BC’s Pride Organisations call for anti-racism
& community supports to be strengthened

VANCOUVER – BC Pride, a collective effort of over 25 LGBTQ2SIA+ advocacy groups from across British Columbia, is calling for all British Columbians to reflect on the role racism plays in their communities.

While many of us are by now familiar with the events surrounding the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, BC Pride calls on British Columbians to recognise the role racism has in our province. From the experiences of Indigenous peoples of BC with such atrocities as the residential school system and the violence that lead to the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, to the discrimination felt every day by the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Colour) communities of our province, we must act.

LGBTQ2SIA+ communities have a mixed history – at times standing united with communities of colour and at other times leaving them behind. We call upon our communities to stand together with our siblings of colour – following the example of such events as 1979’s Gay Alliance Towards Equality boycott of Vancouver’s “Yellow Cab” taxi company for discriminatory pay practices for South Asian taxi drivers.

BC Pride calls on every British Columbian to act. Only with a complete reimagining of how our province functions and interacts can we move forward into a better world. We call for communities, businesses, and non-profits to ensure that they have an active and comprehensive plan to dismantle racism within their organisations.

We must acknowledge our own imperfections and sit in our own discomfort as we begin to unravel years of systematic racism and hate. We must use our voices and platforms to amplify and uplift the voices of Black lives, Indigenous lives, and people of colour. We must practice and show our allyship in our work, and daily actions. You might feel at a loss of where to begin or what to do but the only wrong action is inaction.