NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch was pictured watching the NYC Pride March from the sidelines Sunday, weeks after slamming the exclusion of LGBTQ cops from walking in full uniform in the parade.
About 75,000 people walked in the 57th annual Pride March Sunday afternoon, making their way down Fifth Avenue, turning onto Eighth Street and then up Seventh Avenue, where they passed the historic Stonewall Inn — the site of the violent 1969 police raid and uprising that kick-started the gay rights movement and inspired the march.
But uniformed NYPD officers haven’t been among the marchers since 2021, when NYC Pride organizers Heritage of Pride first banned all active-duty law enforcement from marching with their service weapons –citing tensions between law enforcement and the LGBTQ community in the wake of the George Floyd protests.
As NYPD regulations require uniformed officers to be armed, members of the Gay Officers Action League opted to skip marching ever since.
At this year’s parade, New York City’s top cop was spotted watching behind metal barricades alongside a group of officers protesting the ban on cops marching in their uniform.
Police pictured behind Tisch held signs reading “Gay cops will not be erased from Pride,” and “Pride March: Admit One,” along with an NYPD badge.
Earlier this month, Tisch slammed the exclusion of LGBTQ cops from walking with their guns during Manhattan’s Pride March and instead walked in a Pride parade through Queens that allowed armed officers.
“Once again, they banned NYPD officers from marching in full uniform later this month,” Tisch said of the Manhattan organizers during the June 7 Queens march.
“That decision is as hypocritical as it is a slap in the face to the New York City Police Department and to the spirit of Pride.”
Meanwhile, NYC Pride March organizers, who ironically picked the theme “For All of Us” for the 2026 march, went all in — naming the organization Gays Against Guns as one of its five grand marshals this year.
Gays Against Guns activist Cathy Marino-Thomas, 65, told The Post that the gun ban was also due to ongoing trauma among the gay community following the Pulse nightclub massacre in June 2016.
Marchers briefly paused the parade to hold a staged “die-in” in front of the Stonewall Inn to commemorate the 49 lives lost at the Pulse Massacre 10 years ago.
“They’re holding space for the people who were killed in the Pulse nightclub. They can no longer march in Pride, so these folks have taken time out of their celebration to hold space for the people that we lost. It’s on people’s minds constantly,” she said.
Gays Against Gun marchers dressed all in white with shawls covering their faces and held photographs of the 49 Pulse victims, while also holding a photograph of anti-ICE protester Renee Good, who was killed earlier this year by law enforcement in Minneapolis.
Some notable figures who marched in the parade include Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Gov. Kathy Hochul, Sen. Chuck Schumer, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Congressional candidate Brad Lander and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams — with the latter two posed for a photo with Tisch.
Celebrities like Bowen Yang, a grand marshal, and Megan Stalter were also spotted in the sea of participants.
The 2026 theme “For All of Us” was taken from a quote widely attributed to Stonewall veteran and historic LGBTQ activist Marsha P. Johnson, stating in full — “There is no pride for some of us without liberation for all of us.”
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