As a gay officer I saw how homophobic the police are | Kev Maxwell | The Guardian

Contents:

• HE WAS ONE OF THE NATN’S MOST REVERED GAY PS. HIS ARRT CHANGED EVERYTHG.
• COMG OUT AT WORK: WHAT 'S LIKE TO BE A GAY P NEW JERSEY
• THE HANDSOME UNRVER P S. IS HE ENTRAPPG GAY MEN OR CLEANG UP A PARK?
• WE WENT TO A CONVENTN FOR GAY POLICE OFFICERS BERL
• CASE OF THE HUNKY COP AND GAY MAN
• GAY POLICEMAN STOCK PHOTOS AND IMAG
• PRI SAID GAY COPS AREN’T WELE. THEN CAME THE BACKLASH.
• GAY COP
• POLICE AT PRI? GAY PS, LGBTQ ACTIVISTS STGGLE TO SEE EYE-TO-EYE
• NYC PRI PARA BANS POLICE; GAY OFFICERS 'DISHEARTENED'
• AS A GAY OFFICER I SAW HOW HOMOPHOBIC THE POLICE ARE
• GAY COPS

HE WAS ONE OF THE NATN’S MOST REVERED GAY PS. HIS ARRT CHANGED EVERYTHG.

’ ”The teenager began to tell the officers the story he would repeat at least three tim that night, cludg at the sexual asslt treatment center where he was taken after his parents were ’d met Parson on Growlr, a datg app for gay men that requir ers to be 18. The man who had jt driven away was known natnally and ternatnally as a pneer of gay rights the natn’s pal, Parson built an award-wng liaison un that vtigated hate crim, beiend advot and marched Pri paras, slowly revolutnizg the relatnship between the police and the cy’s LGBTQ muny. ”The chief stalled after the sndal, Charl Ramsey, saw a solutn to that problem: bolsterg and broang a newly formed Gay and Lbian Liaison, then his early 30s, had been openly gay sce he joed the force.

COMG OUT AT WORK: WHAT 'S LIKE TO BE A GAY P NEW JERSEY

Rather than raid gay clubs, Parson and the five to 15 members of his un would announce themselv over the loudspeaker, then walk around, troduce themselv and pass out reigerator mags wh their phone number on . The number was the workaround for those the muny who need help, but worried about the repercsns of llg 911: a gay man experiencg domtic abe om his partner or a transgenr woman wantg to report a hate crime.

THE HANDSOME UNRVER P S. IS HE ENTRAPPG GAY MEN OR CLEANG UP A PARK?

(Carol Guzy/The Washgton Post) Wh three years of Parson’s beg put charge, the un won a distguished service award om the cy’s Gay and Lbian Activists Alliance, an anizatn formed part to prott discrimatn by law enforcement. Advot who work wh gay youth say ’s mon for teenagers to explore on datg apps that allow them to meet strangers, pecially if they don’t feel safe exprsg themselv at home or vulnerable kids also e datg apps to seek out adults who will pay them, though mors nnot legally nsent to beg purchased for sex.

WE WENT TO A CONVENTN FOR GAY POLICE OFFICERS BERL

“I don’t thk a life should be stroyed over one foolish event late one night, pecially when the ntact was ma on a se where everyone is supposed to be a mimum of 18, ” said Rick Rosendall, former print of the Gay and Lbian Activists Alliance. Dubbed the “don’t say gay” law by opponents, s supporters bandied about terms like “groomg” to create false lks between homosexualy and child abe, which is mted by people of all sexual orientatns.

”It's not always easy to be a p who is gay, but each step forward helps pave the way for a better future work environment, Tracy ntu below galleryWell before Tracy ever put on the police uniform, Wtwood police Officer Larry Schwartz helped pave the way for gay officers. But the unrver operatn, which was sharply cricized recently by a judge, also exemplifi a ntroversial, age-old police tactic that many of California’s largt law enforcement agenci have quietly abandoned recent years amid mountg cricism and changg sexual the most-read stori this hour >>In Los Angel, Long Beach and other areas where unrver lewd nduct stgs endure, police fend them as an important tool for tchg people who are vlatg the law and for terrg others om tryg to have sex parks and other public areas ed by fai and activists do not ndone public sex but have long nmned the bts as a form of entrapment, sayg they unfairly sgle out gay men, wh sometim vastatg nsequenc.

