No Pride in Prisons: No place for Police or Corrections in Pride Parade

Queer and trans activist group No Pride in Prisons is putting pressure on the Auckland Pride Board to disallow uniformed Police and Corrections officers from marching in the 2016 Pride Parade.

Articles published by news source GayNZ last week revealed that the Pride Board was willing to negotiate its decision to disqualify uniformed Corrections officers from the parade. It was also revealed that Police would march in uniform, as they did in last year’s parade.

According to spokesperson Sophie Morgan, “No Pride in Prisons encourages the Pride board to stick to its decision to disqualify uniformed Corrections officers from marching, and to reconsider its decision to allow Police to march.”

“Uniformed Corrections and Police officers have no place in the Auckland Pride Parade. Both of these organisations inflict disproportionate violence on already marginalised people. These actions should in no way be accepted by the queer community.”

The group points to Corrections’ decision to introduce the policy of “double-bunking” as a reason for excluding the organisation. Double-bunking means holding two or more prisoners in a single cell overnight.

Sophie Morgan says, “This policy was expanded despite advice that it would lead to greater instances of sexual assault. According to a US study,[1] trans women in men’s prisons already face thirteen times the likelihood of sexual assault than the general prison population.”

“The Department’s double-bunking policies lead directly to violence against trans women incarcerated in men’s prisons.”

No Pride in Prisons has been in contact with two transgender women in the last couple of months who have been allegedly raped while in men’s prisons.

“One woman was raped after being placed in a cell with a man overnight by Corrections officers. These Corrections officers and the Department of Corrections more generally are directly responsible for the rape of this woman.”

No Pride in Prisons stresses that the Police have no more a place in the Pride Parade than do Corrections.

“According to a report released in 2015, New Zealand Police use force against Māori at almost 8 times the rate they do Pākehā.[2] This is a clear violation of the human rights of Māori. Inviting this discriminatory institution to participate in the parade is also a clear violation of the Pride Board’s Tiriti obligations to takatāpui Māori,” says Morgan.

News reports recently revealed that the New Zealand Police force admits to an “unconscious bias” against Māori in its policing.[3]

“The queer community should not turn its back on its Māori whānau, queer or otherwise. By allowing Police officers to march in uniform, the Tāmaki Makaurau queer community is explicitly condoning that institution. This includes condoning the racism clearly inherent in that institution’s actions.”

No Pride in Prisons is concerned about what it believes the Pride movement has become.

According to Morgan, “The roots of Pride trace back to riots against the violence of the Police. The Police are now welcomed into our parades with open arms. This requires assuming that the Police have stopped being violent. The violence has quite clearly never stopped.”

“We owe more to ourselves and to our marginalised allies than to join hands with violent institutions like the Police and prisons.”

“That a very small subset of the queer community now has marriage equality does not mean that institutional and structural racism, homophobia, and transmisogyny have suddenly disappeared.”

“No Pride in Prisons urges the Pride Board to seriously consider these issues when it decides whether Corrections and Police officers should march in the Pride Parade.”

[1] https://www.wcl.american.edu/endsilence/documents/ViolenceinCaliforniaCorrectionalFacilities.pdf
[2]http://www.police.govt.nz/sites/default/files/publications/annual-tactical-options-research-report-3.pdf
[3] http://home.nzcity.co.nz/news/article.aspx?id=217390&cat=1034&fm=newsmain%2Cnarts

ENDS

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