Edmonton’s Pride parade was halted last weekend by protesters who wanted the parade’s governing body to ban police, military and RCMP members from marching.

After half an hour, the Edmonton Pride Festival Society agreed to the demands, which also included a request for more diverse representation on the group’s board.

The move is an echo of the 2015 protest by Black Lives Matter Toronto who, resplendent in gold and black, stopped the city’s massive parade to issue a number of demands. Of several requests, the one about police got the most attention and shook Pride Toronto’s organizing body.

For people used to a corporate-friendly Pride, Black Lives Matter Toronto’s insistence that police presence made queer events less safe for many community members was a novel idea. For Black, Indigenous, trans and racialized people, having police in Pride didn’t mark progress but rather created fear.

The conversation they sparked has clearly spread across the country.

In Halifax, police said they would not march in uniform.

In St. John’s, police were initially banned from wearing their uniforms but the organization reversed course after consulting with some community groups. (Although, a request for a police apology related to a bathroom sting triggered a mass resignation, suggesting it’s not all roses within St. John’s Pride.)

In Ottawa, Capital Pride’s request for police to leave their uniforms and cars at home was initially rebuffed, but police have since acquiesced.

In Calgary, Vancouver and Winnipeg, police may march — but not in uniform.

All of which signals — at the very least — a willingness, even if it remains contentious, to listen to the community. But a focus on clothing obscures the stakes for LGBTQ people. This is not about golf shirts versus holsters.

The Toronto Pride Parade this year will be a mourning procession for the eight men allegedly killed by Bruce McArthur.

In the years leading up to his arrest, community members raised concerns to the police that a serial killer was operating in Toronto’s Church and Wellesley Village, the city’s historically queer neighbourhood. As recently as December, Chief Mark Saunders was telling reporters that there was no evidence of a serial killer. Police had been investigating McArthur as of September, at least. Saunders denies that he misled the public.

It is a dramatic and tragic example of the failure of police to meaningfully protect LGBTQ people. There are others.

Nationally, hate crimes against LGBTQ people are more likely to violent and to be perpetrated by young males. However, hate-crime data fails to account for when those acts are perpetrated against racialized or religious people; the data cannot cope with violence at the point where identities intersect. Elsewhere, it has been noted that queer people of colour are more likely to experience violent hate crimes.

That is, if those crimes are reported at all.

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Police across Canada are more likely to stop Black and Indigenous people. If the data is incomplete, it is because those groups cannot trust the people meant to protect them.

Pride began as a protest against police. It is down to the communities to allow police into their parade. It is up to the police to earn the right to march. And so far, before they walk in Pride, the police have a long way to go.

Vicky Mochama is the national columnist for StarMetro. She writes about race, gender, politics and culture. Follow her on Twitter: @vmochama

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