Pride Toronto | Photo: David Hudson
Pride Toronto has come under fire for sharing transphobic articles.
They posted the articles to Twitter and Facebook.
After Twitter users highlighted the posts, Pride Toronto quickly deleted them.
But one Twitter user shared screenshots from when the posts were still up.
One article the account shared was titled ‘Sexuality Center Director: Majority of transgender children outgrow those feelings.’
The other was titled ‘How their refusal to tolerate dissent is creating a global backlash against LGBT people.’
Another Twitter user asked: ”Why is @PrideToronto tweeting anti-trans propaganda from an ultra-right, anti-gay and anti-trans website?’
here’s @PrideToronto‘s edifying little thinkpiece about how trans people don’t exist that they seem to be deleting, but not explaining. The anti-pride piece remains up. pic.twitter.com/VyttaLjgdt
— Anthony Oliveira (@meakoopa) January 13, 2018
Pride Toronto tweeted to apologize for the posts.
The apology read: ‘We want to apologize for the offensive articles that made it to our social media pages recently. They were not properly vetted before being posted and are not reflective of our views.
‘We are sorry to individuals who were offended, and have removed the content.’
We want to apologize for the offensive articles that made it to our social media pages recently. They were not properly vetted before being posted and are not reflective of our views. We are sorry to individuals who were offended, and have removed the content.
— Pride Toronto (@PrideToronto) January 13, 2018
Reactions
Why is @PrideToronto tweeting anti-trans propaganda from an ultra-right, anti-gay and anti-trans website? https://t.co/ilZDqsu784
— unknown lesbian 👻✨ (@iHateCogsci) January 13, 2018
@PrideToronto is garbage. They don’t give a damn about trans people.
— Nameless Transguy (@ftmtrans) January 13, 2018
an apology from @pridetoronto is flat-out acceptable lest they disclose the person’s name who tweeted the trans-antagonistic, terf-fellating trash, cos the community needs to know
toronto’s queer community needs nothing less than basic accountability & transparency
level up, PT pic.twitter.com/2qorPF2PBP
— patience 🌹 [Teqen Zéa-Aida==plagiarist] (@patienceinbee) January 13, 2018
Wow. @PrideToronto owes its community a much better explanation than what has been offered so far. These are terrible for an organization that’s supposed to support a city’s LGBTQ community. https://t.co/v11admdxhO
— Send Porto’s Please (@LyleMasaki) January 13, 2018
Glad to see @PrideToronto apologize and fix. But how did that ever happen in the first place?? https://t.co/PzIxqTPJ9v
— Scott Dagostino (@scottdagostino) January 13, 2018
Past controversy
This is not Pride Toronto’s first controversy.
The 2016 Pride parade was brought to a standstill when Black Lives Matters protestors staged a sit-in midway through the march and demanded the event organizers to sign-off a list of demands.
Organizers faced accusations they did not care about ethnic minorities.
Janaya Khan lead the protestors.
They called for Pride Toronto to ban police from taking part in the parade. They said their involvement made the black and trans community feel unsafe.
Pride Toronto apologized for a ‘history of anti-blackness.’
RuPaul responded to the protest.
The drag star explained: ‘People feel powerless. And a lot of the time, people will do a lot of different things to feel like they are part of the solution,
‘Sometimes they make sense. Sometimes those things don’t make sense.’’