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Calgary has joined a growing list of Canadian cities where pride parade organizers are telling police officers who want to march that they are not welcome in uniform.

The new policy is an acknowledgement of “the historical oppression and institutionalized racism faced by queer/trans people of colour and Indigenous persons, and the potentially negative association with weapons, uniforms, and other symbols of law enforcement,” Calgary Pride said in a statement Wednesday.

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Responding to a demand that began last year in Toronto with Black Lives Matter, pride organizers in Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver and Halifax have this year sought to assuage those who see the police as oppressors.

But the move is proving divisive within the LGBTQ community, where many members fear excluding officers will undermine years of work building bridges with police forces.

“For those of us who are older and were part of that first generation to come out, at some cost, we grew up in an era where people were barred, lost their homes, jobs, were subjected fairly regularly to beatings, and where the police were not our friends,” Sean Bickerton, a Vancouver gay activist, said in an interview Thursday.