'They’ve marched, while acknowledging the pain the policing profession has inflicted on the LGBTQIA+ community in the past, and that all law enforcement can do better, including SPD,' wrote Diaz.Īccording to Diaz, the Pride board’s decision was 'met with sadness' by SPD’s more than 100 LGBTQ members. Seattle Pride’s executive board said it is the Pride movement being 'birthed from a riot against police brutality' that led them to disallowing police symbols or uniforms at the parade.ĭiaz said Seattle Police’s own LGBTQ sworn officers have marched in past parades in uniform.
Policing at the time was greatly informed by this approach, and was used to sweep queer gathering places, arrest people and expose them in newspapers in the era of McCarthyism and the Red Scare.
