New York City Pride announced that police and corrections officers would no longer be welcome to participate at Pride events. The LGBT group claimed that it applied the ban in order to “create safer spaces” for “marginalized groups.”
The organization also said it would take steps to minimize police protection presence at its events by hiring private security and other “first responders” who aren’t police.
I’m sure nurses and lab techs would be able to head off any trouble at the next gay pride parade.
“The sense of safety that law enforcement is meant to provide can instead be threatening, and at times dangerous, to those in our community who are most often targeted with excessive force and/or without reason,” organizers said in a press release.
“NYC Pride is unwilling to contribute in any way to creating an atmosphere of fear or harm for members of the community.”
The recent nationwide reckoning of police violence inspired Heritage of Pride, the group that produces the event, to reexamine its relationship with the police — who were previously invited to march in the parade as it became more mainstream.
“This announcement follows many months of conversation and discussion with key stakeholders in the community,” said NYC Pride Co-Chair André Thomas.
Cops are gay, too, and not surprisingly, the decision to ban police participation isn’t going over too well.
Detective Brian Downey, 41, president of the NYPD’s Gay Officers Action League, said hundreds of members of the police department have been marching for nearly four decades in good faith and solidarity with the community.
“GOAL was embraced by the community because it was viewed as agents of change. This was progress, it wasn’t contention,” Downey told The Post Saturday night.
“Having the courage to go into the institution as a gay or queer person… you’re going in there with that struggle that is your own identity and you’re bringing it inside that system,” Downey said.
“I have used a position of considerable power … to open the door for other people that don’t share my same experience and give them a voice at the table.”
You’re wasting your breath, detective. These people can’t see the utter stupidity in banning police participation — including the participation of gay officers — because police make some people nervous. The only people who feel threatened are those who are told to feel threatened. I cannot believe that anyone at a parade would feel threatened by the sight of a police officer protecting marchers from danger.
Oh well, no one has ever accused activists of being rational or logical.
Perhaps the NYPD officers assigned to protect parade-goers during the next Pride event can call in sick or take some other action to demonstrate their willingness to give in to the fears of POC and LGBTQ snowflakes. They don’t want the cops ruining their parade? I’m sure police can find more effective uses of their time on duty than patrolling a place where they’re not wanted.
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