AURORA | Hours after organizers of Denver Pride, the largest annual celebration of LGBTQ rights in the state, announced that police officials will be barred from participating in this year’s festivities, officials tied to Aurora’s Pride celebration announced they will not preclude any one group, including police, from participating in Pride events this summer.
Officials connected with The Center, a longstanding LGBTQ advocacy group that organizes Denver’s Pride celebrations, said the group “cannot in good conscience, as an organization that speaks up for justice, look the other way when it comes to police violence aimed at the Black community,” according to a statement issued May 19.
“While we value our relationships with law enforcement and want to continue to build a safer community for all Coloradans, we feel we must take a stand,” Rex Fuller, CEO of The Center, wrote in the emailed statement. “We have decided to not allow police participation in the 2021 virtual pride parade or to allow law enforcement agencies to participate as exhibitors.”
The announcement follows a similar edict issued by organizers of New York City’s massive Pride parade last week that bars police participation.
But organizers of Aurora’s Pride celebrations, first launched in 2017, took a different tact late Wednesday, saying that no specific group will be prevented from attending planned events in August.
“We understand and support (people of color) members of our community advocating for police reform, and that experiences of harm from police violence have led them to advocate for police not being at Pride,” officials said in a statement released Wednesday night. “In the spirit of being in community together, Aurora Pride will not exclude any person or organization from any of its LGBTQ+ events.”
The announcement came shortly after several gay Aurora police officers spoke out against the decision in Denver.
“I am acutely aware of perceptions and of a strained relationship between police and communities across the nation,” Aurora Police Sgt. Bill Hummel wrote to Pride organizers in an open letter. “I wholeheartedly agree in police reform and getting to a place where our community trusts their police. Legislation, transparent practices and a raw dialogue are some things that will help us accomplish this … exclusion is not the answer. Excluding the police and further fracturing the relationship that we are working to repair is not how we accomplish change.”
Both Aurora police and fire officials have attended Denver pride events with fire apparatus and recruiting stations for nearly a decade. In 2019, Aurora police recruiter Abdul Syidi told The Sentinel it was a valuable event for recruiting new police officers.
“It comes and goes as far as getting applicants, but, yes, it’s worth it for us to show up,” he said. “(Pride) is a big deal for us. We really like it.”
Denver Pride events are primarily scheduled in the city the weekend of June 26 and 27. Aurora festivities are slated for the first weekend in August.
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