Twitter Reveals that LA Pride Contacted The LAPD Prior to Black Lives Matter Regarding Their Solidarity March

Friday 5th June 2020
|In Uncategorized
|By Miles Holder

Image: Max Bender

 

It’s pride month, and while most pride celebrations were cancelled due to the outbreak of the global Covid-19 pandemic, the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police has sent a shockwave around the world. In light of the 50 statewide protests against institutionalised racism and police brutality, LA Pride took to Twitter on Wednesday to announce a demonstration in solidarity with the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Their call to action even invokes the names of Marsha P Johnson and Stormé DeLarverie, who violently defended the rights of all LGBTQ+ individuals during the Stone Wall Riots. 

 

While pride celebrations have long invited individuals of all race, genders, sexual orientations to march alongside them, LAPride added an unwelcome guest this time around – The LAPD. 

 

 

In the now-deleted Instagram post, organiser Jeff Ons uploaded his email to the Los Angeles Police Department, where he references the unified and robust partnership LA Pride has shared with the LAPD over the years. 

Now I’m no lawyer, but I can certainly see the benefits of having the support and backing of LAPD ahead of time. However, I am a gay black man, and I know bullshit when I see it. 

Footage from protests across the nation has made it very clear that excessive police force is fueling violent clashes between police and citizens. Videos of LAPD officers indefensibly performing driveby shootings or attacking peaceful protesters with batons aren’t exactly hard to find on social media. 

 

 

Inviting the LAPD to march alongside individuals protesting against them is never going to end well. While we have seen many officers take a knee in solidarity this week, hours later, those same officers were seen throwing elderly protesters to the ground. I expect we’ll see the very same this Saturday – officers in rainbow pins, kneeling for the cameras before they start a round of wack-a-gay. 

 

 

If LAPride listened to the community, they would see the dangers of collaborating with the racist and homophobic institution people are fighting so hard to tear down. Julia Dupuis has tweeted about their experience after being placed under arrest on June 2nd. 

 

 

LAPride have previously come under fire for their solidarity event for their lack of communication with any Black leadership or Black Lives Matter organisations before announcing this march. While responsible allyship is proving to be a difficult concept for many brands to grasp this week, the fact that LAPride has had more communication with the LAPD than the black communities they’re marching in solidarity with is a huge red flag.

 

It’s clear that LA Pride has the best intentions with this event and I will give them credit for using their platform to bring attention to a very serious cause, but that doesn’t mean that they are above criticism. The LGBTQ+ community has long suffered from the abuse of police forces across the globe with people of colour still receiving the brunt of this abuse to this day. We are a time of monumental global change and I still remain hopeful that with better communication between LA Pride and the black gay community, we can march on towards a better world.

Black Lives Matter.

Find out how you can support the Black Lives Matter Movement by clicking the link below!

https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/#donate