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

Contents:

• 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 POLICE OFFICER FIGHTS FOR FEELG PRI THE FORCE
• I'M A GAY ARMY OFFICER—QUEER TROOPS MT FIGHT BACK
• GAY POLICEMAN STOCK PHOTOS AND IMAG
• POLICE AT PRI? GAY PS, LGBTQ ACTIVISTS STGGLE TO SEE EYE-TO-EYE
• NYC PRI PARA BANS POLICE; GAY OFFICERS 'DISHEARTENED'
• GAY AND LBIAN COPS: DIVERSY AND EFFECTIVE POLICG
• “A GAY OFFICER CGHT BETWEEN TWO WORLDS”

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

The Gay Officers Actn League (GOAL), is a first-of-s-kd anizatn that was formed 1982 to addrs the needs, issu, and ncerns of gay and lbian law enforcement personnel and has sce expand to a nonprof tax-exempt civil rights anizatn. (Augt 5, 1943–May 5, 2008) a sergeant of the New York Cy Police Department, who after liverg a public ttimony on anti-gay discrimatn legislatn pendg before the New York Cy Council, beme the first openly gay officer of the NYPD.

While the Gay Officers Actn League is a posive force wh the LGBTQ muny, is also stmental attemptg to change homophobic attus the workplace and the muny at large. ”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. The multiday prott — wily nsired a pivotal turng pot the morn gay rights movement — was triggered by a police raid on the popular Stonewall Inn gay bar. History, police officers were bound to enforce explicly anti-gay laws — om lol measur outlawg men om “impersonatg a female” to the wispread crimalizatn of same-sex sexual activy.

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

She poted to a study published by the Williams Instute May that found lbian, gay, bisexual and queer people are six tim more likely than the general public to be stopped by police (data about transgenr dividuals were not available the datasets analyzed). Prr to the start of this trag, negative attus about the LGBTQ muny were reportedly pervasive wh the partment: In 1996, durg a retrag of veteran officers, a word associatn exercise asked for rpons to the word “gays. Gtavo Alvarez, a gay rint of Palo Alto, California, settled his lawsu agast s police partment after accg of vlatg his civil rights, rultg a settlement that clud a $572, 500 payout and a one-off two hours of mandatory LGBTQ-awarens trag for all police officers the partment.

“There was no secret that he was gay, and the officers fely ed that as a way to mean him their prr ntacts wh him and also durg this ntact.

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

In New York Cy — where LGBTQ trag is provid by the Gay Officers Actn League (GOAL) for both new recs and veteran officers — Cummgs wants the police missner to be a civilian and lgs om the Civilian Complat Review Board, the NYPD’s oversight agency, be bdg. ” 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. 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.

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. “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.

GAY POLICE OFFICER FIGHTS FOR FEELG PRI THE FORCE

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.

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

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.

This story was origally published on May 3, Rodriguez remembers when, as a rookie police officer, he saw an olr lleague fly to a rage at the statn after enunterg gay men cisg a park. The bans have been hotly bated and rema Toronto members vote not to allow police to march annual paraPri Toronto -chair rigns amid fallout om police banMarchg the Pri para 'changed my life tremendoly'A few years after wnsg homophobia on the job, a lleague ved Rodriguez to march New York Cy's Pri para wh the Gay Officers Actn League (GOAL), a then-fledglg activist group wh the NYPD workg to curb homophobia the force.

Rodriguez and others om GOAL eventually took the NYPD to urt, succsfully sug for the abily to march the para uniform, celebrate Pri at police headquarters, and te g officers about the LGBT muny Seeg LGBT officers marchg uniform for the first time gave everyone the sense that, 'Wow this is a legimate human ndn to be gay. "I've seen ps at a time when HIV was ragg and still a ighteng thg, that would immediately put their hands – their bare hands – and stop a gay person om bleedg to ath. 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.

GAY POLICEMAN STOCK PHOTOS AND IMAG

“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. 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.

