NYPD commissioner decries excluding gay officers' group from NYC Pride March

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch took organizers of Sunday's NYC Pride March to task Friday for excluding armed and uniformed members of the department's Gay Officers Action League as part of a policy adopted in 2021 banning all law enforcement from the event.

"It is the height of hypocrisy that uniformed officers from GOAL are fit to line the parade route and keep everyone safe, but they are unable to march in their own uniform and under their own banner," Tisch said at a news conference to discuss security for the march.

"That is in direct opposition to the inclusivity that the LGBTQ+ community has fought so hard for," the police commissioner added.

Heritage of Pride, the nonprofit organization overseeing Sunday's events, placed a ban on corrections and law enforcement exhibitors in 2021 with plans to review the policy this year, according to a statement from the group at the time. After a review, Heritage of Pride said police officers can march Sunday in dress uniform, but without their service weapon, said the organization's media director, Chris Piedmont, in a statement.

In a 2021 statement explaining the ban, Heritage of Pride said: "The sense of safety that law enforcement is meant to provide can instead be threatening, and at times dangerous, to those in our community who are most often targeted with excessive force and/or without reason," adding that they were "unwilling to contribute" to "creating an atmosphere of fear or harm."

Tisch said based on discussions she and Det. Brian Downey, president of the Gay Officers Action League, also known as GOAL, had with march organizers, they believed the NYPD group would be allowed to walk in uniform. About two weeks ago, the police commissioner said Friday, they were notified officers can participate but without a service weapon.

Piedmont in the statement, said "everyone is welcome to March with NYC Pride, so long as they follow our rules and guidelines, in place to ensure the protection of our marchers, spectators, and community."

The Gay Officers Action League asked for an exception to the organization’s weapons ban policy.

NYC Pride’s members voted to continue the policy, without any exceptions.

"We’ve heard the justifications. We’ve heard that it’s about safe spaces and community trauma, and we respect and we acknowledge that trauma is real," Downey said during the news conference, "but this policy does not create safety. It creates friction and fiction."

The NYPD will maintain a security presence during the parade and festival, Tisch said, including uniformed officers posted along the route, along with traffic agents and personnel from the emergency service, mounted, K-9 and harbor units.

There will also be counterterrorism teams, along with helicopters and drones, she said.

No credible threats to the event have been reported to the department but the NYPD has been operating in a "heightened threat environment."

"And for that reason we're not doing things differently, but you're gonna see more of it, more officers, more sanitation trucks, more drones."