Organizers of LGBTQ+ Pride festivities voted to ban the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) from this year's events, citing the 1969 Stonewall riots as their reason.
All but one ABQ Pride Board member voted during a meeting earlier this week to ban the police from having a float in the parade, according to KOB 4. The board also banned police from having a booth at this year’s summer PrideFest.
Board member Frankie Flores, New Mexico Pride 2022 titleholder, said during the meeting that having police at the event would be "disrespectful to our community, but also to our ancestors," KOB 4 reported. “You know, people forget that Stonewall wasn't, 'Hey, let's get together and play 'I will survive.'' It was a riot! It was an intersectional riot that lasted three days," Flores said.
Bia Romero, vice president of the ABQ Pride Board, made the motion to ban the police.
“I motion to not allow APD in the Pride parade or in PrideFest 2022, with the possibility for revisit for 2023 at the AGM if lines of communication have been open and the community feedback has been positive," Romero said during the meeting, as reported by KOB 4.
Some thought the police should be included, as they have been at past Pride events. "I think we should, in some sense, have them at Pride this year just to build that relationship to show the community we are with them, and they are with us," board member Mathew Maturio said.
The APD was part of the Pride parade in 2019 and 2021; officers rode down the parade route with the floats. The APD had a booth at Pride Fest in 2021 on the Expo New Mexico grounds, according to KOB 4. Being banned this year was unexpected.
APD Community Ambassador Chase Jewell was surprised by Sunday’s vote to ban APD from Pride. He said this was not the outcome he was expecting.
"I would say it is more of a surprise, but it is something that we are willing to work with the Pride board moving forward," Jewell told KOB 4. "It’s not something that we are going to force ourselves to be a part of. If they are not ready for us to be in the events or in Pride, then that's OK, and that is a relationship we will continue to work on."
A point of contention was the fact that no representatives from the APD were present at the board meeting, despite being invited to attend. "The news is here; where is APD?" Romero said. "This is not a private thing where they didn't know it was going on; they had the opportunity to be here today or send a representative today."
Both the APD and the ABQ Pride Board vowed to work together so the police can be invited to future Pride events.
"Moving forward, I will take this on myself to work with Officer Chase, the community ambassador with APD, because we do want to heal this," Josh Martinez, secretary of the ABQ Pride Board, said. "We are an organization that has the power to impact our community, and we do want to have that relationship, moving forward."
