NYC Pride bans police groups from participating in parade

What they're saying: "The sense of safety that law enforcement is meant to provide can instead be threatening, and at times dangerous, to those in our community who are most often targeted with excessive force and/or without reason," Heritage of Pride said in a statement.

• "NYC Pride is unwilling to contribute in any way to creating an atmosphere of fear or harm for members of the community."

The Gay Officers Action League, one of the groups being banned, said that it is "disheartened by the decision to ban our group from participating in New York City Pride."

• "Heritage of Pride (NYC Pride) has long been a valued partner of our organization and its abrupt about-face in order to placate some of the activists in our community is shameful," the group added.

History: The first parade took place in 1970, following the 1969 police raid in the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar that at the time was located in lower Manhattan. The raid was followed by a series of riots that are considered to be one of the most important events in the LGBTQ rights movement.