I’m not a member of the gay community at all, but I’m struggling to understand this decision.
It’s not “the police” that did this - it’s an ex boyfriend who also happens to be a copper. I don’t believe there’s any insinuation that the NSW police haven’t done their jobs properly investigating the murders (someone please feel free to correct me if I’ve got this wrong), so why ask them not be inclusive by marching this year?
If a bricklayer murdered his ex boyfriend and their new lover the same way, would they ask all brickies (or tradies) to not march too? Inclusion is as much about not tarring everyone with the same brush as it is about tolerance and acceptance, and I feel the gay community could be making a misstep here.
Again, I’m not a member of the gay community, so I definitely can’t know what people who are, are feeling about this. Just observing that, from the outside, their anger and distress appear to be misdirected in this particular instance.
Brickies and tradies don’t have a history of murdering members of the community the way the cops do - especially in nsw.
Besides, a tradie rarely marches AS a tradie. They march as themselves. Cops are really the only ones who constantly insist they must march as their occupation.
I can see your points but, based on the reporting so far, it seems the accused didn’t murder them because he’s an institutionally intolerant cop, did he? It seems it had nothing to do with the uniform he wore for a job.
Also, I’m not at all saying the NSW police don’t have a shocking history of how terribly they’ve treated this particular community. But isn’t the purpose of the cops marching in uniform in the parade to demonstrate their willingness to change, starting with a public display of tolerance and inclusion?
Like I said before, I can’t honestly know how the community feels about all this. I’m just confused as to why they’re aiming their anger at the cops, when this seems to be anything other than a hate crime perpetrated by the police themselves.
Well, heres the thing.
It’s been repeatedly brought up how uncomfortable and to many inappropriate it is to have uniformed officers march at Pride events. And every. Damned. Time the cops have thrown an absolute shitfit and forced the issue.
Does that sound like a ‘public display of tolerance and inclusion’? Railroading over the top of a community for their own ends? The more they push, the more it looks like Sending A Message.
Well the gay community whatever that means is not a monolith. So while some of us rage at the police, others have a different attitude. Unfortunately these online forums often become echo chambers and if you don’t have the “correct” opinion good luck to you.
As a gay person I’ll admit I’m neither here nor there about pride, but I do see locking police out of pride as unhelpful and does nothing good to foster a relationship with the police as an institution. Police has thousands of employees and to lock out some based on the actions of others is some kind collective punishment/guilt that would not not necessarily be done to other groups. Many institutions supporting pride or actively involved in it would have a checkered history, and probably stuff that still happens today. If we really zoom in at a micro level, I wouldn’t be surprised if some pride participants haven’t demonstrated homophobia themselves at some point in their lives.
The point is if the price of admission is a squeaky clean history and angelic behavior I rather suspect many would fall short of the standard and not just Police.
People say the Police are virtue signalling, which I actually can’t stand so on that level I relate. But there is some hypocrisy here, because that is probably true of all their corporate sponsors as well. Big corporates like Coles, Qantas or Optus would not be involved if it would seriously hurt their bottom line.
It’s wrong and harmful to lock any group out of Pride celebrations. Police are not the enemy of gay people and by and large have done a lot to help protect LGBTQ andr respond to helping persecute people that commit hate crimes.
Pride is supposed to be about inclusion and acceptance. If we gay people want acceptance from society we need to be big enough to allow acceptance to all other groups also. Pride isn’t just a “gay” thing. It’s about all people everywhere being proud of their adulthood and their ability to rise above conflict and get along.
