In this op-ed, Kitty Stryker explains police are often not welcome at Pride parades because of a history of violence against the LGBTQ community.

Officers of the Minneapolis Police Department may be marching in the Twin Cities Pride parade this year, but they won’t be in uniform, out of respect to the LGBTQ community. Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo instructed officers to wear civilian attire, citing concerns raised by the community around law enforcement’s treatment of LGBTQ people, especially those who were nonwhite and/or transgender. Toronto and London, Canada, have also created such rules, ones that have left LGBTQ police officers saying they feel caught in the middle.

With all the corporate rainbow swag, politicians waving from floats, and sponsorship deals, it may be hard to remember that the first Pride was not a celebratory parade, but a defiant march against oppression. That’s exactly why incorporating police into the march, uniformed or not, is such a contentious issue in the queer community. The riot that broke out outside of the Stonewall Inn the night of June 28, 1969, after a police raid is often treated as the birthplace of the gay rights movement — and largely credited to black and transgender people. It was one year later that the first Pride marches were held. So, it was resistance against police that sparked the parades they’re marching in today. To understand the nuance, it’s important to know some of the history between LGBTQ people and the police.

One of the first examples of police clashing with an organized group of LGBTQ people happened 45 years before Stonewall, in Chicago. The Society for Human Rights, founded by German immigrant Henry Gerber in 1924, focused specifically on male gay rights and was inspired by a similar organization in Berlin. Berlin had a vibrant LGBTQ community, and Gerber felt inspired to try and gather gay men to fight for the same in the United States. After only a few months of working to compel gay men to organize, Gerber and several other members were arrested without a warrant on claims of potential obscenity, and the Society for Human Rights crumbled to dust.

It took until 1959 for another clash between the police and the LGBTQ community to make the news, though there were many incidents in between as police disbanded any gathering of queer people. But it was the attempted arrest of multiple patrons of Coopers Donuts that garnered widespread attention. The crime? Simply hanging out at the Los Angeles establishment; Coopers Donuts often served local law enforcement during the day, but in the evening, as patrols became less frequent, it became a popular spot for transgender women and hustlers to meet up. The officers asked for identification from multiple people in the donut shop, reportedly one of the common methods of harassing LGBTQ people at the time. Before any arrests could be made, something snapped, and the shop erupted with patrons throwing donuts, coffee, and paper plates at the cops. Law enforcement fled and returned with backup, blocking off Main Street for the whole night as a riot flared.

Other examples of police suppression of LGBTQ people are the two lunch counter sit-ins at Dewey’s on 17th Street in Philadelphia in 1965, organized and attended by black LGBTQ youth, inspired by the sit-ins staged by black Americans as part of the civil rights movement. The sit-ins at Dewey’s were in response to the staff, who, due to some “disruptive teens,” reportedly began to refuse service to a wider group of patrons, including those dressed in “nonconformist clothing” and anyone else assumed to be LGBTQ. On April 25, 150 youth wearing “non-conformist clothing” attempted to patronize Dewey’s and were turned away — three refused to leave after being denied service, leading them and a gay activist (who ensured the teens knew their rights and offered to help them get a lawyer) to be arrested. In support, one of the main LGBTQ advocacy organizations at the time, Janus Society, called for a five-day protest culminating in another Dewey’s sit-in. This time, though police were called, no arrests were made.