Organizers of New York City’s Pride Parade announced Saturday police officers and other law enforcement officials will be banned from their events, including the annual LGTBQ march, until 2025.
Heritage of Pride, which organizes the annual march, is also working to reduce the presence of on-duty New York Police Department (NYPD) officers and first responders by attempting to keep law enforcement separated from any NYC Pride event by “one city block.”
The group said it has increased its security budget for the June march and “will allow NYC Pride to independently build a first response emergency plan using private security and provide safety volunteers with de-escalation training.”
In the statement released Saturday, the group said it “challenge[s] law enforcement to acknowledge their harm and to correct course moving forward.”
“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,” the group added.
NYC Pride said traditional police units will be used “only when absolutely necessary as mandated by city officials.”
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A fraternal organization formed in 1982 for LGBTQ officers known as the Gay Officers Action League (GOAL), condemned the move in Friday night, breaking the announcement ahead of the NYC Pride’s planned release.
In a Friday night statement, GOAL called the decision “shameful” and “demoralizing.”
“Heritage of Pride is well aware that the city would not allow a large–scale event to occur without police presence. So their response to activist pressure is to take the low road by preventing their fellow community members from celebrating their identities,” GOAL President Brian Downey said.
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Roughly 200 members of GOAL and their families participate in the march each year, Dan Dimant, a spokesman for NYC Pride told Fox News.
Dimant said the group understood GOAL members would be “disappointed” by the move, but said the decision was a “community based” process to address concerns regarding LGBTQ safety.
