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Organizers of Pride parades across the United States are prohibiting uniformed police officers from actively participating in events as the relationship between law enforcement officers and the LGBT community continues to deteriorate.
The Pride parade had welcomed police officers for years, but following nationwide protests stemming from the 2020 death of George Floyd, as well as other instances of police brutality, some organizers have argued that a law enforcement presence would be a trigger for the LGBT community, as well as people of color who have experienced inequality and violence at the hands of police for decades.
Some organizers have also cited the 1969 Stonewall Riots, an incident in which police raided a gay club in New York City and patrons fought back, as another reason to keep the police out. The incident is believed to have sparked the modern gay rights movement.
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Last year, New York Pride organizers barred gay and lesbian police officers from marching until 2025. The move was met with condemnation from public officials who accused the group, which prides itself on inclusion, of being hypocrites. This year, the NYPD is also prohibited from protecting those attending the festivities and will be relegated to policing the perimeter from a block away. New York City Mayor Eric Adams condemned the NYC Pride’s policy of prohibiting police officers from marching in uniform but stopped short of saying whether he’d attend the popular event.
“Mayor Adams supports inclusivity and allowing all New Yorkers to be true to who they are,” Fabien Levy, a spokesman for the mayor’s office said. “Banning officers from wearing their uniforms at Pride is disappointing and contradicts our freedom of expression. That’s one of the many reasons why he has long supported and fought for LGBTQ+ officers to be able to wear their uniforms at the Pride parade. He will continue to do the same before next month’s parade.”
New York City’s Pride parade will be held on June 26.
In San Francisco, police officers will also be barred from wearing their uniforms in the city’s march, one of the biggest Pride celebrations in the world. Instead, they have been told to march in T-shirts that represent their local law enforcement agency.
The relationship between San Francisco police and members of the LGBT community reached a boiling point in 2019 when a protest on the parade route ended with people being arrested, as well as being allegedly shoved and injured by the police.
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For some in the community, having “police in the parade is difficult for them,” San Francisco Pride Director Suzanne Ford said. “So we want to honor and make sure that we protect and make people feel safe.”
The Albuquerque, New Mexico, Pride Board voted almost unanimously in April to ban the city’s police from having a booth at this year’s PrideFest. However, the board said it may revisit the topic next year if “lines of communication have been open and the community feedback has been positive.”
In Seattle, organizers of the annual PrideFest bash have also asked police to steer clear of festivities this year. The event takes place at the end of the Seattle Pride parade route. However, unlike San Francisco and New York, Seattle Pride will still allow officers to participate in the parade.
After banning police from festivities in 2021, Denver’s Pride organizers had a change of heart this year.
The Center on Colfax, which serves as the organizer for the city’s PrideFest events, will now allow police officers and first responders who identify as members of the LGBT community to participate and will form a “marching contingent” for the parade. Last year, the Denver-based nonprofit group, which operates as an LGBT community center, said the decision to exclude law enforcement was in solidarity against “police violence aimed at the black community.”
Rex Fuller, CEO of the Center on Colfax, acknowledged that last year’s decision was “very controversial and very hurtful to a number of people in the community, most specifically LGBT police officers.”
“We’ve tried to include as many opinions as we can, and we’ve tried to come to the best compromise that we can,” he told Denver7.
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Other cities have also had a hard time trying to implement the no-police rule.
Sacramento, St. Louis, and Minneapolis have all tried to exclude the law enforcement community but ultimately reverted to their former policies.
