Mon, 12:48: I'm veering from rolling my eyes at people who sign their emails with "In cooperation" (because we're a co-op) to twitchy reactions to being addressed as "Hey teammates!" (because we hired leadership from corporations). I'm working with extremists on both sides!
"In the case of NYC Pride, the changes are meant to address concerns voiced by some transgender, Black and Latino people who say they felt unsafe marching in front of a police force that routinely targeted and victimized them."
If Pride organizers are truly to walk the talk of inclusion and intersectionality, they should make Pride feel safe for all queer people, and especially trans people and people of color—the very people who engaged in the uprising against police brutality that started Pride five decades ago.
It's true that there are also queer police officers, many of whom do good work. But in no universe is that more important than the safety of queer people of color and trans people who to this day are routinely victimized by the very departments that are ostensibly tasked with protecting them. I don't see how just knowing that queer people also work in those departments is supposed to make them feel better about it.
(Side note: it should be stressed that the NYPD is not being excluded from Pride completely, which organizers could not even legally expect or demand. Police will still provide security, Pride organizers are still working in cooperation with them, and police are still welcome to march if out of uniform. Also, this is not a permanent ban, which frankly gives the NYPD some time to implement long-needed reforms that might just help the queer community, especially queer people of color, regain their trust—which is precisely what this is about. You cannot expect people to embrace organizations they cannot trust.)
