Florida chief on leave for alleged remarks on gay p's ronavis ath

Contents:

• HE WAS ONE OF THE NATN’S MOST REVERED GAY PS. HIS ARRT CHANGED EVERYTHG.
• D.C. LAWSU CLAIMS AARP SERVIC ILLEGALLY FIRED GAY MAN
• HILLSBOROUGH’S SHERIFF PUBLICIZED A SEX STG. DID TARGET GAY MEN?
• PROSECUTORS DISMISS SEX CRIM CHARG AGAST GAY FORMER D.C. COP
• FLORIDA TEEN KILLED BY MAN WHO FEARED BEG OUTED AS GAY, POLICE SAY
• NEWLY ENGAGED GAY P IS FLORIDA POLICE'S FIRST RONAVIS FATALY
• FLORIDA CHIEF ON LEAVE FOR ALLEGED REMARKS ON GAY P'S RONAVIS ATH
• ACLU SU CY OF MIAMI BEACH AND TWO POLICE OFFICERS FOR UNLAWFUL ARRT OF GAY MAN WHO REPORTED POLICE MISNDUCT
• FLORIDA MAN KILLED OPENLY GAY TEEN HE HAD BEEN CHATTG TO ONLE BEE HE FEARED BEG OUTED, POLICE SAY
• THUGS WHO ‘NEARLY KILLED’ GAY UPLE FOR HOLDG HANDS AT PRI PE JAIL TIME

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

Miller/TWP) RIGHT: Parson, shown here 2005, was known natnally and ternatnally as a pneer of gay rights policg. ’ ”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.

”Endg ‘fairy shakg’Parson’s reputatn as a gay hero began wh a sndal. Officer was statng himself outsi a gay club Southeast Washgton.

”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.

D.C. LAWSU CLAIMS AARP SERVIC ILLEGALLY FIRED GAY MAN

“I was really, really aaid that my reputatn was gog to change om beg a good p who happened to be gay, to beg a gay p that ed to be a good p. 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. (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. Parson boasted that, on a police force wh few openly gay ps, his imposg figure earned him rpect.

” The term is sometim ed by adults the gay muny who intify or prent as and the teenager unlocked the app’s “private media” feature, allowg them to see revealg pictur of each other. 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.

HILLSBOROUGH’S SHERIFF PUBLICIZED A SEX STG. DID TARGET GAY MEN?

“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. “Somethg like this jt plays right to their narrative, ” said John Guggenmos, owner of several gay nightclubs D.

) Police Department, says the 16-year-old told police he and Parson met on the gay onle datg app lled Growlr and agreed to meet for a possible sexual enunter after exchangg “explic” photos of each other. “RT advised the officers that he was g Growlr, a datg applitn for gay men, to munite wh a male who intified himself as Brett, ” the affidav ntu. The affidav do not say — and uld not immediately be termed — whether RT self intifi as gay, whether he was out to his parents as a gay person before the cint wh Parson surfaced, or whether his parents are supportive of his sexual orientatn.

PROSECUTORS DISMISS SEX CRIM CHARG AGAST GAY FORMER D.C. COP

Gay former D. Gay activist Rick Rosendall said Parson’s arrt rais the issue of teenage sexualy that the prevailg polil and social climate do not appear ready to addrs. The teenager told officers he had been g the gay datg app Growlr and had agreed to meet up wh Parson.

FLORIDA TEEN KILLED BY MAN WHO FEARED BEG OUTED AS GAY, POLICE SAY

"Gay former D. Was the Sheriff’s Office crimalizg gay sex? Crics ask if the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office is crimalizg gay sex.

[ Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office]Sheriff’s spokwoman Crystal Clark fend the operatn as way of protectg children and said accatns that the stg was prejudiced agast gay men “are absurd, and que ankly, offensive. Defense attorney Jam Amarosa, who has reprented several men acced such s, put bluntly: “I believe they’re targetg homosexual men.

To her, appears that the Sheriff’s Office is targetg certa lotns, regardls of who’s havg sex there, rather than gay ncerns her that the operatns were nducted whout any plats om the public. ”• • •It has been more than six s sce Florida’s famo Johns Commtee targeted Black people, munists and gay men a McCarthye asslt on the civil rights movement om 1956-65. Havg officers go unrver to target cisg — which men pick each other up for sex public — was a major aspect of those anti-gay efforts, cludg those by the Johns and raids targetg the LGBTQ muny cled the late 20th century, Stewart-Wter said — particular, police stopped raidg gay bars the face of public cricism.

NEWLY ENGAGED GAY P IS FLORIDA POLICE'S FIRST RONAVIS FATALY

”Durg the mid-century heyday of anti-gay policg, Stewart-Wter said, teachers and profsors arrted the stgs were often sgled out for particularly harsh public shamg, due to the myth that gay men pose a particular threat to said Chronister’s foc on the safety of children furthers that false and pernic stereotype. Neher of the parks targeted “Operatn Park Cleanup” has said she saw the sheriff’s language as fuelg prejudice agast gay men.

Prosecutors Florida have dropped felony charg volvg sex wh a mor agast a gay, retired, proment former Washgton, D. ”Assistant State Attorney Danielle Lennox explaed her reason for not prosecutg a March 9 memorandum that The Advote wr that Parson, then 53, and a 16-year-old boy met on a gay datg app, Growlr, where the teenager had dited he was 19. A nvictn of an “unnatural and lasciv act” is nsired a send-gree mismeanor and is punishable by up to 60 days jail and a $500 discsg the circumstanc surroundg the Operatn Park Hopper arrts laid out the statement, Lambda Legal Director of Constutnal Ligatn San Sommer told NBC Out “entrapment is fely a law enforcement tool ed agast gay men.

