Join us on September 12, 2016 in the Paul O’Regan Hall (Halifax Central Branch Library) at 6:30 pm for the Halifax premier of Pride Denied: Homonationalism & the Future of Queer Politics directed by Kami Chisholm.

Free and open to all!

The screening will be followed by a facilitated discussion with special guests Ardath Whynacht and the Nova Scotia Rainbow Action Project.

Set to the backdrop of World Pride in Toronto in June 2014, Pride Denied: Homonationalism and the Future of Queer Politics explores the concepts of pride and homonationalism through interviews with activists, community organizers, artists, and academics.

Jasbir Puar defines homonationalism as the way in which, especially after 9/11, certain queer subjects have been accorded the rights and privileges of citizenship by the state at the expense and expulsion of others, mostly people of color. She also argues that it manifests in imperialist discourses in which certain nation states promote themselves as legitimate and progressive based on notions of their “tolerance” and “acceptance” of gays and lesbians, a barometer which is then in turn used to delegitimize and/or frame as backwards states and peoples that are deemed to fail to meet this standard.

Pride Denied asks: how have mainstream LGBT movements and organizing on issues such as marriage and the military benefited some LGBT people while largely ignoring others – especially people of color, transgender folks, people with disabilities, and non-citizens? How has the transformation of contemporary pride movements from activist, street-based roots to large, corporate-sponsored events, benefited the most privileged while marginalizing and excluding others, including sex workers and people who are homeless or underhoused (who, for example, were targeted by Toronto police in a street-cleanup campaign leading up to and during World Pride)?

Pride Denied addresses these questions and more though interviews, event footage, and archival research. Topics covered include: corporate influences on pride and LGBT politics, homonationalism and pinkwashing, border imperialism, histories (past and present) of police violence, and discourses of safety and security (at both the local and national/international level). Featuring: Monica Forrester, Christina Hanhardt, Natalie Kouri-Towe, Akio Maroon, Tim McCaskell, Kim Katrin Milan, Jasbir Puar, Anna Rekhviashvili, Dean Spade, Gein Wong, and more.