Yes, I’m losing a lot of my sympathy for GOAL as they insist on being armed and in uniform. Originally, HOP offered them a compromise of marching as a contingent in civilian clothes without signs and banners. They rejected that, and I can understand why.

But when HOP came back with an offer for them to march as a contingent with signs and banners but not armed and in uniform, they rejected that too. At this point, I don’t really know what GOAL is trying to accomplish.

HOP is under intense pressure from queer people of color in New York City to bar armed, uniformed cops and corrections officers from Pride. Given the NYPD’s track record of ongoing racist brutality, HOP cannot just ignore the demands of pretty much every mainstream queer rights organization in the city. And even if they could, they shouldn’t.

Everybody talked a good game last summer about listening to Black people and other people of color. Well, here we are. Push has come to shove. The top leadership of most queer rights organizations in New York City today are people of color.

So, I think it’s time to listen. It’s discouraging and telling that people keep wanting to complain about how the “rights” of a handful of queer cops are being violated (even though those cops are certainly not barred from Pride) instead of getting outraged and protesting against the racist NYPD.

It really speaks to twisted priorities.