In 2016, Black Lives Matter Toronto brought the city’s Pride parade to a stop with a list of demands, the most controversial of which was the removal of police floats and, subsequently, uniformed officers from the march. Their objective? Hold Pride Toronto accountable for what they saw as “anti-blackness.” About 30 minutes later, all of their demands were met by Pride Toronto’s executive director, and the march went on.

Black Lives Matter at Toronto Pride.

Police floats, cruisers, and uniformed officers were barred from Pride the following year, excluding them for the first time since they joined in 2000 (uniformed, on-duty officers, however, were still providing security services). The incident sparked a contentious debate in the city: Some thought the move made Pride more inclusive for those who avoided the parade due to the police or were triggered by their uniforms; others felt it went against the inclusive nature of Pride by excluding LGBTQ cops. A larger question began to circulate in many queer cities across North America: Should police in uniform play a part at Pride beyond providing security from the sidelines?

The "No" Camp

Black Lives Matter at Toronto Pride.

According to cities that followed Toronto’s lead, the resounding answer is no. After the 2016 incident, uniformed officers didn’t march in Canadian cities such as Halifax, Winnipeg, and Vancouver, which also banned Vancouver Police Department tees from being worn.

Last year in the U.S., officers in uniform were null in Minneapolis and Sacramento. (Although uniformed officers were readmitted this year in Sacramento, the Sacramento LGBTQ Community Center board of directors were requested to resign over this decision by staff.) The majority of U.S. cities, however, still allow officers to march in their Pride parades, including New York City, which is hosting WorldPride this month and celebrating the 50-year anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. But this doesn’t mean New York is entirely pro-police-inclusion; in fact, some activists in the city are so against police presence they’re creating a march of their own.

Reclaim Pride Coalition protest.

Reclaim Pride Coalition is holding the first ever Queer Liberation March on the same day as the NYC Pride March. It begins two-and-a-half hours before the main march and prohibits police participation and corporate floats. They will also be taking a different route, emulating the original 1970 Christopher Street Liberation Day March, starting in Sheridan Square and ending in Central Park. (Uniformed officers will still be conducting security for this march, as well.)

The prevailing argument against police presence, aside from the uniform being a trigger for some, is that the LGBTQ community is still mistreated by law enforcement, particularly queer people of color and transgender folks. A recent report by the National Center for Transgender Equality claimed that out of 25 of the biggest police departments in the U.S., none “explicitly requires regular training on transgender interaction policies for all members across rank.”

According to this report, there were only two departments that “explicitly prohibited sexual conduct between officers and those in their custody”; based off a 2015 survey, 58% of transgender people who had an interaction with the cops reported mistreatment, which included being forced into sex to get out of being arrested.

“These motherfuckers are only out to arrest, put us in jail, lock us up, beat us up, get us to suck their dick, and then kick us out of their car naked to go home,” said transgender activist and Stonewall veteran Miss Major Griffin-Gracy in a video that went viral earlier this year. She doesn’t want to see police at Stonewall 50. “Happened to me twice, I know exactly what the hell I’m talking about.”

The "Yes" Camp

Not everyone agrees with removing police from Pride, particularly not LGBTQ officers themselves.

“I respect the voices of these activists and I think their points need to be listened to and heard, but there are the other voices,” NYPD detective Carl Locke tells NewNowNext. Locke is the LGBTQ liaison for the police commissioner and the community outreach and education chair for Gay Officers Action League (GOAL). “There are people who go crazy when they see officers march down the street,” he continues. “They cheer. They root for us. They scream, ‘More queer cops.’”

“They see us really as a symbol of change, how far that we’ve come as a society, and the courage it took for those people to be there in uniform—they celebrate us,” he adds.

Progress has been made within the force when it comes to the treatment of queer police—but not without a fight: In 1996, GOAL sued the NYPD for discrimination, wanting, among other things, to march in uniform at the NYC Pride March with the police marching band. By June that year, the NYPD conceded to GOAL’s demands.

“Having a voice on the inside is a very powerful agent of change,” Locke argues. “And I think the people who are on the outside—activists making points that we do hear—if they could work with the people on the inside who have a voice and want community concerns to be heard, we would be much more powerful together.”

A Compromise?

Last month, Terry Roethlein, a media volunteer with Reclaim Pride Coalition, had told NewNowNext that an apology from the NYPD for its part in the Stonewall riots in 1969, as well as an apology for the “historic and ongoing violence against members of the LGBTQ community,” would be a good place to start. Then, on June 6, the NYPD Commissioner James P. O’Neill apologized for the police’s actions at the Stonewall riots, saying, “What happened should not have happened. The actions taken by the NYPD were wrong, plain and simple.”

He added, “The actions and the laws were discriminatory and oppressive, and for that, I apologize.”

But this isn’t good enough for Reclaim Pride Coalition: “As always, [Reclaim Pride Coalition] calls for a comprehensive NYPD apology including for their ongoing brutality against marginalized groups and for a systemic change in their operations,” Roethlein wrote to NewNowNext. “Treatment of trans women, youth of color, and economically disenfranchised queer folk and POC is unacceptable and the apology, conveniently, falls very short of addressing those offenses.”

Roethlein would also like to see the issues of mistreatment raised in the National Center for Transgender Equality report be addressed.

In response to that report, the NYPD told NewNowNext that “all new officers, school safety officers, and traffic officers receive transgender identity and sensitivity training as new recruits, and again upon promotion to sergeant, lieutenant, or captain. Consistent with this training, members of service will view and refer to each person by their preferred gender identity.”

Although a compromise between the NYPD and Reclaim Pride Coalition may be a ways off, the police will still be marching in the official NYC Pride March this month in uniform, and will continue to participate into the foreseeable future.

Reclaim Pride Coalition protest.

As for Toronto: The police apologized back in 2016 for the Toronto Bathhouse Riots of 1981, which are often compared to the Stonewall Riots. They also have a series of initiatives to help mend relations with the community, though their mishandling of the Bruce McArthur case, in which eight queer Toronto men were murdered—most of whom were South Asian and Middle Eastern—has further strained the relationship between the LGBTQ community and the police.

As to whether uniformed officers should be allowed to play a role at Pride? In Toronto, it’s still a no. That said, the vote to exclude them again this year came down to 163 to 161—proof of how split opinions are on the subject.

Will uniformed police ever be allowed to march again in Canada's largest city? That will be left up to yet another vote.