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NYC Pride bans police from events until 2025 in effort to 'create safer spaces'
ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images

NYC Pride bans police from events until 2025 in effort to 'create safer spaces'

NYC Pride, the group in charge of New York City's annual Pride March, announced over the weekend that it has moved to ban police from events until at least 2025 as part of an effort to make LGBT individuals feel "safer" and challenge officers to "acknowledge their harm."

What are the details?

In a press release on Saturday, the group argued its decision to prohibit police from events would "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."

"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 stated, adding it is "unwilling to contribute in any way to creating an atmosphere of fear or harm for members of the community."

"Effective immediately, NYC Pride will ban corrections and law enforcement exhibitors at NYC Pride events until 2025. At that time their participation will be reviewed by the Community Relations and Diversity, Accessibility, and Inclusion committees, as well as the Executive Board," the press release continued.

Under the new guidance, all law enforcement officers — reportedly including members of the Gay Officers Action League (GOAL) — will be called on only when "absolutely necessary as mandated by city officials" and even then will be required to keep "at least one city block away from event perimeter areas."

According to NYC Pride, replacing New York City police and other law enforcement at events will be a combination of "trained private security, community leaders, and volunteers."

What else?

In the statement, the group also challenged law enforcement to "acknowledge their harm" and correct their course moving forward in order to perhaps begin to make "impactful change."

But in a statement responding to the news, the president of GOAL called the group's decision to ban police from events "shameful" and "demoralizing."

"Their response to activist pressure is to take the low road by preventing their fellow community members from celebrating their identities and honoring the shared legacy of the Stonewall Riots," Detective Brian Downey said in a statement ahead of NYC Pride's announcement, Fox News reported.

Other members of New York City law enforcement reportedly referred to the move as "misguided" and "disheartening."

"The idea of officers being excluded is disheartening and runs counter to our shared values of inclusion and tolerance," Detective Sophia Mason added. "That said, we'll still be there to ensure traffic safety and good order during this huge, complex event."

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