$14K raised to plug the funding gap for 2019 Auckland Pride Parade

Sunday, 25 November 2018

The parade became mired in controversy when police were banned from marching in uniform. (Video first published in Jan 2019)

More than $14,500 has been donated to keep Auckland's Pride Parade afloat after corporate sponsors withdrew support over a ban on police uniforms.

A page set up on fundraising site Givealittle on November 23 had nearly 300 donors just 36 hours later.

Organiser Laura O'Connell Rapira said the page was both pragmatic and an attempt to cultivate hope after a difficult week for the Pride community.

'The motivation was two-fold. If business are not going to fund the parade, we still want it to happen and so we have to get the funds from somewhere else,' O'Connell Rapira said.

Police on horseback at the 2018 Auckland Pride Parade.

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'The secondary reason was I, and many other people in the rainbow community were really weary and tired and starting to lose a bit of hope.'

Police were banned from wearing their uniforms in the 2019 parade after queer people of colour and transgender people expressed concern about police mistreatment of their communities.

In response, Inspector Tracy Phillips, the self-appointed coordinator of the New Zealand Police's diversity liaison officer (DLO) service, said police would not march at all.

ActionStation director Laura O'Connell Rapira said donations in support of the Pride parade had given her hope.

'Police fought really hard to be included in Pride, and to march in uniform. We're not prepared to go backwards and march in T-shirts, like we had to previously.'

Bank of New Zealand, Westpac, the New Zealand Defence Force, Fletcher Building, SkyCity and Rainbow New Zealand Charitable Trust have all since pulled their support for the event.

However, the tensions over the presence of police uniforms in the parade had been building for a number of years, O'Connell Rapira said.

'The way to overcome that . . . will be about coming together, ideally over food or something and having deep discussions about how we can move forward as a community.'

O'Connell Rapira said there was a deep desire for inclusion.

'However, our definitions are different. For one side, inclusion means allowing police coming in uniform,' she said.

'For the other side it means police should be allowed to come but their uniforms make [people] feel afraid and uncomfortable because of their history with police. So, the question is, who needs care and protection at the moment? I sit on the side of those who don't have state sanctioned power.'

O'Connell Rapira was in New York when she set up the crowdfunding page.

'I am on my way back and at every stopover I have been looking and [the total] has jumped another $5000,' she said.

'I can feel the weight lifting off my heart and I am getting a lot of feedback from people saying thank you for doing this.'

The financial impact of the corporate sponsors withdrawing from Pride is not yet known.

Members of the Auckland Pride board have been contacted for comment.