Since October 7, 2023, and the worsening genocide in Palestine, a question has persisted in 2SLGBTQIA+ and QTBIPOC circles in Montreal… Does Fierté Montréal still reflect the values of its community? Several groups have distanced themselves from the organization, pointing to its departure from its radical roots — from a legacy of activism born in the streets, shaped by riots, and built on resistance and the voices of the most marginalized queer people. In the eyes of these organizations and collectives, Fierté now seems to turn its back on this legacy. We spoke to those groups to understand what has unfolded over the past few months, in the lead up to Fierté Montréal's controversial pride parade scheduled for this Sunday.
Helem Montréal, a 2SLGBTQ+ organization from SWANA communities (Southwest Asia and North Africa), was the first to publicly cut ties with Fierté Montréal. According to members Yara Coussa and Samya Lemrini, Fierté cannot stand at the intersection of marginalized identities without supporting the Palestinian cause. According to them, fighting for the fundamental rights of 2SLGBTQIA+ people also means resisting apartheid, colonialism, and all systemic oppressions, both here and elsewhere.
In fact, Fierté Montréal officially took a stance on the ongoing genocide in Gaza on July 30, 2025—nearly two years after the events of October 7, 2023.
According to Helem Montréal, this delayed decision was the final straw that led the group to publicly dissociate from the festival and call on other queer groups to do the same.
“We really tried to work with them [on this issue], to meet them halfway. Because we love our Pride! I’m not being harsh with Fierté Montréal. I’m heartbroken,” says Samya, pointing to limits that, for her, are non-negotiable.
Their split with the festival traces back to May 2024. Like many other collectives, Helem Montréal was invited to a membership event with Fierté Montréal. Its members saw it as a chance to open a conversation about Palestine. At the gathering, the group tried to introduce a perspective that links Palestinian and queer struggles—a vital position in the face of genocide, according to Samya.
Samya sent Fierté Montréal the International Court of Justice’s statement, underlining the plausibility of a genocide in Gaza, in the hopes that it would push Fierté towards taking a firm public stance.
The organization also suggested Fierté Montréal cut ties with several of its sponsors, such as TD Bank and Bubly — companies that profit from the genocide of the Palestinian people or are, due to their physical presence or participation in Israel’s economy, considered complicit in the colonization of Palestine. These requests went unanswered.
Elsewhere in the country, however, things were in motion: St. John’s Pride, Fredericton Pride, and Halifax Pride all quickly severed ties with sponsors connected to Israel and voiced support for Palestine. In their statements, they affirmed that refusing to stand with Palestine under the pretext of focusing solely on 2SLGBTQIA+ rights betrays the promise of intersectionality and liberation within their commitments.
The tension came to a head during the 2024 Pride parade, where Helem Montréal found themselves marching near Ga’ava, a Jewish LGBTQ+ organization in Montreal that was waving Israeli flags during the march, Yara and Samya recount. On its social media, Ga’ava regularly shares posts highlighting queer people in the Israel Defence Forces, which according to groups like INdependent Jewish Voices Montreal, is a form of pinkwashing*.
During the 2024 parade, Helem Montréal, Mubaadarat, and Independent Jewish Voices organized a peaceful march to draw attention to the situation in Palestine. Demonstrators were surrounded by dozens of police officers, reinforcing the feeling that they weren’t truly welcome at the parade, Helem Montréal says.
Helem Montréal says it remained in contact with Fierté Montréal for several months to continue discussing Palestine, the police presence at their march, and the festival’s financial ties to Israel.
But according to Helem Montréal, those efforts were often met with silence. On December 10, 2024, the organization cut ties with Fierté Montréal, and announced the decision a month later, on January 22, 2025, on social media.
La Converse reached out to Fierté Montréal regarding its lack of communication with Helem Montréal about its position on Gaza, but the organization did not respond.
The end of this collaboration sparked a wave of solidarity: other associations began speaking out, sharing their own experiences with Fierté. At the core of their statements was the Palestinian cause — echoed by struggles in Sudan, Congo, Myanmar, Tigray, and Haiti — all connected to racism, misogyny, and gender-based violence, Yara and Samya explain with pride.
“All the criticism I’ve seen is really highlighting the colonial roots of Fierté. These struggles are all interconnected,” Samya says, moved by the support received from queer and non-queer groups alike, including Independent Jewish Voices Montréal, AlterHéros, Coalition Jeunesse LGBTQ, and CALACS de l’Ouest de l'île. “It felt like a hug,” she adds.
Wild Pride, created by and for the community
In response, a new initiative emerged: Wild Pride. For QTBIPOC and 2SLGBTQIA+ groups involved, marching remains a vital act. They plan to continue demonstrating, but with autonomy and reclamation.
