Australian police are in talks with organisers of Sydney\u2019s world-famous Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade to decide whether to march in this weekend\u2019s event after a serving police officer was charged with murdering two gay men.Police said human remains were found on Tuesday in the search for the bodies of the men who had been missing for days, after the Sydney police officer was charged last Friday with murdering his former boyfriend and another man.Karen Webb, the police commissioner in Australia\u2019s most populous state of New South Wales, said the force was in discussions with organisers about whether to attend the parade.Parade organisers have said the LGBT community was unsettled by the alleged murders by the officer, who is also gay and had attended past parades.\u201cThe board has taken the decision to request that the police do not march in the 2024 parade,\u201d organisers said in a statement late on Monday, seeking to avoid adding to the distress within the communities.The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper said the discussions focused on a more limited presence for police at the event, including whether officers could participate in plainclothes.Sydney\u2019s police force has a complex relationship with the city\u2019s gay and lesbian community.The Mardi Gras parade, which attracts hundreds of thousands of spectators, began after a gay rights protest was violently suppressed by police in 1978. The force formally apologised in 2018.In recent years, relations have improved somewhat, with current and former officers who identify as LGBT marching in the parade in their uniforms for the last two decades.Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he supported the right of officers to march in the parade.\u201cFrom my personal perspective, I think it\u2019s been very good that the police have marched,\u201d he said in a radio interview.\u201cIt\u2019s come a long way from the 1978 Mardi Gras, where people were arrested for the crime of being who they were.\u201d(Reuters)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Australian police are in discussions with the organizers of Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade about their participation in the event, following the charge of a serving police officer with the murder of two gay men. Human remains were found in the search for the bodies of the men, who had been missing for days. The charged officer, who is also gay and had participated in past parades, has caused unrest within the LGBT community. Parade organizers have requested that police not march in the 2024 parade to avoid adding distress. Discussions include the possibility of police attending in plainclothes. The relationship between Sydney’s police force and the gay and lesbian community has been complex, with formal apologies issued by the force in 2018 for past suppression of gay rights protests. Relations have improved, with LGBT officers marching in uniform in recent years. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expressed support for police participation in the parade, highlighting the progress since the 1978 Mardi Gras.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3314,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[328,21,3,941,942,183,184,463,577,943,18],"class_list":["post-3313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cyprus","tag-australia","tag-crime","tag-cyprus","tag-lgbt","tag-mardi-gras","tag-murder","tag-police","tag-protest","tag-protests","tag-sydney","tag-world"],"acf":{"keyphrase":"","keywords":"","sourceimg":"","country-category":""},"yoast_head":"\n