I'm a Gay Army Officer—Queer Troops Mt Fight Back

Contents:

• THE COPS STANDG WH, AND FOR, THE GAY COMMUNI THEY SERVE
• I'M A GAY ARMY OFFICER—QUEER TROOPS MT FIGHT BACK
• A BRIEF HISTORY OF GOAL, THE GAY P CLUB BOOTED OM NYC PRI
• ARMY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY GENERAL RETIR AFTER SPIRG OTHERS
• SPECT COLORADO LGBTQ NIGHTCLUB SHOOTG HAD NEO-NAZI LEANGS, TARGETED GAY PEOPLE, OFFICERS TTIFY
• “A GAY OFFICER CGHT BETWEEN TWO WORLDS”
• RENNTRE GRATUE GAY à PARIS, (75)

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

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. As part of the force, they’re navigatg the very stutn largely rponsible for the vlence that led to the morn gay rights movement.

In 1969, New York Cy officers raid the Stonewall Inn, a gay club Greenwich Village, sparkg vlent protts and clash that lasted six days. “It’s an ongog procs, y, but ’s important for the [gay muny] — which has this mentaly based on history that you n’t be both gay and a police officer — to see that there are gay ps out there. Before he joed the force 17 years ago, Locke was a social worker and director at the Gay and Lbian Anti-Vlence Project, where he vtigated s of police vlence agast the gay muny.

On June 12, a few weeks before this year’s Pri Para, Downey stood at the ont of an dorium New York’s police headquarters for an annual event to honor the cy’s gay officers. Even as recently as a few years ago, GOAL wasn’t allowed to hold Pri Month events, like the one this month to regnize their gay lleagu, at police headquarters. Jam Tracy of the Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, police partment, the abily to be openly gay while the police force is important to make those meangful chang.

I'M A GAY ARMY OFFICER—QUEER TROOPS MT FIGHT BACK

But as a gay man, I have been fightg my whole life to enjoy the very privileg I am entled to as both a beholr and protector of them. I was one of few soldiers who joed the service before graduatg high school, but the admistratn at the time, which I believe was homophobic, chose to act as if I never existed bee of my queer hate that I experienced growg up on Long Island was my first enunter wh how others would treat me as a queer soldier. Raids on gay bars and bathho served to spire the historic Stonewall rts that lnched the morn LGBTQ+ rights movement the U.

Fifty years after the Black Cat protts Los Angel, which directly led to the lnch of The Advote, we take a look at some of the most nsequential strik on gay bars and bathho datg back more than a century. The rmatn gathered actually led to a wir vtigatn of homosexualy nearby ci, which rulted 20 arrts, cludg two ps on the Baker Street beat, acrdg to Allan Bebe’s A History of Bathho.

Moral reformers New York Cy raised polil prsure on police the 1920s to shut down the Lafayette Brothers’ Turkish Baths, a popular spot for gay men livg and visg the cy. A German gay magaze 1929 published an acunt of a 26-year-old European visor that said eight tectiv went unrver the bathhoe, then round all patrons the ont room and beat the guts. Loted between Los Angel gay bars Harold’s and the Waldorf, Cooper’s Donuts at night beme a hub of social activy for drag queens, gays, trans people, and htlers the 1950s.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF GOAL, THE GAY P CLUB BOOTED OM NYC PRI

While one of the first known phbacks agast police raids, likely would have been fotten if not for the fact gay lerature pneer John Rechy happened to be there as the time.

A New Year’s police raid on the Black Cat, a gay bay the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angel, rulted the beatgs of more than a dozen people; two men were arrted for the crime of kissg and a bartenr suffered a ptured spleen.

ARMY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY GENERAL RETIR AFTER SPIRG OTHERS

It also led Richard Mch and Bill M to lnch lol gay rights newsletter PRIDE (Personal Rights Defense and Edutn), which would later bee The Advote. The Dover Hotel Los Angel operated practilly as a gay bathhoe, and as such drew the attentn of police, who nducted equent raids.

The raid would prompt a monstratn by the Gay Liberatn Front and other anizatns that moved through the day om Sheridan Square to St. California lawmakers 1976 passed a nsentg adults law part to stop persecutn of gays through bathhoe raids, but that didn’t stop San Francis ps om raidg Liberty Baths an apparent tt of that law, acrdg to A History of Bathho.

The owner of the Streatham tablishment would end up fed 5, 000 pounds and sentenced to six months jail, somethg Gay News at the time would label a “dranian sentence.

SPECT COLORADO LGBTQ NIGHTCLUB SHOOTG HAD NEO-NAZI LEANGS, TARGETED GAY PEOPLE, OFFICERS TTIFY

The Broward County Sheriff’s Office nducted jot raids of Florida gay bars Club 21 and Copa on May 3, 1991, and the cints would play a role Sheriff Nick Navarro eventually losg reelectn, ironilly after nductg such raids an apparent publicy stunt.

Byron Jon, who led a group om the Gay and Lbian Youth Group Club 21 the eveng of the raid, wrote later The Advote that hundreds were taed by police though only six were arrted.

Three years after Cha crimalized homosexualy, police Guangzhou July 2000 raid the Junjie men’s health and bety center and arrted 37 men on charg of prostutn. Montreal police raid gay strip bar Taboo on May 10, 2003, then publicly suggted they were specifilly raidg the tablishment bee of the potential for olr men preyg on young dancers. Unr the guise of dog public health spectns, thori Haton, Canada, on Augt 4, 2004, arrted two patrons for cency and sparked outrage the Canadian gay muny.

“A GAY OFFICER CGHT BETWEEN TWO WORLDS”

Police later admted learng gay activi happened at the tablishment thanks to spottg ments on a gay cisg webse, spe ially suggtg they had no ia the bs was a bathhoe. Durg what AIDS activist Wan Yahai suggted was a crackdown on gays Beijg, the Dtatn got closed March 9, 2008, by police supposedly for playg mic too loud and hostg too large a crowd, acrdg to an article the Shangaiist.

Later that month, 10 police rs rolled to Oasis, the most popular gay bathhoe Beijg, and ps round up more than 70 people, cludg staff and patrons, durg a March 20 raid.

When the Atlanta Police’s “Red Dog” un raid gay bar the Eagle September 2009, patrons reported beg forced onto the ground while officers ed homophobic slurs and nducted background checks on everybody there. Police arrted 40 people standg outsi popular Mosw gay bar Central Statn December 2013, shortly after a number of disput between the bar owner and buildg landlords, acrdg to The Mosw Tim.

RENNTRE GRATUE GAY à PARIS, (75)

After a July 6, 2014, raid which around 65 gay people were round up and taken to the police statn, Nairobi news outlet Ghafla reported that the arrts were ma simply bee the patrons were homosexual. Police apparently regularly me to mand the IDs of guts, then end up arrtg Mlims to charge them not wh any homosexualy-related crime but wh the illegal nsumptn of alhol, a vlatn of Sharia law largely unenforced straight nightclubs. Dpe the group’s s of activism wh the Big Apple’s LGBT muny, the Gay Officers Actn League (GOAL) has been shunned and exclud om New York Cy Pri events for at least the next four years.

From s nceptn, GOAL–a non-prof civil rights anizatn found 1982 by Charl Henry Cochrane Jr., the first openly gay NYPD officer–stggled for acceptance the NYPD. In a 2018 article tailg the history of the gay p club, the New York Post reported, “That same year [the su was filed] was the first time those officers were allowed to jo the Pri March full drs uniform.