NYC Pride parade fills streets with glitter and glee but wannabe NYPD marchers still banned from wearing uniforms
More than a million people filled Manhattan on Sunday for the largest annual Pride parade in North America — while LGBTQ cops turned out in droves to protest from the sidelines.As revelers dressed in glitter, drag and other festive attire packed the streets surrounding the downtown parade route, the officers were furious that they are still barred from marching in their NYPD uniforms.“It takes a tremendous amount of courage to be out.It takes an even more tremendous amount of courage to be out in uniform,” said NYPD Detective Brian Downey, president of the Gay Officers Action League.But the party remained uninterrupted for the throngs of sanctioned participants as the parade snaked through Madison Square Park, down Fifth Avenue, through Greenwich Village and up Seventh Avenue — with rainbow flags and smiles flying from start to finish.“I’m out here making sure our voices are loud and proud and heard.
It’s more important now than ever,” said 30-year-old Audacity Mansfield, who wore a “Mr.Gay New Jersey” sash won at a pageant earlier this month.“If we don’t have pride, then we don’t really have anything,” Mansfield said.
“If we can’t be proud of who we are or if we can’t be proud of our community, what are we out here for?” This year’s parade fell on the 10th anniversary of the legalization of gay marriage in the US and also commemorated the 1969 Stonewall riots — which helped spark the country’s gay-rights movement — with the theme “Rise Up: Pride in Protest.”But one part of the queer community that was left out of the festivities for the fifth year in a row were uniformed LGBTQ NYPD officers who were told by organizers they couldn’t march in their blues.“We will not be erased,” read signs carried by cops watching from the sidelines, along with others reading, “Let gay cops back into march,” and, “Our uniform is our protest.”NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch turned out to support the officers, calling the...