Ban on police uniforms reflects deeper tension

For decades, when LGBTQ people have gathered to take part in New York City’s annual Pride march, they’ve made their presence known with every color and type of clothing imaginable.

But soon, there’s going to be something off-limits: police uniforms.

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.

For 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. Tensions between law enforcement and some parts of the LGBTQ community still exist, a half century later.

“Folks still have challenging and traumatic and many times horrific relationships with law enforcement,” said John Blasco, a parade regular. “If you’re an officer ... 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.”

For 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.

“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. “Why should I have to take off (the uniform) as if I’m ashamed?”

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.

But the ban will be in effect next year until at least 2025, the organizers said.

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.

New York City’s streets a year ago were awash in protests over the death of George Floyd and clashes between demonstrators and officers.

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.

The divide over whether uniformed police have a role in Pride “goes to the heart of one of the long standing tensions in LGBT politics,” said Marc Stein, history professor at San Francisco State University.

“Is the goal diversity, or is the goal addressing fundamental power relationships in society, and inequality?” he asked. “Those are two really different things.”