LGBTQIA+ Rights Activist Peter Tatchell ‘Forcibly Ejected’ From Pride Parade By Police
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Veteran LGBTQIA+ rights activist Peter Tatchell has spoken out after he was removed by police from a pride protest over the weekend.
The seventy three year old Australian born activist has spoken about the incident claiming he was “forcibly ejected” by police.
Tatchell, event organisers and representatives of the West Midlands Police have spoken out following the incident.
Peter Tatchell claims he was removed for criticising police
Peter Tatchell has a resume for activism and advocacy that started as far back as 1967. Since then he has campaigned across the world raising awareness for a variety of issues and communities, giving many a voice where they may not have otherwise had one, putting his own safety and security on the line to do so.
In 2011 he started the to “to promote and protect the human rights of individuals, communities and nations, in the UK and internationally” to help continue his work.
Peter has continued to be a vocal activist, in particular he has regularly campaign for UK police forces to officially apologise for past actions against the LGBTQIA+ community.
This weekend he attended the Birmingham Pride Parade where he gave a speech to attendees.
During his speech he used the opportunity to again speak out about the聽 past actions of the police, whilst carrying a sign that read 鈥淲est Midlands police refuse to apologise for anti-LGBT+ witch-hunts. SHAME! #ApologiseNow.鈥�
Tatchell claims he was asked to leave the event by police after his speech and his since spoken out about their actions, claiming they said he was not authorised to march in the parade.
鈥淲hen I challenged them, the police said the Pride organisers told them I was not authorised to march in the Pride and had ordered the police to remove me” he stated.
“That is a shocking, false claim.鈥�
Tatchell stated that he was authorised by event organisers who sanctioned his participation.
鈥淭he Pride CEO, Lawrence Barton, authorised me to march in the parade and never gave the police any instructions to remove me. Mr Barton later told me he was appalled by the police behaviour” Tatchell said.
鈥淭he police clearly removed me because they objected to my criticism of their past homophobia.鈥�
鈥淭his is another example of police abusing their powers to crack down on peaceful protest. Once again freedom of speech and the right to protest has been unlawfully eroded” he claimed.
In a statement to Express & Star, Birmingham Pride organiser David Nash, confirmed Tatchell was authorised to attend and participate.
鈥淲e can confirm that Peter Tatchell was authorised to take part in the parade” he said.
鈥淧eter is an internationally recognised human rights activist and we can categorically confirm that absolutely no instruction was given by anyone from聽叠颈谤尘颈苍驳丑补尘听笔谤颈诲别听迟辞 West Midlands Police to remove him.鈥�
鈥淔urther, we do not understand why this action was undertaken.鈥�
Lawrence Barton director of聽叠颈谤尘颈苍驳丑补尘听笔谤颈诲别 echoed his statements saying聽 鈥淧eter was a very special guest today. There鈥檚 no way on the planet we would have endorsed the police removing him.鈥�
Following the claims by Tatchell the West Midlands Police stated:
鈥淲e assisted security staff at Saturday鈥檚 event with the removal of a man who made his way amongst people who were taking part in the parade. He was not arrested.鈥�
The news of the incident at Birmingham pride comes after Tatchell was arrested the week prior.
After he was allegedly carrying a anti-Hamas slogan at a pro-Palestine protest last week he was arrested by police.
Tatchell claims officers said his sign was a 鈥渞acially and religiously aggravated breach of the peace.”
Prior to his arrest he says he was approached by a group of protestors in a 鈥渁ggressive, threatening and intimidating” manner before he was later arrested.
Met Police later said he was arrested in “error” and he was released without charge.
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