There is a long history of fraught interactions between LGBTQ people and law enforcement, particularly among those who are racial minorities or transgender, and say they feel targeted and harassed by policing as a system. New York City's streets a year ago were awash in protests over the death of George Floyd and clashes between demonstrators and officers. The role police officers should play in the annual parade has been debated for years, but it took on new heat amid a national reckoning around police brutality. It’s somewhat of a moot point this year with pandemic limitations still in play until only recently, the New York City Pride event planned for Sunday organized by Heritage of Pride is largely a virtual one.īut the ban will be in effect next year until at least 2025, the organizers said. “Why should I have to take off (the uniform) as if I’m ashamed?” “Why should I have to hide a part of me,” asked Ana Arboleda, a sergeant with the NYPD who has marched in the parade several times and is the vice-president of the Gay Officers Action League.
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of course you should be able to celebrate and express your pride, but you don’t need to do it in a uniform that has perpetuated violence against many of the people who are trying to celebrate their pride that day.”įor others, presence of LGBTQ police marchers is an expression of hard-fought diversity and inclusion that should be celebrated, a hallmark of how integral LGBTQ people are in the fabric of American life. “Folks still have challenging and traumatic and many times horrific relationships with law enforcement,” said John Blasco, a parade regular. Tensions between law enforcement and some parts of the LGBTQ community still exist, a half century later.
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As the city's annual Pride weekend approaches, a recent decision by organizers of New York City's event to ban LGBTQ police officers from marching in uniform in future parades has put a spotlight on issues of identity and belonging, power and marginalization.įor some, cops shouldn't have a uniformed presence at a march commemorating the 1969 Stonewall uprising, sparked by a police raid on a gay bar.