Gay Officers Action League to protest NYC Pride March over uniform disagreement
The Gay Officers Action League (GOAL) – an organization of LGBTQIA+ New York City Police Department officers – plans to protest Sunday's NYC Pride March over a disagreement about officers marching in full uniform.
Members of the organization will be joined by NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch on the west side of Fifth Avenue at 20th Street on Sunday morning before the March steps off.
GOAL, Heritage of Pride at odds over weapons at NYC Pride March
GOAL wants to participate in the March while wearing their full police uniforms, which means carrying concealed firearms.
Heritage of Pride, the nonprofit that organizes NYC Pride, says that goes against the weapon policy for the Pride March and offered a compromise – letting GOAL march in uniform but without carrying their service weapons.
"Members of our organization and our community feel that we need to be safe in the March and in the space that we are inhabiting together. That means no weapons," Heritage of Pride co-chair Kazz Alexander told CBS News New York.
Alexander added, "We invite GOAL to be a part of the March, just not with weapons."
In a statement, Heritage of Pride said, in part, "NYC Pride remains committed to finding a way to work with GOAL in our shared vision to improve policing as we continue creating safe spaces for the entire LGBTQIA+ community."
NYPD commissioner, GOAL president accuse Pride organizers of hypocrisy
Det. Brian Downey, the highest ranking LGBTQIA+ member of the NYPD and president of GOAL, says it's hypocritical that organizers of the march want the NYPD for protection, but won't let GOAL participate as a group.
"We're here to affect change. You're not going to erase us. You have to deal with us," he said.
Downey said GOAL members participated in the March in the early '80s, then when the NYPD formally recognized the group in the mid '90s, they began proudly marching in uniform.
"I think it's just as much of a protest for us than it is for everyone else," he said.
This isn't the first time GOAL has accused NYC Pride of excluding the group.
Back in 2021, NYC Pride announced it would ban corrections and law enforcement exhibitors at events, citing a desire to "create safer spaces for the LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC communities at a time when violence against marginalized groups, specifically BIPOC and trans communities, has continued to escalate."
At the time, GOAL's vice president called the move "shameful."
NYPD Commissioner supports GOAL
The police commissioner is standing alongside GOAL on the uniform disagreement.
"It is the height of hypocrisy that uniformed officers from GOAL are fit to line the parade route and keep everyone safe, but they are unable to march in their own uniform and under their own banner," she said during a security briefing Friday. "That is in direct opposition to the inclusivity that the LGBTQ+ community has fought so hard for."
Saturday, Tisch wrote a letter addressed to the Heritage of Pride co-chairs, saying letting GOAL members march in uniform but not letting them carry their firearms is "not a solution," but "a PR stunt."
"The inconvenient truth here is that Heritage of Pride has long understood that as a matter of officer safety and public safety, NYPD cops cannot wear their uniforms without their service weapons," Tisch wrote.
She called on organizers to reconsider and let GOAL march in uniform.