2 People Stabbed During Fort Lauderdale Gay Pride Parade

Two people were stabbed during the Fort Lauderdale Gay Pride Festival in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Sunday. The police have arrested two people in connection with the stabbing.

Casey Liening, spokeswoman for the Fort Lauderdale police, told the media the stabbing was an isolated incident that began as a disagreement between two parties. She said, “One person was transported to a hospital with a serious injury but is expected to survive while the other person received superficial injuries.”

The incident happened by the main stage at 700 Seabreeze Boulevard as the parade was wrapping up.

Police are still investigating the stabbing and have not revealed names of the victims or the people in custody. They issued a statement: “There is no indication that this was a premeditated act of terrorism designed to cause harm or fear to the South Florida LGBTQ community. All indications are that this was a dispute between disagreeing parties.” The two suspects were apprehended and were held at the Broward County Jail.

The statement also said that the officers were instructed not to talk about the incident to the media so that there is no interference with the investigation. It said, “We are incredibly grateful for the swift response by the officers on duty and their ability to prevent further injury.”

The parade takes place annually and had a fireworks display on the beach, and block parties, among other things. More than 100,000 people were present at the weekend-long event that celebrates the LGBTQ community and advocates for their rights to have same-sex marriages legalized. The festival over the weekend was the city’s first ever Gay Pride Parade and was “Carnaval-themed and full of rainbows.”

Florida is one of the 37 states in the U.S. that legalized same sex marriages in 2016. Although it was legalized in all 50 states in 2016, there still are places in the country where people think same sex marriages should be banned.

This isn’t the first incident of a stabbing or violence during a pride parade. During a San Francisco Pride parade on June 24, 2018, two men were stabbed by an unidentified suspect. The stabbings took place near Golden Gate Avenue in the Bay Area. The two victims were near portable toilets when they were approached by a group of men who robbed them before running away from the scene. However, the victims and their robbers ran into each other later and when they tried to get their stolen property back, a physical fight began injuring both the victims. One of them suffered severe life-threatening injuries but survived while the other man had a severe but non-threatening injury.

In December 2018, one person was stabbed during the Carbondale Pride Parade in Carbondale, Illinois. According to the police, the stabbing came after the victim was involved in an altercation with several individuals. They said that a fight led to the stabbing of the unnamed individual who suffered non-life threatening stab wounds.

In August 2018, a man in Brighton, U.K., threatened to stab train passengers while saying that gay people should be killed. On a train carriage, the man ranted to the people who were returning to London from U.K.’s largest LGBTQ+ event, the Brighton Pride. The man called the people several names including pedophiles, dirty and yelled that they should all be dead. He was later arrested by the police.