NEW YORK (AP) – Organizers of New York City’s Gay Pride events announced Saturday that they will ban police and other security forces from participating in their annual huge parade until at least 2025 and will also seek to keep the agents one block away celebrating the LGBTQ community and its history.
In its statement, the group NYC Pride asked members of the security forces to “acknowledge their damage and correct the course forward.”
“The sense of security that the authorities must provide can be rather threatening and sometimes dangerous for those members of our community who are most frequently subjected to excessive use of force and / or for no reason,” the group said.
The group will also increase the budget for security during the event to boost the presence of community security members and first responders, while reducing the presence of the police department.
The police will provide first aid and security “only when it is absolutely necessary as established by the city authorities,” the group said, adding that it hoped to keep police officers a block away from the perimeter of the event to the extent of the possible.
News of the ban broke Friday when the Gay Officers Action League said in a press release that it was heartbroken by the decision.
The group noted that the ban was a “sharp turn” and that the decision to “appease some of the activists in our community is shameful.”
The parade is scheduled for June after the coronavirus pandemic prevented many Gay Pride events from taking place internationally last year, including the one in New York, which instead held virtual events in front of mask-wearing participants. and honored frontline workers in the health crisis.
The raids frustrated activists who had hoped to collectively commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first Gay Pride parade and marches in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco in 1970.
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