LGBTQIA+ Rights Activist Peter Tatchell ‘Forcibly Ejected’ From Pride Parade By Police

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 Peter Tatchell foundation 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  past actions of the police, whilst carrying a sign that read “West Midlands police refuse to apologise for anti-LGBT+ witch-hunts. SHAME! #ApologiseNow.”

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.

“When 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.”

Tatchell stated that he was authorised by event organisers who sanctioned his participation.

“The 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.

“The police clearly removed me because they objected to my criticism of their past homophobia.”

“This 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.

“We can confirm that Peter Tatchell was authorised to take part in the parade” he said.

“Peter is an internationally recognised human rights activist and we can categorically confirm that absolutely no instruction was given by anyone from Birmingham Pride to West Midlands Police to remove him.”

“Further, we do not understand why this action was undertaken.”

Lawrence Barton director of Birmingham Pride echoed his statements saying  “Peter was a very special guest today. There’s no way on the planet we would have endorsed the police removing him.”

Following the claims by Tatchell the West Midlands Police stated:

“We assisted security staff at Saturday’s event with the removal of a man who made his way amongst people who were taking part in the parade. He was not arrested.”

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 “racially and religiously aggravated breach of the peace.”

Prior to his arrest he says he was approached by a group of protestors in a “aggressive, threatening and intimidating” manner before he was later arrested.

Met Police later said he was arrested in “error” and he was released without charge.