SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Sacramento LGBT Community Center staff split with the center's board over a demand to not allow police to wear their uniforms during SacPride events.
The center staff is now encouraging the community to join in peaceful protest by supporting alternative Pride venues and protests.
Thursday, the Sacramento LGBT Community Center Board of Directors and the Sacramento Police Department announced they had come to an agreement. The center would welcome police in uniform to attend Pride events. In exchange, the department would create new community engagement opportunities. Yet, center staff members say they were caught off-guard by the announcement.
"I had a combination of feelings," said center employee Aaron Alexander. "I was mad, I was frustrated, and a little bit defeated. You have these people on the board that are cis-gendered, mainly white males that don't understand what people of color, trans people, people that don't have homes go through."
Pixie Pearl is the assistant director for housing with the center. Pearl says people have been misinterpreting the initial demand about police uniforms.
"This isn't saying folks can't be LGBT and an officer," explained Pearl. "It's just saying, please just wear and be mindful of the folks that are attending and have an emblem. Show up in another way and that's truly support. That's allyship. And it's not saying segregate. It's just saying not this. Not this way. Honor us and hear us in this way and stop trying to infiltrate in another way."
Krystal Peak also works for the center. She acknowledges the debate has divided many within the Sacramento LGBTQ+ community.
"A lot of people have been communicating with me that our whole message is inclusion, is to love all people, is to include all people and I truly wish that we could live in that world. If I had the power, I would allow us to live in that world. But we live in this world which is imperfect where, essentially, saying that everyone should be included, we should love all people, is telling individuals to love their abuser. Telling individuals that you must invite someone who causes you harm to a celebration about your identity."
The center staff continues to ask for three things: the immediate resignation of the center's board president, Carlos Marquez, the immediate resignation of any board members in agreement with allowing police to march in uniform at SacPride, and uniformed police to not be invited to participate in the march or the festival.
Marquez refused to step down and the board refused to uninvite the police. Marquez, who is Mexican-American, said he isn't sure what stepping down would achieve.
"I personally understand that my position has the trappings of power and access and influence. And I understand how our staff have viewed my role. But I also want to impart on the staff and the community that I come to this position aligned with these values around equity and inclusion. And I have not always had the most positive experiences with law enforcement in my own life, in my own family. My father, my mother, my brother have all been incarcerated, spent years in prison. I know the ravages of law enforcement on communities of color because I've lived them. I'm a product of them. So the idea I don't understand that perspective isn't in keeping with the truth, my own life experience."
Some in the community have suggested just canceling the Pride events altogether.
"We think that it would be wrong to cancel the event," said Marquez. "We don't necessarily think that we should be shying away from the debate and from allowing people to peacefully demonstrate. If we're really going to live out Stonewall, that's the picture of the lessons that we learned. And so we welcome dissenting voices, including those of our staff."
The alternative Pride events being promoted by the center staff include Supporting the Lavender Library Queerness, the Resistance Celebration on Saturday, visiting The Museum: A Legacy of Stonewall located at the LLACE for Pride weekend, and participation in the #StillHere and #ReclaimPride50th.
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