SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Employees at the Sacramento LGBT Community Center are asking for board members to resign after the board of directors reversed a decision not to allow uniformed Sacramento police officers at Pride events. The group made the request in a letter sent out Thursday night.
In a post last week, the Sacramento LGBT Community Center said they did not want Sacramento police officers at their event if they were wearing full police uniforms.
But Thursday morning, the Center and the Sacramento Police Department announced that officers will be welcome in uniform at SacPride after all.
"News that the Sacramento Police Department and the Sacramento LGBT Community Center Board of Directors have agreed to allow officers in uniform to march at this weekend’s SacPride has deeply hurt and upset us as staff members, LGBTQ+ members and Sacramentans," the letter said.
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Employees said they stand with the original statement by the Center, which asked police not to march and participate in Sacramento Pride in uniform. They said allowing police in uniform to participate in the festivities "prioritizes those with the most power and influence over our most marginalized community members... [who] are often ignored, misgendered, abused and murdered by folks in SacPD and other law enforcement uniforms."
The group is asking for the immediate resignation of Carlos Marquez, the Center's board president. They are also asking for the immediate resignation of any board members in agreement with allowing police to march in uniform at Sacramento Pride. Lastly, they are asking for uniformed police officers to not participate in the march or festival.
In response to the letter, Marquez said the Center reached an important agreement this week with the Sacramento Police Department to implement a series of actions to improve how the Police Department interacts with the LGBTQ+ community and in particular, those marginalized parts of our community that historically have felt unsafe by law enforcement.
"We appreciate that not everyone will agree with this decision, including members of our valued Center staff, but we continue to be committed to moving forward and to addressing legitimate concerns in a collaborative way," Marquez said in a written statement.
Sacramento Pride will be June 8 and 9 from 11:00 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Capitol Mall between 3rd and 7th Street.
Read the entire statement:
The Sacramento LGBT Community stand with the original statement by the Center asking police to not march and participate in SacPride in uniform.
News that the Sacramento Police Department and the Sacramento LGBT Community Center Board of Directors have agreed to allow officers in uniform to march at this weekend’s SacPride has deeply hurt and upset us as staff members, LGBTQ+ members and Sacramentans.
We wholeheartedly disagree with the decision that this concession to the police force is a powerful symbolic and visual cue that prioritizes those with the most power and influence over our most marginalized community members whether they are transgender, nonbinary, Black, Brown and other POC folks, intersex, undocumented, disabled, unhoused, sex workers and others in the community that are often ignored, misgendered, abused and murdered by folks in SacPD and other law enforcement uniforms.
Debates and painful discussions have been ongoing for the last year, but even more regularly in the last few months and as a staff, we have been highlighting these marginalized voices and working toward creating a Sacramento Pride where these folks are centered and valued.
On this, the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, we not only wanted to honor the lives of LGBTQ+ pioneers that fought against police brutality, legal injustices and societal persecution, but we also wanted to create a space where those often given the least power could feel comfortable and safe at Pride.
Trust and safety are crucial in the LGBTQ+ community, yet they have frequently been broken by officers in this region and beyond. The abuses, injustices and erasure of LGBTQ+ community, asylum seekers, black community, brown community and indigenous folks by police does not live squarely in the past. In fact, we are all too familiar with the accounts of continued misgendering, excessive force, dismissal of domestic abuse claims and outright aggression being inflicted on our community by police.
The stance that the Sacramento LGBT Community Center set out with this to ask SacPD to march out of their standard blues and instead opt for plainclothes or branded shirts and polos was one that, as staff and community members agreed was a fair compromise. This opportunity would allow LGBTQ+ officers to celebrate their identity and show the whole community what a diverse population we are.
While the promises and agreement made between both institutions are critical steps toward creating better relations and communication for our community, we have spent too long asking for these changes and to have a seat at the table, and now conceding to their demands before seeing any progress is the wrong move. It is time for them to show up for our communities first. It appears that the police are only interested in coming to the table to communicate when there is something they want from us.
We want them to show up when we have community members abused at their hands. We want them to show up when we ask for a guarantee that on-duty officers at Pride be trained in cultural humility and LGBTQ+ inclusivity training. We want them to show up for more than just celebration, but also at times of struggle, strife and conflict. And we want them to show up as equals and not only in an authoritative capacity.
We present this statement to the Sacramento LGBT Community Center Board of Directors and leadership with the intention of creating a better Center and more affirming and uplifting community here.
We Are Asking For:
- 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
- Uniformed police to not be invited to participate in the march or festival this year
We request that the Sacramento LGBT Community Center Board of Directors please respond in writing, via email by no later than 8:00 p.m. PST on June 6, 2019 or collective action will take place.
Read Carlos Marquez's entire response:
The Sacramento LGBT Community Center reached an important agreement this week with the Sacramento Police Department to implement a series of actions to improve how the Police Department interacts with the LGBTQ community and in particular, those marginalized parts of our community that historically have felt unsafe by law enforcement.
We appreciate that not everyone will agree with this decision, including members of our valued Center staff but we continue to be committed to moving forward and to addressing legitimate concerns in a collaborative way.
We look forward to welcoming Sacramento’s LGBTQ community to Pride this weekend to celebrate the diversity of our community and the progress that we continue to strive to achieve.