Homosexualy as Deviance: The Case of the Gay Police Officer | Office of Jtice Programs

Contents:

• THE COPS STANDG WH, AND FOR, THE GAY COMMUNI THEY SERVE
• COMG OUT AT WORK: WHAT 'S LIKE TO BE A GAY P NEW JERSEY
• “A GAY OFFICER CGHT BETWEEN TWO WORLDS”
• WE WENT TO A CONVENTN FOR GAY POLICE OFFICERS BERL
• HOMOSEXUALY AS DEVIANCE: THE CASE OF THE GAY POLICE OFFICER

THE COPS STANDG WH, AND FOR, THE GAY COMMUNI THEY SERVE

They routely flung homophobic slurs and once rved his name off an award says the dangero workplace environment began years ago, when he was attendg highway patrol amy and a fellow t held a gun to his head. “I know you are gay, " the t said, acrdg to Brome. "Tell me you are gay and I will pull the trigger.

Supervisors allowed the hostile treatment to ntue, Brome surmised, bee he was a gay man. “They refe to acknowledge there’s a problem and they refe to do anythg about , ” said Brome, of Vallejo, ’s story is part of a wave of lawsus allegg anti-gay workplace discrimatn filed by gay officers agast law-enforcement partments across the U.

The lawsus scribe abive work environments, where beg gay or lbian often meant cel tnts, hostile work ndns and limed reer opportuni. Officers and supervisors allegedly mocked Kara person and work textg groups bee he is gay. "If you ever want to see a whe shirt [get a promotn], you should tone down your gayns.

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

It found lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr officers and applints filed 48 urt s durg that time perd. ‘I was vastated’Officers who filed lawsus said they worried not jt about their reer, but also their mental and physil homophobic harassment Brome said he first faced the amy ntued at three different San Francis Bay Area partments throughout his reer until 2015, when his doctor advised him to take medil strs leave bee of the discrimatn's toll.

“A GAY OFFICER CGHT BETWEEN TWO WORLDS”

"'Tip of the iceberg'The public is only now learng more about discrimatn agast LGBT police officers part bee of recent legal chang that allow them to e forward and mand jtice, rearchers and activists gay and lbian officers sued their partments the 1980s and '90s, said Colv, who has rearched lbian and gay police.

Officers n also miss adl for filg plats or ci to put up wh homophobic talk to get along wh enforcement officers who do ci to sue for anti-LGBT discrimatn have legal grounds, said Greg Nevs, senr unsel for Lambda Legal, which advot for LGBT rights. A long history of abe agast LGBT peopleMany law-enforcement agenci have mistreated the LGBT muny, so ’s not entirely surprisg that some officers harass their gay -workers, said Chigo-based police-misnduct attorney Andrea Rchie, the thor of the Amnty Internatnal report “Stonewalled: Police Abe And Misnduct Agast Lbian, Gay, Bisexual And Transgenr People In The U. The police raid at New York Cy's Stonewall Inn 1969 was a flash pot, Rchie said, but police targeted LGBT gatherg plac such as bars and bathho as early as the rearchg police misnduct agast LGBT people, Rchie said officers often told her about homophobic and transphobic behavr they or their lleagu experienced wh the partment.

One night and walked to her personal r civilian cloth, she said that officer jumped out om behd a pillar and physilly attacked her, g transphobic and homophobic told a mandg officer about the cint that n now be nsired a hate crime, but Callahan said she did not subm a crime report. "But while police prevly may have prevly lacked nnectns wh gay people, Colv said workers or patrol partners g out n sometim change dynamics for the better.

WE WENT TO A CONVENTN FOR GAY POLICE OFFICERS BERL

Meanwhile, LGBT police associatns, such as the Gay Officers Actn League chapters, n uplift LGBT officers by providg mentorship and recent years, some police partments have set out to hire LGBT police officers and provi LGBT trag to their staffs, some to avoid msy public lawsus or bee they were required by the urts, and some to embrace awarens trag n improve how police treat members of the muny si and outsi agenci, said Greg Miraglia, print of Out to Protect, an anizatn supportg LGBT law enforcement officers. No one ever showered the police partment’s bathroom while he did, Clemons said, bee he is gay. And as a black, gay man wh groomed eyebrows and manicured fgernails, he was different.

HOMOSEXUALY AS DEVIANCE: THE CASE OF THE GAY POLICE OFFICER

Clemons said that while the lawsu put strs on everyone volved, he believ sug end the homophobic harassment and improved his workplace environment. But as the print of the force’s only LGBTQ aternal anizatn — the Gay Officers Actn League, or GOAL — his other role is to serve and support his brothers and sisters drsed blue … and rabows.

Gay police officers straddle two worlds: Outsi the force, they are sometim viewed wh spicn by their own kd.