officers but regards itself as here to protect the L.G.B.T. “We have traveled in a space of a few decades to a point now where this N.Y.P.D. It also prohibits officers from strip-searching a person to determine their gender. In 2012, in a move hailed as a victory by activists, the Police Department changed its patrol guide to require officers to refer to transgender people by their preferred names and pronouns, and to abide by their gender identity when housing them.
Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender officers serve openly, and training at the Police Academy and throughout the department now includes lessons on how to act with awareness and sensitivity. Today, police officials say, the department has evolved into a far different organization than what it was five decades ago. “But we are counting on the Police Department to do the best job they can to protect all of our guests.” “We know that it can be intimidating for people to see that kind of weaponry at an event,” said James Fallarino, a spokesman for NYC Pride, which organized the weeklong events that culminate with the march. This year, with a larger crowd expected, the police said the bigger deployment was necessary. Over the past three decades, organizers said, they have forged a better relationship with the Police Department and worked closely with them in discussions on security before the march, which drew an estimated 1.6 million people last year.
And last week, the Audre Lorde Project, an organization focused on social justice for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender minorities and named for the civil rights activist, condemned the “militarization of our mourning.” The group urged gay people to turn to “each other for community safety rather than relying on systems that were never meant for us.” “If anything, the only thing that came to mind was, ‘This gun is so big you have to hold it with two hands.’ The only thing you’re doing is shooting someone, killing a person, and that is terrifying.”ĭuring a vigil attended by thousands outside the Stonewall Inn, jeers and calls to “end police brutality” drowned out Police Commissioner William J. “Nothing about that made me feel safe,” said Fred Ginyard, the director of organizing for Fierce, a group focused on supporting young lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender minority members. Officials said the response, similar to their handling of events like the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade or Pope Francis’s visit last year, was meant to reassure people as well as protect them. “You will be protected.”īut the plans for a heightened security presence, amplified after the mass killings this month inside a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., have highlighted a rift between the police and some in the gay community over the very definition of “security.” It is a disagreement, activists said, that is rooted in a turbulent history, which has left some lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people feeling disrespected and marginalized by the police force, rather than protected by it.Īfter the Orlando shootings, the Police Department in New York stepped up its presence, deploying officers armed with long guns at gay landmarks and gathering places, such as the Stonewall Inn in the West Village. “You will be safe,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said, speaking of the gay pride march at a news conference at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center on Thursday. Officers will be posted on rooftops along the route and even on boats in the Hudson River, standing by as marchers approach the endpoint, in Greenwich Village. Some will be on the streets in uniform, others in plain clothes.
As the annual march, with its dozens of floats and some 20,000 participants, proceeds down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan in a celebration of lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual pride on Sunday, thousands of New York City police officers will be spread among the crowd.