LGBTQ first responders won't march in SF Pride parade
Calling it a step "back in the closet," San Francisco's LGBTQ first responders condemned the decision by San Francisco Pride to maintain its ban on uniformed police officers in the upcoming Pride parade.
In response to SF Pride's decision, LGBTQ San Francisco police officers, firefighters, and sheriff's deputies will not participate.The news of the San Francisco Fire Department's decision was announced by public information officer Lieutenant Jonathan Baxter May 20.A May 23 release by the San Francisco Police Officer's Pride Alliance stated that the San Francisco Sheriff's Department personnel would also join in solidarity in skipping participation in the parade.The board of the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee announced in September 2020 that uniformed San Francisco police officers would be banned from the parade beginning in 2021.
However, the COVID pandemic prevented a Pride parade last year so the 2022 in-person parade on June 26 is the first time since the ban was announced that it would take effect.The San Francisco Police Department's Pride Alliance's announcement came a year and a half after it began discussions with SF Pride officials about how to involve uniformed officers as participants in the parade. (SFPD will be providing security coverage of the event, as it has done in the past.)"Over the past 18 months, the San Francisco Police Officers Pride Alliance members engaged in conversations with the board of SF Pride in response to the ban on uniformed police officers that was announced in 2020," the Pride Alliance stated. "We shared stories of the courage it took to serve as both a peace officer and a member of the LGBTQ+ community.
