Debate rages over police marching at Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras ahead of vote
NSW Police march at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade in 2013. (AAP: Tracey Nearmy)
In short:
NSW Police are facing fresh calls to be banned from marching at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.
Three resolutions relating to police marching in the parade will be put to a vote at the Mardi Gras annual general meeting tomorrow.
NSW Premier Chris Minns has slammed the potential ban despite LGBTQ+ community consultation showing a majority of members do not want police to take part.
NSW Police are facing fresh calls to be banned from marching at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, which the NSW premier has described as a "slap in the face" and "divisive".
At tomorrow's Mardi Gras annual general meeting, members will vote on three resolutions on police participating in the parade after uniformed officers were banned from joining the 2024 march.
The differing proposals are being put forward by the current Mardi Gras board, Rainbow Labor NSW, and LGBTQ+ activist group Pride in Protest.
The board's motion, based on community consultation, proposes that "NSW Police Force not be able to march in the parade until such time as they demonstrate a commitment to improving relationships with LGBTQIA+ communities".
By contrast, Rainbow Labor's proposal would allow police to march as long as they did so out of uniform and without their service weapon.
Pride in Protest's motion seeks to ban police from marching outright.
Pride in Protest has consistently campaigned for the exclusion of NSW Police from the parade citing a culture of homophobia within the force and an adversarial attitude towards unsolved gay hate deaths.
Premier and police minister place pressure on organisers
NSW Premier Chris Minns has slammed the potential banning of police marching at next year's Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.
"I think it would be a slap in the face for [NSW Police] if the organisers disinvite them," he said in a press conference yesterday.
"It's a bit hypocritical to ban them from marching if you're going to rely on them, as everybody does for major events, for security."
NSW Premier Chris Minns says a ban would be a "slap in the face". (AAP: Bianca De Marchi)
Police Minister Yasmin Catley echoed the premier's pro-police stance, saying the proposed ban "would divide rather than unite the community — the opposite of what Mardi Gras is about".
Pride in Protest spokesperson and Mardi Gras board candidate Damien Nguyen disagreed with the minister's comments.
"The NSW Police Force marching in Mardi Gras is totally in opposition to creating an inclusive parade," he said.
"There are so many communities that are made to feel intimidated, unsafe and excluded because of the presence of police."
"It's not actually a choice between inclusion or exclusion — it's a choice between which communities we want to welcome in our movement.
LGBTQ+ activist group Pride in Protest at Taylor Square. (ABC News: Jason Om)
"We can choose to prioritise the countless victims of police violence, people impacted by Blak deaths in custody and traumatising strip searches, sex workers, drug users, and queer and trans people profiled and targeted by police, or we can choose to favour an institution whose violence against our community is well-documented and ongoing.
"If an individual cop wants to march in the parade, they don't have to do it as a representative of the Police Force. Like every other LGBT person, they can march with a local community group, church group, musical group or any other part of civil society they engage with when they're not in uniform."
Strained relationship between NSW Police and LGBTQ+ community
Mardi Gras began in 1978 as a protest against LGBTQ+ discrimination, including police brutality against the LGBTQ+ community and other minority groups.
Those attacks were part of a broader culture of "shameful homophobia, transphobia and prejudice" within NSW Police that contributed to gay hate crimes being ignored or improperly investigated over many years.
The special commission of inquiry into unsolved LGBTIQ hate crimes was established in 2022 to investigate unsolved suspected hate crime deaths of LGBTQ+ people in NSW between 1970 and 2010.
The final report from the inquiry was published in December last year and contained a key finding that:
"Historically the NSW Police Force failed in its responsibility to properly investigate cases of historical gay and transgender hate crime and this has undermined the confidence of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) communities in the NSW Police Force".
In handing down the report, Commissioner Justice John Sackar stopped short of formally recommending NSW Police issue an apology to the LGBTQ+ community as he felt that a "forced" apology would be of "limited value".
NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley said the force was deeply committed to strengthening its relationship with the LGBTQ+ community.
Mr Sackar urged NSW Police to consider issuing an apology that did not seek to qualify or minimise the role that police played in harming the LGBTQ+ community.
"In my view, an apology is not only appropriate, but the absence to date of an apology from the commissioner of the NSWPF has been extremely difficult to understand," he said.
Despite this, NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb declined to make an apology until February this year, in the wake of the alleged double murder of gay couple Jesse Baird and Luke Davies by then NSW Police officer Beau Condon-Lamarre.
Division within LGBTQ+ community
Police inclusion in the Mardi Gras parade has divided the LGBTQ+ community.
Loading...Earlier this year, Mardi Gras conducted community consultations and found that 54 per cent of those surveyed believed police should not march.
Rainbow Labor NSW co-convenor Mits Delisle told RN Breakfast this morning that he felt the issue was "not a big deal" and that "the broader community wants police to participate".