This year, NYC Pride has elected to "ban corrections and law enforcement exhibitors at NYC Pride events until 2025." That is, police may not march in uniform.
Apparently, this is meant to be read as a critique of police performance:
"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. NYC Pride is unwilling to contribute in any way to creating an atmosphere of fear or harm for members of the community. The steps being taken by the organization challenge law enforcement to acknowledge their harm and to correct course moving forward, in hopes of making an impactful change.
"Effective immediately, NYC Pride will ban corrections and law enforcement exhibitors at NYC Pride events until 2025. At that time their participation will be reviewed by the Community Relations and Diversity, Accessibility, and Inclusion committees, as well as the Executive Board. In the meantime, NYC Pride will transition to providing increased community-based security and first responders, while simultaneously taking steps to reduce NYPD presence at events."
- I question the honesty of any person who pretends to be traumatized or afraid of harm from police marching in a pride parade. I am a person who has been harmed and harried by police just for being gay but I have absolutely no difficulty separating those bad cops from the manifest good of cops marching as proud queer police or marching in solidarity with the gay community. It takes no education to understand that the cops with anti-gay agendas don't participate in pro-gay celebrations. NYC Pride is punishing uniformed queers and allies, who deserve better than most to be proud of the difficult work they do and the nasty prejudices they overcome to do it, for the faults of uniformed homophobes who'd never recognize the honor in marching. NYC Pride is guilty of ignorant and self-defeating prejudice at best and active harm against unpopular minorities within the gay community at worst.
- NYC Pride commemorates a battle between the gay community and the police fought 52 years ago on the very streets of this weekend's parade route. The fact that uniformed queers march openly at pride is a demonstration of the victory of the gay rights movement. The fact that straight police march openly in solidarity with the gay community is another important victory. That NYC Pride can't recognize the value and importance of such triumphs suggests that NYC Pride has dropped its eyes from the Prize.
- NYC Pride also suggests that they intend to privatize as much of the security and public safety functions as the city will allow, at substantially increased expense. Less security at a higher price for an obvious and frequent target of political terrorism is a dangerous price to pay for a little misbegotten virtue signaled. Naturally, the police will still be counted on the save marchers in the event of any real emergency, which ultimately demonstrates which community is remaining more faithful to peace and harmony and which is breaking that trust.
- I'd encourage police everywhere to tell NYC Pride to go fuck themselves with a 20 inch rainbow sparkle dildo and march anyway in full uniform, in pride and solidarity. After all, who the hell is going to stop them? The people who know what it means to fight for civil rights also know how to tell good cops from bad cops and will always have the good cops' back.