CASE OF THE HUNKY COP AND GAY MAN

“Nobody is gog to fend lewd nduct, but there is a qualative difference between sexual predators and people who engage boorish behavr, ” said Los Angel County Asssor Jefey Prang, who is gay and a former special assistant the Sheriff’s Department who worked wh s LGBT advisory uncil.

Last month, a Los Angel County judge threw out the charg one se stemmg om Long Beach’s 2014 operatn, sayg police were discrimatg agast gay law enforcement agenci have stopped rponse to lawsus or after polil backlash. “You still have to enforce the law when you get plats, ” he e of unrver ps to target gay men Southern California stretch back to the early 20th century, when gay sex was illegal, said Lillian Farman, a historian and thor of “Gay L.

Brown, “vice specialists” who loered public rtrooms and other areas while rryg out so-lled “pury mpaigns” aimed at gay men Long Beach and Los Angel, Farman wrote, addg that their methods served as a mol for stgs throughout Southern pair had no prr police trag but were given police badg both ci. They were paid for each arrt and offered their servic to other major ci, she 1914, The Tim reported on an operatn which the two helped arrt 31 men acced of engagg gay sex at private clubs Long Beach. ”Wt Hollywood Councilman John Duran, an attorney who has reprented men cisg s for 30 years, said a typil client was a “eply closeted gay or bisexual man who had hidn renzvo public plac.

GAY POLICEMAN STOCK PHOTOS AND IMAG

” Many, he said, had low self-teem and turned to cisg bee they thought they were unservg of the LGBT movement, said Duran, who is gay, “has produced new generatns of out and proud people who believe they n have healthy sexual enunters. ” Growg public support of gay rights and the prence of openly gay officers police partments has put prsure on agenci to stop g stgs, he y operatns have drawn fierce Sprgs police sparked outrage 2009 when officers arrted 19 men an unrver stg a neighborhood known for gay rorts. Pl Ford, supervisor of the agency’s tective Long Beach, gay-rights activists said they were troubled — and surprised — to see stgs still beg ployed a cy wh a vibrant LGBT muny and an openly gay Beach police took more than two dozen men to ctody durg y operatns om 2012 to 2014, acrdg to Bce Nickerson, a civil rights of those men was Rory Moroney, who was arrted the Recreatn Park stg the day he was arrted, Moroney said he was g his laptop the park to search for jobs.

PRI SAID GAY COPS AREN’T WELE. THEN CAME THE BACKLASH.

”ALSOLong Beach’s sad history of targetg gay men for arrtHow gay men Long Beach were targeted by police and mocked by The Tim a century agoJudge slams gay sex stgs by Long Beach police, llg them discrimatoryhailey. Even police tectiv have to be reful what they ask for — and how they look when they're askg for appeals urt says a gay man was a victim of entrapment bee he didn't know an unrver tective was lookg for dgs when the officer asked him if he wanted to "party. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, a men's rtroom at the Mneapolis airport for allegedly lookg to engage gay sex wrote his June report that he "regnized a signal ed by persons wishg to engage lewd nduct.

Craig told reporters today that he did nothg appropriate and said his guilty plea was a plac like men's rtrooms, airports and tra statns, tck stops, universy librari and parks, have long been plac where gay and bisexual men, particularly those the closet, ngregate orr to meet for anonymo time, people faiar wh cisg told, gay men began g a dified system of signals to dite to others that they were terted sex. In an effort to curb lewd acts public — or as some gays argue, an effort to persecute gay men — unrver police began stg operatns plac known for sex solicg and employed the same s. If a se like this went to trial, police officers would have to produce evince to say here is how we n say wh certaty this is was really a lewd act, " he plead guilty to the charg and therefore opted agast a, Craig nied beg gay and said he ma a mistake by pleadg officers, for the most part, only vtigate an area after members of the public have plaed about beg ed for sex, said Rich Gregson, executive director of the California Peace Officers Associatn.

