Part “Hobson’s pledge”, part “Blue Lives Matter, with a thin rainbow veneer. Their rhetoric appears to be lifted straight from talkback radio. Intimidation, gas-lighting the victims of police violence and outright assault of a Maori trans women this is what the loud majority in the LGBT community have stooped to in order to defend the right of a largely heterosexual police contingent to dominate the parade.
The core argument appears to be one of inclusion but if we want to talk about not excluding straight allies then how about we talk about not excluding Maori. During my time working with the Mana Movement I never once encountered discrimination due to my gender identity when I am a guest on a Marae even as a Pakeha my gender identity is always respected a stark contrast to the Pakeha establishment who many in the LGBT community wish to make peace with. Naturally, Maori LGBT people have expressed concern with the police marching in uniform so to include the police (who let's be honest are really lousy allies) we exclude a large portion of the Maori community who can be very valuable allies.
Perhaps it would be prudent to take a quick look at the history of the New Zealand police as an organization to remind ourselves just why so many are uncomfortable with this organization being present. Founded in the early days of colonization the organization that became the New Zealand police assisted in the colonial conflict against tribes that the settler government judged to be rebellious. Of course, the force was open to high ranking Kupapa males as it followed the model of the Royal Irish Constabulary As Maori were displaced from the land in the 20th century and moved into working class communities next to other workers. The police moved to an English model but the systematic racism remained in the background. Working class Maori communities remain the target of police violence and LGBT Maori and other LGBT workers living in these communities are subject to police violence throughout most of their lives.
At the core of this is a failure for the privileged within the LGBT community to compromise to allow wider participation in a more open less pinkwashed pride parade. The old politics of respectability where the wealthy LGBT people largely ignored the plight of the less well off in the community during the days of riots like Stonewall and Compton's cafeteria until the latter brought gains that the former stood no chance of getting. Now that they have ridden on the back of the hard-fought struggle of women like Marsha P Johnson and Sylvia Rivera to a comfortable place in the establishment. They take pride in pissing on the legacy of stonewall with rainbow Police Cars, glittery ATMs and war criminals with rainbow banners. We must bring pride back to its roots and that starts with the gay police officers leaving their uniforms on the racks and marching with us as equals something that would never be passable while representing a systemically oppressive organization.
