Internal PSNI emails appear to show that a number of NI politicians were “agitating” in a bid to have uniformed PSNI officers banned from taking part in Pride, it’s been claimed.
Communications obtained under the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act show that at least one MP and one MLA were pressing senior PSNI figures to reverse what the force itself recognised as a “watershed” decision to allow uniformed officers to take part.
PSNI officers first paraded in uniform at Belfast Pride in 2017 before the U-turn in 2023 when officers who wished to attend Pride were not allowed to do so in uniform.
In its FoI response, the PSNI has chosen to redact the names of the public representatives in order to protect their identities.
Writing to former Chief Constable Simon Byrne in August 2022, an MLA presented a list of questions which queried the use of resources when it came to the PSNI taking part in Belfast Pride and an LGBT+ policing conference.
The politician raised a concern that PSNI engagement with the LGBT+ community was “not commensurate to the police’s visibility at other significant minority and cultural events in NI”.
Meanwhile, the unidentified MP accused those who take part in Pride events of having a “political agenda”.
The MP challenged Mr Byrne about PSNI policy when it comes to “policing Gay Pride parades in Northern Ireland”.
The correspondence concluded: “Given the political agenda of Gay Pride, have the police now decided that officers can officially identify with groups who have a political agenda, and if so, has a list of such organisations been published by the police so that officers can know which groups they are allowed to be identified with.
“For example, is it okay for police officers now to march in an Orange parade with their uniforms, and if not, why would there be a distinction between Orange parades and other public parades?”
Assistant Chief Constable Bobby Singleton was delegated the task of responding.
Internal police documents showed that the Police Service LGBTQIA+ staff association had requested to walk in police uniform and “did not consider anything less as participation”.
It noted they had done so for six years in what was heralded as a “watershed moment” and that any change in position would be seen as “a capitulation to homophobia”.
The document also described trans rights issues as “highly contentious” as they had become “the subject of rival protests in the city”.
The PSNI feared that would impact on the impartiality of the police.
A threat and risk assessment said that there would be “reduced confidence” from officers, staff and the LGBT+ community.
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The threat of litigation due to “discrimination” was also noted due to “a failure as a service to promote equality of opportunity”.
Scott Cuthbertson, CEO of the Rainbow Project, said it “unfortunately comes as no surprise” that some elected representatives are “content to remain stuck in the past when most of Northern Ireland has moved forward”.
He added: “The PSNI’s withdrawal from Pride harmed relationships with LGBTQIA+ communities and impacted confidence in policing.
“We will continue to work with the PSNI to reduce hate crime, mitigate for their consequences and ensure that LGBTQIA+ communities feel able to report incidents to the police.”
SDLP Belfast City Council Group Leader councillor Séamas de Faoite said: “It is deeply disheartening and infuriating that, given the long list of issues facing the North, our politicians would dedicate their time and influence to agitating against the LGBT+ community.
“Improved relations with the LGBT+ community have been an important part of the new beginning to policing here and it can’t be escaped that those relations were severely damaged by the PSNI’s decision to pull out of the yearly Pride parade.
“Despite this, the PSNI are still a visible presence at Pride every year.
“They say they cannot take part in the parade as it’s a ‘protest’, but just this year they had a stall at Belfast’s Pride Village.”
The PSNI said the decision to allow uniformed officers to take part was reversed “to ensure that, as both an employer and a public body, we were consistent and fair in our decision making around all requests from officers and staff to participate in events”.
“Police Service policy on off-duty standards and our code of ethics, both drawn from our statutory obligations, create clear expectations for all officers and staff in terms of our impartiality and prohibit officers from wearing their uniform or being identifiable as police when engaging in ‘cause issues’,” a statement added.
“Existing service policy does, however, state that officers and staff can participate in such events provided they do so in a personal capacity and do not identify as members of the Police Service.”
by BelfastTelegraph
9 comments
A lot in Northern Ireland could be solved if the default reply to these situations was “Wise up!”
NHS collapse, a country in dire need of sorting in a thousand different ways and THIS is what some of our elected representatives see fit to spend their time doing. An absolute travesty
>In its FoI response, the PSNI has chosen to redact the names of the public representatives in order to protect their identities.
Like we can’t all work out what party that was and which members of that party it was. You don’t need to protect their identities, it’s not like they’ve been hiding their homophobia over the last 20 years.
Them taigs like the queers said wee red Jim, shocking so it is
‘The PSNI are fair and unbiased and should represent all sections of the community without favour….well not those people.’ DUP spokesperson (probably)
Just to point out when the PSNI marched in uniform back in 2022, this was the ending of a successful meeting of a joint meeting between the British National Confederation of LGBT Police Networks and An Garda Síochána’s G-Force, which was held at Europa Hotel.
Everybody I know no matter what community, enjoyed themselves and the public enjoyed it as well. I know because I was there!
This is just disgraceful. This country is so backwards.
Scummy little morons
firstnamelastnme@dup.com