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PROTESTERS were pulled out of a Pride parade on Saturday for objecting to its sponsorship by arms company BAE Systems.
The organisers of Surrey Pride removed four participants during the march for holding critical placards, including one that said “this Pride is sponsored by arms dealers.”
Two were told it was because they were “too political” and the others that it was “because you’re protesting [against] a sponsor and the organisers don’t want you here” according to Peace Pledge Union (PPU) — part of the No Pride in War campaign.
Among those removed was Tim Rosson, a local gay campaigner and PPU member, who started a petition against BAE’s sponsorship earlier this year that received more than 5,000 signatures.
He said: “I’m very disappointed that the organisers of Pride in Surrey decided to have LGBTQ+ people celebrating Pride thrown out to protect BAE Systems from criticism.
“Some of us were thrown out for being political — at an event that is a political statement about LGBTQ+ rights and sanctions the presence of a trade union and a political party.
“Some were thrown out simply because the sponsor didn’t want us there according to security. This calls into question the organiser’s statement in Surrey Live, ‘This isn’t my Pride, it’s Surrey’s Pride’.”
The Star reported this weekend that the event’s organiser Stephen Ireland smeared protesters ahead of the parade as “idiots” if they dared speak out against it or “cause trouble.”
PPU campaigns manager Symon Hill, who is bisexual and a regular participant at Pride events, said: “This is outrageous. The organisers of Pride in Surrey have urgent questions to answer.
“The removal of peaceful LGBT people opposed to BAE Systems is an assault on free expression, queer liberation and everything that Pride is supposed to stand for.
“Is Pride in Surrey a celebration of LGBT human rights or a vehicle for arms dealers to pinkwash their image?”
BAE is known particularly for its supply of arms to Saudi Arabia, where LGBT people are routinely imprisoned, tortured and executed.
The incident came a week after the UK’s Bisexual Convention, known as BiCon, voting by 81 per cent to rule out any sponsorship from arms companies or deals with armed forces.
