No Cops In Pride

Say NO to Shitty Pages pinkwashing local police!

Their article is here - Meet the gay Twin Cities cops who straddle the rift between police, community

Here's why that's not okay:

Members of an armed group meant to serve a state with a long history of homophobia demand to be in uniform at a pride parade. This is the Twin Cities police departments. And the City Pages, has decided that they would feature an article about how LGBT+ cops felt about that. And only cops…

Where to start with that article? The hook that uses a crack addict to bring attention to Hutchinson, to then get into his story of coming out? The foolishness of seeing Hutchinson’s election as only for his gay identity, rather than the defeat of reprehensible racist Stanek and the desperate need for change in the system? The way it treats the feelings of people who choose a career in a force that has a history of oppression and violence as more important than the harm their work has done to the community at large?

Using the LGBTQ+ struggle for liberation and rights as a way to make police sympathetic is on par to the “Very fine people on both sides,” line of Donald Trump. The article talks of the struggle police officers faced when being gay or lesbian, no mentions of a trans officer. The struggle to be out and in a profession is felt everywhere. However, that doesn’t give the institution that is law enforcement a free pass for the history of racism, transphobia, homophobia and suicide-baiting. When an entire institution has such a history, they should be subject to scrutiny about their place in a month celebrating the riot against that very institution.

Queer and trans people of any profession are welcome at Pride, however, symbols of institutions and groups that have harmed us, such as police badges or uniforms, the GOP elephant, and outdated versions of the DSM, are not welcome. That’s like bringing a Confederate flag to a Juneteenth festival.