NYC Pride organizers called out by gay officers for banning police from parade: This is not 'inclusion'

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NYPD officer on Pride parade ban: 'It causes a great deal of pain'

Gay Officers Action League President Brian Downey speaks out against NYC Pride's decision to ban NYPD officers from participating in the annual event until 2025.

The Gay Officers Action League is speaking out against NYC Pride organizers' decision to ban NYPD officers from participating in this weekend's Pride parade, telling Fox News that the move sends the wrong message about inclusion.

NYPD detective and Gay Officers Action League (GOAL) President Brian Downey joined "America's Newsroom," Friday, to respond to the "shameful" decision that he argues goes against the visibility the LGBTQ community is fighting for.

NYC PRIDE BANS POLICE FROM EVENTS THROUGH 2025,  LGBT OFFICERS SLAM THE MOVE

"We're talking about a decision that's making unnecessary divisions in the community," Downey said, pointing out that the decision goes against the spirit of "inclusion."

"It causes a great deal of pain to our members who go into a system every day that historically has not been for them, and they put on uniforms or they sit at a desk and they work in an environment where they're kind of forcing the system to deal with them. You know, they choose to go on and put on that in those systems, in those spaces and put this identity on and make it known."

Organizers of the annual event said the ban would continue through 2025 because they want "safer spaces" for LGBTQ people and people of color who feel threatened by police. 

"The sense of safety that law enforcement is meant to provide can instead be threatening, and at times dangerous, to those in our community who are most often targeted with excessive force and/or without reason," NYC Pride said in a statement.

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Downey argues members of his organization are advocates for "real change" in law enforcement and are working in police academy classrooms, training spaces and with police commissioners to make the criminal justice system more progressive.

"[We] really go out of our way to acknowledge the pain and hurt that many people in our community and communities of color experienced at the hands of law enforcement," Downey told Bill Hemmer. 

"I've dedicated a great portion of my life to this work since I've been an out gay man... our organization has existed for nearly 40 years and we are doing this work."

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GOAL, a fraternal organization, was created in 1982 and each year around 200 of its members and their families participate in the march, NYC Pride spokesman Dan Dimant told Fox News.

The Pride festival will be mostly online because of the pandemic but will have some in-person components.

Fox News' Brie Stimson contributed to this report.