Victoria Police and the Melbourne Pride March

On the eve of the Melbourne Pride March, we wish our community a Happy Pride.

The LGB Alliance Australia is committed to advancing the rights and dignity of lesbian, gay and bisexual people, and to speaking out when those principles are undermined.

It is disappointing that Victoria Police will again not be marching at this year’s Pride March, following their exclusion from the march last year.

For more than two decades, beginning in 2002, Victoria Police officers and leadership marched in Pride in uniform. That first march was led by then Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon and marked the first time a serving Australian police commissioner participated publicly in a Pride event. Over the years that followed, police participation came to represent visible institutional recognition of lesbian and gay people, including the many LGB officers who serve the Victorian community. That history, and what it meant to those officers, matters.

The Pride March and the Midsumma Festival are publicly funded events intended to promote inclusion and acceptance. Excluding a group with a long history of participation, and one that includes many LGB members, risks undermining the spirit of Pride itself.

The introduction and continuation of a dress code that prevents police from marching in uniform appears inconsistent with Pride’s stated values. Many will find it ironic that an event celebrating lesbian and gay freedom now requires a dress code that excludes some gay participants from marching.

While Victoria Police will be present at the 2026 Pride March in uniform to ensure public safety, LGB officers will again be denied the opportunity to march openly and proudly as participants. This creates a contradictory situation. Officers are entrusted to protect the event, but are not permitted to belong to it.

LGB Alliance Australia stands in solidarity with the members of the Victoria Police Pride Network and supports their right to participate in as they did for many years.

We hope this current approach is reconsidered, and that future Pride Marches return to the principles of inclusion, respect, and unity upon which Pride was built.

To our members marching this weekend, remember to say hello to your fellow LGB Alliance Australia members. You know the secret sign, a heart made with your hands. 🫶

Happy Pride!