If nothing changes and New York City’s Pride Parade insists upon barring uniformed police officers, members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community organizing the parade will send a clear message to their brothers and sisters who also happen to be cops: You aren’t welcome in our community if you have taken the oath to serve and protect New Yorkers. Choose the NYPD or the LGBT community, not both. And that will be tremendously destructive for both groups.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Leaders of the city’s preeminent gay and lesbian event can be prodded to come to their senses — if prominent New Yorkers and others who would normally be marching toward the front of the parade stand up and say barring uniformed cops is divisive and won’t serve the cause of reforming policing.
All you mayoral candidates, who aspire to lead the police department and purport to care about supporting New York’s gay and lesbian community. Here’s an early test: Will you embolden rank divisiveness? Will you stand by the principle that police officers who are gay have to hide their uniforms if they wish to celebrate their sexuality? What about you, Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, and Gov. Cuomo, and Mayor de Blasio?
We’re looking at you, Rep. Ritchie Torres, who has shown the courage to buck progressive orthodoxy in other areas. And you, Rep. Mondaire Jones. Imagine the message it would send if the first two gay, Black members of Congress said they won’t be part of Pride unless all who identify as members of the LGBT community, no matter their occupation, are allowed to participate.
You, too, former Council Speaker Chris Quinn, and you, and you, current Council speaker and current controller candidate Corey Johnson, and you, too, state Sen. Brad Hoylman.
Don’t duck. Don’t weasel. Show some damn moral courage.
