100 signatures reached
To: Rex Tiller, Executive Director of The Center
No Police in Denver Pride
In 2021, The Center banned police from participating in Pride as a protest against police violence. Only one year later, that solidarity is gone.
For decades The Center has deployed police to silence the most marginalized people in Denver’s queer and trans community as well as suppress queer- and trans-led social movements.
In the early 2000s, Pink Bloc activists protested the presence of Coors, Wells Fargo, and military contractors. The Center mocked their demands and encouraged DPD to profile and arrest activists.
In 2010, Denver Police gunned down Jessie Hernandez, a Latinx queer teenager, in an alley. When Jessie’s family and community held an action at Pride denouncing police murders, racism, and colonialism, The Center sent police to clear them from the street with threats of arrest. Pride announcers refused to allow Jessie’s family to be heard and staff did not intervene as vehicles in the parade attempted to hit the protesters.
The Center has relied on police to violently displace houseless people along their parade routes and festival areas, effectively making Pride an exclusive event for middle class white LGB people. The Center’s reliance on heavily policed events excludes and endangers sex workers, undocumented people, and those targeted by the carceral legal system
The Center’s collaboration with law enforcement has emboldened police surveillance, repression, and violence against multiply-marginalized LGBT2QIA+ people. Denver Police, and all police departments, use aggressive profiling and harassment to squash dissent, inflict white supremacist violence, and enforce a war on the poor. These departments surveil social media accounts, communications, gatherings, and the daily lives of queer and trans dissidents.
As attorneys, legal workers, and activists, we see the impact daily. In the summer of 2020, young trans activists were among the most heavily profiled and targeted by police. Many of them still face financial, legal, social, and physical impacts. Last year, DPD violently assaulted activists and dragged them out of a car after an anti-capitalist march. Police surveillance, coordinated across the state/Denver Metro area, is allowing police to arrest activists on false charges and upend their lives with infiltration.
We do not need to remind the Center that Pride occurs on the anniversary of an uprising led by BIPOC trans women—many of whom were sex workers—to fight back against police violence. Yet the Center chooses to align themselves against the queer and trans people continuing the legacy of Silvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, and many others.
We are calling on the Center to end its relationship with all law enforcement and begin making amends with the communities harmed by their pro-policing, incarceration, and white supremacist stance. To start, we ask the Center to meet with Colorado NLG and impacted communities to discuss creating a Pride that celebrates all LGBT2QIA+ communities.
For decades The Center has deployed police to silence the most marginalized people in Denver’s queer and trans community as well as suppress queer- and trans-led social movements.
In the early 2000s, Pink Bloc activists protested the presence of Coors, Wells Fargo, and military contractors. The Center mocked their demands and encouraged DPD to profile and arrest activists.
In 2010, Denver Police gunned down Jessie Hernandez, a Latinx queer teenager, in an alley. When Jessie’s family and community held an action at Pride denouncing police murders, racism, and colonialism, The Center sent police to clear them from the street with threats of arrest. Pride announcers refused to allow Jessie’s family to be heard and staff did not intervene as vehicles in the parade attempted to hit the protesters.
The Center has relied on police to violently displace houseless people along their parade routes and festival areas, effectively making Pride an exclusive event for middle class white LGB people. The Center’s reliance on heavily policed events excludes and endangers sex workers, undocumented people, and those targeted by the carceral legal system
The Center’s collaboration with law enforcement has emboldened police surveillance, repression, and violence against multiply-marginalized LGBT2QIA+ people. Denver Police, and all police departments, use aggressive profiling and harassment to squash dissent, inflict white supremacist violence, and enforce a war on the poor. These departments surveil social media accounts, communications, gatherings, and the daily lives of queer and trans dissidents.
As attorneys, legal workers, and activists, we see the impact daily. In the summer of 2020, young trans activists were among the most heavily profiled and targeted by police. Many of them still face financial, legal, social, and physical impacts. Last year, DPD violently assaulted activists and dragged them out of a car after an anti-capitalist march. Police surveillance, coordinated across the state/Denver Metro area, is allowing police to arrest activists on false charges and upend their lives with infiltration.
We do not need to remind the Center that Pride occurs on the anniversary of an uprising led by BIPOC trans women—many of whom were sex workers—to fight back against police violence. Yet the Center chooses to align themselves against the queer and trans people continuing the legacy of Silvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, and many others.
We are calling on the Center to end its relationship with all law enforcement and begin making amends with the communities harmed by their pro-policing, incarceration, and white supremacist stance. To start, we ask the Center to meet with Colorado NLG and impacted communities to discuss creating a Pride that celebrates all LGBT2QIA+ communities.
Why is this important?
Police do not belong in Pride. Police make everyone less safe, especially those most marginalized in our communities.
Police do not prevent violence, especially against LGBT2QIA+ people. In fact, police and the systems they serve inflict tremendous violence against our communities.
In order to make a Pride that is inclusive and safe for all, the Center needs to end its relationship with policing.
Police do not prevent violence, especially against LGBT2QIA+ people. In fact, police and the systems they serve inflict tremendous violence against our communities.
In order to make a Pride that is inclusive and safe for all, the Center needs to end its relationship with policing.