The Topp Twins have spoken out on the controversial decision to ban the police from marching in uniform in the pride parade.
Dames Jools and Lynda Topp talked to Breakfast this morning about the move, as well as their responsibility to the lesbian and gay community.
Dame Lynda said while attitudes towards the LGBT community have changed since the twins got their big break in the '80s, they "have to be very careful, too, that we maintain the gay and lesbian community".
"There's a lot of controversy going on at the moment about the police not being allowed in the parade and all that stuff, but there's always two sides to a story."
"The very first parade was just gay people,” Dame Jools added.
"Now everybody wants to be on our parade, which is quite cool," Dame Lynda responded.
Dame Lynda joked that while the parade has become "a little bit" commercialised, she thinks the police "should be allowed to march" - granted they wear a different outfit.
"Personally, I think they should be allowed to march, but only if they are in the yellow and blue check g-strings with the hat. Give them a bit of vulnerability there for the police."
Dame Jools said, "A lot of people don't understand why there's a little bit of distention in the ranks about the police marching, but for a lot of transgender [and] transsexual [people], all that sort of stuff, if you identify as a woman and the police arrest you and you get put in a men's cell, it's really dangerous. You can get hurt, so there's two sides to every story".
"I would love to see the police march, but I know that there are other people who feel like, if they've had an abusive situation in a police cell and that guy's marching next to them in the gay parade, it would be pretty threatening, so I think people have wondered why that's going on but just like I always say, there's two sides to every story and sometimes, we just don't hear that story."
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