I am so pleased to see this. It often irks me to see what Pride has become- an often commercial venture covered in glitter that has no roots based in the political movement it began as, when there is still so much work to do. The organisers of our local pride smiling for photo ops next to Tories really fucking winds me up.
On a similar theme, from The Guardian yesterday
Pride in London says uniformed officers should not march in the parade, following calls from LGBTQ+ campaigners to bar them due to Scotland Yard’s “homophobic” handling of the investigation into the serial killer Stephen Port.
The move came after the human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said the case, which the independent police watchdog
recently announced it was reinvestigating, showed that “institutional homophobia is alive and kicking in the Metropolitan police”.
Tatchell added that the case, as well as other recent revelations of homophobia, racism and misogyny in the force, meant Pride in London needed to take a stand on police officers’ participation in the parade.
He said
if the Met police had conducted a proper investigation after the murder of Port’s first victim, Anthony Walgate, the three other young gay men Port subsequently killed would still be alive.
Officers failed to link the deaths between June 2014 and September 2015, despite striking similarities and the fact that three of the men were found in St Margaret’s churchyard, Barking, yards from Port’s home, while the fourth was found outside his flat.
Tatchell said: “While there are many good officers, and they are welcome to march in civilian clothes, Pride needs to challenge the police as an institution, otherwise they will never reform.”
In a statement, Pride in London said: “We work hard to strike a balance between the very real and legitimate concerns from members of our community, and being as welcoming as we can. We agree that the police uniform undermines that balance, and as such we are aligned that it should not feature in our parade.”
The Gay Liberation Front, which organised the first Pride march in 1972, has also
signed an open letter calling for an end to not only police taking part in the parade but also patrolling the march.
The letter, organised by
Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants, states: “The organised presence of police at Pride en masse provides a platform to an institution that represses us. Having a police presence at Pride as well as patrolling Pride, makes Pride unsafe for our community.”