As an attendee of New York City’s Gay Pride Parade this past Sunday, I was very excited for all the dancing and rah-rah that comes with showing up and having a big celebration for the gay community. “We’re here, we’re queer” at its finest. However, because liberals have absolutely no fun, there was no shortage of the politicization of Pride. That the #Resistance came out in full force against Trump with all the silliness of the day compounded with their trademark single-digit IQs was no surprise; however, when one banner showed up bearing the words “There Are No Queer Friendly Cops,” it became too much.
The irony of the scene was incredible. In front of and behind the (tiny) group of marchers holding their hateful banner were lines of police, literally protecting these presumably queer protesters. To the everlasting credit of the parade organizers, placed immediately behind that group was the NYPD contingent of marchers. Not only did these cops, many of whom are LGBT individuals themselves, outnumber that anti-police contingent by about 20:1, but they were all absolutely delighted to be there. Those cops seemed very “queer friendly.”
I was at a street corner and, as the banner carriers walked by, I called out to a police officer, “Hey police, we love you!” The cop, who is black, came over and asked us what the sign was talking about. As a few others (including numerous people of color) and I tried to explain to him that there are those who say that every single cop is anti-gay and hates various other minority groups, he was obviously perplexed. He told us that he didn’t understand why they would think that considering all the protection the cops were providing (there were thousands of police who were there and could not have been more welcoming or happy to be there). We told him that we didn’t understand it either. He told us “as long as the people on 20th street like us, that’s all we need.”
That cop seemed extremely queer friendly.
As much as the LGBT community and its allies find ourselves on the far left of the political spectrum, to the credit of the crowd (at least the crowd on 20th street), everybody was silent while the hateful sign passed, and erupted into enormous applause and cheers for the police, who were greeted as though they were conquering heroes. The LGBT community still does have some way to go to overcome our history with police, but the unified show of appreciation for New York’s Finest was an impressive sign that the far left is alienating even its natural allies.
After incidents such as anti-Israel protesters targeting gay Jews at the Israeli Day Parade and the Black Lives Matter attempting shutdowns of Pride marches across the country — such as in the Twin Cities, New York City, and Washington, D.C. — it is no wonder that more and more people have grown incredibly tired of the far left’s anti-police narrative.
“There Are No Queer Friendly Cops” is a disgusting statement, an especially abhorrent thing to proclaim at a Pride parade protected by literally thousands of police, and the complete embodiment of how far the far left has strayed from all reason. Not much surprise here.