After Banning Police In Uniform, Officers Now Welcome At Sacramento LGBTQ Pride

Update: More than a dozen staffers at the LGBT Community Center are demanding that its board chairman resign after the decision to allow police to march in uniform.

Sacramento police and organizers of the city's pride festival have come to an agreement allowing officers to wear their uniforms during Sunday's march.

It made national headlines this week when the Sacramento LGBT Community Center announced officers were not welcome to march in uniform during the annual parade.

Organizers said the move was to honor the pain and marginalization of people harmed by police violence. The pride event commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, when police raided a gay bar in New York and the community fought back.

Openly gay Sacramento Police Captain Pamela Seyffert, who has been with the department for 30 years, helped negotiate the new agreement.

"There's a laundry list of things that we've already done, but what our meeting did was allow us to reestablish our relationship and take a look at what we need to do better, what we need to do more of," she said.

Seyffert says some in the LGBT community don't feel comfortable approaching an officer in uniform.

"They felt that some people, you know, have an adverse reaction to the police uniform and are not comfortable coming forward to us with issues, and that needs to be fixed. We can't ... you know, that's not acceptable."

She says recent conversations with community center members have formed a framework for moving forward. The department says a community advisory committee will be established, as well as new officer training with input from the center.

Seyffert says she will be marching in uniform on Sunday.

After the agreement to allow officers, some individuals posted on Facebook that they will demonstrate the decision at Pride on Sunday.