Five of the seven current Auckland Pride Festival Inc. board have this afternoon voiced personal apologies to the No Pride In Prisons protest group during a community consultation hui. Four of the No Pride In Prisons group who participated in this afternoon's hui. When the protest group broke into this year's Auckland Pride parade a scuffle with security guards led to protester Emilie Rakete's arm being broken. The group was protesting the presence in the parade of Department of Corrections staff despite continuing poor treatment of transgender patients in the nation's jails and the inclusion of other armed services such as the police and military. During an intense discussion of the place of trans people, other sexual and ethnic minorities and protest in the Pride Parade and Festival Board member Shirley Allan volunteered a personal apology as a Board member to the protesters who were present, including Rakete. Asked by a GayNZ.com reporter if any other board members present also wished to apologise for the way the protest action and protesters had been handled all, including Kirsten Sibbit, Paul Patton, Julie Swift and Richard James, did so. Board members Phylesha Brown-Acton and Vinnie Sykes were not present at the hui. The Board had previously issued a statement a week after the incident apologising "for anyone who was harmed during our event and completely support the right to protest and, in this case, the protesters’ cause.” Asked after the event how they viewed the apologies, the group said the board members present seemed like nice people but they hoped the apologies would be followed up by useful action "such as not letting cops," who they see as a repressive arm of the state "march in the Pride Parade." During the meeting many of those present impressed on the Board members present the need to re-think policies around how a more varied and sometimes dissenting presence could be included in the festival and to review the situation whereby security staff appeared to treated glbti community protesters the same way as homophobic protesters would be dealt with. New Parade organiser Nick Davion said the Parade team had a need to look after everyone, which meant such issues could be complex and difficult." But he said evolving parade policies would "work towards eliminating what happened last year."
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Saturday, 14th November 2015 - 7:56pm