Organizers of the New York City Pride parade gave banned a gay police officers’ group from marching next year, the New York Daily News reports. The Gay Officers Action League, founded in 1982, revealed it has been disinvited ahead of the parade’s official announcement expected next week. NYPD Det. Brian Downey, who is the president of GOAL, did not say why his group was being excluded but he complained about how it was described in a draft of the announcement. “It is demoralizing that Heritage of Pride [NYC Pride’s formal name] didn’t have the courage to refer to GOAL by name in its announcement, referring to us only as ‘Law Enforcement Exhibitors,’” Downey said. “The label is not only offensive but dehumanizing for our members.” Some LGBTQ activists have objected to gay cop groups participating in events as a stand against police brutality.