GAY COP

"Wh many other optns available for gay men to meet each other, Gershen Kfman, a profsor emer of psychology at Michigan State Universy and thor of the book "Comg Out of Shame, " said public cisg is practiced maly by eply closeted men.

POLICE AT PRI? GAY PS, LGBTQ ACTIVISTS STGGLE TO SEE EYE-TO-EYE

A 2017 study om the Instute, which was published the Amerin Journal of Public Health, found that sexual mori – those who intified as lbian, gay or bisexual, or had same-sex experienc – were disproportnately rcerated, nstutg 9. The rate of rceratn of lbian, gay and bisexual people is approximately three tim higher than the general US rceratn rate, the study found, and rcerated sexual mori were more likely to experience mistreatment, harsh punishment and sexual victimizatn than straight mat.

” The monstrators left angry but clash between protters and police fillg social media, prsure rose on Herage of Pri to rce police volvement, cludg banng the Gay Officers Actn League, which routely receiv effive cheers durg the Pri march.

” The board did not tell members about the cisn or ask for a the Gay Officers Actn League learned about the g policy, pre-empted Herage of Pri wh s own statement llg the ban “shameful.

NYC PRI PARA BANS POLICE; GAY OFFICERS 'DISHEARTENED'

Fisher, who had lled for the vote of no Downey, print of the gay officers group, said he felt “betrayed” by the ban, pecially bee the officers “put so much of themselv on the choppg block” by workg to change practic and attus wh their partments. Jt before members of the Gay Officers Actn League (GOAL) marched past the Stonewall Inn, the fish le of last year’s New York Cy Pri March, a small group of activists slipped past the barriers and chaed their hands together to prevent the officers om passg, a prott technique lled a “lockdown. ”Dozens of ps workg secury at the march surround the protters, and, over shouts of “f--k the police” and “racist, sexist, anti-gay, NYPD, KKK, ” began to break through what appeared to be chas and bber tub the protters had ed to lock themselv together.

Pacific Prs / LightRocket via Getty Imag fileThe irony of the cint was not lost on many the crowd — ps arrtg gay people ont of the Stonewall Inn, the very place where homophobic police btaly sparked the morn LGBTQ rights movement nearly five s years prr.

In fact, New York Cy’s first gay pri march, which was held on June 28, 1970, was anized to memorate the one-year anniversary of what has bee known as the Stonewall Rts — when 1969 patrons of the now-inic gay bar fally had enough after yet another police raid.

AS A GAY OFFICER I SAW HOW HOMOPHOBIC THE POLICE ARE

Nohels, protters say they’re dog so to take a stand agast police btaly and harassment of margalized groups, namely people of lor and the transgenr DAYS OF GOALThe relatnship between the police and the lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer muny has long been ght, but for LGBTQ ps, the right to march pri is a hard-fought civil rights the after that first pri march on June 28, 1970, New York’s gay rights movement ma so much progrs that by 1981 the police force self was facg LGBTQ activism om wh. Gay ps New York Cy, for example, led by Officer Charl Cochrane, sought to form their own employee rource group, like the on that existed for Hispanic, Irish-Amerin and Ain-Amerin Rodriguez, now a retired NYPD sergeant, was still the New York Cy Police Amy when Officer Cochrane entered his classroom 1982.

GAY COPS

”Rodriguez, who kept his sexualy to himself his early days as a p, relled overhearg on several ocsns racist, sexist and homophobic ments om his largely straight, whe and male lleagu back he was posted to New York Cy’s 6th Precct, which vers Greenwich Village, he relled a senr officer askg him, “So you work wh all the fags? C., to Sacramento, a number of progrsive LGBTQ activists, some of them too young to remember the gay police activism of the ‘80s and ‘90s, view ps to be an unwele — and even threateng — prence at pri addn to gettg ps out of pri, many of the different activist groups also have an array of social jtice mands. However, this year members of the Gay Officers Actn League will march, as they have every year sce 1996, uniform wh their guns FORWARDRodriguez said while he knows where the protters are g om, he disagre wh their tactics.