Clusters of New York police officers stood sentry along the Pride March route on Fifth Avenue on Sunday, in full uniform and armed, watching the parade go by as they do every year.
Nearby, dozens of their colleagues gathered behind metal barricades in protest. Some wore their uniforms; others wore polo shirts and hoisted signs emblazoned with rainbows and slogans like “Let gay cops back into Pride March” and “Our uniform is our protest.” Behind them, a truck bore a large digital screen with the message “We will not be erased.” The demonstration was organized by the Gay Officers Action League, an L.B.G.T.Q. police group that has been barred from marching in New York City Pride since 2021.
Starting in 1996, groups of uniformed police and corrections officers in New York marched in the parade every year. But the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement made the involvement of the police in festivities in New York and elsewhere in North America increasingly contentious.
In 2021, Heritage of Pride, which organizes Pride events in New York, barred the police from marching as a group, part of wave of similar measures that followed the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers in May 2020.
Since then, officers in many cities have been allowed back into local Pride marches. But in New York, Heritage of Pride did not take action to lift the ban, which was slated to expire in 2025.
Two weeks before the parade, Brian Downey, a detective and the president of the Gay Officers Action League, known as GOAL, said Heritage leaders told him that officers could march again on one condition: that they leave their guns at home.
The organizers said they were asking the group to abide by the same rules as other participants.
“Everyone is welcome to march with N.Y.C. Pride, so long as they follow our rules and guidelines, in place to ensure the protection of our marchers, spectators and community,” Heritage of Pride said in a statement. The group added: “To be clear, GOAL is welcome to march without weapons like every other contingent, and we welcome them to join us as we march to protect trans youth, advocate for full equality and stand in proud defiance of the attacks our community is facing.”
Detective Downey said he understood the “spirit” of the request but that for L.G.B.T.Q. officers, “it sounds targeted.”
“It takes a tremendous amount of courage to be out. It takes an even more tremendous amount of courage to be out in uniform,” Detective Downey told reporters along the parade route, where he had joined the protest along with department leaders including Jessica Tisch, the police commissioner, and John Chell, the chief of department.
The gun is a required part of the full uniform and is necessary for public safety, he added: “Would you go scuba diving without a tank? Would you go skydiving without a parachute?” Before the ban, officers marched in full uniform, with their weapons.
This was the first year since the ban was put in place that members of GOAL protested at the parade, but Detective Downey said officers had been feeling distressed over their exclusion for years. Officers felt emboldened to protest this year because they felt they finally had support from the department and political leaders, he said.
On Saturday, Commissioner Tisch wrote a letter to Heritage of Pride leaders criticizing their conditions as “a P.R. stunt” and the “height of hypocrisy,” given that armed on-duty police officers watch over the parade route as part of the required security for such an event. Gov. Kathy Hochul shared the commissioner’s letter on social media and wrote “Let them march.” Mayor Eric Adams said he stood with gay officers and accused Pride organizers of showing “anti-law-enforcement energy.”
On Sunday, several elected officials marching in the parade paused to greet the protesting officers, including Mayor Eric Adams, himself a former police officer; Letitia James, the state attorney general; and Zohran Mamdani, the presumptive Democratic nominee for mayor, who has been criticized for his stances on policing.
Commissioner Tisch said that the officers were being excluded at a precarious moment for L.G.B.T.Q. people.
“At a time when our rights are so under attack, it is really unbelievable to me that Heritage of Pride has decided to treat us in this way,” she said.
The debate over whether police officers belong at Pride celebrations began well before the death of Mr. Floyd.
Members of GOAL and their supporters point out that L.G.B.T.Q. police officers can also be subject to bigotry, both on and off the job, and argue that a movement for equality should include them, though they acknowledge a mistrust of the police among L.G.B.T.Q. people that goes back many decades.
“We’ve worked to change the system from within, and we’re going to continue to do that work,” Detective Downey said.
But some critics say that liberation for gay and trans people is incompatible with participation in institutions like police departments, which have harmed vulnerable communities like theirs. For them, the sight of marching officers would be offensive or out of place at an event that commemorates the 1969 Stonewall Riots, when a police raid on a gay bar in Lower Manhattan sparked days of rioting in the streets of Greenwich Village and gave rise to the modern L.G.B.T.Q. rights movement.
Along the parade route on Sunday, attendees expressed ambivalence about the police.
Peter Macari, 39, said he understood there are “L.G.B.T. people within the police force that want to be visible.” But having them march with their weapons showing would be “a visible sign of violence, which, for me, does not seem to have a place at Pride.”
“I respect the organizers of Pride for pushing back,” he said.
But another paradegoer, Dillon Smith, 39, said barring the police from marching in full uniform could do more harm to a movement that is already being targeted by the Trump administration and conservative and religious groups.
“If we start excluding people, that’s us just giving in to them, giving excuses to exclude people,” Mr. Smith said. “Police officers should be able to join in.”
Detective Downey said this was the first year parade organizers and GOAL had “genuine, meaningful conversations” about the police’s role in the parade, leaving him optimistic about future talks.
“We have absolutely no ill will towards New York City Pride,” he said. “We hope that this march today is a successful symbol of protest, as it always is.”
Samantha Latson contributed reporting.
Maria Cramer is a Times reporter covering the New York Police Department and crime in the city and surrounding areas.
Liam Stack is a Times reporter who covers the culture and politics of the New York City region.
Camille Baker is a Times senior news assistant who also contributes reporting to the Data Journalism team.
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