Police Officers in Uniform should be in Pride Parades

This has a substantial benefit for the physical safety of Gays.

The presence of police officers greatly improves the physical safety of the Gay community, but also is part of inclusion of our whole community. I am going to have three sections about this topic, first about physical safety, second about exclusion, and the third about inclusion.

Safety:

1.       When perpetrators of violence against a minority group feel they have the sympathy of law enforcement, either of individual officers or the police department organization, either publicly or covertly, they are encouraged to commit violence against the minority to whom they are hostile against.

When there is an official contingent of police officers in uniform marching in the Pride parade it sends a message to Gay bashers that the police department and police officers are not sympathetic to their crimes. They can also expect that the police to take vigorous action when a Gay bashing is committed.

So, an official contingent of uniformed police officers at Pride is a powerful deterrent against Gay bashing.

2.      When there is an official contingent of uniformed police officers at Pride, it sends a message to any possible homophobic police officers that their prejudices against Gays isn’t supported by the leadership of the police department. That homophobic behavior by them in the execution of their official duties is not going to be tolerated by the police department. Also, their homophobia is not likely to be favorably received by their peers and will be frowned upon by their supervisors.

So, an official contingent of uniformed police officers at Pride is a powerful deterrent against a culture of homophobia within the police department.

3.      Having Gays in the police department benefits the security of Gay people in two ways:

3.1.   It helps prevent a culture of homophobia in the police department promote some understanding of the Gay community.

3.2.  Gay officers can provide information about the Gay community useful to the police department to protect the Gay community.

4.      One of the great problems in fighting Gay bashing has been getting victims to report their crimes to the police so the police can act.

Criminals have often targeted Gays specifically because they know they are unlikely to even report a crime.

One factor has been that the victim is closeted and fears that reporting the crime will result in him being outed. The other factor is that a Gay person would hesitate to report a crime to a police department which he would fear being hostile to him and Gays in general, and would at best grudgingly do anything about the crime against him.

So, an official contingent of uniformed police officers at Pride is a powerful encouragement to Gays to report to the police department any crimes committed against them.

In summary, the presence of an official contingent of uniformed police officers at Pride is a tremendous boost to the physical security of the Gay community.

Exclusion:

First, it might be considered how declaring an occupation as being unclean encourages homophobia in that occupation.

Second, when there is a problem with Gay bashing in the community, how exactly do we demand more police protection? Basically we are saying, “You are too foul to be in our parade, but we demand more of your protection.”

Inclusion:

Gays are present in all the occupations. As the old saying goes, we are everywhere. The meaning of the rainbow flag is that Gays are a diversity reflecting the larger society and hope to include all Gays as much as possible.

Also, who decides which classes or groups of Gays are the untouchable classes? Because of global warming will we exclude coal miners from Pride? Because of gentrification will real estate agents be excluded from Pride? Maybe Marxists might argue that bankers be excluded?

Largely the Gays and the LGBTQXYZ who are for the exclusion of police are for the exclusion of police on the basis that they are everywhere inherently evil. This is simply prejudice and discrimination.

They are the Gays for whom the needs of the Gay community are forever subordinate to whatever liberal/left faction of which they might be a part think about the police. These are the Gays who are forever pointing out the homophobia of Republicans and conservatives, but have excuses for liberals and left when they express homophobia.

It also demonstrates that Pride events aren’t for the whole Gay community, but merely for the benefit of a narrow ideological faction.

Given that violence against Gays has been a severe and ongoing concern of Gays for generations as long as we can find historical records, this self-indulgence of these Gays should be recognized as an attack on the security of Gays that it is.