Gay and Lbian Cops: Diversy and Effective Policg | Office of Jtice Programs

Contents:

• WATCH VIRAL FOOTAGE OF KG VON ADMTG TO BEG GAY TO THE POLICE
• COMG OUT AT WORK: WHAT 'S LIKE TO BE A GAY P NEW JERSEY
• PRI SAID GAY COPS AREN’T WELE. THEN CAME THE BACKLASH.
• THE COPS STANDG WH, AND FOR, THE GAY COMMUNI THEY SERVE
• GAY AND LBIAN COPS: DIVERSY AND EFFECTIVE POLICG
• “A GAY OFFICER CGHT BETWEEN TWO WORLDS”

WATCH VIRAL FOOTAGE OF KG VON ADMTG TO BEG GAY TO THE POLICE

The late rapper’s rerd label released one of his albums dubbed “Grandsos” last week, and this week there’s a viral vio of Kg Von admtg to the police officers that he was gay, and social media is gog nuts. The vio first posted by DJ Akamiks saw Kg Von requtg that police officers put him protective ctody bee he was gay and hence uld be attacked a regular jail cell.

However, on Tuday, footage went viral of the “Took Her to the O” rapper claimg to be gay so that he uld be moved to PC, durg a stt behd bars.

In a culturally nservative muny, where gog to church and buildg a fay were heavily emphasized, Ahn felt his gay inty kept him “om beg able to participate Korean culture. He learned to embrace beg both Korean and gay, so much so that he directed “Fire Island, ” a groundbreakg queer Asian Amerin rom- released last year.

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

Beg Asian Amerin and LGBTQ+ n feel lonely, wh stutns such as ethnic church often disavowg non-heterosexual relatnships while tradnal LGBTQ+ spac such as gay bars n be unwelg to people of lor. “Fdg plac like GAMeBoi, where beg queer and Asian do -exist … It’s not like a 1, 000-year-old Korean cultural rual, but I uld create a new rual, ” said Ahn, a recent Friday, hundreds packed QT Nightlife’s monthly K-Pop Night at Micky’s, a Wt Hollywood gay club a block or so east om the old GAMeBoi posed for selfi a pk Barbie box wh dis balls hangg overhead.

” (Michael Owen Baker / For The Tim) Even historilly gay neighborhoods like Wt Hollywood or San Francis’s Castro district, Asian Amerins have long been ignored or fetishized, seen as feme and weak. In 2019, then-Wt Hollywood Mayor John Duran argued that he did not appropriately touch a member of the Gay Men’s Chos of Los Angel bee “he’s a skny Korean kid wh pimpl on his cheek. ” Asian Amerin advocy groups cricized Duran’s remark, wh API Equaly-LA potg to the long history of discrimatn agast Asian men gay muni such as Wt Hollywood, whose clubs “ed to require three forms of photo intifitn om anyone they perceived as Asian.

”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. 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.

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

“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.

‘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. "'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.

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

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.

GAY AND LBIAN COPS: DIVERSY AND EFFECTIVE POLICG

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.

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.

“A GAY OFFICER CGHT BETWEEN TWO WORLDS”

Clemons said that while the lawsu put strs on everyone volved, he believ sug end the homophobic harassment and improved his workplace environment. ” 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.

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.