LGBTQ Issues – Page 5 – The Hungover Pundit

On the Grave of Old John Brown

On Saturday, July 13th my partner and I woke up at seven in the morning, dressed carefully for the heat, packed sunscreen and filled our water bottles, and headed out on a drive to Hamilton’s City Hall to participate in the “Hamilton For Who?” rally in support of the city’s embattled LGBTQ+ community.

My partner and I went to the rally, met up with friends, listened to music, bought t-shirts, drank water, danced and generally had a good time, as protests go. We also flipped off the violently islamo- and homophobic “Yellow Vest” hate-group which was forced out of the City Hall courtyard by the presence of both the rally and the weekend-long “Camp Chaos Gayz” occupation; making it the first Saturday in months that the Yellow-Vesters haven’t had a city-sanctioned presence at City Hall… which was one of the things the rally had been intended to achieve. We followed up the demonstration with a visit to the Art Gallery of Hamilton with some friends, then an early breakfast-for-dinner date at a diner and drove home in the long summer evening, footsore and sunburnt and feeling very good about the day.

At roughly the same moment I had gotten out bed that morning, Willem Van Spronsen was shot to death by police officers during his attack on the privately-owned and -operated prison for migrants called the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma Washington.

Cui Bono?

I drove across the Burlington Skyway the other day; the first really hot and humid day of the summer. The sailboats were out on Hamilton harbour, and as I drove up the long slope of the bridge I could see the other thing which defines Hamilton in my mind: the visible layer of brown haze trapped between the escarpment and the steel mills. I’ve always loved the sailboats, but it’s the smog that says “Hamilton” to me.

I find myself doing these posts on Hamilton because the situation is evolving — or rather devolving — on a day-to-day basis. When last I wrote about this, on Friday, there was a glimmer of hope. Ceder Hopperton was waiting on the decision as to whether they’d violated their parole, and police had admitted that the only objectionable action they’d taken was to speak at a public meeting; surely justice would prevail and Hopperton would be freed.

Pride 2019 Part 4 – The Dumpster Fire

I was really hoping to write about something – anything – else, but the crisis in Hamilton continues and it’s pretty much dominated my life for the last week, so this is what I have to offer as part of the ongoing saga of Pride 2019.

As of time of writing, Friday morning, Cedar Hopperton is still in jail. Their hearing in front of the parole board was yesterday… but there was a bit of a twist ahead of time. Police had revoked Hopperton’s parole because it was alleged they had violated it by participating in the Pride defence action when fascists and religious zealots attacked the Hamilton Pride gathering in Gage Park on June 15th. On Wednesday, July 3rd, Hopperton’s lawyer announced that the hearing was not about this alleged parole violation, but rather because Hopperton had spoken at a public meeting on June 18th during which they called out the police for their inaction.

Let that sink in for a moment: Police now allege Cedar Hopperton violated their parole for speaking at a public meeting.

Solidarity

It’s been seven days since anarchist and activist Cedar Hopperton was arrested for parole violations in relation to the fascist hate-group attack on the Pride festival in Hamilton, Ontario. Ironically, it appears that the very “parole violation” they were accused of — attending a rally that became violent — simply didn’t happen. Several members of the community have testified that Hopperton wasn’t at Pride, knowing that there was the potential for violence by fascists and religious zealots, so they stayed away, intending on keeping their parole in good faith. The Hamilton police, with no evidence, simply told the parole board to revoke Hopperton’s parole and they were arrested. To date, Hopperton has not been given any sort of court hearing or judicial process.

I’m not going to dive too deep into the absolute shitshow that is municipal politics in Hamilton at the moment. There’s plenty of media coverage about it, if you care to study how institutionalized homophobia and racism and impact a community. This post is about the fallout, and how people come together — or don’t — in support of each other.

Pride 2019 Part 3 — Cops and Nazis

It’s been a long, ugly week for LGBTQ people in Hamilton and the Niagara. The fallout from the fascist attack on the Hamilton Pride Festival has dominated the community since the 15th. Last Thursday Hamilton Police Chief Eric Girt doubled down on blaming the LGBTQ community for the slow and completely inadequate police response to the hate groups’ violence, infamously stating “We were not invited to the event. We were asked not to be at the event and we remained on the perimeter.”

A quick recap for clarity, if you’re just joining us: The Hamilton Police Service, like Hamilton city officials, were asked not to have an official presence at Pride ceremonies, and the HPS were specifically asked not to run a police recruiting booth at the Pride festival. This request was made because Hamilton Police have a very poor record of interacting with the LGBTQ community, including the perception of selective policing and especially with racial profiling, to the degree that many LGBTQ people in Hamilton feel uncomfortable around, if not outright threatened by, uniformed police.