von Lichtenberg said.

By the 1990s, the cops, firefighters, paramedics and the military started marching in Pride to the overwhelming approval of attendees.

Fast forward to this year’s Pride parade in which a small fringe group of gays has decided to “weaponize” the cops to satisfy their hard left “victimization” strategy, he said.

He was referring to the fact that for a second year in a row, the police — Toronto police, other forces and OPP officers — will not be marching in Sunday’s Pride parade. This year’s excuse by the Pride executive is that there is too much “pain and poignancy” surrounding the police investigations into the killings of eight men — seven affiliated with the Gay Village — by alleged serial killer Bruce McArthur.

Toggle full screen modePrevious Gallery Image

1. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

6. 

7. 

8. 

9. 

10. 

11. 

12. 

13. 

14. 

15. 

16. 

Next Gallery ImageToggle gallery captions

View All 16 Photos

1 of 16

All 16 Photos for Gallery

1. 
2. 
3. 
4. 
5. 
6. 
7. 
8. 
9. 
10. 
11. 
12. 
13. 
14. 
15. 
16. 

Function Not Available

Full Screen is not supported on this browser version.

You may use a different browser or device to view this in full screen.

OK

In 2017, Pride lost $1.3-million and was forced to use up its entire surplus to get the deficit down to a still unhealthy $458,000. Pride executive director Olivia Nuamah has provided little insight into whether they’ve managed to raise the donations they anticipated to bring down the deficit. At their AGM last November, Pride officials refused to acknowledge that the police ban had anything whatsoever to do with their losses.

I suspect the Pride organization will find itself in the same precarious financial situation this year, even more so if the weather does not cooperate on parade day.

“It’s shameful,” said von Lichtenberg, who won’t be marching in Pride again until the police ban is lifted.

“It’s disrespecting and annihilating my history and that of tens of thousands of gays and lesbians in Toronto who put a lot of time, effort, humiliation and pain into changing the world,” he added.

He said he doesn’t think those who’ve hijacked Pride really care about the people who fought the good fight in the 1970s and 1980s — or that their relationship with the cops is like night and day.

Von Lichtenberg and LGBTory wanted to give the cops a special shout-out because they “respect and admire” them and feel terribly frustrated that they have to go to New York City (as they did last year) to march in uniform with allies in a Gay Pride parade.

Toronto police association president Mike McCormack said about 20 cops, himself included, are heading down to Sunday’s NYC parade  with permission from Chief Mark Saunders to wear their uniforms.

“We don’t get to march in uniform in this (Toronto’s) parade so we will do it in NYC,” he said.

“It’s a shame,” McCormack added. “An image of inclusiveness helps break down barriers…but politics have overshadowed the value (of cops being involved.)”

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

Play Video

Toronto Pride may have taken the lead and is by far the largest parade in Canada; however other Pride organizations across Canada have engaged in the same nonsense too. Police in Halifax and Vancouver are not in the parade this year for the second year in a row and two weeks ago in Edmonton, a group of hard-left protesters blocked the parade, demanding that the police and military no longer march in future parades.

The United Conservative Party led by Jason Kenney had already been banned from participating.

Von Lichtenberg laughs at claims by those who’ve banned the police that they “don’t feel safe” considering in the 70s gay men didn’t feel safe “holding hands walking down the street.

“Physically, we feared for our safety,” he said.

“The flimsy beliefs the (Pride organizers and their supporters) are putting out there about not feeling safe with the police or being angry about how police have conducted investigations is nonsense…it’s absurd,” he added.

Asked what he thought of the request by Pride organizers that attendees wear black to honour the victims of the serial murders and those killed in April’s van rampage on Yonge St., von Lichtenberg said when they marched in the 1980s and men were dying in huge numbers from AIDS, they didn’t wear black — they were “hopeful.”

“Pride is a Mardi Gras…it’s not a place to mourn or attack the police,” he said. “It’s a place to celebrate…not a place to wear black.”

SLevy@postmedia.com