Brett Parson, gay D.C. p arrted Florida, divis LGBTQ muny - Washgton Post

Contents:

• HE WAS ONE OF THE NATN’S MOST REVERED GAY PS. HIS ARRT CHANGED EVERYTHG.
• GAY COP
• COMG OUT AT WORK: WHAT 'S LIKE TO BE A GAY P NEW JERSEY
• WE WENT TO A CONVENTN FOR GAY POLICE OFFICERS BERL
• PRI SAID GAY COPS AREN’T WELE. THEN CAME THE BACKLASH.
• NYC PRI PARA BANS POLICE; GAY OFFICERS 'DISHEARTENED'
• GAY FURRY HACKERS ARE TARGETG US STAT FOR PASSG ANTI-TRANS LEGISLATN
• DIPLOMATIC TENSN REPORTEDLY RISG BETWEEN UNED STAT AND JAMAI OVER GAY AMERIN DIPLOMAT
• 19-YEAR-OLD P OBSSED WH GAY PEOPLE QUS PROTT AFTER BOSS SAYS HE N’T BE SO HOMOPHOBIC

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.

GAY COP

”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. “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.

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

(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.

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

Jam Tracy me out as gay to his police joed the Englewood Cliffs police partment 2002, but 10 years passed before he revealed his secret.

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

“I was gettg lls om gay police officers all over the untry sayg thgs like ‘Hey, thanks for the publicy and gettg out there', ” he said. ”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.

Schwartz remends other gay ps get volved and take the time to fd peers and seek help if there are road for officers who e out as gay to lleagu has not always been smooth. “It’s part of the tnal program bee people might not nsir themselv homophobic or racist, but have unrlyg patterns that are, ” Tracy said. It’s the 1950s and they are secret lovers, bee homosexualy is still illegal Bra — and bee Tom is not only married, he’s also a Policeman, currently theaters and streamg on Prime Vio on November 4, is the sort of forbidn same-sex love story that has grown all too faiar Hollywood recent years.

“You have a dirty md, ” Tom tells his wife Marn, played by Emma Corr, the requise nontatn scene when she (very rrectly) acc him of havg a gay affair. They do not simply show “two guys gog at , ” as Styl assured fans a recent terview, spe that beg an accurate basele scriptn of gay sex. It’s the megastar elephant the room who simulat gay sex on screen.

NYC PRI PARA BANS POLICE; GAY OFFICERS 'DISHEARTENED'

Whether Styl has engaged the sort of gay sex he and Dawson enact on screen seems bi the pot (and whether that’s anyone’s bs is another subject of bate).

Let’s leave asi, for a moment, the broar, ongog argument about straight actors playg gay rol — and pretend that none of is currently imagg Harry gettg horizontal wh a real-life Tom or Dick. Tradg feather boas for a bobby’s prsed uniform and spenrs, Styl is playg agast type — not bee his character is gay, but bee he’s a p.

“It’s not like ‘This is a gay story about the guys beg gay, ’” Styl told Rollg Stone. Played wh a melancholy own by Rupert Everett scen that tercut to the prent day, he’s a portra of the art-lover as a gay man whose life has been ed by a woman who — spoiler alert — turns out to be a narc. Hopefully the reversal of her posn on gay sex will spire others to do the same.

GAY FURRY HACKERS ARE TARGETG US STAT FOR PASSG ANTI-TRANS LEGISLATN

We may not be there que yet, but ’s much more fun to image than the regrets of a closeted gay the bt of what’s queer. ” On a rooftop at the end of the day, after some drks, he lled home and told his father that he was gay.

So I uld see the Herage of Pri para as this thg for whe gay men, mcly, glter. “Gay liberatn, ” she said, “meant revolutn. ” 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. “My God, what a bate over this, ” said Andy Humm, a longtime -host of “Gay USA, ” a TV news program. In the past week, he told them, he had received onle msag of hate nsistently om whe gay men, to the extent that his fay feared for his safety.

DIPLOMATIC TENSN REPORTEDLY RISG BETWEEN UNED STAT AND JAMAI OVER GAY AMERIN DIPLOMAT

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. At a packed 1981 Cy Hall mtee meetg over a -old gay- rights bill, a top officer wh the NYPD’s largt unn told the crowd he was not aware of any “homosexual police officers” the partment. “And I am equally proud of beg gay.

There had never been an openly gay p on the force sce was found 1845. Cochrane would go on to create the Gay Officers Actn League to support LGBTQ members of law enforcement. Before GOAL was created, homophobia was “accepted” and “tolerated” the NYPD, former officers said, and they uld be fired jt for beg gay.

19-YEAR-OLD P OBSSED WH GAY PEOPLE QUS PROTT AFTER BOSS SAYS HE N’T BE SO HOMOPHOBIC

In at least one se, an officer was reportedly fired jt for havg a gay man as a roommate. In a Febary 1978 op-ed The New York Tim, then-PBA Print Samuel DeMilia wrote that a ban on discrimatn agast “homosexuals by cy agenci...

When Rodriguez joed the partment 1982, homophobia The Bronx’s 44th Precct was “totally expected, ” and when he first heard about GOAL the amy, he thought was an elaborate se to figure out which ps were gay so they uld be fired. “If you weren’t homophobic, you were eher a f-g or, ‘What’s up wh that?

He relled rpondg as a rookie to a domtic-vlence ll for a gay uple. Like many other gay officers, Rodriguez stayed the closet for a long time.