History: Justin Trudeau Becomes First Sitting Prime Minister To March In LGBT Pride Parade

Toronto Pride Parade kicked off today with a history making moment as Justin Trudeau becomes the first sitting Prime Minister of Canada to march in an LGBT Pride Parade.

This is not Trudeau’s first Pride parade – just his first as Prime Minister 🙂

From the Ottawa Citizen:

Other notable politicians who will march include Ontario’s premier, Kathleen Wynne, and the mayor of Toronto, John Tory.

Before the parade, Trudeau attended an outdoor church service in the heart of the city’s gay village where he sang along to Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way.”

Six Stabbed At Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade

Stabbing victims at Jerusalem Pride parade

According to the Jerusalem Post, an ultra-Orthodox man has been arrested for stabbing six people taking part in the Jerusalem gay pride parade today.

The suspect in Thursday’s stabbing attack, Yishai Shlissel, is the same man who perpetrated a similar stabbing attack at the 2005 Jerusalem gay pride parade. He was recently released from prison after having been convicted of stabbing three people during the parade ten years ago.

Six people were wounded in the incident that took place on the corners of Sokolov and Keren Hayesod streets in the capital.

Paramedics were treating two people in serious condition, one in moderate condition and three people who were lightly injured. All of the victims were in their thirties, according to MDA.

Thousands of people were taking part in the annual pride parade in the capital when the attack occurred.

“I saw an ultra-Orthodox youth stabbing everyone in his way,” said Shai Aviyor, a witness interviewed on Israel’s Channel 2 television.

“We heard people screaming, everyone ran for cover, and there were bloodied people on the ground,” Aviyor said.

Suspected attacker Yishai Schlissel

Rhode Island Supreme Court Throws Out Firefighters’ Lawsuit Over Driving In Gay Pride Parade

In 2004, Providence firefighters Theodore Fabrizio and Stephen Deninno filed suit against the city of Providence, Rhode Island, for being assigned to drive a fire truck during an annual gay pride parade in 2001.

The men sued saying their constitutional rights were violated arguing that as practicing Roman Catholics they did not “support, encourage,nor condone homosexual behavior.”

Today, the Rhode Island Supreme Court issued their ruling.

Writing for the entire court, Justice William Robinson III called driving a fire truck in a parade a “legitimate work assignment” and said as public servants they were “relatively anonymous.”

“The respondents’ appearance in the parade, solely as members of the Providence Fire Department, did not constitute a form of expression on their part. Rather, it was simply the accomplishing of a task assigned to an engine company of the Providence Fire Department,” Robinson wrote.