A CHARA, brothers, sisters and comrades,
I write this letter as someone who has been at the forefront of Belfast Pride from age 14. I served on the Pride committee in the early 00s and helped make Belfast Pride what it is today.
I have been disappointed with the lack of solidarity towards others fighting for liberation and I speak about the Palestinians who are suffering and need our solidarity. When Pride takes sponsorship from organisations that support Israel, it shows our grassroots activism of solidarity towards others has disappeared.
Populism does not get victory for any group standing up for liberation. When Pride gracefully invited the cops on to the Belfast Pride march – and I opposed this – the cops threw it back in their faces by refusing last year to let uniformed officers march.
We are a community fighting for our liberation and to be accepted and treated fairly to be free to be ourselves. As an international community we need to stand with our LGBTQ brothers and sisters in Palestine and with all the people of Palestine. The LGBTQ community has a proud history of standing by all oppressed people in solidarity and that should never change.
LGBTQ people have been active on picket lines and demonstrations supporting workers and over the years many international LGBTQ people have given great solidarity to the Irish people.
Pride is a celebration of our very existence but it is also a protest for our very liberation and it allows us to offer solidarity to others, be it in Belfast or throughout the world.
Derry Pride over the past few years have been leaders on this, but I see in Belfast Pride a lack of solidarity in place of populism. That is not the way to our liberation. We need to never forget our roots and never let our solidarity with others slip away.
Bród abú.
Seán Óg Garland,
Belfast