Created by community members from diverse backgrounds, the initiative arose from a “need and necessity,” Yara explains. “Many LGBTQ+ people no longer felt safe with Fierté, no longer felt represented, so this was born out of a desire for a pride that reflects us.”
Samya speaks to the radical legacy of these struggles that must be honored: “Pride was a riot, a rite for people like us, people who really need representation, not an empty representation with no action behind it.”
Wild Pride presents itself as a resource for 2SLGBTQ+ people seeking community and collective support and advertises itself as a space built for all, including parents, children, immunocompromised people, and youth. Wild Pride aims to be a mobilization driven by the community itself, separate from banks, corporations, and police.
Their activity offerings are varied: activist workshops, visual arts, and even programs for children. The programming was thoughtfully designed to welcome every kind of participant and cultivate community care and diversity.
“For me, my community is diverse, accessible, neurodivergent, autistic, lesbian, trans, Arab, Black, Indigenous,” says Yara.
In collaboration with Fierté: Voices call for nuance
Despite several organizations stepping away, some other community groups remain affiliated with Fierté Montréal. They call for nuance and emphasize the delicate balance of collaborative work in community settings.
Rafaël Provost, executive director of Ensemble pour le respect de la diversité (Together to respect diversity), an organization promoting inclusion and fighting discrimination through an intersectional approach, welcomed us to their offices in Sainte-Marie. When discussing the situation, the organizer encouraged addressing the issues without bias and with balance.
“It’s hard to navigate. It mirrors everything else. There’s polarization, there’s division. We’re no longer talking to each other, and I think dialogue is one of the keys to reconciliation. But it takes time, a lot of sensitivity, and work on both sides,” he begins.
Committed to building bridges, he still acknowledges the courage of organizations that speak out. “It’s important for organizations to remain consistent with their values and actions,” he emphasizes. Principles like respect and diversity must be applied in real terms. It’s not about judging who’s right or wrong, but about acting on values equitably, he says.
Regarding criticized collaborations — such as with the Seervice de Police de la Ville de Montréal— he urges caution and a measured approach. For him, it’s important to distinguish between well-intentioned efforts and structural issues. He believes in gradual change over radical disruption.
Again and again, his words evoke a time when Pride was primarily a gathering space. “I think we also have the right to celebrate, but never without remembering all the work that has been done, and what still needs to be done. I find that marching makes a lot more sense. It’s simple and powerful. Just humans walking. That’s what we need to do,” he says passionately, reminiscing about a Pride that once moved him — and that he misses.
Despite his emphasis on the complexity of the situation, his focus remains on the commitments and future potential of his own organization.
Ensemble will remain a member of Fierté Montréal, he says. While listed as a partner, the organization is not active behind the scenes of Fierté Montréal, he adds. His role, as he describes it, is more that of an observer, in which he follows developments closely while staying focused on his own group’s mission and values.
Fierté Montréal speaks out — too late for some
Contacted by La Converse about the situation, Fierté Montréal initially replied by saying it “would not comment further at this time.” A follow-up request for an interview went unanswered.
However, on July 30, 2025, Fierté Montréal published a statement on its social media and via email, outlining “its position” on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The festival stated that it condemns the ongoing genocide in Gaza, expressed solidarity with the Palestinian people, and affirmed that the lives of 2SLGBTQIA+ people in Palestine, as elsewhere, must be protected and respected.
Fierté Montréal also announced its decision to “refuse participation from organizations with hateful messages in order to protect the emotional and physical safety of communities,” signaling its intent to prevent its spaces from being instrumentalized in the context of the conflict.
A week later, on August 5, the organization issued another statement saying that “all communities are welcome to participate in the festivities,” following outreach to members of the Jewish community to clarify the situation regarding their previous statement and ensure a safe, inclusive space for everyone, including 2SLGBTQIA+ Jewish people who wish to attend the parade.
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) and its partner, the 2SLGBTQIA+ Jewish group Ga’ava, were re-invited.
In response to the wave of public criticism, Fierté Montréal had also spoken out back in February 2025 through a letter addressing the concerns raised by several queer community groups.
Simon Gamache, executive director of Fierté Montréal and the letter’s signatory, expressed his desire to encourage a more nuanced understanding of how Fierté operates, stating a continued commitment to representing and uniting diverse communities.
Despite the issues addressed by Gamache and the Fierté team in their communications, no concrete effort to initiate dialogue has yet been made, say Yara and Samya. And yet it was Helem Montréal, they remind us, that originally raised concerns about Fierté Montréal. “The fact that they still haven’t done so, for me, that tells me everything I need to know,” says Yara, visibly exhausted. The few attempts at dialogue only came after the groups in question went public with their criticism on social media.
Note: Some interviews were translated from English.
*Pinkwashing is a strategy through which a company or organization uses symbols or messaging that superficially support the queer community, often without genuine commitment to its rights or inclusion of all its members. It is, in essence, a tool of propaganda.
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