Pride events around the country are losing their taste for having uniformed cops participate, reports Russell Conteras for Axios. Given the long history of police violence directed at queer people, such involvement was always controversial. And now the era of cops marching along is waning, along with whatever pretence of mutual respect put them there in the first place. Axios futher reports that young LGBTQ+ people now "overwhelmingly distrust police"
The San Francisco Police Officers Pride Alliance recently announced they would not march in this year's parade because Pride organizers have banned them from wearing their uniforms, Axios San Francisco's Nick Bastone reports.
Suzanne Ford, executive director of San Francisco Pride, said the presence of the police in the parade is difficult for LGBTQ members given their history with the police department. Police could march in T-shirts, she said.
"Let us be clear," the officers said in a statement. "This committee would not order the leather community to wear polyester at the parade."
Putting aside the wild wonder of analogizing their own uniforms to the leather community, that final remark rather nicely sums up why those cops, at least, shouldn't be at Pride: they see themselves fundamentally (and correctly) as outsiders. To them, participation is a convenient and inexpensive method of policing.