Keep Police Out of Pride

Uniformed officers have no place in our parade.

Members of the Resistance Contingent hold a large banner reading “#SFPrideRESIST” and “San Francisco Pride Board of Directors” at the 2018 San Francisco Pride Parade. Current Interim Executive Director Suzanne Ford is in the center, wearing a “Black Trans Lives Matter” T-shirt. Photo by Pax Ahimsa Gethen, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Happy Pride Month to my fellow queer and trans folks.

I’m watching the drama over Mayor London Breed’s stance on police and San Francisco Pride from the sidelines this year, as I left my job at the San Francisco Office of Transgender Initiatives a month ago. For the record, I left because I was required to increase my work schedule from 32 to 40 hours per week, which I was unwilling and unable to do. If I’d been allowed to remain as a part-time employee, I’d still be working there today.

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In any case, since I no longer represent the City I can state publicly that I agree with Pride’s decision to prohibit police from marching in uniform, and I disapprove of Mayor Breed’s decision to pull out of the parade in response. Her withdrawal strikes me as a statement that her allyship comes with conditions. I do appreciate the mayor’s support of the trans community — including the plan to end trans homelessness in SF, announced yesterday — but she is not beyond reproach.

I also support the decisions of the City’s three LGBTQ cultural districts — The Transgender District, Castro LGBTQ Cultural District, and LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District — to pull out of City-sponsored Pride events — including tonight’s Pink Triangle lighting and tomorrow’s LGBTQ flag raising — in response to the Mayor’s pulling out of the Pride parade. I will not be attending these events either. The main Pride event I look forward to each year is the Trans March, which is normally free of elected officials.

SF LGBTQ cultural districts to skip Pride flag-raising