¢ War of the words: Cops at Pride

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WAR OF THE WORDS

Pride includes

police

» Cops should absolutely be allowed at Pride events

Jessica Berget Opinions Editor

Ge the not-so-great history of police officers and the 2SLGBTQ+ community, most infamously with the Stonewall

riots in 1969, I can understand people's reasoning that cops should not be allowed at Pride. However, considering how much has changed and that there are now many out-and-proud police officers,

the idea that cops in uniform should be banned from Pride is counterproductive.

It has now been 50 years since those events took place and times and attitudes have changed drastically since then. Being gay is no longer illegal or widely seen as morally wrong and is now more accepted than ever before. Because of this, many police officers are out as gay and proud, so to deny them the right to celebrate their Pride as homosexual cops in an establishment that was once rampant with homophobia doesn’t make any sense. 2SLGBTQ+ cops are still members of the 2SLGBTQ+ community, and letting cops march with Pride is a great way to let them show their solidarity and support for the community, so what good comes from not letting them attend in uniform?

Furthermore, having a strong, authoritative entity such as the police celebrating and defending Pride alongside many other proud 2SLGBTQ+ people and allies is a huge step in the right direction. I think refusing to let uniformed cops attend will only cause more tension

in the already-fraught relationship between police officers and the 2SLGBTQ+ community. I know police brutality or harassment is a major reason why many say cops should not be allowed at Pride, but I don’t believe in banishing a whole establishment for the awful actions of a few. I’m not saying we should ignore what happened in the past or what continues to happen in our society, but we should be able to build bridges from those events. In this case, I believe police officers are part of the solution, not part of the problem.

Sandy-Leo Laframboise, a Métis and trans activist, has shared this contention of cops being allowed in Pride and even took part in launching the petition “Our Pride Includes Our Police.” In an interview with the National Post she explained her reasoning.

“Banning the police from the Pride parade will undermine our commitment to diversity and inclusion and all the work we've done,” said Laframboise. “They want to remove an entity that we've been working with for over 40 years.”

The National Post article explains that Laframboise was a gay and trans sex worker in Canada in the ’7os and is no stranger to police brutality, but still thinks they should be included in Pride events. “I’ve had my fair share of injustices that we're speaking about, but I also think that we've evolved from that,” she said.

I believe that Pride is something everyone should be involved in. At the centre of these Pride events is a message that opts for inclusivity and openness, so it makes no sense to refuse anyone from attending.

Photo by Tim Evanson on Flickr

No cops at Pride, please

» Police should respect the wishes of marginalized people

Bex Peterson Editor-in-Chief

he debate crops up every year

over the month of June and throughout the summer as Pride events are held around the world— do cops belong at Pride?

To say it’s a contentious issue would be an understatement. If you have an opinion it’s bound to bea strong one, and for a while I had of a sort of pan-inclusive opinion. Everyone should be at Pride, right? Pride brings people together! What could possibly be a more powerful symbol of how far we've come, a nice bridge between two communities with a tumultuous history, than cops marching in uniform with Pride flags draped over police cruisers?

The fact that I’m white should really go without saying at this point, but it bears noting. | am mostly cis-presenting (if clockably queer) too. These intersections of privilege mean that I can write about “my” community having a “tumultuous history” with cops without a second thought. “My” community—cis- presenting white gays—are rarely, if ever, at risk of abuse by law enforcement. For many 2SLGBTQ+ people however, police oppression and brutality are absolutely still present realities, not just bygone notes in history—yes, in Canada, and yes, in Vancouver.

As outlined in an excellent feature by our Opinions Editor Jess Berget, Pride itself began as a riot against police abuse spearheaded by trans women of colour. Despite this, people of colour on the whole and trans people of colour especially have had to fight to have their voices heard and respected within 2SLGBTQ+ spaces, with the viewpoints of white people largely prioritized.

People of colour have made their discomfort with the presence of uniformed police officers marching in Pride known over the years, for obvious reasons. On a global scale, one does not need to look south of the border to find examples of institutionalized police violence

against Black and Indigenous people (as just one case study, I highly recommend listening to Canadaland’s Thunder Bay podcast). Here in the Lower Mainland, our local Black Lives Matter branch protested Vancouver Pride until

the organization scaled back police presence in the parade.

“Asa [Black] queer person in Vancouver, I have never felt that there was an event that felt good or safe for me to go to,” said one of the protest organizers, Daniella Barreto, to the CBC back in 2017. “We don't feel safe in a parade that celebrates a violent institution that consistently contributes to violence against [Black], Indigenous, and people of colour.’

Barreto’s concerns aren't unfounded. BC Premier John Horgan himself expressed concerns last summer about the VPD’s “street check” records, which showed that police disproportionally targeted Indigenous and Black people. Pride is also meant to be inclusive of sex workers, another marginalized community with a significant crossover with gay and trans communities that the police often target. If the marginalized people Pride is meant to celebrate aren't able to attend Pride for fear of encountering an institution with an ongoing track record of harassing them, then what exactly is the point of Pride in the first place?

I understand the instinct to think of Pride as some kind of healing trust exercise where we all join hands and forget our differences. However, the problems of police harassing marginalized communities won't be solved by ignoring the safety and comfort of people of colour so a uniformed cop can get a photo op—and for the record, it’s not as though individual cops out of uniform and off-duty are banned from the celebrations. Trust has to be earned, and trust cannot exist without choice. A good way to start building that trust would be to respect the boundaries of marginalized people when and where they are placed.