POLICE AT PRI? GAY PS, LGBTQ ACTIVISTS STGGLE TO SEE EYE-TO-EYE

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. 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.

NYC PRI PARA BANS POLICE; GAY OFFICERS 'DISHEARTENED'

Clemons said that while the lawsu put strs on everyone volved, he believ sug end the homophobic harassment and improved his workplace environment. 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. Behalf of all the members of the Gay Officers Actn League of New York, we thank everyone who has reached out over the last few Members and Friends, Sce Herage of Pri announced s cisn to ban GOAL om participatg Pri, we've been Journey 35 Years of GOALThe New York Cy Police Department (NYPD) has e a long way and we are proud to be a part of the posive chang.

Jt before members of the Gay Officers Actn League (GOAL) marched past the Stonewall Inn, the fish le of last year’s New York Cy Pri March, a small group of activists slipped past the barriers and chaed their hands together to prevent the officers om passg, a prott technique lled a “lockdown. ”Dozens of ps workg secury at the march surround the protters, and, over shouts of “f--k the police” and “racist, sexist, anti-gay, NYPD, KKK, ” began to break through what appeared to be chas and bber tub the protters had ed to lock themselv together.

GAY AND LBIAN COPS: DIVERSY AND EFFECTIVE POLICG

Pacific Prs / LightRocket via Getty Imag fileThe irony of the cint was not lost on many the crowd — ps arrtg gay people ont of the Stonewall Inn, the very place where homophobic police btaly sparked the morn LGBTQ rights movement nearly five s years prr. In fact, New York Cy’s first gay pri march, which was held on June 28, 1970, was anized to memorate the one-year anniversary of what has bee known as the Stonewall Rts — when 1969 patrons of the now-inic gay bar fally had enough after yet another police raid.

Nohels, protters say they’re dog so to take a stand agast police btaly and harassment of margalized groups, namely people of lor and the transgenr DAYS OF GOALThe relatnship between the police and the lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer muny has long been ght, but for LGBTQ ps, the right to march pri is a hard-fought civil rights the after that first pri march on June 28, 1970, New York’s gay rights movement ma so much progrs that by 1981 the police force self was facg LGBTQ activism om wh. Gay ps New York Cy, for example, led by Officer Charl Cochrane, sought to form their own employee rource group, like the on that existed for Hispanic, Irish-Amerin and Ain-Amerin Rodriguez, now a retired NYPD sergeant, was still the New York Cy Police Amy when Officer Cochrane entered his classroom 1982.

“A GAY OFFICER CGHT BETWEEN TWO WORLDS”

A few months earlier, Cochrane had bee the first NYPD officer to publicly e out when he announced that he was gay at a cy uncil meetg November 1981. ”Rodriguez, who kept his sexualy to himself his early days as a p, relled overhearg on several ocsns racist, sexist and homophobic ments om his largely straight, whe and male lleagu back he was posted to New York Cy’s 6th Precct, which vers Greenwich Village, he relled a senr officer askg him, “So you work wh all the fags? He relled a particularly dntg cint when a fellow officer who had been patrollg Mabs Dam Park, where the new Yankee Stadium now stands, enuntered a well-known gay cisg area.

C., to Sacramento, a number of progrsive LGBTQ activists, some of them too young to remember the gay police activism of the ‘80s and ‘90s, view ps to be an unwele — and even threateng — prence at pri addn to gettg ps out of pri, many of the different activist groups also have an array of social jtice mands. However, this year members of the Gay Officers Actn League will march, as they have every year sce 1996, uniform wh their guns FORWARDRodriguez said while he knows where the protters are g om, he disagre wh their tactics.

Rodriguez said when he was policg the 6th Precct, which vers much of Manhattan’s gay neighborhoods, he once saw a transgenr woman wh blood streamg down her cheek nng away om a group of men. ”NYPD Detective Brian Downey, the current print of the Gay Officers Actn League, said imagery of uniformed LGBTQ ps marchg proudly “is powerful, ” and he hop will prevent people the muny, like the trans woman Rodriguez scribed, om beg aaid of ps.