FLORIDA CHIEF ON LEAVE FOR ALLEGED REMARKS ON GAY P'S RONAVIS ATH

“They round up gay men and then do this really horrendo public shamg where they prt their mug shots and their nam and their ag and the towns where they live, ” Sommer said. ”“The ernment n certaly outlaw public sex, but mt take re to enforce such bans wh nstutnal lims, ” said Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern, a gay journalist who has wrten on gay sex stgs the past.

ACLU SU CY OF MIAMI BEACH AND TWO POLICE OFFICERS FOR UNLAWFUL ARRT OF GAY MAN WHO REPORTED POLICE MISNDUCT

“When law enforcement officers target gay men for no apparent reason other than their sexual orientatn, they n the risk of nng afoul of basic equal protectn prcipl. ”Stern poted to a prev se Long Beach, Calif., where a urt threw out the nvictn of a gay man who had been arrted for cisg, bee was led that the police partment had acted on unnstutnal “anim toward homosexuals. ”“Put simply, is not at all clear that the Volia County Sheriff remaed wh nstutnal boundari his zeal to arrt, imprison and huiate the men, ” Stern of the men arrted Operatn Park Hopper were middle-aged or olr, which Sommer speculated uld be ditive of generatnal differenc between olr and younger gay men.

A Florida teenager fatally shot another teen bee he feared beg outed as gay, police Daytona Beach Webb, 19, was arrted Wednday nnectn wh the shootg ath of Telan Mann, also 19, the early hours of June 23, police said. “Deputy Shannon Bent was a 12 year veteran of the Broward Sheriff’s Office; an out and proud gay law enforcement puty; a school rource officer who protected and mentored the young stunts at Deerfield Beach Elementary; a man love to be wedd later this year, ” the partment tweeted on Sunday.

A native of Broward County, Bent joed the sheriff’s office the aftermath of the 2016 mass shootg at an Orlando gay nightclub, Pulse, which left 49 people ad, Bent reportedly parked his police ciser outsi LGBTQ tablishments Wilton Manors, Florida, to reassure patrons of their Mercer, executive director of the Florida Police Chiefs Associatn, said the group was “vastated” to nfirm that Bent was the state’s first police COVID-19 fataly. Davie police Chief Dale Engle has been placed on admistrative leave after officers at his Florida statn filed a unn plat allegg that he dismissed their ncerns about ronavis protectn measur and blamed the COVID-19 fataly of a Broward County puty sheriffon his Chief Dale Police April 7, amid a ronavis outbreak at the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, police officers Davie — a town the unty — attempted to raise ncerns wh Engle about their risk of ntractg COVID-19, the disease ed by the rponse to the officers' ncerns, Engle allegedly orred them to stand formatn for spectn and berated them for raisg the health issue, acrdg to a plat filed by the Florida State Lodge of the Fraternal Orr of Police (FLFOP) then allegedly proceed to blame the ath of openly gay Broward County Deputy Sheriff Shannon Bent on a “backstory, " claimg he died bee he was a “homosexual who attend homosexual events.

FLORIDA MAN KILLED OPENLY GAY TEEN HE HAD BEEN CHATTG TO ONLE BEE HE FEARED BEG OUTED, POLICE SAY

”Jonathan Frey, who was engaged to Bent, issued a statement llg Engle’s reported remarks “pletely false, homophobic, and slanro, ” sayg he looked forward to the rults of the vtigatn.

”The Natnal Fraternal Orr of Police tweeted that, if Engle's “disgtg” alleged remarks are te, he should be s plat, the Florida State Lodge of the Fraternal Orr of Police said Engle's “rogatory referenc to homosexualy and Deputy Bent are shameful” and don’t reflect the welg nature of Henng, the legislative affairs director for the Florida Fraternal Orr of Police, said the unn filed the plat to better advote for officers who are creasgly ncerned about their risk of ntractg COVID-19 amid wi reports of shortag of personal protective equipment, or PPE. ”While the ban was welg news to many LGBTQ activists — who for long have highlighted the historic discrimatn LGBTQ people have faced the hands of law enforcement — also prompted an angry rponse by the Gay Officers Actn League, a group that reprents officers om the NYPD and other law enforcement Miller, the NYPD’s puty missner for public rmatn, said that cisn was “hurtful and disappotg.

THUGS WHO ‘NEARLY KILLED’ GAY UPLE FOR HOLDG HANDS AT PRI PE JAIL TIME

A Florida man was arrted Thursday eveng followg a vlent dispute wh his Martez, 35, was taken to ctody after reportedly threateng to "cut the gay out" of his brother while sharpeng a large kchen knife, acrdg to police who arrted him on multiple charg. – The ACLU of Florida today filed a lawsu feral urt agast the Cy of Miami Beach and two of s police officers on behalf of Harold Strickland, a gay former Miami Beach rint who was wrongfully arrted March 2009 retaliatn for llg 911 to report that two Miami Beach police officers were beatg and kickg a man who lay handcuffed on the ground near Flamgo Park. While the lawsu foc specifilly on Strickland’s arrt and vlatns of his civil rights by two Miami Beach Police Officers, the lawsu highlights two systemic issu that reach far beyond this se: the practic of unlawfully targetg gay men for arrt whout probable e and harassg and arrtg people who observe, document, and/or report police misnduct.

“For years the ACLU has received reports that Miami Beach police have targeted gay men near Flamgo Park for nothg more than beg gay, ” said Shelbi Day, an attorney wh the ACLU of Florida’s LGBT Advocy Project. Strickland’s rights as a gay man.