An Invitation to GOAL
BY ANDRÉ THOMAS
The controversy surrounding
Heritage of
Pride (HOP)’s decision
to not allow uniformed
and armed police offi cers to march
as a part of our annual celebration
and stewardship of Pride has
centered around the ideal of Pride
and the LGBTQIA+ movement being
“inclusive.” For members of the
BIPOC and trans communities,
the backlash against the decision
again exposed to the straight world
the dirty little secret of the wider
LGBTQIA+ community: it’s not.
What’s exposing this secret: that
we are not who we claim to be, that
we may have come out of the closet
only to live in a bubble, that we’ve
given a gift to our adversaries who
revel in calling us hypocrites, and
that the derision this has caused
is from the ones who may have
fi rst gotten LGBTQ rights but don’t
share them with others.
We march together on one day of
the year to exhibit to the straight
world our “ideals” of love and unity,
but the reality is far from that. The
privileged in the community, many
of whom built Pride organizations,
were willing to focus on broader
social acceptance that, yes, won
us many basic rights. But what did
it cost, and who did it really help
when the murders of trans people
continue to skyrocket and Black
and Brown people combined account
for 64 percent of people with
HIV? We have at least 30 different
Pride Flags that represent our diversity,
yet in 2017 adding Black
and Brown stripes to the Gilbert
Baker fl ag produced vitriol and
anger from the same quarters reacting
negatively to HOP’s recent
decision. The fl ag including stripes
for trans representation is now the
new standard.
I am Black, gay, an immigrant,
a Marine, a boyfriend, a brother,
an Ivy-leaguer, a sci-fi nerd,
multi-faceted with multiple identities,
and like everyone else in
this world – complex. Parts of my
identity have been gained over
time, but the fi rst two – those are
immutable. Yet my gayness has
been at most confl ict with my
André Thomas is co-chair of NYC Pride.
Blackness. The community that I
thought would welcome my coming
out rejected my Blackness; it
was white gay men that spat on
me in gay bars, called me disgusting,
and called me the “n” word.
And when this issue arose around
offi cers at Pride, those same men
began hurling vitriol at myself
and at HOP’s largely POC staff on
a daily basis. And unfortunately
for me, entering predominantly
gay white male spaces can invoke
the same fear and anxiety I have
when I encounter police offi cers,
no matter how they identify.
HOP itself has plenty to atone
for. Much of the membership’s
vote for HOP to rescind the ban fell
along generational, class, and racial
lines. We have straight white
members who have tried to block
BIPOC members from joining,
have not spoken enough about the
ANDRÉ THOMAS
rights of our own, and have used
parliamentary procedures that reinforce
systems of white supremacy.
It shocked me to think we could
decry anti-trans bills moving
through legislatures, but ourselves
put the safety of trans people up to
a vote. Our steps to diversify our
leadership, starting with myself,
places us in confl ict with our own
history; we are by far not the only
LGBTQIA+ organization dealing
with these issues.
Every counter-argument I’ve
heard places the rights of Black,
Brown, and trans people of feeling
safe not against the same rights of
another group of individuals, but
against what one group wants to
wear on one day of the year for several
hours. That a uniform dehumanizing
those who are supposed
to protect us is more important to
some than a trans person’s sense
P E R S P E C T I V E : G u e s t O p - E d
of safety shows that we have so
much more work to do as a community.
What makes police offi cers
gain their identity? The act of putting
on the uniform? Being Black,
being Brown, being trans – those
are not uniforms. I cannot take off
my Black skin.
But here’s where the argument
is muddled. To their credit, the city
and the NYPD, working with HOP
based on admonitions from groups
like the Anti-Violence Project and
speakers at our community town
hall after a year of protests and
many repeated blunders, acknowledged
HOP’s requests for less visibility.
They recognized the extent
of not just recent history, but current
interactions with the police
and LGBT people. We were making
progress toward distinct goals
when it comes to our events, one of
the largest in the city.
The Gay Offi cers Action League
(GOAL) chose not to be a partner
in this work. GOAL specifi cally
defended actions taken by the
NYPD during our call with them.
They are absent in the conversation
when it comes to LGBTQIA+
rights. While they may have
these conversations internally,
the community does not see their
public support like other minority
aligned groups in the NYPD
have been doing for years to
show support for their own communities.
They invited Toronto’s
banned offi cers to our events.
They can’t tweet on International
Day Against Homophobia, but
they certainly can retweet denim
day. Dancing in the parade is not
enough. What path are we on
when a progressive city like New
York City can’t follow the example
of one like Minneapolis?
HOP will hopefully continue this
work. I invite GOAL to join us at
the table. Our community stands
divided, like this country. I invite
GOAL to take their uniforms and
guns off. I invite GOAL to be a partner
in the work of creating a safe
space for our Black and trans family.
The work is not easy, but there
are many others who are committed
to this. Will you be?
André Thomas is co-chair of NYC
Pride.
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