people keep regularly being like 'it's problematic to hc Daisy or Basira as LGBTQ bc they're cops and cops actively oppress the LGBTQ community'

yes. yes they do.

but you know that like. gay cops exist? as well as Black and Asian cops exist? and you know they exist because My God They Will Tell You like. if you've ever been at a radgey feminist or queer activist protest...well, every single time I've been involved in police liaison for one the cops are Falling Over Themselves to tell you they're a Feminist Lesbian themselves here's a fun story about my wife and like. putting queer cops and cops of colour front and centre at relevant protests is uhhhh a very transparent attempt to manipulate you into trusting them and absolutely evidence of the police being cunts, but it doesn't mean they're lying about being LGBTQ/a person of colour. British police regularly actively recruit in marginalised communities because it makes them look better and allows them to use LGBTQ and BAME police as tokens which they think will help them gain trust in queer and BAME spaces.

and the fact that they're being tokenism and are generally treated like shit by their coworkers doesn't. let queer cops or cops of colour off the hook. a lot enter the police with the idea of improving it from within (and a lot don't) but ultimately they are still active enthusiastic participators in the system.

like I understand that what most people are actually saying when they say 'don't call Daisy and Basira wlw because they're cops' is 'don't treat them as your uwu unproblematic representation faves' which. Very Much Is An Issue

but I think the story with Daisy and Basira is so much about the messiness of Being A Cop, Trying To Stop Being A Cop and Being A Likeable Generally Decent Person Who As A Cop Does And Justifies Unforgivable Horrors and honestly the weirdnesses of cops from marginalised backgrounds is part of that conversation. like if you straight up just insist that being likeable or being gay or being a person of colour is incompatible with being a dangerous cop like. that's literally what the police want you to think, albeit from a different angle. The reason they send cops of colour and LGBTQ cops to liaise with protesters (and the reason those cops tell you unasked that they're gay) is because they know you don't trust cops, but they hope you'll a) take the cop as One Of Us bc they share traits or b) assume they're less of a threat because they're not white cishet men, and assume you can talk them out of being a cop. which. you can't.

like to me either Daisy or Basira being gay relates pretty well to the fact that both of them are actively written to be likeable/relateable/sympathetic and then the story repeatedly turns round and says "and that doesn't make it ok. and you still are not and cannot be forgiven. and the people you killed are still dead."

Basira and/or Daisy may be gay, may be GNC, may be people of colour, may be whatever else, but whatever else they are they are still cops who did and justified awful things using a system designed to protect them from consequences. the fact that they're traumatised and that they're likeable and that they care about people close to them doesn't make them not cops or not dangerous! even quitting being a cop (leaving the Hunt) while difficult and good, doesn't mean you weren't a cop and doesn't mean you're off the hook and everyone should just forgive and forget! like that's Very Explicitly The Point!

and those people exist! cops who are kind and funny and quirky in their personal lives, and express beliefs that you agree with at least superficially, and are gay, and are people of colour, and speak sympathetically about their experiences of marginalisation. and they're still fucking cops. and in many ways they're much more insidious than a white cishet cop who acts openly threatening bc you will trust them. you will think you can bring them around. but they're in and of the system and the system uses the recurrence of marginalised cops specifically as part of their targeting of marginalised communities, and talking about that isn't denying the reality of police brutality, police racism or police queerphobia.