Beyond the colourful beads, glitter everywhere and the beautiful sea of rainbow, it’s important to remember that the origin of Pride marching is not as a celebratory parade, but as a defiant protest against oppression. With the 2022 Sydney Mardis Gras festival and parade just around the corner, the question of police involvement is once again being raised. Allowing police to participate in the Pride march – uniformed or not – is a contentious issue within the queer community, with growing support for the #NoPoliceInPride movement.
Here’s everything you need to know about the presence of police at Mardi Gras and Pride marches.
The ‘No Police in Pride’ Movement
Pinkwashing refers to the appropriation of the LGBTIQA+ movement to promote a particular corporate or political agenda. In this case, by putting together a float to participate in the Pride march once a year the police market themselves as “Queer-friendly”, without confronting the violent and hateful relationship police orgnisations actually have with the LGBTIQA+ community.
Pride in Protest organiser, and former Sydney Mardi Gras board member, Charlie Murphy says police should not be considered a ‘friend’ to marginalised communities. “We recognize the police as a non progressive force. The police continue to be part of a system which kills Aboriginal people on the street and in prisons, and causes violence towards Queer people and transgender people in our society. We say the reason why the police want to be part of the parade is an effort in public relations and to Pinkwash their activities.”
Hiero Badge, a Queer writer and philosopher, explains that having uniformed police at Pride events does not create a safe environment for the community. “According to the ABS General Social Survey, only half of gay, lesbian and bisexual people feel they can trust the police. Further, 3 in 4 respondents to a 2020 survey conducted by the Victorian Pride Lobby believed that Victoria Police should not march in uniform. For trans and gender diverse participants it’s almost 9 out of 10 people.”
The lack of trust comes from how police treat these communities. There are too many examples, some disturbingly recent, of police using excessive force, engaging in bullying and harassment, conducting targeted raids, refusing to help victims of hate crimes, and generally treating queer people with a lack of respect or even abuse.
When it comes to protest of any kind, it is the police who try to either shut it down or meet protestors with batons and pepper spray. Even the very first Sydney Mardi Gras March in 1978 ended in police brutality and mass arrests.
The pushback against police participating in Mardi Gras and Pride argues that police organisations cannot protest against the very institutional power they enforce.
More than 1000 LGBTQIA+ people signed the petition to demand that Victoria Police pull out of Pride. We’ve delivered this to the police but they still plan to take part later today against community wisheshttps://t.co/n8EKiWctxX
— Joshua Badge (@joshuabadge) February 5, 2022
How have Pride organisations responded to the movement?
The protest against police at Pride is gathering momentum, and increasing pressure on official Mardi Gras and Pride organisations around the country to respond.
In NSW, Pride in Protest is asking Sydney Mardi Gras to not allow police to participate in the parade and de-corporatise the festival (which Auckland Pride did in 2018). Mardi Gras has not acted on the request, but it has stood down two board members involved with Pride in Protest, including Murphy).
In Victoria, No Police at Pride have published an open letter from more than 140 LGBTIQA+ academics, activists, artists, lawyers, performers and writers, plus a petition of 1,180 signatures from the broader Queer community, calling on Victoria Police to cease participating as an organisation at Melbourne Pride. Despite this, police did indeed take part in the 2022 March.
In Queensland, the Brisbane Pride Association will continue to allow Queensland Police Officers to march at the Brisbane Pride Festival Rally, but in 2021 requested that officers do not march in uniform.
How have Police organisations responded?
As mentioned, Victoria Police marched in 2022 despite the significant petition submitted by the Queer community. In NSW, the police spokesperson Gelina Talbot said in 2021 that NSW Police was committed to continuing to march. “We acknowledge our history, and therefore the importance of working closely with the community and in participating in the Mardi Gras Festival, to reduce barriers to reporting crime, and to publicly and proudly state our support for the LGBTIQ community.”
Police organisations say that marching is a way to show support and strive for inclusion of their own LGBTIQA+ employees, and the broader queer community. But there’s an important distinction to make here: an individual who is a police officer can participate in Pride, but organisers are asking they don’t march under the banner of an institution that is harmful to the LGBTIQA+ community.
As Murphy says, “It’s not about certain individuals. It’s about institutions. If a police officer wants to march in the parade they can march with their water polo team or another social group.”
View this post on Instagram
Can police bodies become better allies?
We asked both Murphy and Badge what it would take for police organisations to prove their allyship to the LGBTIQA+ communities.
The first step is for police bodies to address their own internal issues, before bringing those problems into queer spaces. “The Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission report in 2019 exposed an entrenched culture of homophobia and transphobia in the Force and VIctoria Police has done almost nothing to address this. First and foremost, they can listen to the community and respect our wishes instead of forcing themselves into our spaces and making people unsafe,” says Badge.
Beyond that, Murphy says Australia needs to question the amount of power police have and re-examine who the institution is actually safe for. “When it comes to larger and bigger questions around defunding the police… We need a movement about actually chipping away at the sheer amount of power that cops have in our society.”
If you are a Queer person who found this article to be distressing and would like to talk to someone can call QLife 3pm to midnight every day on 1800 184 527 or chat to someone online at QLife.org.au.
Comments are closed.