Pride Northwest Announces Policy Change Regarding Law Enforcement Participation in the
Portland Pride Waterfront Festival and Parade

March 2020

Pride Northwest Announces Policy Change Regarding Law Enforcement Participation in the Portland Pride Waterfront Festival and Parade

Over the last few months, Pride Northwest has acted in a number of ways, responding to both the COVID-19 pandemic and the violence perpetrated against Black people across this country. In addition to supporting Don’t Shoot Portland in their efforts to support the legal needs of citizens exercising their Constitutional rights, we have been working to address the incredible needs of houseless people across the area. In addition, Pride Northwest has made the decision to update its policies regarding the participation of uniformed and armed law enforcement in the Portland Pride Parade and Waterfront Festival. The COVID-19 pandemic interfered with implementation in 2020 but, in looking ahead, we are moving forward.

Beginning in 2021, uniformed and armed law enforcement officers will be disallowed from marching in the Portland Pride Parade and from exhibiting at the Portland Pride Waterfront Festival. The various agencies that typically include law enforcement in their contingents and booths were notified last week. We are now making this decision public, so as to assure our community that we have been paying attention and taking action.

Since 2017, Pride Northwest has been directly engaged in dialogue with local law enforcement, including queer officers, regarding the impact of their actions on our community, specifically on black, POC, and indigenous queer people. While there have been glimpses of hope in those conversations, current events and our own experiences tell us that it is not nearly enough. In 2019 we implemented a prohibition against firearms in the parade and continued a dialogue. It is not enough. The ever-increasing use of violence against our citizens, of whom many are part of the LGBTQ+ community, is both frightening and unacceptable. While Pride Northwest remains committed to an engagement that ends the violence, we are compelled to take additional action now.

As we have said in the past, the LGBTQ+ community, particularly those of us who are not Black, POC, or indigenous, is at a crossroads. We can either continue to ignore the responsibility we carry and the work we still need to do, to move forward to a better future. Or we can stop dead in our tracks, acknowledge the truth of our history and its resulting inequities. And we can choose a different path. We MUST choose a different path. Addressing the historical and current impact of police violence is one very important step on that path.

For more information, please contact Executive Director Debra Porta at debra.porta@pridenw.org or Board President Manumalo Ala’ilima at malo.alailima@pridenw.org

In addition to the work and steps referenced in the press release, Pride Northwest has also proceeded with the following:

1. We have made a formal ask of the Alliance for Safer Communities to request their local department members, i.e. the PPD and MultCo Sheriff's Dept, to cease cooperation with federal agents. We have long been concerned about the efficacy of the Alliance, but the ask cannot go unmade and their members left without accountability.

2. We have signed onto the Stop Cop Riot letter to Mayor Wheeler