Membership
A number of our police forces are members of Pride in Diversity and/or submit to the Australian Workplace Equality Index scheme. The Australian Federal Police are foundational members of the Pride in Diversity Scheme.
| Australian Federal Police | Foundation Member Active participant in AWEI |
| NSW Police Service | Pride in Diversity Member Active Participant in AWEI |
| Northern Territory Police | Unknown |
| Queensland Police Service | Pride in Diversity Member Although QPS is a current member of Pride in Diversity, they deny the existence of any invoices, correspondence, AWEI submissions, AWEI results or survey data. This implies that either QPS has wrongfully denied existence of these documents, or they have not been invoiced for membership. |
| Tasmania Police | Unknown |
| Victoria Police | Principal Member ($10,000 per annum) Pride in Diversity Member AWEI rank – silver AWEI submission – request pending |
| Western Australia Police Force | Pride in Diversity Member AWEI submission – FOI request pending |
Criticisms of Police Participation in Pride in Diversity
In December 2021, the Victorian Police brought disciplinary charges against Sergeant Bruno Staffieri after he criticised the money and effort that went into their AWEI submission.
Politics of Policing & Rainbow
Our several police forces are routinely seen in public and in the media supporting the rainbow flag, donning rainbow uniforms and purple face paint in honour of LGBTIQ causes. In 2021, NSW Police were even caught breaching COVID guidelines to celebrate Wear It Purple Day.
There is a line between the police supporting a charitable cause, and the police actively supporting a political group. Around the country, police don specially coloured uniforms, hang rainbow lanyards around their necks, drape themselves in the rainbow flag and paint their faces purple to show their support for the LGBTIQ community.
The LGBTIQ is a community with a strong activist current, with regular media coverage, with bills before parliament and a raging debate about the conflict of rights between women and men with special identities.
The argument is that the police want to leave behind the era of homophobia (good), embrace collaborative policing (good) and engage with the community (good). A community which some of their ranks also represent. Just how many gay and transgender police there are is spoken of in hushed tones. Is it more or fewer than say the number of female police? Or the number of muslim police, police with CALD backgrounds, and what about Aboriginal police?
Which other interest group gets this representation from the police? The police do not gather together to read from the Quran or the Bible, the do not send a contingent to the Women’s March. They do not lay plaques to commemorate the refugees drowned offshore.
When it comes to conflicts of rights between LGBTIQ and other interest groups, the police are not impartial. As Sergeant Staffieri found, dissenters are not treated well.
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